Master of Arts in Spirituality and Religious Formation

Permanent URI for this collectionhttp://192.168.4.170:4000/handle/20.500.12342/972

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End date: 2019

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    The Influence of Integral Psycho - Spiritual Formation On Vocation Discernment with Reference To the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) In South Africa
    (Tangaza University College, 2017-05) Alois Mangwele, John
    This dissertation looked at the Influence of the integral psycho-spiritual formation on vocation discernment with reference to the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) in South Africa. The study was prompted by an observation of the researcher that the current Pallottine formative approach needed a review in order to facilitate genuine vocation discernment of candidates. Over the past few years, the problem was manifested through the behavior of some candidates who after being asked to discontinue with their formation show lack of understanding that consecrated life is an unmerited gift from God. Again, through candidates who showed inconsistency in discernment about their vocation to consecrated life. The work reviewed literature of other writers in connection with formation and vocation discernment. The study adopted a mixed method of research design, which was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The sample size of the study included the 26 candidates in the Pallottine formation house in South Africa, 3 priests who are serving as formators, the 6 priests who have served as formators in the past years, and 5 other Pallottine priests and brothers. The research instruments used, were questionnaires with close-ended questions to obtain quantitative data, and openended questions to obtain qualitative data. The findings of the study showed that the human – Psychological dimension of candidates was less attended to, as compared to the Spiritual dimension in the formation of candidates. This created a formative environment that was less favorable for vocation discernment. Although the respondents indicated that candidates were able to discern their vocation, it was however revealed that sometimes the decisions that they made were inconsistent with their call to consecrated life. The study also established that formators needed to acquire more formative skills, since lack of skilled formators contributes to creating an unfavorable atmosphere for vocation discernment. In conclusion, the research established that programmes that enhance humanpsychological growth of candidates be re-introduced in the formation system and further, formation of formators needed to be considered as an area of urgency.
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    Models of Community Life as Tools for Witnessing to Solidarity with The Poor: A Case Study of The Daughters of Charity of St. Vincent De Paul, Eritrean Province
    (Tangaza University College, 2017) Kidane, Medhin D. C.
    Since the beginning, God revealed Himself with His loving plan of salvation to humanity in the three Persons of the Holy Trinity. The life of the Holy Trinity is the perfect model of life in common for all humanity in general and in particular, for those who live in community as a spiritual family of God. Jesus and His apostles lived as a community, and this continued into the birth of the Church, after Pentecost in the community of the first Christians. The religious, who assume community life imitate the model of the community life of the first Christians, through observing their own charisms. The Company of the Daughters of Charity live community life for the sake of the service of Christ in the poor. This implies putting emphasis on the authentic community life to form a spiritual family in which God dwells and takes the lead as the Father of the community. This is an essential factor for witnessing to solidarity among the people they serve; for the Daughters of Charity, service of the poor is an expression of the love of God. This paper aims at rekindling and restoring awareness about the necessity of living true fraternal life in community, which makes visible the love of God to others; humanity, especially for those whom society rejects and marginalizes. The study examines and discerns in depth values lived by the sisters in order to re-appreciate and re-live them and identify the challenges of fraternal life in order to sensitize and motivate members of the community to overcome the challenges and work together in building up a desirable community life. The investigation uses the descriptive design and analysis. In order to achieve the purpose of the study, a mixed research design, involving qualitative and quantitative approaches is used. The study uses the Community Cohesion approach for analyzing the community life of the Daughters of Charity in the Province of Eritrea. The literature review presents in detail the understanding of the Church, the Company of the Daughters of Charity and other scholarly works, of the necessity of living authentic religious community life to witness to the love of God. The study uses the stratified and random sampling design for the selection of participants in the study. The sample includes sisters in authority and other members of communities in other types of services, including Seminary Sisters. Data is gathered through questionnaires and interview guides from the field. For data presentation, tables, pie charts, frequencies and percentages are used. For the data analysis of the qualitative findings, SPSS is used, and quantitative findings are arranged in the thematic form, and it is interpreted according to each theme in relation to the objective of the study. The findings of the data provide some insights into authentic community life in view of a boosted service of the poor. At the end, the research proposes some possible suggestions, which could build up the fraternal life of communities in view of the mission of charitable service to the needy.
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    Guidelines and Approaches for The Initial Formation of The Franciscan Sisters Missionaries of Christ Of the Ethiopian Delegation
    (Tangaza University College, 2017) Gebrewold, Tochallo Lujina
    Over the years, formation has been the main tradition used as pedagogy by formators to ensure that desirable values, based on the Catholic religious teachings, are imparted in formees. This promotes the general development and growth of the Church’s mission to all the world through the shaping of individual candidates, Christian dogma and concepts. Little emphasis has been placed on the importance of quality formation guidelines. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to research on the guidelines to ensuring quality initial formation in the congregation of the Franciscan Sisters Missionaries of Christ in the Ethiopian delegation. The research examines the existing approaches to formation, importance of guidelines for quality formation and proposes some ways of implementing guidelines for the quality formation of the Franciscan Sisters Missionaries of Christ in the Ethiopian delegation. The study uses purposive sampling design, and the analysis of the research embraces both quantitative and qualitative approaches to obtain some conclusions from the field findings. In addition, it adopts the social identity theory to analyze the initial formation process of candidates. The literature from other scholars presents an in-depth understanding of the religious, it is also used to support or differ with the field findings. Respondents of the study include religious candidates, formators, the regional superior, community superiors and the community members of the Ethiopian delegation. Data from respondents was collected through questionnaires and interview guide research tools. The findings of the study will be used to provide some insights, regarding quality religious formation. Towards the end, suggests some possible approaches which could improve the initial formation of candidates to consecrated life.
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    A Participative Formation for Authentic Christian Discipleship at Chemchemi Ya Uzima Institute, Nairobi County, Kenya
    (Tangaza University College, 2019) Solas, Elsa
    This study examined a participative formation for the authentic discipleship of the novices in the Inter-Novitiate Formation Programme of Chemchemi Ya Uzima Institute of Nairobi, Kenya. The objectives of the research included the following: To examine how a participative approach to formation could facilitate growth in listening to God’s word and putting it into practice; to explore how a participative approach could orient novices towards fraternal charity; to determine how a participative approach could enhance the spirit of detachment, self-sacrifice and endurance in long suffering. It further tried to discover other strategies for enhancing a participative approach to formation. The study was guided by Fowler’s Stages of Faith Development (1995) and adopted a convergent parallel mixed method research design using questionnaires to gather data. The target population (N) was 236, which included novices, formators and formation teams of various congregations at Chemchemi Ya Uzima Institute, Nairobi County, Kenya. The sample size (n) was 146, which was 62% of the target population. The quantitative data from the questionnaires was coded, tabulated and presented according to frequencies and percentages. The qualitative data was analyzed and thematized according to the research objectives and was presented in narrative form. The findings of the study revealed that a participative formation brings about a deeper transformation in novices, resulting into them becoming authentic disciples of Jesus Christ, seen in their ability to listen to God’s word, live in fraternal charity, spirit of detachment, self–sacrifice and endurance in long suffering. The results showed that the witness of formators and the formation team are of primary importance and they have to be persons who are able to transmit the joy and beauty of the following of Christ by their own examples. This points to the significance of the good choice of formators and the formation team to be placed in the novitiate by major superiors. The accompaniment of formators is an essential element in formation. Formators have to sharpen their accompaniment skills and employ effective methods and established models. The study highlighted the need for a formative environment which encourages freedom, responsibility and participation of novices to foster their growth in authentic Christian discipleship. Provisions for forums, sessions and other community structures which promote active involvement of novices in the life of the community are highly encouraged. It is also important for superiors to consider putting in place a formation team in the novitiate, having seen the benefits of a participative formation towards effecting authentic Christian discipleship.
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    Formation of Youth as A Basis for Genuine Consecrated Vocations in The Catholic Diocese of Kisii, Kenya
    (Tangaza University College, 2019-06) Mititi, Evans Nyabwari
    This study explored youth formation as a basis for genuine consecrated vocations in the Catholic Diocese of Kisii in Kenya. It was anchored on Plato‘s theory of education which reckons education as the best means to attain an ideal state, just as formation of youths is the basis for genuine consecrated vocations in the Catholic Diocese of Kisii. The objectives of the study were: To explore youth formation which could contribute to genuine consecrated vocations, to find out the relationship between formation of youths and genuine consecrated vocations, to examine challenges faced in forming youths and propose some ways of promoting youth formation for genuine consecrated vocations in the Catholic Diocese of Kisii. This study used convergent parallel research design. This design combines both quantitative and qualitative methods to answer a research question. The researcher administered questionnaires with both open-ended and close-ended items and interview guides to the sampled population, aiming at getting their attitudes and opinions on the study at hand, qualitatively and quantitatively. The target population for this research included youths, parents, a youth coordinator, youth advisors, seminarians, novices, religious men and women and priests. The sample size of the study was 354 respondents but the actual number of respondents was 336. This number accounted for 94.9%. To verify the validity of the instruments, a pilot test was carried out and the Cronbach‘s alpha was 0.709. The data for the study was gathered through the questionnaires and interview guides from the field and was presented in tables, pie-charts, frequencies and percentages. The quantitative data was coded and entered into the computer for computation of both descriptive and inferential statistics. The SPSS software, version 22 was used for the analysis. Qualitative findings were arranged according to themes and interpreted in relation to the objectives of the study and were reported in a narrative form. The study found out that 58 % of the respondents disagreed that the youths are well formed to face any life challenge, 81.6% approved that well-formed youths make good consecrated persons, 57.2% agreed that forming young people is a difficult task and 78.1% favored the assertion that proper youth formation is attainable. Both qualitative and quantitative findings were triangulated and gave some insights on the formation of youths as the basis for genuine consecrated vocations in the catholic Diocese of Kisii.
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    The Importance of Holistic Formation in The Life of The Clergy of The Catholic Diocese of Kakamega, Kenya
    (Tangaza University College, 2019-08) Wakwaubi, Ernest Wafula
    This is a research work which has been undertaken primarily to get a feedback on how holistic formation affects the life of the clergy of Kakamega diocese. The researcher responds to the call of the Church to its ministers to the process of renewal. There are many challenges facing ordained ministers, which may pose a problem to the main mission of the Church if not tackled. The assessment is mainly based on the formation of the clergy, which has to start with initial formation during their seminary training and continue throughout their life, after ordination. This formation has to be holistic, focusing on four dimensions: Human, spiritual, intellectual and pastoral. There is presence of abundant literature on the formation of Catholic priests; the study used a systematic approach to examine the importance of holistic formation in the life of the clergy of the Catholic Diocese of Kakamega. The study was specific in the use of Kakamega Diocese since it would provide actual outcome based on the research objectives. The research aimed at addressing this gap. The investigation used convergent research design. The literature review presents in detail the general understanding of Holistic Formation, the Church’s teaching on the formation of its priests, nature and identity of a priest, ongoing formation of the priests and some of the challenges faced by priests in their life and ministry. The study used stratified and random sampling design to select the participants. The sample included the clergy, religious men and women, seminarians and parish council members in Kakamega Diocese. Data was gathered using 196 questionnaires and 3 interview guides which were issued to the specific clergy who had experience in formation. The quantitative data was analyzed using SPSS and the qualitative data were arranged in thematic form and they were interpreted in relation to the objectives of the study. The findings were presented in tables, pie charts, frequencies and percentages. The findings of the data provided insights concerning the importance of Holistic Formation in the life of the clergy of Kakamega. Formation was adequately carried out and the sources of challenges faced by the clergy were obtained. Ways of minimizing these challenges could be done through a kind of formation which is suitable and rooted in the signs of the time. One of the major key finding was that on-going formation is a key aspect for the clergy. The study proposes that further research should be done on the importance of specialists in the formation of the clergy.
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    The Influence of Integral Psycho - Spiritual Formation On Vocation Discernment with Reference To the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) In South Africa
    (Tangaza University College, 2017-05) Mangwele, John Alois
    This dissertation looked at the Influence of the integral psycho-spiritual formation on vocation discernment with reference to the Society of the Catholic Apostolate (Pallottines) in South Africa. The study was prompted by an observation of the researcher that the current Pallottine formative approach needed a review in order to facilitate genuine vocation discernment of candidates. Over the past few years, the problem was manifested through the behavior of some candidates who after being asked to discontinue with their formation show lack of understanding that consecrated life is an unmerited gift from God. Again, through candidates who showed inconsistency in discernment about their vocation to consecrated life. The work reviewed literature of other writers in connection with formation and vocation discernment. The study adopted a mixed method of research design, which was both qualitative and quantitative in nature. The sample size of the study included the 26 candidates in the Pallottine formation house in South Africa, 3 priests who are serving as formators, the 6 priests who have served as formators in the past years, and 5 other Pallottine priests and brothers. The research instruments used, were questionnaires with close-ended questions to obtain quantitative data, and openended questions to obtain qualitative data. The findings of the study showed that the human – Psychological dimension of candidates was less attended to, as compared to the Spiritual dimension in the formation of candidates. This created a formative environment that was less favorable for vocation discernment. Although the respondents indicated that candidates were able to discern their vocation, it was however revealed that sometimes the decisions that they made were inconsistent with their call to consecrated life. The study also established that formators needed to acquire more formative skills, since lack of skilled formators contributes to creating an unfavorable atmosphere for vocation discernment. In conclusion, the research established that programmes that enhance humanpsychological growth of candidates be re-introduced in the formation system and further, formation of formators needed to be considered as an area of urgency.