Activities of the Family Life Apostolate in the Archdiocese can be traced back as far as the coming of the faith into this area, considering the efforts of individual Priests encouraging young men and women to get married in Church in order to form Christian Families.
Right from 1980, organizations like the CFM (Christian Family Movement), FLACAM (Family Life Association Cameroon) and Marriage Enrichment and Marriage Encounter for the pastoral and spiritual care of Christian families, have been part of the Family Life Apostolate in the Archdiocese of Bamenda. In 1983, the Family Life Association of Cameroon (FLACAM) was constituted to carry out formation in Natural Family Life Planning. This structure worked alongside the CFM (Christian Family Movement), bearing many beautiful fruits. Marriage Enrichment was developed from the curriculum of World Wide Marriage Encounter in an attempt to meet the practical realities of the Christians in the Archdiocese, taking into consideration its cultural background. Since then, family life activities have spread to many parishes in the Archdiocese and beyond. Many couples, Religious and Priests have worked, and continue to work as teachers, animators and promoters of Family Life Ministry.
The Archdiocesan Family Life Office is run by a Director couple who promotes and coordinates all the arms of the Family Life Apostolate and has the following responsibilities:
- Promotion and coordination of the various categories and aspects of the Family Apostolate: The CFM, Marriage Encounter, Marriage Enrichment courses, the Faithful House, New Families of the Focolare, etc.
- Promotion of Natural Family Planning, abortion rescue measures, marriage preparation and marital counselling.
- Formation of Family Apostolate Commissions according to the Provincial Pastoral Plan at all the levels of the Archdiocese: Small Christian Communities (SCC), Mission Stations, Parishes, Deaneries and Archdiocesan.
- Capacity-building: Identifies and proposes training opportunities for staff and leaders at all levels.
- Supervision and performance management: Carry out various coaching sessions for staff, and information-sharing with other structures of the family Apostolate and partners.
- Guide the various arms in the development and attainment of their performance and their specific group development objectives.
Considering the challenges facing the Christian family in the modern world, there is still a lot to be done to get this very important ministry to the Christian family function properly. There is a lot of ignorance about this Apostolate and neglect which does not provide a favourable atmosphere for the implementation of activities of the Family Life at all levels. For some time now, the Family Life office has not been functioning properly because of the lack of a competent and dedicated couple to direct the office. There is urgent need for a competent Director Couple, as well as the necessary financial resources. There is urgent need for massive sensitization of the Christians, Priests and Religious on the importance of the Family and the prioritization and promotion of the family life activities.
The Extraordinary Synod on the Family called by Pope Francis in October 2014 gave some insights and directives on how to handle some of the problems facing the Christian family.
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