Mission Through Communication
Date
1999-02
Authors
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Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
Saint Paul used to preach in many places and one of them, was the Areopagus
which represented the cultural centre of the learned people. Saint Paul went to the
Areopagus and preached the Gospel in the language that was appropriate and
understandable to all. In our days, this Areopagus can be used to represent the different
sectors in which the Gospel has to be preached. The Areopagus that is very strong today
is the means of social communication, which is influencing the whole society. This has
become a challenge for the missionary, who, instead of fighting against it, is encouraged
to use it for the benefit of the mission and of the people.
First, when we went to the mission during the long holidays, we noticed that the
missionaries working in that area, that is Wamba in the Diocese of Marsabit, after many
years working with the Samburu People still use Swahili as the main language to
communicate with them instead of using Samburu language. Hence, we started
wondering about the effectiveness of the missionary work among the Samburu People
as much as how Evangelization could take roots through a language that is not
considered part of that people.
Second, going through the courses of Public Speaking and Homiletics and
seeing the importance of a well done speech in order to get a message across. Much
more, we think, is needed in order to achieve a better result in our missions.
Lastly, looking around, we can see that the Mass Media has brought to us many
forms on how to reach out to the people starting from the young up to the old in order to
sell many ideologies as well as to have certain control over a nation. From this we found ourselves challenged as our means of communicating to the people still remains far
behind of catching up as they lack a much broader variety.
In order to understand the relation between mission and communication, we
did a thorough research on both aspects.
By presenting this essay in an organized manner, we followed the
methodology: See, Judge and Act. This is the methodology that will be utilized for the
three chapters developed in this essay. We will begin the first chapter by seeing the
facts about mission and communication. Next we will examine the meaning of
mission and communication in the secular and religious sphere. Finally, we will deal
with the historical background. In these three parts of the first chapter we want to see
how mission and communication are understood and how they are developed through
history.
Judging mission through communication, we present the vision of the church
on mission and communication in the second chapter. We will start with the Vatican
Council II documents and then deal with the Code of Canon Law, presenting the
norms, views and exhortations on mission and communication.
Lastly, but not least, action, we add some suggestions that could be taken into
consideration for improving mission through communication in the third chapter. In
order to approach this theory we will discuss the vision of the Consolata Missionaries
on how they are dealing with mission through communication.
At the end of the essay there is a conclusion about the findings and highlights
we encountered while writing this essay.
Description
Keywords
Mission, Communication, Church, Canon Law, Catechesis, vatican Council