Spiritan Missionary News: Describe Nzama parish.
Fr. Conor Kennedy: Nzama is in the hill
country in the west of Malawi along the border with Mozambique. It
was established in 1901 by French Montfort and White Fathers, the two
religious Congregations who were midwives at the birth of the
Catholic church in this country. Nzama is both the first and longest
continually occupied parish in Malawi. The land here is not the best
- many of our people have to migrate to Blantyre and Lilongwe in
search of work. When I came here in 1992 there were many refugees
from Mozambique in the parish because of the civil war in that
country. The big reconciliation meeting between the Frelimo and
Renamo groups took place here in October of that year. I introduced
the Renamo commandantes to the Frelimo military. As a result, about
350,000 refugees were able to return home before Christmas. Some of
them had spent up to ten years in exile. Although the parish is small
in number - about 8,000 Catholics: 3,000 adults, 5,000 children - it
covers a large area divided into 12 outstations and 65 Small
Christian Communities.
SMN: Outstations and Small Christian
Communities are not words that most of our readers are familiar with.
Kennedy: An outstation is an actual
church building which is cared for by a locally elected council. Each
little village, even if it has no church building, has a Small
Christian Community, usually 20 - 25 families that meet once a week
to pray and discuss what needs to be done in their area. These are
meant to be malimana - grass roots communities "hoeing
together", "farming together", "preparing their
garden together". Irish Spiritan, Brian Hearne started this
movement in East and South East Africa and developed its theology.
These communities are the foundation of the church in Malawi. Because
of the road conditions it takes one and a half hours driving time
from Nzama to reach the furthest outstation. You drive in second gear
most of the way. So the priest cannot spend much time in each
community much less be in charge of them. Each Small Christian
Community depends on lay leadership as do the local church councils.
The lay catechist is the vital link between all of them. In the lead
up to the recent centenary celebrations the involvement of the lay
people was extraordinary. They put months and months into the
preparations even to the point of neglecting their fields and farms
to volunteer for church activities.
Sylvester
Kansimbi
On
June 2, 2001, Sylvester Kansimbi became the first Malawian Spiritan
to be ordained priest. The ordination was a truly grand celebration
held in an atmosphere of joy and charity. "I am the sixth child
in a family of seven. My parents came from Mozambique, but all of us
were born in Malawi. We became Catholics and were baptised as adults.
I came to know the Spiritans through Fr. Conor Kennedy in Mtendere
Secondary School. His involvement in helping refugees from Mozambique
and his life style attracted me so much that he influenced me to join
the Spiritans in 1991. As there were no structures of formation in
Malawi at that time, Fr. Kennedy sent me to South Africa where I
learned that the Spiritans are not only involved in Refugee work, but
also in Youth Ministry, Hostel Ministry etc. This increased my desire
to learn more about them. I continued my studies in South Africa and
in Nairobi, Kenya. I now look forward to my first appointment as a
Spiritan priest to Zimbabwe."
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SMN: The right weather at the right time
seems to be very important here.
Kennedy: Yes indeed. This is a bad
year - there is probably an 80% crop failure, due to very heavy rain
at planting time. Normally each family would give the parish a bucket
of maize a year to be sold to the secondary school for food, but up
to now we have got only a total of 25 bags instead of 150 bags of
maize. We will have to buy maize at the local market this year for
our students. In our parish every year the hungry months are
December, January and February before the new harvest. But when you
have a bad harvest like this year, the hungry season starts in July.
People are then reduced to what they call "coping" - eating
roots in the fields and leaves and fruits from the trees.
SMN: You've been very much involved in
development work - schools, hospitals, maternity units, clinics. You
obviously see that as an integral part of your ministry as a priest.
Kennedy: Integral Christianity,
integral spirituality means ministry to body and soul. You can't
divorce religion from the lives of the people. No way. Isaiah said
that true religion in the sight of God is to look after widows and
orphans. On the final exam, as I understand the Scriptures, we'll be
evaluated on one issue: "I was hungry and you gave me to
eat." If we don't score well on that issue we'll fail. Feeding
people who are hungry is an absolute essential of the Christian
church. Christ himself fed five thousand when they were hungry - and
they were only missing an evening meal. We have to integrate
development with our preaching. We must show that we're active in our
Christianity and not just verbal. We must link religion and daily
life and not just religion and Sunday worship.
SMN: What form does development take in a
rural area like Nzama?
Kennedy: Schooling is the foundation of
development here. If young people can't read or write, they are
destined to spend the rest of their years looking after goats and
cattle up in the hills. I've built hundreds and hundreds of
classrooms over the years including two secondary schools and a
technical college. Our difficulty is getting teachers to work in
rural areas. They gravitate towards the towns and cities. Teachers'
salaries are a big issue. A rural headmaster gets only 3,000 kwatchas
a month ($60 CAN) -just about enough to live on. For this reason
there's a haemorrhage of teachers from rural areas. In Malawi the
church is an official owner and operator of schools. The government
gets large amounts of money for primary and secondary education from
the European Union, the World Bank, the British and Danish
governments. But this money does not come to church schools and so
our villages lose out. The lack of water is an ongoing problem. There
is a large supply located high up on a nearby mountain, and we hope
to tap into government funds available for construction of a
reservoir that would supply ten neighbouring villages with enough
water for irrigation and household use. It would also enable local
farmers to get two and possibly three crops a year. We have dreams of
Nzama becoming a little green valley.
SMN: Everywhere one goes in Malawi there is
talk of HIV / AIDS
Kennedy: Yes. The situation is very bad.
Life expectancy is 29 years for men. One day last month I had four
AIDS funerals. When young parents die they can leave up to eight or
nine orphans in need of care. Relatives and families become
overburdened with these extra children. In Nzama we feed, clothe,
nurse and school 500 orphans. The AIDS problem has hit the clergy
too. Since 1985 nine former Nzama priests have died, nearly all from
AIDS related causes. It appears we will have to live with this
problem for quite some time. You can't isolate AIDS from poverty.
What use are drugs if people can't afford them? And when normal
health services don't function properly, the available drugs will not
get to the rural communities to any meaningful extent. Cutbacks in
nurses and doctors only aggravate the problem. People are literally
dying because of "structural adjustments" demanded by the
World Bank and other like-minded organizations. Structural adjustment
means running a trim economy on western lines. Trimming the economy
and living within your means are desirable in theory, but in practice
a trim economy benefits the few and neglects the majority.
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Children in an AIDS orphanage in Malawi.
"You can't isolate AIDS from poverty. What
use are drugs if people can't afford them?" |
SMN: You've spoken about integral
Christianity; you also mentioned integral spirituality. What do you
mean by that?
Kennedy: We preach an agricultural
spirituality to the people. The bible is very close to their lives
-images of trees, water, fruit, farming, goats and sheep and cattle,
sacrifice, good soil and bad soil -this is their daily lived
experience. As missionaries we are called to relate the message
through these agricultural images. The story of the seed that broke
through the land, put out leaves and branches and fruit is the story
of the church in Malawi. The people celebrating this year's centenary
are the fruits of the sowing done a hundred years ago. There are no
atheists here. God is very much part of their daily language. They
have six or seven traditional names for God - the Great One, the
merciful God, the God of justice, the powerful God, the God to be thanked.
SMN: Their worship strikes a visitor as very
lively, involving all those present.
Kennedy: They like structure and
formality but they break through this at times. They love to sing -
every outchurch has its choir, which in its enthusiasm can sometimes
dominate a liturgy. They accompany the singing with drumming and
clapping. The liturgy itself is very spontaneous during its entrance
procession and especially when all come forward to offer their little
monetary contributions. They are not inhibited - sometimes
processions evolve into liturgical dancing. Funerals are one of the
most important pastoral occasions in the parish. The whole community
-Muslims, Christians (Protestant and Catholic), people of no religion
- prays together at that time. It is considered an offence not to
show up at a village funeral.
SMN: What would you say you have received
from your time in Malawi?
Kennedy: I've enjoyed my time here. The
people are very welcoming, very grateful for what we do with them and
easy to work with. I see my role as identifying people with skills,
encouraging them to use these skills, and assisting them to the
extent possible. We have achieved a fair amount - even if I do say so
myself. Malawians are a religious people and their faith in the midst
of terrible poverty, terrible suffering and terrible sickness is an
inspiration to me. But it is wrong, wrong, wrong that they are so poor.
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Agricultural Spirituality
From
the apparently dead seed, placed in the soil and sprinkled with
water,
comes
forth new life in abundance.
Without
sowing, there can be no growing.
Without
sacrifice, no harvest.
Without
renunciation
today, no fertility tomorrow.
Without
death, no life.
- Martin Ott, African Theology in Images
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Picture Right:
The dying-rising Christ,
Seminary Chapel, Balaka
Out of the dying maize seed whose roots are visible
and growing downwards, new sprouts in the shape of maize leaves grope
upwards. Within and upon this image is Christ both crucified and
risen. The sinking body dies on the cross, the rising Christ lifts
triumphant arms. Christ rises from the dead as a sprout of new life. |
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