CLARETIAN MISSIONARIES GHANA MISSION

Some of the brothers in Ghana Mission

CLARETIAN MISSIONARIES GHANA MISSION: MISSION REPORT AT THE CLARETIAN MEETING OF WEST AFRICA IBADAN Preamble With deep gratitude we relish this opportunity to share with our brothers key aspects of the latest developments in the Claretian mission in Ghana. During the past fifteen years the Church of Ghana has been embellished with the unique input of the apostolic dynamism of the Claretian spirit, on the other hand our charism has been substantially enriched and significantly challenged by our missionary expericne in Ghana. Recently we have continued to extend the frontiers of our presence in the country by venturing into new mission lands. We have also initiated moves towards acquiring Claretian property in view of developing apostolates we can call Claretian in terms of ownership. In all these we meet a lot of challenges but our hope for a brighter Claretian future in Ghana is stronger.

THE CHURCH IN GHANA

BUIPE -DAMONGO DIOCESE JAMDEDE -SUNYANI DIOCESE AGROYESUM-OBUASI DIOCESE AKROPONG- ARCHDIOCESE OF KUMASI ABUAKWA- ARCHDIOCESE OF KUMASI KOLUEDOR- ARCHDIOCESE OF ACCRA THE CLARETIAN PRESENCE

HISTORICAL HIGHLIGHTS Friday August 22, 1997 saw the arrival, from Nigeria, of two young Claretian missionaries; Frs. Augustine Amadi and Martin Okoro in the diocese of Damongo in the Northern Region of Ghana. They were assigned to Our Lady Queen of Peace Parish, Buipe. Our newest mission post in Ghana, a combined Parish and Hospital apostolate, was negotiated and accepted in December 2011, Frs. Vernatius Umennebuaku and Livinus Onwuzuruike are currently assigned to that mission. In sixteen years the Claretian presence in Ghana has been extended to five dioceses. Damango in the Northern Ghana, Kumasi archdiocese-the heartland of the powerful Ashanti kingdom, Accra Archdioses, Sunyani diocese and Obuasi diocese respectively. Our apostolate is largely parochial with the exception of the hospital apostolate which brings variety into the mix.

P PARISH APOSTOLATE Below: Blessing of the Parish Grotto & Compound after Pavement by Fr. Jude CMF Top: Feast of the Immaculate Heart of Mary 2013 at Abuakwa Parish. Fr. Cyriacus & The Sisters of Nazareth at Akropong Parish pose with some parishioners. Below: Fr. Declan addressing the parishioners during the feast of our Father Founder at Akropong parish

APOSTOLATE/PARISH MINISTRY/OUR MISSIONS Spread across four of the ten regions of Ghana, our mission posts are largely rural with the possible exception of Abuakwa, which lies astride a sub-urban half and a rural half. Currently we work in five parishes, one rectorate, and one hospital. At Queen of Peace parish Buipe, Damongo diocese we have Frs. Gregory Iwu and Joseph Obika, while in St. John’s Parish Jamdede in Sunyani diocese we have Frs. Joseph Egbu and Ernest Offor. Frs. Declan Ugorji and Terence Agu provide pastoral care for the people of God in St. Lawrence’s parish Akropong in Kumasi Archdiocese while another pair of brothers, Frs. Cyriacus Asiegbu and Jude Anyanwu presently serve God’s children in St. Peter’s parish Abuakwa, our second parish in Kumasi. Two of our brothers are assigned to Obuasi diocese, Fr. Vernatius Umennebuaku to oversee affairs at the parish while Fr. Livinus Onwuzuruike is assigned to take charge as chaplain in the hospital adjacent the parish church In the Archdiocese of Accra we take care of St. Mary’s Rectorate with Frs. Japhet Obieloka and Olisaemeka Oranebo as our missionaries on ground. On the whole we have a total of thirteen Claretian missionaries assigned to Ghana mission. The 2013 provincial posting saw two more missionaries ;Frs. Cyril Ibeh(Akropong Parish) & Hilary Anadu (Buipe Parish) joining the Ghana Mission while Frs. Callistus Emenyonu & Declan Ugorji have been recalled back to Nigeria.

OUR MISSIONS CONTD. Archbishop of Accra rejoicing with Nigerian community in Accra after the inauguration of St. Francis Community. Fr Japhet Obieloka CMF is their chaplain Top: Fr. Jude with the Abuakwa Parish St. Theresa of the Child Jesus association during one of his visits to societies. Below: Lay Claretians’ get together after the feast of Our Founder at Abuakwa Parish. We need more support for the Lay Claretians

OUR MISSIONS CONTD. Most of our parishes have many outstations some of which are quite distant from the parish centres. While Church attendance is encouraging in some stations others may have as few as fifteen persons – adults and children inclusive – in attendance on Sunday Mass. With our predominantly rural locations it follows that we work mainly among people of slender material resources, people for whom the good news of salvation also means the good news of human developmental empowerment. Celebration of Peter’s Day to mark the year of faith in the Parish. People brought their FOOD and we ate together as a family of God.

One of the Sisters taking her first religious vows. * In Buipe, due to the gargantuan spirituality of Fr. Joseph Obika, the then bishop of Damango, Most Rev. Philip Naame, happily and joyously welcomed and accepted the foundation of Claret Sisters of Jesus, Mary and Joseph (CSJMJ) through the instrumentality of our provincial (VRF. Emma Edeh) and his Council assisted by Fr. Callistus Emenyonu the then mission coordinator. This group had their first religious profession on 31 st May 2011 with three young sisters. Currently, they have three novices and three postulants.

YOUTH MINISTRY Our apostolate engenders a blend of faith consolidation and primary evangelization since we find in our people heroic faith sitting side by side with indifference and ignorance. We teach, we preach, we sanctify, we encourage, and we empower. We work with every group in the Church, taking a special interest in youth apostolate as a way containing the enormous challenges posed by economic depravity and breakdown of family structures.

I know how to do it also for the glory of God, Fr. Jude demonstrates with Christian Daughters during their fifth year anniversary. Christian Daughters - one of the youth societies in the Parish

YOUTH MINISTRY CONTD. The President of National Association of Graduate Studies (NAGRAT) Ghana delivering his talk on “The Youth and premarital Relationship” during the Parish Youth Week at Abuakwa. Cross section of the Youth listening with utmost attention.

BIBLE APOSTOLATE Fr. Ernest Offor pose with the Deanery Catechists after their seminar and recollection in Sunyani Diocese. Fr. Ernest is the chaplain of the Deanery Catechists. In our parishes, we undertake bible sharing with Catechists and lay readers for deeper understanding of the scripture and effective evangelization

HOSPITAL APOSTOLATE

VOCATION MINISTRY Francis Nana Amponsah renewing his vows in Kumasi before proceeding to Spain for his theological studies. “I am ready send”. These young Deacons seems to say.

VOCATION MINISTRY CONTD. Like the biblical mustard seed which, though small in size, grows to attract the birds of the sky with its lush and habitable branches, the Claretian spirit in Ghana continues to catch the fancies of young people who feel called to share in our missionary vocation. At the moment we have candidates in various stages of formation from aspirancy through postulancy and philosophy, we are grateful to God that our pioneer Claretian theology student Francis Nana Amponsah is being formed in Spain, we solicit the prayers of everyone in this regard since indigenous vocation is key to our missionary consolidation in Ghana.

OUR CONCERNS Ghana as a nation is largely donor supported and so also is her Church, at least until recently. It is thus difficult to preach self-reliance to a people whose Churches were built by donor agencies and who continue to enjoy the sympathy of the Western Church till date. We have also been able to apply ourselves to this system of seeking foreign support for our mission projects, here we must acknowledge the assistance of our own mission procure in Rome, they have continued to assist structural and especially human development in our missions. Of late however, such outside helps are dwindling, the best we can do is what we are actually doing, namely encouraging the spirit of giving to mission in the local Church, and by God’s grace we inching our way up this ladder gradually. Another major challenge we have is with vocations. It seems generally easier to pursue a missionary or priestly vocation in Ghana than in Nigeria, the length of years of initial formation are shorter and life in Ghana is generally softer than we have it in Nigeria and so our candidates are required to do more with us to realize their vocational dreams. Like every other missionary enterprise ours is faced with the challenge of cultural difference. Although Ghana is just another West African country the cultures of her people are markedly different from the Nigerian. However we do our best to learn the languages and cultures so we can live and work better with the people

MOBILITY With our mission territory spanning the shores of the Atlantic in the southern Accra plains to the vast and often dry savannah grasslands of the Northern region we cover several hundreds of kilometers by road to be with one another for such Claretian matters like meetings, retreats, Father Founder’s day, and other fraternal visits. Our Claretian communities are made up of houses or mission posts that are quite far apart, for example our houses in Accra and Kumasi which belong to the same community are almost 400 kilometres apart. We hope to extend our presence to other dioceses or even build our own houses so that community life could be much more practicable.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE LAND AT JAMDEDE

04.8 acres of land in Sunyani diocese waiting for development.

JAMDEDE LAND PROJECT CONTD. For the seventeen years we have been in Ghana our apostolate has solely been that of collaboration with Bishops in parochial ministry. Seeing the need to initiate apostolates that could be somewhat Claretian owned, we have acquired a property at Jamdede (Sunyani diocese), about 04.8acres of land, in view of building schools, youth formation center or any other apostolate that may be deemed necessary. Presently, we have molded more than 6,000 blocks, put pillars at the boundaries, two big buckets of chippings and some trips of ordinary sand and made some registrations in the Municipal Assembly.

CONCLUSION We thank God for the Ghana mission, a place where our missionaries have continued to demonstrate faith and resilience in preaching Christ. We are grateful to the provincial government for numerous visits of animation and for continued efforts to strengthen our bonds with the local ordinaries of the dioceses in which we minister. However, there is need to make it more regular, for such will go a long way in strengthening our relationship with the bishops. We continue to solicit the prayers and advice of everyone so we can be true witnesses who bring hope and smiles to the lives and faces of the people of God.