The Carmelite Web Site

A Message from the Participants

African Formators' Course On Formation for Community

“Get up and eat, or the journey will be too long for you.” (1 Kings 19:7)

We, friars, sisters and lay members of the Carmelite Family in Burkina Faso, D.R. Congo, Kenya, Liberia, Mozambique, Tanzania and Zimbabwe, met in Nairobi from 4th to 17th October 2004 because in our hearts we longed to be together to share our ideas and views on the central issue of Formation for Community in Africa today. Now we wish to communicate not only the results of this meeting to the worldwide Carmelite Family, but the impact it has made on us as a blessing and a gift, and our resolve for the future.

We were guided in our discussions by Carmelites from Africa, Europe and the United States who led us in voyages of discovery: of ourselves, of our African values, of the Bible, of our Rule and of our international family itself, all from the point of view of community. However, perhaps the greatest impact we felt was the fact of being together, of living as a community, so diverse in origins, yet working for the same end. We realized that we are not alone in our struggles and our difficulties, but that we can count on the support of our brothers and sisters in Africa and beyond. We felt nourished enlightened, strengthened and challenged by the various discussions and experiences of being an international and intercultural family. This is aptly summed up in a Shona saying “munhu munhu navanhu” (“a person becomes a person among others”).

We realized that it is only by appreciating and interiorising the insights we have gained in our own lives that we are transformed. Only in this way can we help those in formation to appreciate and interiorise Carmelite values for themselves in their own journey of transformation into Jesus Christ. We need to bring the richness and depth of our charism, especially as it is expressed in the Rule, to bear on our various formation programmes in an ongoing process of review and exchange of ideas.

We recalled that the first hermits on Mount Carmel were lay people and that although the friars and nuns have only arrived in Kenya relatively recently, there has been a lay presence in the country for nearly 40 years. For this reason we wish to strengthen this bond within our family and work with Lay Carmelites wherever they are to be found.

We earnestly hope that there will be more opportunities for meetings of this nature in the future, both of formators and those in formation, in order to further the necessary and vital task of the inculturation and integration of Carmelite values in an African context. We would ask the International Formation Commission of the Friars to facilitate these meetings and programmes.

May our spiritual father the prophet Elijah and Our Lady of Mount Carmel intercede for us, God the Father bless us, Jesus Christ be the centre of our lives and the Holy Spirit inspire us in all we do. Amen.

The Participants of the Course
Nairobi, Kenya

17 October 2004