“Ready to give back”: Well-Wishers Warm Up for Formation Funds-Drive for Oldest Missionary Congregation in Kenya

Mumbi sits on the advisory board of the Spiritan Formation Endowment Fund, an initiative established to facilitate long-term sustenance of the formation of Spiritan Seminarians in the Congregation’s Province of Kenya and South Sudan.

Eventually proceeds from the fund are expected to also sustain specialized studies, and also support retiring members of the 322-year-old Congregation in the Nairobi-headquartered Province.

Mumbi spoke to ACI Africa on April 25 at a fundraising dinner that Spiritans in Kenya and South Sudan organized at St. Austin’s Msongari Parish to boost growth of the Spiritan Formation Endowment Fund.

Credit: ACI Africa

She underscored the need for every baptized Catholic, especially for those who have benefitted from the efforts of the early Spiritans, to start thinking of “what can I do for the Church”, rather than always thinking of “what can the Church do for me.”

“I grew up in Nairobi at a time when most Priests around were Irish. I received Holy Matrimony at St. Austin’s Parish, which has always been under Spiritans,” Mumbi told ACI Africa.

She added, “Most times, we ask ourselves what the Church can do for us. But a time has come for us to ask ourselves what we can do for the Church. What can we do to boost the work of evangelization?”

Credit: ACI Africa

“The Church is not just the Clergy. The Church is me as well. The Church is every baptized Catholic,” Mumbi emphasized, and added, “I have seen many Spiritan Priests come and go. It is my responsibility to ensure that my children, grandchildren and even those who will come in my lineage after I am gone receive the care I got from the Church.”

The Spiritan Formation Endowment Fund is an initiative of the friends of the Spiritans and well-wishers, including institutions that would like to support the training and formation of members of the Congregation.

Credit: ACI Africa

Since it was established in May 2024, the fund has accumulated a seed investment of KSh5.9 million (US$45,200.00). The target is to grow the fund to KSh100 million (US$767,000.00) within five years. This year’s target is KSh20 million ($153,300.00).

At the end of the projected five years, the $767,000.00 that will have been raised will be channelled into interest earning investments such as treasury bills and money markets.

In an interview with ACI Africa at the fundraising dinner, the Vice Provincial Superior of the Spiritans in Kenya and South Sudan, Fr. Henry Omwoyo, explained how expensive it is to train a Priest.

Fr. Henry Omwoyo. Credit: ACI Africa

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Fr. Omwoyo said that without a sustainable funding strategy, Spiritans have been struggling to meet the ever-growing need for missionaries in Africa and beyond.

“We have a lot of work to do as Spiritans, but we don’t have enough Priests. It is frustrating then, when we have to turn away qualified candidates for Priestly formation because we don’t have the funds to train them,” the Spiritan Vice Provincial, who doubles as the Councilor for formation in the Province of Kenya and South Sudan said, adding that owing to the lack of personnel, Spiritans have been forced to close some missions.

Credit: ACI Africa

In the April 25 interview, Mumbi appealed to every baptized Catholic to respond to the Church’s call for support, especially in the training and formation of future Priests and Religious, saying, “We need to realize that we are the Church.”

“Growing up in the 80’s, money wasn’t an issue for the Church. The only thing we needed to do was show up. The time has come for us to sustain our own Church, and to be sensitive to the fact that there is nobody coming to rescue us,” she said.

Mumbi’s sentiments were echoed by Gichana, a parishioner at St. Austin’s Msongari Parish, who described himself as “a friend of the Holy Ghost Fathers”.

Gichana told ACI Africa that the Spiritan Formation Endowment Fund is an attempt to find a more sustainable way to meet the Congregation’s formation expenses.

“We have been doing annual fundraisings towards the formation of our Seminarians. The Congregation has many other expenses,” he said, and added, “The idea of the endowment fund is long-term, meaning that proceeds from the fund will be able to take care of these expenses.”

Dr. AnnMary Nkirote, a Nairobi-based advocate and designated chairperson of the Spiritan endowment fund said that the responsibility of growing the fund lies with the faithful.

Dr. AnnMary Nkirote. Credit: ACI Africa

“It is us Kenyans who believe in the work of the Spiritans, and who would like to support the growth of vocations among the Spiritans that will ensure that the fund grows,” Dr. Nkirote said.

According to Nkirote, Many Kenyans would want to support vocations, only that they do not know how to go about it.

Credit: ACI Africa

“We, lay people, are strangers to how vocations are grown. Largely, we believe it is the responsibility of the Church to train future Priests. We just haven’t realized that we are this Church,” she said.

Also speaking to ACI Africa on the sidelines of the April 25 event, Fr. George Omondi, the Priest in charge of St. Austin’s Msongari Parish agreed that Kenyans, and Africans for that matter, are ready to sustain the growth of the Church on the continent.

“The future of the Church is strongly in Africa. No part of this growth will be left out. Vocations will not be left out. But we need to create more awareness to this part of responsibility because we have been called to be a self-sustaining Church in Africa,” the Kenyan Spiritan Parish Priest said.

Appealing for contributions towards that Spiritan endowment fund, the Provincial Superior of Spiritans in Kenya and South Sudan, Fr. Fredrick Elima Wafula, asserted that it is time for the alumni of Spiritan institutions in Kenya to give back by supporting the Congregation’s evangelization.

Fr. Fredrick Elima Wafula. Credit: ACI Africa

“The Spiritans have toiled in this country. We have produced many people who are now doing well in life, through our education programs, through our evangelization programs, and through our empowerment programs,” Fr. Wafula said.

He added, “I am appealing to friends of the Spiritans in the Archdiocese of Nairobi, in Mombasa, in Machakos, where Spiritans toiled from the word go, to come forward and support us in this work of evangelization, now that they are able to give back.”

“This is your time to give back to the Spiritans, who are now going to the far ends to continue the work that our forefathers started,” the Kenyan Spiritan Provincial Superior said.

Credit: ACI Africa

He said that from 1886, when the founding members of the Spiritan Missionary Congregation first arrived at the Kenyan coast, the missionaries had supported Christians and non-Christians alike.

“Whenever we go out to serve, we do not draw any boundaries. We serve all. We evangelize through providing education, medical care, people have benefitted from these services,” Fr. Wafula said, and reiterated, “We appeal for support from all alumni of our schools, those who are now in a position to help us in this journey of evangelization.”

Credit: ACI Africa

There were 2,714 Spiritans present in some 60 countries across the globe as at 30 April 2024 statistics of the Congregation. 

The missionary Congregation’s membership has, over the years, undergone a “significant demographic shift” from the Northern hemisphere. For every 10 Spiritans, seven “come from 25 circumscriptions in Africa”, comprising 1,906 members (70.23%), Fr. Alain Mayama, the first African Spiritan Superior General, said in his Pentecost 2024 Message.

Fr. Mayama added, “Perhaps more striking is the fact that of the 532 professed scholastics, 480 come from Africa (90.23%); 1 from Europe (0.19%), 10 from the Indian Ocean (1.88%); 1 from North America (0.38%); 9 from South America (1.69%); 8 from the Caribbean (1.50%); 22 from Asia (4.14%)” and none from Oceania.

ACI Africa’s Editor-in-Chief, Fr. Don Bosco Onyalla, is a member of the Spiritans.