KENYA: World Needs More Prophetic Witnesses and Action than Theories, Bishop Kamau Challenges Pastoral Animators
Chairman Commission for Clergy and Religious, Liaison Committee KCCB, Bishop Daid Kamau
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
At the start of a three-day virtual workshop bringing together liaison committee members of the Commission for Clergy and Religious, Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS) Directors and the Pontifical Missionary Childhood (PMC) Coordinators in Kenya, a Prelate has expressed the world’s thirst to trust more on transformation of people’s life through action than mere concepts.
“More than ever today, the world needs and puts more trust in witnesses than in teachers, in experiences than teaching, and in life and action than in theories,” the Chairman of Commission for the Clergy and Religious, liaison committee of the Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops (KCCB), Bishop David Kamau Ng’ang’a told the pastoral animators in Kenya.
He added during his opening speech on Thursday, October 23, “In this challenging situation in our Church and the world, we are called to be authentic witnesses to the Good News, by sharing our love, our faith and our hope.”
The Auxiliary Bishop of Kenya’s Nairobi Archdiocese underscored to the participants who are mainly members of the clergy and Religious involved in pastoral animation that as Gospel witnesses, they need to take “a courageous and prophetic stance in the face of many evils and divisions so evident in our world.”
He explained further, “Make a personal and communal examination of conscience in order to correct whatever is contrary to the Gospel and disfigures the face of Christ.
The workshop that will run till Saturday, October 24, borrows its theme from that of this year’s World Mission Sunday, ‘Here I am Lord, send me’.
Speaking on the theme, the Bishop told the 76 participants drawn from 25 dioceses in Kenya that this is the moment to reflect on how to better further the mission of Christ in our country and world.
He asked them to recall when they first responded to the call “Whom shall I send?” and went ahead to remind them that “It is that fire, the readiness and availability that we first had that we are called to daily fan into flame.”
“The mission that God entrusts to each one of us leads us from fear and introspection to a renewed realization that we find ourselves precisely when we give ourselves to others,” the Bishop said stressing on how to better missionary work.
He encouraged participants to live a life devoted to the mission of the Church which requires “a solid spirituality which seeks and finds God in all things.”
Bishop Kamau further underscored that Jesus himself gave the disciples a perfect example on how to link active mission life and intimate communion with the Father.
“Without a constant search for this unity, there is danger of discouragement, depression, burn out and even loss of passion for Christ,” he said.
“For missionary work, prayer is key for ‘Without me you can do nothing’,” the Auxiliary Bishop of Nairobi reiterated.
“Mary our mother is the star of evangelization, let us turn to her and learn from her listening and contemplative attitude,” he concluded.
