UGANDA: Arua Diocese Registers Success in Building Small Christian Communities
Fr Isaac Ojok
The ecclesiastical model of Small Christian Communities in Arua Diocese, North Western Uganda commonly known as West Nile, has created significant impact in the lives of the people of God in the diocese.
The bishop of Arua Diocese Rt. Rev Sabino Ochan Odoki said in an interview with AMECEA news correspondent that the use of Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in the diocese has been successfully implemented in the area of evangelization.
According to Bishop Ochan Odoki, the success of Small Christian Communities in the diocese has been made possible with the help of priests, catechists, some pastoral agents and with corporation from the Christian community as a whole.
At the moment, Bishop Odoki said as a diocese, they are planning to celebrate the existence of small Christian Communities very vividly to ensure that it is fully embraced by everyone.
He went on saying, they are grateful and happy that they are preparing to commemorate 50th anniversary of small Christian community since its inception in AMECEA region.
He reiterated that the existence of Small Christian communities has made the Church in Arua Diocese very vibrant in the evangelization of the people, conflict resolution among other areas.
The bishop who is currently traversing his diocese in the land of Madi while administering the Sacrament of Confirmation and others further informed AMECEA correspondent that the Small Christian Communities have also been initiated and extended to the refugee camps and its being given a priority.
Following the success of the program in Arua Diocese, other dioceses within Uganda and beyond have been sending their pastoral agents to learn more about small Christian communities and it is still continuing because of the commendable impact it is creating in the work of evangelization.
Similarly, Bishop Odoki noted that the diocese is at the moment continuing to offer training to Christians and pastoral agents and that they are being trained in their different groups to revive their knowledge on small Christian community in their respective parishes within the diocese.
He said this time, the training is being offered to participants according to different local languages beginning with Lugbara speaking group, Madi speaking group and other smaller tribes will follow respectively.
In the Small Christian Communities, the focus according to Bishop Odoki is also to see how the local church can be helped to become self-reliant without being dependent on donors.
To promote the spirit of self-reliance, Bishop Ochan Odoki mentioned that the Christians also do a lot of fund-raising drives to ensure that resources are generated to support the local church.
In small Christian communities, members do not only focus on sharing the word of God: they also discuss challenges in their day to day lives as followers of Christ and see amicable solution to such challenges.
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