Undergraduate Projects/Long Essays

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    How Can Videos Be Used to Evangelize Small Christian Communities in Kenya A Preliminary Study in Nairobi
    (Tangaza University College, 2003) Busieka, George S.
    The Church Fathers of Vatican Council II declares, The Church lives her life in the midsts of the whole community of people. She must therefore maintain contacts and live in communication in order to keep a relationship with the whole human race. This is done both by giving information and by listening carefully to public opinion inside and outside the Church. Finally, by holding a continuous discussion with the contemporary world, she tries to help in solving the problems that people face at the present time (yaw Inter Mirifica no.114) Again, "since the media are often the only channels of information that exists between the Church and the world, a failure to use them amounts to burying the talents given by God" (Vat.11 Inter Mirifica, no.123). It is in this regard, that this essay focuses on how evangelization can still be made effective in this new culture of mass communication. To do so, I have divided my work into four chapters and its aims and objective are: First, to show how evangelization is an ongoing process that cannot end, and that requires all our efforts and commitment to counteract its challenges. Second, to show the Church's determination in using professionalism in media for a completely different purpose: that is, to communicate the message of the Risen Lord in an effective and interesting manner. Third, to show the role of videos and how they can be effective tools of evangelization in small Christian communities.
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    Mission and the Struggle for Human Development: A Case Study of Andraikiba Parish Madagascar
    (Tangaza University College, 2009-11) Rarison, Maurice Alexis
    Throughout its history, the Roman Catholic Church has ever been in the midst of human history. In different struggles and dark moments of human history, the Church always wished the best for the human race. Many enterprises and tough decisions have been made by the leaders of the Church for the betterment of humanity. The proper mission which Christ entrusted to the Church is ever centred to the establishment and consolidation of the human community according to the word of God and the divine law'. Surely, the mission of the Church through her structures from the top to the Small Christian Communities (SCC) in a very remote area has always aimed at their wellbeing and for human development. In this research, our focus will be on the mission and the struggle for human development, a case study of Andraikiba Parish, Antsirabe Diocese, Madagascar. Taking into consideration the 5,120 Christians within Andraikiba Parish struggling and crumbling for their spiritual and human development, it is necessary to unite their quest for the meaning of their daily life and the words of God through the teaching and mission of the Church. This leads us toward an encounter of mission theology with the realities and the life of the parishioners at the grassroots in Andraikiba. What does a huge knowledge about God, Gospel, Church, 'etheology, mission, ete,mean to the vulnerable people who do not have enough food you to eat, no education and living in huts around Andraikiba Parish? In which way should we make them understand that God loves them and cares for them and their future generations? Does the mission of the Church have anything to do with their
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    Implementation of Small Christian Communities as a Pastoral Priority in the Church in Kenya: Opportunities and Challenges
    (Tangaza University College, 2009) Awiti, Hillary Michael
    In the 23'd October 2008 Editorial of the English version of the Cameroonian Newspaper L'Effort Camerounais which is the newspaper of the national bishop's conference of Cameroon, it was written, "At a time life is becoming increasingly difficult for the average Cameroonian, it is but logical to learn from the Kenyan Small Christian Community experience, where these groups have shown their burden sharing propensity and helped the destitute in finding their bearing. Tell me your involvement in a Small Christian Community and I will tell you your faith!" This statement leaves a lot to be desired and not only challenges the existing SCCs in Kenya but also affirms the role of SCCs in the society today. Just like the other AMECEA countries of Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Uganda, Tanzania, Malawi, Zambia and the affiliates Djibouti and Somalia, Kenya is implementing the SCCs way of being Church as a pastoral priority. By so doing, the lay faithful are coming to terms with the awareness that the Church belongs to them just as much as it belongs to the rest of the hierarchy. This follows on in the spirit of the Second Vatican Council that encourages the laity to participate fully and actively in the Church's activities. It includes both at the liturgical celebrations and outside. Moreover the clergy and religious are motivated to be at the service of the laity and help nurture their gifts and talents.
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    Small Christian Communities, a Vital Force for Mission Activity in East Africa
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-02) Pandi Nayagam, Peter
    When I started participating in the SCCs during my pastoral year in Tanzania and later in Kenya, I was amazed by the spontaneity of the members in sharing the Bible according to their own understanding. When they pray, they speak to God with confidence and express their problems, praises, joys, sorrows and difficulties. The atmosphere helps their meetings to be like the first Christian communities and they do what they can for others. This motivated me to choose this topic for my long essay and to do research and so come to know more about the SCCs in Eastern Africa. This essay has been an opportunity to do research and to understand better the dynamics and the role of the SCCs in the evangelization process and in missionary work in the future. I hope that this essay will be useful for future missionary students who come as a missionaries to Eastern Africa. SCCs are a source of great hope in the Church today. The revised code of canon law acknowledges how essential the notion of community is. It gives an understanding the mystery of God's presence in our church and canon 204 speaks of the Christian faithful as "constituted as the people of God". This essay is based on the idea of mission by which the Gospel values ofJesus may be lived and proclaimed effectively. According to me, SCCs are essentially missionary and mission oriented. SCCs are more fraternal, more adapted to people's life situation than traditional parishes. Cardinal Bernard in one of his writings suggests that the parish must be a community made up of many small communities. It can be seen as a natural follow through from the days of Catholic Action. Many people can thus bc involved in the parish activities like evangelization, teaching Gospel values. proclaiming Christian values in word and deed. The SMA is one of the missionary societies that brings its charism of primary evangelization to the world in accordance with founder's vision when he was a bishop in India and as a missionary. The society's founder believed that primary evangelization should be carried out everywhere where Christ was not known. SCCs can be effectively used for this. As we are stepping towards 21" Century, we have to create a new history and a new project for the future. Over a number of years in the life of the Church in Eastern Africa since 1973, SCCs have played a significant role in development and in proclaiming the Gospel of love. They have enabled believers to develop a more profound union with God and with one another. They have played a vital role in the growth of the Church. SCCs offer great hope for the future development of the Church in Eastern Africa. The recent increase and interest in SCCs is one of the more significant developments of our modern era for the renewal of the Church and the transformation of the world. Through small communities many people are discovering the value of community itself Today, as many varieties of small communities develop around the world they offer the promise of new vitality for the Church and give added impulse for people to live Gospel values. SCCs have become the main stream of the parish life when they cooperate well with each other. In a few decades of the last century there were many SCCs developing in the Eastern Africa in particular. SCCs are a witness to the communitarian nature of the Church. God dwells in community. The three persons of the blessed Trinity love and share to such a degree that they are one God. Jesus implied such a similarity with the union of God's children when he prayed the prayer of unity. The community of the Trinity is not only the model of community but the source of grace, strength, faith, hope, and love which sustains and nurtures Christians in community. Pope John Paul II says that the notion of communion was "at the heart of the church's self understanding". This communion is "primarily a sharing through grace in the life of the Father given us through Christ and in the Holy Spirit." The Church as a communion "is realized through the sacramental union with Christ and through organic participation in all that constitutes the divine and human reality of the church, the body of Christ, which spans the centuries and is sent into the world to embrace all people without distinction." As a missionary, sharing the paschal life with others concretely is something great. In SCCs, people are free to speak about Jesus, and their faith and witness help to evangelize others. In SCCs, they participate in the paschal mystery of Jesus' life, suffering, death and resurrection. In SCCs, people are able to look at their lives as in a mirror. Ideally, people are helped to live in the power of the spirit by choosing freedom and liberation from sin. It is a challenge to SCCs' members that they give wholehearted or unconditional commitment to the movement of God's spirit within themselves. They seek total openness to God's grace moving them to holistic spiritual growth and so to influence the community and the world. Later I will deal with the participation and involvement of the missionaries in the growth of the SCCs and their involvement in parish activities. A Christian must have an environment in which Christianity is openly accepted, talked about and lived. if he is going to be able to live a very vital Christian life. If he does not have this, his whole life as a Christian will be weakened, and might even die away.According to my experience in SCCs in Tanzania and Kenya, building SCCs is a challenging spiritual task, because it is in the small groups that each one's spiritual life is tested and challenged. When the spiritual life is challenged according to the signs of the times the Gospel message can become truly relevant to African cultures and traditions. When SCCs meet and the members take the Gospel into their lives with faith it becomes African Christianity. A Community of faith is necessarily a community springing from and nourished by the word of God in participation and involvement. SCCs are a vitally effective means of evangelization where Catholics' gather in small groups in order to pray, read scripture and share. Because SCCs are part of the wider Church calling for fuller knowledge and understanding of the Gospel and its teaching, they are a powerful force influencing the whole Church. Mission is thus be opened to participation of the people in order to decide whether any proposals the parish council are realistic, feasible and likely to further the purposes for which the mission exists. God wishes people to help, to care, support and love each other regardless of class, colour and creed. SCCs are committed to coming together on a regular basis throughout the year. Members challenge one another to live out the Gospel message. Many advantages can result from such an approach to some of the problems confronting the rapidly growing church in Africa. The Church in Africa looks towards an indigenous Church in independent African states with a pluralist society considering areas of cooperation with the state such as education in which the Church has a special interest. As for me SCCs seem to be the one of the best ways for true evangelization and for the inculturation of the African Church. The dialogue which I had with the elders in the SCCs has been a source of learning with its many ramifications. It has been a human endeavour. Much human effort must also be expended in developing the SCCs. Nevertheless we must always remember that we are not alone. The work we do is God's work and we are merely instruments. So, a SCC reaches maturity when it starts to reach out to its surrounding milieu. SCCs are really locally oriented - that is, they become self-ministering, self-propagating and self-supporting. This essay has traced the historical development and pastoral priority of SCCs in Eastern Africa in general. It has looked at Kenya and Tanzania in particular. Our study calls for inculturation. The time has come to take that issue seriously. In fact, the special assembly of the synod of Bishops for Africa hasn't failed to stress this point. So we need to find true inculturation instead of superficial adaptations. This research takes place at the level of the SCCs where people live their Christian lives. What is needed is to find out how to go about inculturation, and not discussion on whether it is necessary or urgent.
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    Evangelization and Politics The Ministry of the Church In Burkina Faso
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-02) Paul Guibila, Jean
    One of the most outstanding pastoral priorities taken by the AMECEA bishops has been the one of the Small Christian Communities. This pastoral programme has had as a primary intention to shape and foster a new way of being Church in Eastern Africa: A Church more African in its participation and organization, and more inserted and participative in its social reality. To achieve this, AMECEA has called all the forces and pastoral agents to actively participate in this urgent and noble task. But, A mixture of results and reactions have accompanied the beginning and the subsequent development the SCCs, and the same results and reactions continue up to nowadays. Nearly, 30 years have passed since the introduction of this pastoral programme, and we can easily realise that there is still a long way to go before the SCCs achieve what is expected from them. Furthermore, the SCCs currently face old and new challenges present in the African society. It is in this context that the SCCs are called and challenged- more than ever to be and foster what they are: witnesses of the God of life, seeds of Liberation and sodal actors that aim at the transformation of society. This long essay is an attempt to rediscover and stress the role of the SCCs as social actors in the transformation of the African society. A task that is urgently needed due to the actual condition and reality of the continent. I have divided this paper in three sections, trying to apply the pastoral methodology: SEE, JUDGE and ACT. In the first chapter (SEE), I have pointed out the historical factors for the beginning and development of the SCCs, and the reluctance in implementing the SCCs' social dimension in Eastern Africa. In the second chapter (JUDGE), I have pointed out the biblical and theological foundations of the SCCs as social actors. Here, I have worked on the themes of the covenant and Amos' prophetic ministry and social claim, as far as the 0. T concerns, while the theme of the Johannine community has been worked out in relation to the N. T . In the last two points of this chapter, I have made a explicit reference to the SCCs in Liberation Theology and in the African Synod. In the last chapter (ACT), I have presented some suggestions on how to stress the role of the SCCs as social actors, pointing out four dimensions that must be always considered and related in the SCCs' life and praxis. In doing so, the SCCs shall achieve an effective involvement in the transformation of their social reality.
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    Challenges of the Small Christian Communities in the Evangelization of Eastern Africa
    (Tangaza University College, 2000-02) Carbonero, Pedro
    In the present long essay I want to tackle some questions that arise from my motivation. What are the challenges and difficulties of SCCs in Eastern Africa? What can the SCCs do to face and to overcome these challenges and difficulties? What is the evangelizing and missionary dimension of the SCCs in Eastern Africa? Is the SCC relevant to the African environment and it really responds to the problems and needs of the African people? These questions create further interest to research on SCCs. When I started to participate in the SCCs at weekends in Kibera (Nairobi), I was amazed by the spontaneity of the members in sharing the bible according to their own understanding. When praying, they speak to God in the second person with familiar confidence to express their problems, sorrows and difficulties. The atmosphere lived in their meetings is of teaching, communal life, celebration and prayers, just like the first Christian community of Acts (Acts 2: 42-47). This has been the motivation behind that made me choose this topic_ This led me to know more about SCCs in Eastern Africa. This long essay has been the opportunity to research on it and to understand better the dynamics and the role of the SCCs in the evangelization process and missionary work.
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    The Role of the Laity in the Life Of The Church in Mozambique (1977-1997)
    (Tangaza University College, 2001-02) Mussirica, Manuel
    Lay ministries in the Catholic Church are our point of focus in this Essay. A lot has been written about the laity. Since the time of the New Testament through the patristic period to our modern times, there have always been lay people who dedicated themselves to the life and activities of the Church (cf. Acts 4: 32-35, 6: 1-7). We see even today how much Christ's faithful people are striving to keep up their faith burning as a community, even though the priest may not be there. We may bear witness of their heroic commitment to the welfare of the church to the extent of risking their own short-lived life. But we should also be courageous to confess that all that has been said or we may say about the lay people and their ministries in the Church is just not enough. Despite their active presence in the community, their contribution is not more than an act of contrition for their daily sins. Otherwise there would not be such alarming worry about what the church was supposed to do in the society, in the politics, in the world economy and science, ecumenism and dialogue. It can be sad to hear from a bishop saying his diocese has fifty-three priests, whom he has to distribute to 37 parishes, without forgetting those who are sick who need to be replaced. And when it is time for confirmations, he spends ten months confirming people daily. Sometimes he even fails to confer the sacrament to all due to other commitments he has to attend to. But the question is why should he do that job alone? If he cannot fulfill his duties in due time, others can do it through delegation! Therefore it would be unfair to say besides him there is nobody else who can do something that will contribute to the maturity in faith and salvation of many. The work of the laity in the church since its early ages is of great importance that it should not be neglected. They always raised their voices even in the moments of danger like death, wars. persecution of the church. Through their contribution the church did survive from trials in history. Sometimes through them the church defines its own identity and understands its mission in the world or society. Here we have the example of Mozambique where the church resisted the revolution aggression through lay people. Some of these people lost their lives for trying to defend the Christian community. Therefore the laity are the living martyrs of faith. And today the church is being called to bear witness to its faith in this pluralistic world. How can it make that work unless the laity are included and kept in the church? Mozambican Church is one of those Churches that have suffered martyrdom and terror in the course of human history. Immediately after independence on June 25, 1975, the Church underwent the severity of the Marxist-Leninist revolutionary ideology. Being an agent of religion it was labeled the "opium of the people" and therefore it had no reason of being there. It was striped all its institutions, projects and properties. The places of worship were taken away by the new system of governance and turned into schools and barracks. In short, the church was persecuted. This situation impoverished the church as an institution. It lived without identity and lacked the essential means for its survival. However the Spirit of God sustained it. Enlightened by his light, the church emerged from the trials through the work of lay people. These people proved to the hierarchy officials, to the world at large that the church of Christ was more than possessions and physical structures, it was all the baptized people of God, be it ordained ministers, the laity or consecrated women and men religious. Therefore the church could still exist even without any official recognition from the high authority of the society. It is in this way that the Mozambican Church defined its identity. It became a Ministerial Church, a family in which every member is expected to work for the welfare of the community, each according to his or her abilities and vocation. Our aim in this paper is to give a brief presentation of the role of lay people (ministers) in the life of the Church in Mozambique from 1977 to 1997. This has been a crucial moment for the church and people in Mozambique. Besides the burden of the revolution and the worldwide economic reforms, internal armed conflicts, contributed to creating refugees and several other people were displaced. Natural disasters for example: floods, drought and subsequent famine also characterize this period. Yet amid these confusion the people kept up their faith. They worked side by side with their pastors and the Church grew stronger until it mediated in the cease-fire and peace negotiations in Mozambique that culminated with the Peace Treaty on October 4, 1992. However we may also confess that the traditional structures of the Church are still drawing us backward. They tend to blind us to the presence and work of the Holy Spirit in our lives, communities and daily relationships with God, among ourselves and with the universe. The old structures often make us to think that Christianity and the church are things of the past. Therefore they should not be maintained as they had been as the tradition and Magisterium of the Church teach. Hence we are sometimes tempted to think that all that comes along history of the Church is just extra and not necessary. In Mozambique today, some sort of marginalisation of lay people by the ordained ministers is notoriously taking roots. The situation of the laity in Mozambique is of great concern today. Clericalism has cropped in again. This paper is a pastoral and theological reflection on the life and missionary of the church in Mozambique. It comprises four chapters. In the first chapter we are dealing with the historical background that forced the church to move from its traditional iron hierarchical structures to the option of basic Christian community or lay ministries. It covers the period from 1962 to 1983. The second chapter is entirely dedicated to the experience of ministries in the Church. especially from 1977 until 1990; while the third chapter highlights the actual situation of the laity in the Church, the fourth chapter is the general conclusion and it gives pastoral recommendations for the church.