Tourism and Mission With Particular Reference to Kenya
Loading...
Date
1998-02
Authors
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Tangaza University College
Abstract
On March 25, 1980, the SCC issued a document entitled "Norms Jim the cooperation
among the local Churches and Jim better distribution of the clergy". In No.1 the document
emphasises that the aim of cooperation is to fulfill the mandate of Christ: "Go to the whole world
and preach the Gospel to every creature" iMK 15:15). This is the task for the whole Church;
bishops, priests, Religious, clergy and laity. Attention is drawn to the local Churches and the
need to re-structure so as to meet the challenges of the 'signs of the times'. This is because there
are new phenomena that require specialised attention. Some of these are: Trans-migration into
industrial regions, Urbanisation and Tourism' A lot of reflection and work has been done on
migration and urbanisation already, but hardly has tourism been reflected upon. It is the task of
theologians to articulate the areas in tourism that require Church and/or missionary attention.
The aim of this paper is to contribute, though modestly, to that articulation by showing
that modern tourism is economically very beneficial to many countries and individuals. At the
same time tourism cannot be confined to private enterprise. Our argument is that tourism is an
international as opposed to personal enterprise, involving multi-nationals hence it is related to
international political system and economic order which can be a strong force of exploitation,
oppression and as a consequence very destructive to traditional economic, social and cultural
systems, hence destruction of families and human dignity. However, we will not treat the
question of origin and development of tourism, neither will we talk about what is called
'theological fourism"2. Instead we will look at how modern tourism affects individuals,
communities and countries and see the challenges it offers to Christian mission. A further question may be asked as to what has tourism to do with Christian? Or mission?
Our first answer is the words of Cardinal Lavigerie: "Every human cause is a missionary cause".
We may add that every missionary cause is a Christians business. In other words, whatever
affects human life and dignity affects missionaries and Christians at large. Tourism does exactly
that. In his encyclical Redemptoris Mission, Pope John Paul II affirmed strongly the validity of
the missionary activity of the Church today. It is the primary service the Church can offer to
humanity. He continues:
"But what moves me even more strongly to proclaim the urgency of tnissionary evangelisation is the
fact that it is the primary service which the Church can render to every individual and to all humanity
in the modem world"(RM 2c).
The second answer is that Christianity is a sustained effort to reflect and discover the
situations affecting individuals, scrutinise these with the word of God and come up with ways
of liberating them. This is what we attempt to do in this paper. The first part then discusses
definitions, concepts, trends in tourism and its effects. The second part looks at the challenge
posed to mission by the effects of tourism and how tourism can be used for evangelisation, while
the third part outlines some structures and spirituality for missionary tourism.
My main source of information and material is CONTOURS'.
Description
Keywords
Tourism, Mission, Evangelisation, missionary tourism, Justice and Peace, Culture, The laity, Parishes, Formation