Priests Oriented on Small Christian Communities
By Benjamin Msowoya
On 16th January 2018, the Pastoral Commission oriented priests of the Diocese of Karonga on Small Christian Communities. This is in response to Bishop Martin Mtumbuka’s declaration that the current liturgical year is “Year of My Small Christian Community”. The meeting took place at St Kizito Conference Centre in St Michael’s Parish, Chitipa.
The meeting had two aims, namely: to establish a uniform understanding on Small Christian Communities among all priests for uniform application in their respective parishes and to plan together on the relevant interventions for strengthening Small Christian Communities in the Diocese.
All priests currently resident in the Diocese attended the meeting. The priests had time to discuss and plan the way forward on Small Christian Communities from different perspectives. They discussed and summarized challenges, collected from the lay faithful from all parishes in the Diocese, and their corresponding solutions.
They had time to share on the Historical and Biblical Foundations of Small Christian Communities, the history of Small Christian Communities in the AMECEA region in general and Malawi in particular, the nature of Small Christian Communities and their purpose, and ways of conducting Small Christian Communities meetings.
They were also oriented on the best possible ways of monitoring and evaluating progress of the Diocese’s interventions on SCC.
Finally, they consolidated their discussions into an action plan for the Diocese that includes training the lay faithful and their leaders on Small Christian Communities, choir competitions on the theme “Year of My Small Christian Community” as well as monitoring and evaluation activities on the same.
On the same note,there is indeed a need to strengthen especially the attendance of men in some of these SCC.
We need the change.