On October 10, 2021, Pope Francis invited the universal Church to a synodal process to launch a missionary renewal of the Church. The process will unfold over three years at all levels of the Church and will culminate in a World Synod on Synodality in 2023-24. What is the situation of the church in Africa?
On the way to the Synod on Synodality
With the synodal process, Pope Francis wants to counteract the widespread clericalism in the Church and initiate a new way of being Church.
Three elements are essential to this:
– Creating an open space where all members of the Church can speak to express their experience of church and how they see it in the future.
– Practicing the difficult art of listening to others without bias.
– To listen to God in a “discernment of spirits” and in an atmosphere of prayer to sense what God wants for His Church today.
This process has three phases:
– In the first and most important phase (2021-22), all members of parishes and religious communities should be given the opportunity to express freely their experiences, desires and ideas. These synodal conversations were held in the local language and “people are excited to be able to talk about the church in their language.” (Botswana) The Archdiocese of Mombassa demonstrated the meaning of the word “synod = common journey” by having priests, religious and laity walk together through the city.
The results of the local discussions were then brought together at the level of national and regional bishops’ conferences. Some local African churches initiated this process with creativity and enthusiasm, others ignored it.
2023: The Continental Phase
The Synod Secretariat in Rome published in Nov. 2022 a working paper for the Continental Phase (DCS) with the logo: an oversized tent in the desert with the Isaiah quote “Make wide the room of your tent.” The Continental Phase is organized in Africa by the Symposium of Episcopal Conferences of Africa and Madagascar (SECAM).
To bring together the results of the consultation of all the regional bishops’ conferences, a first meeting was held in Accra in November 2022, and a second in Nairobi in January 2023. The final Continental Assembly of the Church in Africa and Madagascar will be held in Addis Ababa in March. How serious the Church in Africa is about the participation of all members of the Church is shown by the composition of the delegates: 44 women and men, 36 youth, 5 seminarians, 5 novices, 16 religious, 32 priests, 13 bishops and 10 cardinals and 4 representatives of other religions.
The general secretaries of the regional conferences held a videoconference on January 20 to discuss the initial results of the consultation and discussed the specific challenges for the churches in Africa.
– In most countries, the church is a minority in a society characterized by great religious plurality: an Islamic culture, competition from numerous Pentecostal and free churches, the still great influence of traditional African religions.
– Politically, the churches in Africa live in a situation of great instability: civil wars, ethnic conflicts, autocratic governments, the serious threat of Islamic jihad.
– Socially, Christian ideals of sexuality, marriage and family are challenged by reality: the vast majority of Catholics live in partnerships without being married neither in Church nor before a registry office nor according traditional customs; traditional polygamy is still widespread and forced and child marriages are accepted.
– Inculturation is mostly limited to liturgy; many other aspects of African reality are not yet rooted in the Gospel.
– From the beginning, the church in Africa has played an outstanding role in the integral development of peoples. There should be a deeper reflection on the relationship with civil society, politics, and the legal system and Church leaders should seek ways to accompany Christians in these areas.
The Voice of Other Churches
Missio Germany hosted a digital symposium on January 12 to invite the various voices of the universal church to an exchange.
What became clear were:
– how different pastoral situations are and the need for different answers,
– that there are many common questions,
– that only an intensive and patient conversation can bring the church forward.
For those who want to deepen their knowledge of synodality, there is the offer of a theological and pastoral training in several modules online.
Wolfgang Schonecke