PASTORAL ORGANISATION
- The Provincial Pastoral Plan
The Pastoral Organisation of the Archdiocese of Bamenda is based on the Provincial Pastoral Plan of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda that was conceived after the 7th Catholic Convention in 1999 and revised in 2009. It is the result of the reflection on the Post-Synodal Apostolic Exhortation – Ecclesia in Africa – of Pope John Paul II after the First Special Assembly for Africa of the Synod of Bishops which took place in Rome in 1994. We have adopted it as the official programme of the work of evangelization, and we try to situate every dimension of the work of evangelization within it. It seeks to develop for the Dioceses of the Ecclesiastical Province of Bamenda an organic, systematic, coordinated and united vision of pastoral action geared towards fostering the growth of the Church in the spirit of the New Evangelization. It organizes the various aspects of the work of evangelization into 18 Pastoral Commissions with the Small Christian Community pastoral approach at the basis of all pastoral action and promotes the participation and collaboration of all the members of the community with a new ardour, method and expression.
We have carved out all the parishes into Small Christian Communities (SCC) which are described as the “Church in the Neighbourhood”. It is obligatory for every Christian to be a member of the Small Christian Community. The life of the SCCs is centred on the celebration of the Eucharist and the Word of God which should be the source and inspiration of their action. Thus, the celebration of the Eucharist and “Gospel Sharing” are the two indispensable activities of the SCC. For convenience, an SCC may have more than one Gospel Sharing Group. The Pastoral Organigramme consists of the following: a number of Small Christian Communities make up a Mission Station; a number of Mission Stations make up a Parish; a number of Parishes make up a Deanery and the Diocese is made up of a number of Deaneries.
- The Archdiocesan Pastoral Formation Team
In order that the Pastoral Plan may be properly implemented, we have constituted Pastoral Formation Teams (PFT) at all the levels of the Archdiocese: Archdiocesan, the Deanery, the Parish and the Mission Station levels. The Team organizes formation sessions, workshops and seminars continuously at the level of the Parishes and Deaneries in order to sensitize the people on the constitution and functioning of the Small Christian Communities (SCC), the Gospel Sharing Groups and the Pastoral Commissions which are the various aspects of evangelization as proposed by the Provincial Pastoral Plan.
It is our hope that through this method of evangelization, the Gospel message will be deeply implanted in the hearts of the baptized, and this would enable our Christians to become more committed and better witnesses to the faith that they profess, participating and collaborating in the work of evangelization. We are already harvesting the fruits of this approach, because our Christian communities are becoming more vibrant, more self-reliant and evangelizing communities.
This year, 2021, is a year of elections in the Archdiocese of Bamenda. The Archdiocesan Pastoral Formation Team circulated the modalities for the elections and those competent to stand for the elections, and so we look forward to having a new set of lay pastoral agents from the SCC level right up to the Archdiocesan level.
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