Evangelization and Politics The Ministry of the Church In Burkina Faso
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Date
2001-02
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Tangaza University College
Abstract
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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Keywords
Evangelization, politics, Church, Small Christian Communities, Social