An Evaluation of Small Christian Communities' Viability and Effectiveness in St. Joseph's Kangemi Catholic Parish - Nairobi.

Ebalé, Wairimu Churu (1999) An Evaluation of Small Christian Communities' Viability and Effectiveness in St. Joseph's Kangemi Catholic Parish - Nairobi. Masters thesis, Maryknoll Institute of African Studies of Saint Mary's University.

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Abstract

This study seeks to resolve the issues surrounding the possibility of the survival of the Church and Christianity in the midst of the dramatic and often tragic events that characterize the experiences of life in the modern African city. Small Christian communities are perceived by some as a possible solution to the questions of building authentic African Christian Church. This study tries to put the common Christians experience at the centre of the concerns, questions and answers to the puzzles of the Church. Taking the example of the Catholic Church in one city parish in Nairobi Kangemi, I delve into the contribution that Small Christian Communities are making, the efforts they are putting into these contributions, their potentialities in these crucial concerns, as well as the hindrances they suffer along the way. The most important tool employed in this thesis project is involvement of the lay Christians in asking the questions and attempting answers to the predicament of the present and the future. Most of the bulk of this study is made up of the answers that informants gave to questions in interviews with the writer. The conclusions and summaries reaffirm the conviction that the future lies with the Christian community, with all its questions and answers, its problems and solutions, its needs and resources, howsoever poorly the balance seems maintained between these pole-ends. The most important finding of the study is that the community must continue to be engaged in the questions that face the Church daily; indeed the questions of the people must become more and more the central questions of the Church, and this can only be done by letting the people take their proper central place in the Church. This study observes that it is the community that holds the key to the future progress of the Church, and the only real answers will be those that are found by the community in its communal search for ways of contributing to healing and wholeness of life in Africa.

Item Type: Thesis (Masters)
Subjects: B Philosophy. Psychology. Religion > BR Christianity
Divisions: Africana
Depositing User: JHI Africa
Date Deposited: 01 Dec 2014 09:10
Last Modified: 19 Mar 2018 12:39
URI: http://thesisbank.jhia.ac.ke/id/eprint/150

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