This seminar was held at the Christian Village in Kumasi, Ghana, from 22nd to 28th of January 2019 was attended by our postulants and Br Ivo Njongai, who is presently helping out with the formation of our postulants at Ahwiren Community. The seminar is a yearly program on cultural anthropology with emphasis on inculturation, organized by Archbishop Emeritus, Peter Kwesi Sarpong and his team. Participants for the 2019 seminar were postulants, novices, temporary and finally professed religious men and women and religious priests from 13 different religious congregations.
The main objective of the seminar was to give participants some basic but vital insights on how to know the people, their culture's, cultural values and the society in which they live so as to be more effective in their ministry of making Christ's message known and practiced by those who have never heard or known of Jesus Christ (primary evangelization), and reaching out to people who knew Christ before, but have fallen short of their Christian calling or have simply abandoned the message (secondary evangelization). The third type of evangelization was also identified during the seminar that is reaching out to people who have accepted Jesus Christ, encouraging and supporting them in their faith so that in times of trials and tribulations, they should not give up the faith.
Hence, the need for priests, religious and committed and strong Christians to stand by them. As Evangelizers, knowing the culture of people we are sent to work with is of capital importance. Culture as described by Edward Tylor more than 120 years ago, is that complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, laws, customs and any capabilities and habits acquired by man as a member of society.
Culture then, comprises everything that you have as a social being: the way a particular people farm, the way they marry, the way they settle cases, the relationship between men their wives, the way of hunting, the type of food that is eaten and it is prepared, their language, ideas about life and death, the role of leaders in the society, the way buildings are put up. In short, it is everything that one acquires as a member of society. All these combine to create the culture of the people.
Finally, since the Catholic Church is a missionary Church, all priests and religious are missionaries because they are consecrated and sent out on mission. They carry out this mission through the practice of inculturation. Inculturation, as applied to Christianity, denotes the presentation and re-expression of the gospel in forms and terms proper to a culture. As it’s aims, inculturation has in sight a new creation by purifying, animating and getting rid of obnoxious practices in the society (John 8:7-11).
I strongly recommend that each year, either our postulants or novices be given the opportunity to take part in this spiritually enriching seminar on cultural anthropology.