SECAM: Experts from Africa’s Continental Assembly to Replicate Spiritual Conversation to Conferences
Synod Continental Assembly, Accra Ghana
Sr. Jecinter Antoinette Okoth, FSSA
After the three-day meeting in Ghana’s capital Accra by experts from the of the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM) to discuss continental issues in preparation for the Synod on Synodality, participants resolved to replicate the Spiritual Conversations they shared to conferences for deeper understanding of expectations from the Church in Africa.
In the statement shared with AMECEA online Monday, December 12, the 25 experts identified from the three languages used in Africa mainly English, French and Portuguese highlighted that participants have the mission “to replicate what they have experienced and achieved in Accra in their local Conferences where they are expected to use the same method of Spiritual Conversation in view of the Second Working Session which is scheduled for January 2023 in Nairobi, Kenya.”
The first working session of the African Continental synodal team comprised of theologians, Religious and clerics together with the laity representing men, women and youths from various countries of Africa including Ghana, Mozambique, Kenya, Congo Brazzaville, Nigeria, Zimbabwe, Democratic Republic of Congo, Algeria, Uganda, South Africa, Côte d’Ivoire and Burkina Faso.
Some of the issues to be replicated in conferences include: Re-reading the working Document for the Continental Stage (DCS) from the local context, encouraging communion with the Universal Church through prayer, listening to each other and to what the Holy Spirit is saying to the Church in Africa and the need to continue with the conversation in the Conferences in view of drafting of an ‘African Synodal Document.
During their meeting, the participants whose working session was facilitated by Fr Giacomo Costa SJ, a member of the General Secretariat of the Synod at the Vatican and supported by Dr. Philomena Mwaura, encouraged the local Church on the African continent to reflect on “the substantial tensions, divergences and issues that have emerged as particularly important from Africa’s perspective and need to be addressed and considered in the next steps of the process” as well as “the priority areas, recurring themes and calls to action that can be shared by Africa with the universal Church and discussed during the first session of the Synodal Assembly that shall take place in October 2023.”
The participants from the assembly which ended Friday, December 9, “appreciated what the People of God from across the African continent have expressed during the first phase of the Synod.”
