“We had timelines for April and we knew that with the preparations for Easter that come around April, we wouldn’t have enough time to create enough engagement with the Synodal process at the Diocesan level,” the Secretary General of AMECEA said.
He added, “It was also a time when COVID-19 restrictions were in place and we were afraid that we were not going to be able to walk around, creating avenues of engagement with the process.”
Fr. Makunde said that the various Church entities were tasked with the responsibility of selecting and building the capacity of Synod coordinators in Dioceses. They were also tasked with finding a common approach to the Synodal process.
He continued, “At AMECEA for instance, we had to come up with an approach that would work for all our 122 Dioceses, instead of allowing each Diocese to do things distinctively.”
Additionally, AMECEA embarked on devising ways to coordinate the sharing of the Synod on Synodality experiences between different countries under its jurisdiction.
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The AMECEA Secretary General says that the collaboration with JCAM presented an opportunity for the two Catholic Church bodies to share resources along the journey.
“Jesuits have the charisma of the Synodal process. Apart from this, they have the expertise in place including theologians to steer Synodal conversations. They have the capacity to reach a wider context of people and they sometimes get to places we can’t get to. Working with them has been very rewarding to us,” Fr. Makunde said.
He said that JCAM and AMECEA have been working in Catholic institutions of higher learning in the region to include students and lecturers in Synodal conversations.
“We also acknowledge that not all Catholic institutions have the faculty of theology. We have been in touch with Catholic professionals in these institutions to identify at least one contact person who will collect the views of other professionals in the institutions by April this year,” Fr. Makunde said.
He said that JCAM and AMECEA are also gearing up for the SECAM meeting later this month to start journeying as a continent in the Synodal process.
Agnes Aineah is a Kenyan journalist with a background in digital and newspaper reporting. She holds a Master of Arts in Digital Journalism from the Aga Khan University, Graduate School of Media and Communications and a Bachelor's Degree in Linguistics, Media and Communications from Kenya's Moi University. Agnes currently serves as a journalist for ACI Africa.