The Future of Maryknoll in Africa
 

I find the task of projecting our Maryknoll presence in Africa into the future to be a very difficult one. I've not been very successful in predicting my own future! How can I predict a group's future? My experience of mission and ministry is that it holds many surprises. If I am faithful to the dynamic of mission, the Spirit does his part. His transforming action will simply unfold before me!

When I was a young college student back in Minnesota, if someone would have suggested that I might someday be a missionary working in Latin America and later in Africa I would have laughed and said, "No way!" As my missionary journey unfolded I have been surprised again and again.

As I look forward to starting a new ministry in Namibia I expect to be surprised again. I go with my own initial plans. I want to train youth to prepare materials in the local language for the Small Christian Communities. I also plan to train a local person to teach computer skills to high school students in the parish. Those were two successful ministries that arose during my time in Metangula, Mozambique. The pastor in Namibia has urged me to do the same thing in his parish. Even though I have these initial plans, I recognize that in two or three years I might well be doing something very different in ministry. My style of "planning" is one that is interactive and ongoing. The ministry that I eventually develop will be in response to the challenges that the local reality presents. It will also be based upon the competency that I bring with me to mission. When I move into a new mission setting I find myself "testing" different approaches to ministry until I find something that seems to take off, almost on its own. I like to believe that I am searching to find the "buried treasure." When I find where the Spirit is at work, I simply roll up my sleeves and join in.

I fully expect that Loren Beaudry and I will be involved in some sort of common ministry. I don't mean that we both have to do the very same ministry. But we do plan to live together. In our shared experience and in our reflections over the reality of our lives and ministry we will discover ways to encourage one another and to inspire one another in mission. I say this because this was my experience with Mark Huntington and the team in Mozambique and it was also my experience with the Maryknollers with whom I ministered in Brazil.

Our present way of doing mission here in the Africa Region is based upon the individual's talents and interests. As a consequence of this approach the future of Maryknoll in Africa will be mostly influenced by the make up of the men who are here in ministry. We are no longer concentrated in areas that have been entrusted to Maryknoll. Assignments are no longer made to fit men into the working plan of the Region. Nor do we have a model of "community in mission" like the one that Maryknollers use in Asia South or Brazil. Our reality is that we are spread out geographically. We get together once a year as a body. In the period between those yearly assemblies, we meet occasionally as pastoral groups. If the region no longer decides who goes where and what work each one is to do, then what does it do? How do we do regional planning and what does it mean? For these questions we have not yet found satisfactory answers.

Throughout our near future in Africa, I expect our present model to continue. We will be creative individuals scattered geographically. Each one will be working more or less on some sort of a team, be it a parish team or some other pastoral entity. But I expect few to be on Maryknoll teams per se.

We will continue to help the Local Church grow into a mature church. One that is interdependent rather than dependent. Some Maryknollers could well continue the traditional model of starting up new parishes where they are needed. But most will work in specialized apostolates of service that the church in Africa needs for it to be a mature church of the twenty-first century. I encourage you to stick around. I fully expect that the Spirit has some wonderful surprises in store for us. All we need do is be faithful to the dynamic of mission.

Mark's Ministry           Mark's Biography

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