Bishops of the AMECEA region have been urged to employ missionary methods to enhance the works of evangelisation in their respective dioceses.
Presenting his paper at the ongoing AMECEA plenary Assembly, Fr Benedict Ssettuuma, a catholic scholar, said that the methods used by the early missionaries if well applied can be very effective as proved successful at a time when evangelization was harder and more demanding.
“All missionary societies applied almost the same methods, creatively adopting them to their local situations,’ Fr. Ssettuuma said in his presentation titled ‘Early Missionary work of evangelisation and the actual situation within AMECEA region”.
He cited formation of competent and self reliant local clergy and religious, inculturation and Human promotion as the key ones, adding that local clergy is fundamental for evangelisation to take root in the AMECEA region. Other missionary methods included being a good stranger-visitor, missionary journeys, travels and pastoral visits, and prudently promoting popular devotions and popular piety.
On inculturation, Fr. Ssettuma urged the local church to borrow from those missionaries who took a positive view of African cultures and in them sought to find the concepts, terms and ways of expressing the Christ-event and the Christian life. ‘A number of the first ever printed works in the local languages were produced by the missionaries. They did a great work and that is a great challenge for us’, Fr. Ssettuma said.
He emphasized that fighting poverty and supporting the liberation of people from all forms of oppression is at the core of human promotion and all agents of evangelisation must deliberately prioritize this.
Fr. Ssettuma stressed that popular devotions and piety can only be supported if pastoral agents live a lifestyle that can be admired by the people. “Once these are developed, a profound spirituality will be developed among all Christians of the region,’ he concluded.
