KENYA: Pastoral Animators Encouraged to Collaborate and “Cast the Nets Deeper” in the Peripheries
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Pastoral animators from 26 dioceses in Kenya have been urged at a virtual workshop convened by the Commission for the Clergy and Religious-Liaison Committee of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), of the need to deeply strengthen their spiritual life and proclaim Christ’s Gospel to all corners of the world.
Speaking to about 75 participants comprising of liaison committee members of the Commission for Clergy and Religious, the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) Directors and the Pontifical Missionary Childhood (PMC) Coordinators in Kenya, the PMS National Director at KCCB Fr. Bonaventure Luchidio said pastoral agents must feel the necessity and responsibility to cast the nets deep into the sea so as to be true witnesses.
“To cast our nets deeper and catch more fish, prayer must be significant in our life,” Fr. Luchidio told the animators who are mainly members of the clergy and Religious men and women, reminding them of Mother Teresa of Calcutta who said that must begin with prayer.
According to Fr. Luchidio, diocesan animators have the “mandate to become fishers of men,” so as to “bring many people to Christ and Christ to the people”.
Giving Scripture reference, Fr. Luchidio said, “The icon of fishermen is a symbol of our mission as evangelizers in today’s world.”
Fr. Luchidio highlighted further that the strength of missionaries is derived from the Sacrament of the Eucharist, the “food that makes us missionaries to go and make disciples through collaborative ministry.”
During the three-day virtual workshop being moderated by Fr. Casmir Odundo a member of the clergy from Nakuru Diocese, Fr. Luchidio stated that missionary work faces a lot of challenges today hence the need to be witnesses of a spirituality that starts from Christ.
Talking about collaboration he said, “We have to collaborate in order to do the work of Christ. We need to collaborate with a shared purpose, which is to bring Christ to the world and the world to Christ,”
On his part addressing the participants on the second day of the online event, Friday, October 23, Fr. Teddy Keyari Njaya reminded the pastoral animators of the need for “re-evangelization in areas where the faith was strong but there is emergence of sects and cults.”
The cleric who is member of the Comboni Missionaries of the Heart of Jesus (MCCJ) emphasized that the mission of Jesus is to evangelize the poor and the same intent is the mission of the Church and of every baptized in the Church.
Fr. Njaya underscored, “It is time we became sensitive to the needs of the Church in marginal lands in terms of human resource and material needs. There is need to have a fundamental option to needy dioceses and support them spiritually, financially, materially and with personnel to do the mission work.”
In his observation, there is “dichotomy between urban Christianity and rural Christianity and the influences of the faith patterns in these two zones.”
Furthermore, many “clergy and Religious congregations prefer to be in towns than in the rural areas.”
Fr. Njaya advises that the concept of mission to the periphery “aims at closing the gap of insufficient personnel in the mission territories.”
