(Archbishop of Tabora, Tanzania)
Observance: For the Church to evangelise as well as to re-evangelise is not just to impart the Gospel-values, but rather to proclaim Christ the incarnate, who takes up our living conditions (Social, economic, political and cultural) and incorporates them into his Divine life through "kenosis" namely being emerged into his life, suffering, death and resurrection (Eph. 3, 8-11; Rom. 5,4-6). By the proclamation of the Good News there occurs a transformation of the individual as well as of the community from within.
Status quo: Africa is living a very positive moment "a kairos", a moment for critically and deeply evaluating the present situation and the past decades. The challenges facing us in the social-economic, political and cultural fields are enormous. There are also challenges facing the Church internally. These are the "signs of the times" for us to read and react on.
Recommendations:
1) We believe that the proclamation of the Good News should be built on a correct and contextual analysis of the social, economic, cultural and political situations of the people concerned, taking into account the changes with all the ills which go with them in our various countries in Africa and Madagascar.
There should be an integration of the traditional genuine values with the Gospel values which have the power to transform them, purifying and affirming the positive values of the communities and criticising and discarding those negative ones.
2) In order to build a kind of on going evaluation on the process of contextualising and inculturating the proclamation of the Good News, there should be created a methodical way to see and recognise the day to day needs of the persons and the community served. To succeed in this the local Church should establish Church organs of heterogeneous persons to involve in and discuss the ways and means of solving the needs of the people.
3) Contextualised and inculturated catechesis from the grass-root level within the Small Christian communities to the Parish level will be part of renewal in evangelisation. Catechists (men and women) should be prepared for the needs of the people.
4) Other means for the contextualised and inculturated proclamation of the Good News will be family catechesis, Christian literature on biblical stories with African symbols, etc. Seminars and workshops be conducted at all levels - diocesan, parish and at the small Christian communities, on the recurrent topics in catechetics, social teachings of the Church and other relevant topics on inculturation.
Original text: English
