A Church of the Poor
The Christian Brothers of the African Province are engaged in a process of articulating their mission today, together with consultant Noel O’Regan. The reflection below, first published in the East African District’s newsletter in February 2010, arose out from the early stages of this process.
It is fair to say that all of us must be reflecting on the Mission of the Province in some way. What is it? How can we describe it? How does it connect to and fit in with the mission of God? How does it connect to and fit in with the Mission of Jesus? How is it connected to the Mission of the Church?
What we do know is that the Mission of God is to pour out God’s energy and life in creating the world and all that is in it. We know too that the Mission of Jesus is spelled out for us in Luke 4 : 18-19: “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives, and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord.” The Mission of the Church is to carry on the Mission of Jesus.
At the most recent encounters with Noel O’Regan, we were challenged about all of this as part of identifying our foundations and the way we think about our Mission as a Province.
One of Noel’s slides stated an assumption that what we do, and what we want to do, is shaped by our understanding of Church. Then he pushed us to reflect on and explore our understanding of Church. There would be some who would say that it starts with how we think about our world even before we think about our model of Church.
Even so, most of us had difficulty identifying the model of Church from which we were operating. We all believe that the Church is a gathering of people around Jesus, trying to live out our relationship with him and the community, according to his message about the Kingdom of God. Most of us seemed to be moving towards the model he presented to us as the Church of the Poor (although many of us felt uncomfortable with the title ‘Church of the Poor’). We could still see ourselves operating from some of the other models, but we wanted to commit ourselves to this Church of the Poor.
I was thinking that if we committed ourselves to operating from that model and within that model, it would be taking a bold step. And we need to be aware of this big step.
Our African Province has to deal with the changing reality of Africa in general, and the Church in Africa, and the civil society. Our Mission Plan, when we finalize it, will identify focuses for our future ministry. This will, in turn, lead to different priorities for training and preparation of our Brothers. But we will all need to be coming from the same model of the Church.
At the African Province Chapter in May 2008, the following MISSION STATEMENT was adopted:
“We seek to liberate oppressed youth
from poverty, ignorance, injustice, and HIV/AIDS,
through our ministry of faith-based education,
and care for people and the earth.”
Our Province Chapter also endorsed the need for a mission development plan for the African Province. Through this we shall assess our ministry initiatives against such criteria as:
1. competency and efficiency;
2. option for the marginalized, especially those affected by and infected with HIV/AIDS;
3. initiating efforts for sustainability.
We shall also need to plan our further responses, our initiatives.
We seek to extend our experience of service to those in need:
* by recognizing the dignity of the people we are walking beside;
* by attempting to include all in our communication through learning their language;
* by recognizing the right and responsibility of all people to determine their life;
* by advocating for the care of the earth;
* and for responsible use of limited resources;
* through quality of education and equality of opportunity; and
* by promoting of children’s and women’s rights.
Since the service of the poor and the powerless and the oppressed is at the heart of our mission, they must be the focus of our mission. This is about our own understanding of Being Brother.
As I thought about this, these principles began to emerge:
1. I need to show respect and acceptance of these people, who are the first beneficiaries of the gospel message.
2. I shall need to work with them in their projects. I shall need to involve them in all decision-making concerning the projects so that acceptance and ownership will belong to the people themselves. Involvement of all levels and groups is crucial for the development of change ‘from the bottom up’. Movement is towards a practical plan that can be implemented, monitored, and evaluated.
3. I shall need to evaluate current structures, since structures can sometimes produce or perpetuate injustice.
4. I shall need to be accountable to leadership through good systems, policies, and mechanisms; and leadership is accountable to the community of the poor through following-up on consultation ‘from the bottom up’.
5. All our projects will be only a few years, since we enter, use our skills to work with people, then exit and move on to the next need.
6. Only effective empowerment will bring about lasting change, not systems and structures dependent on individuals.
7. I shall need to separate developmental aims and activity from spiritual aims and activity, for the purpose of seeking funding.
Where to now Edmund? What would you do now? Where would you go now? What is your answer to the questions?
Mine is that we are not going through all these reviews with their time, effort, energy, and expense just so that we can continue to do as we always have done. In other words we have a unique opportunity to shape the future, so let’s grasp that opportunity.
Tom Kearney
republished March 2010
