ACWECA PLENARY; Sr. Okure Advocates for Collaborative Religious Formation Across Africa
Sr. Henriette Anne, FSSA
At the ongoing 19th Plenary assembly of the Association of Consecrated Women in Eastern and Central Africa (ACWECA) in Malawi’s capital Lilongwe, themed ‘Transformative Holistic Formation for Authentic Living Toward Evangelization in the ACWECA Region and Beyond’, Sr. Teresa Okure sharing virtually with the participants on Holistic Religious Formation in View of Living the Charism of Congregation and the Gospel Values”, has shade light on the challenges of holistic formation in the religious life, highlighting the areas that need to be considered for a holistic religious consecration.
According to Sr. Okure, holistic formation transcends the traditional boundaries imposed by nationalism, tribalism, gender biases, and social hierarchies, and calls for an examination of the spirit of community within and beyond ACWECA.
“Holistic Religious Consecration has no bounds. Areas for rebinding and re-electing in the sub-region, in ACWECA, and beyond may include looking at the spirit of nationalism, tribalism, gender biases, class, educated uneducated; boasting of congregations. Looking down on other women while privileging the men/clergy”. 
In a bold proposal, Professor Okure suggests a common project for the ACWECA region and beyond.
“Necessity is the mother of invention,” she said and added, “Nothing ventured, nothing gained”.
“A group of spiders united can bring down an elephant. The elephant of dependency on the West for everything. If they block our airlines, we are stuck. What happened to Air Afrique? It was a commuter airline.”
The airline suggestion was made as a way of emphasizing the need for ACWECA to think outside the box in finding ways to address problems that affect the Religious in the region and beyond, and work with people of authentic means who can see the need and provide it”, she lamented.
