Fr Winfield Kunda
The Catholic Church in Zambia has launched the celebrations of the Golden Jubilee of Small Christian Communities of AMECEA. The celebration which was to start in July this year to July 2024 will now be celebrated in various forms marked with several activities in all the Catholic Dioceses in Zambia.
And Zambia Conference of Catholic Bishops President Archbishop Ignatius Chama has thanked God, and the Founding Bishops for initiating the establishment Small Christian Communities as the new way of evangelisation.
“We thank God for 50 years of fruitful experiences of Small Christian Communities as a way of being a Church, and the Founding Bishops who started the Small Christian Communities as a pastoral model that was going to bring the Good News to the people and more into the Church, the family of God. In other words, the prophetically prepared for a synodal Church,” Archbishop Chama said.
Archbishop Chama also said that for the past 50 years, Small Christian Communities have enabled the faithful to share the Word of God and to offer mutual support and communion to one another.
“After 50 Years, the Church continues to be refreshed in prayer, in sharing, in mutual support, in learning and in carrying out the mission which have become the fundamental of Small Christian Communities,” Archbishop Chama said.
Archbishop Chama has however exhorted the Catholic Faithful to do more in order to make Small Christian Communities so as to become a new way of being a Church that has the mission of proclaiming the Good News.
“There are still a lot more to give an account for in terms of Small Christian Communities not having formed and trained animators, in terms of reducing Small Christian Communities to social fundraising groups whose agenda at times is always: we need money for this, we need money for that; we need collection for this; we need collection for that. There is a lot more to account for especially the absence of majority men at the gathering of Small Christian Communities,” Archbishop Chama said.
And as a symbol to mark the beginning of the celebrations of the Jubilee of Small Christian Communities, each of the 11 Dioceses and Archdioceses was presented with a symbol of the Bible, the Candle and the SCC Jubilee Prayer.