KENYA: Priest Raises Concern over Poor Youth Participation in Small Christian Communities

NAIROBI, SEPTEMBER 25, 2018 (CISA) – Fr Anthony Makunde, the Secretary General of Association of Member Episcopal Conference of Eastern Africa (AMECEA), has raised concerns over poor participation of young people in Small Christian Communities.

“There is a great concern that young people are mostly the absentees in weekly gathering,” Fr Makunde lamented in his address to the members of the Network Small Christian Communities (NSCCA) who met in Nairobi from September 14 to 17 to explore ways of revitalizing young people in the Small Christian Communities (SCCs) in Africa.

The meeting aimed at listening to the young people and learning their experiences in SCCs in order to find strategies of addressing young people through the SCCs.

“Small Christian Community is a communion of families, living in the neighbourhood, coming together to express and to live their faith and after almost forty years of planting Small Christian Communities in AMECEA Region, and indeed we have registered a number of achievements through its model,” Fr Makunde said.

In reference to the meeting held in Lusaka, Fr Makunde said that among the concerns of young people from the region is that they are yet to see a proper place and role that will motivate them to be on board as far as Church mission is concerned.

The meeting is in preparation for the ordinary General Assembly Synod of Bishops scheduled for October 3 to 28 where more than 300 delegates comprising cardinals, archbishops, bishops, priests, sisters and lay people are expected to attend.