GHANA. Fifth Meeting on “Challenges for the Youth in Africa”.

The challenges of charismatic Pentecostal movements, Youth and family life in Africa in reference to Pope Francis’ Exhortation Amoris Laetitia, Youth unemployment and role of the church as well as the experiences and challenges of married couples in contemporary Africa formed the basis of deliberations at the fifth annual meeting of Network Pastoral Africa.

The meeting whose theme was Challenges for the Youth in Africa took place at the Tamale Institute of Cross-Cultural Studies (TICCS) in Tamale, Ghana, from 2 to 5 February 2018 and was attended by about 30 participants among them Director of AMECEA Pastoral Institute (API) Gaba, Rev. Dr. Joseph Ekomwa, the Coordinator of Gaba Publications Rev. Fr. Jordan Nyenyembe and Coordinator of AMECEA Pastoral Department Rev. Fr. Emmanuel Chimombo.

Over the past five years the Catholic Church in Africa established a forum for Networking between Pastoral Institutes with an aim to provide an African context for reflection on pastoral theology and a forum for an international African exchange of pastoral ministry. At this fora, representatives of leading pastoral institutes share their experiences to strengthen and inspire one another.

It was clear from the deliberations, that the lay faithful often times experience a spiritual void which the church does not respond to adequately. As such, participants committed themselves to invest in adequate catechesis of the laity with special attention to the youth. This will form a good ground for the upcoming “Synod of Bishops on the Young people, the Faith and Vocational Discernment,” scheduled for October this year in Rome.

The workshop was organized by Missio - Pontifical Mission Society Aachen (Missio Aachen) under the leadership of Dr Stefan Voges in collaboration with Fr. ‪Joshua Gariba (SVD) brought together participants from Kenya, Malawi, Mozambique, Zambia; Tanzania, Zimbabwe, Nigeria, Zambia, Mali, South Africa, Missio Aachen –Germany and Ghana, which was the host.

Last year the Fourth Annual meeting of the Network Pastoral Africa took place in Arusha, Tanzania while the Third Annual meeting took place at the AMECEA Pastoral Institute Gaba, in Eldoret, Kenya. The two previous meetings were held at Lumko, South Africa in 2013 and at the Centre for Social Concern and the Kungoni Centre of Culture and Art in Malawi in 2014.

 

 http://amecea.blogspot.com/2018/02/ghana-network-pastoral-africa-fifth.html