KENYA: ‘Participate Fully in Synod Process’: Religious Called
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
Men Superiors under the auspices of the Religious Superiors’ Conference of Kenya (RSCK), have called on all Religious men and women in the country, as the Church marks the 26th World Day for Consecrated Life, to remember in prayers the first missionary evangelizers who proclaimed the Word of God to the people, and at the same time be part of the ongoing process on Synod of Synodality to be culminated in 2023.
“In our celebrations let us pray for the consecrated persons who were the first to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ in Kenya as missionaries,” members of RSCK said in a statement signed by the chairman Fr. Robert Karanja Ireri, adding that “Many of them (Missionaries) went through different forms of sufferings and tribulations in order to bring the good news to us.”
“Now it is our time to continue the good work they begun and even become missionaries to evangelize and even re-evangelize in different parts of the world,” the superiors representing 79 male Congregations who are members of RSCK appealed to the Religious in a statement released Saturday, January 29 ahead of the celebration.
The feast which is celebrated annually on February 2 and is attached to the Feast of the Presentation of the Lord, was instituted by Pope St. John Paul II in 1997 to pray for women and men who have consecrated their lives to God’s service in particular Religious Orders and Societies of Apostolic Life.
In the statement, the superiors have asked all Religious men and women to be part of the ongoing two-year preparation of the Synod of bishops where all “Christians as well as Religious have been called to “pray, reflect, discuss and share their experiences, insights, desires and to be open to the challenge offered by the three significant words of the Synod theme: communion, participation and mission.”
“This year we celebrate at a time when the Mother Church has invited us to journey together for a synodal Church through Communion, Participation and Mission. As consecrated persons we are invited to participate fully in this process where we are called to pray, listed analyze, dialogue discern and offer advice on making pastoral decisions which correspond as closely as possible to God’s will,” reads part of the statement.
“Let us do the best in the vineyard of the Lord as per the ability God has granted us and whatever is beyond us we lift it up to God through prayer,” concludes the statement.
