(Bishop of Same, Tanzania)
1) The Principle of Inculturation
In its anthropological significance, inculturation is the process whereby individuals, social groups and social categories are inserted into and imbibed with the values, norms, patterns and models of their society. The process of inculturation, though one and integrated "continuum", is realised in a three-fold dialectical moments or stages:
a) the cultural contact stage whereby different cultural systems interact with one another and as a result initiate a dialectical situation of harmony and disharmony, agreeing and disagreeing - a situation of contradiction - seeking for accommodation and transcendence.
b) The cultural assimilation moment comes in when the cultural interaction reaches the stage of harmony or disharmony of values, norms, patterns and models issuing from the different cultural systems in interaction.
c) The transformation moment comes in when the dialectical process (the inculturation process) reaches a stage where it becomes a force exercising its impact and effect on the way the incumbents feel, think and act. As a result it animates, orients and innovates the mode of life - the way people feel, think and act.
The inculturation of the Church taking up the same principle of inculturation becomes therefore the process by which the Church becomes part and parcel of a culture of the African people.
2) Proposals to the Synod Fathers
a) That each Episcopal Conference convokes and carries out well-planned particular councils as indicated in Canon Law nos. 439-446 both at Episcopal conference and at Ecclesiastical Province (Metropolitan) levels. This would assist the faithful, clergy, religious and laity to have a common stand and strategy for the implementation of the resolutions of the Synod.
b) That each diocese in Africa should be encouraged to invoke and carry out a diocesan Synod in order to reach the Church at its kernel - the hearts and minds of people, the family units and the small Christian communities in their social-economic, political and allow the people of God in the grass-root to evaluate, plan and follow-up the pastoral and development action and experience of the Church in Africa.
Original text: English
