MANY TONGUES, ONE SPIRIT: LOCAL ECCLESIOLOGIES IN DIALOGUE

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MANY TONGUES, ONE SPIRIT LOCAL ECCLESIOLOGIES
IN DIALOGUE
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TOPIC THEOLOICAL METHOD A CONTEXTUAL
READING OF THE PARABLE OF THE VINEYARD (MARK
121-12)
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Map of Kenya Showing the Provincial
Administrative Boundaries
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Introduction

• land issues in Kenya therefore is a challenge and
  cause of the ethnic conflicts from British
  Colonization
• Over a thousand Kenyans died and many abandoned
  their homes during the post-election violence of
  December 30th 2007.
• Internally Displaced People (IDPs) currently
  living in tents in Nakuru and Eldoret (Kenya)
  stadiums are an example of landlessness deeply
  rooted in the colonial era and the ten percent of
  rich Kenyans land grabbers.

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An aerial view of Afraha Stadium Nakuru where
hundreds gathered as violence hit Rift Valley
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An employee in one of the large track farms
belonging to Finlay Tea Stevia the food
sweetener trial farm
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• The rich buy from the poor peasants
• The rich man employs peasant/squatters to work on
  their land
• Due to landlessness and homelessness many move to
  Nairobi to find land and employment
• Most slum dwellers support their families as
  casual laborers at building sites or industrial
  areas
• The European settlers or white settlers took
  land from Kikuyus and cultivated cash crops.

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• Native land owners became squatters in Europeans'
  land.
• Paid less
• After Kenyan independence (1963) the president
  Jomo Kenyatta resettled the Kikuyus in the Rift
  Valley a land used by pastoralists before
  colonialists arrived
• President Moi repatriated Kikuyus to central and
  others tribes to Western and Nyanza.
• Kikuyus and other ethnic groups in rift valley
  lost land/homes and property.
• Land is seen/identified as major source of
  ethnic clashes, bloodshed and violent deaths.

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• SCCs maintain that the parable of the tenants is
  rhetoric in nature
• It draws its listeners in to making judgments
  upon themselves hence judging themselves
• The religious leaders in the parable join the
  owner of the land in judging the tenants
• The situation is so bad that the owning class see
  themselves as the ones Jesus accuses and even
  condemns
• Mark 1210-11 that talks about the cornerstone
  is at the heart of this parable

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• It acts as a proverb and the metaphor that
  interprets and gives the meaning to the parable
  (121-9).
• It holds the messianic and Christocentric message

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• The European concept of land
• Individual
• Bought
• Cash crops

• Native Kenyans understanding of land
• Used communally belongs to the ancestors
• Grabbed/ stolen never sold
• Subsistence and pasture land.

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SCCs Local Ecclesiology in Action

• What are SCCs?
• small basic units of local church formed by
  members of the Christian community.
• a new way and a new model of being church in a
  local and incarnate way
• would enhance the church to become local, that
  is self-ministering, self-propagating and
  self-supporting

A saving group of the SCC on a loan Meeting
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• use the method of see, judge and act to carry out
  their theological reflection
• meet once a week to pray, read the Word of God,
  recite the rosary and celebrate the Eucharist and
  serve the needs of the community.
• As a local church they carry out the mission of
  Christ evangelization, and love for others that
  transcend a clan and tribe

Small Christian Community in one of their meeting
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SCCs in Action Response to Contextual Reading of
Mark 121-12

• the SCCs read the parable of the wicked tenants
  and saw themselves in it and recognize the land
  grabbers as the tenants
• the parable judged them as passive Christians,
  for example observing Internally Displaced People
  (IDPs) suffer intensely from landlessness,
  hunger, and homelessness.
• Over 300,000 Kenyans lost their land during the
  post-election violence.

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• St. Theresa SCC in Kawangware read Mark 121-12
  and for their plan of action sent delegates to
  the Minister of Lands and challenged him to
  engage the government to take action and to
  resettle the IDPs who are currently staying in
  the tents in Nakuru and Eldoret stadiums.

WOMEN AND CHILDREN QUEUING IN ONE OF THE IDP
CAMPS
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St. Francis of Assisi SCC criticized themselves
for lack of

• engagement to challenge the issues of corruptions
  and bribery,
• inflated prices of the basic commodities,
• hunger,
• many unjust ideologies
• structures those in authority and
• Power to implement, be it religious or secular.
• St. Francis of Assisi SCCs chose to conduct a one
  day seminar at the Holy Family Basilica on the
  root causes of corruption in relations to land
  issues.

A store in the slum
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Challenges of Reading Mark 121-12 in SCCs

• Most of the SCCs are more prayer groups and
  extensions of the outstations in the locality
  than engines of change
• Few of the SCCs work to promote justice, peace
  and reconciliation
• Have not met the pastoral mission, goals and
  objectives of the AMECEA bishops came from above
  and not from grassroots level
• Have no biblical interpretation methods as tools
  to relate the Scripture to issues of justice,
  peace and reconciliation in the contemporary
  Kenya.

Small Christian Community in Prayer Session
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• Members of SCCs are not trained in biblical
  studies. They read the text literally. Some
  fundamentalist interpretations emerge in the SCCs
  because of lack of appropriated interpretation.
• SCCs are inwardly focused. They are not engaged
  with the wider social issues justice,
  reconciliation and peace.

One of the Small Christian Communities prayer
meetings.
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Way Forward

• Encourage all the people of God (laity, religious
  and clergy young and old) be engaged in the
  building of the SCCs. It does not belong solely
  to the laity.
• Urgent need to train the members of the SCCs in
  biblical studies and appropriate methods to
  interpret the biblical texts meaningfully.
• It is necessary to develop programs on adult
  education in biblical studies.
• Members of the SCCs to be engaged in works of
  justice, peace and reconciliation
• Need to have members of SCCs in key political
  positions to represent the community in
  government and policy making bodies.
• There is an urgent need to set up biblical study
  center in Kenya