African Catechists Research Project
African Catechists Research Project
Promoters: Gaba Pastoral Institute of Eastern Africa, Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa
Funder (Financial and technical assistance): International Federation of Institutes for Social and Socio-Religious Research (FERES)
Dates: 1967-1970
Region: Burundi, Rwanda, Uganda, Zambia, Tanzania, Malawi, Kenya.
"The research was commissioned in 1968 by the association of episcopal conference known as AMECEA - an acronym for Association of Member Episcopal Conferences of Eastern Africa - representing the five countries of Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, and it was entrusted to the Research Department of the AMECEA Pastoral Institute at Gaba, Kampala. Financial and technical assistance was rendered by the International Federation of Instituets for Social and Socio-Religious Research (FERES). Associated with the research in the five countries already mentioned was a parallel study in the two French-speaking countries of Rwanda and Burundi, commissioned by the episcopal conferences of those countries and directed by the Centre of Socio-Religious Studies at Bujumbura (CERES)."
Source: Shorter and Kataza, Missionaries to yourselves, ix.
Research Department of the AMECEA Pastoral Institute at Gaba, Kampala
Centre d'Etudes Socio-Religieuses, Bujumbura, Burundi.
After a pilot study in Tanzania, interviews were carried out by national teams in all the countries and postal questionnaires were sent out from Gaba.
The resulting information was processed at Gaba with the aid of IBM equipment at Makarere University.
In addition, specialist studies and case studies were carried out by rexperts associated with the project.
Source: Shorter and Kataza, Missionaries to yourselves, ix.
African priests were associated with the research from its inception
African seminarians and college students volunteered to conduct the personal interviews.
Undergraduates from Makerere University helped in the analysis of questionnaires
A permanent research staff at Gaba coded the interviews and helped write up the material.
Source: Shorter and Kataza, Missionaries to yourselves, ix.
An important by-product of the research has been the familiarizing of Africans with research methods and the stimulus it has provided for research for Africans.
African students at the Pastoral Institue have been highly interested in the project and two are now engaged in catechist training, one of them being director of a training centre.
Source: Shorter and Kataza, Missionaries to yourselves, x.
Centre d'Études Socio-Religieuses. Rwanda, Burundi: recherche inter-africaine sur les catéchistes. Bujumbura: CERES, 1970.
Shorter, Aylward, and Eugene Kataza, eds. Missionaries to Yourselves: African Catechists Today. London: Geoffrey Chapman Publishers, 1972. More
Content:
I. History of the catechist in Eastern Africa (Francis Nolan, M.Afr)
II. Portrait of the catechist (Eugene Kataza)
III. Developing roles of the catechist (Aylward Shorter, M.Afr.)
IV. The training of catechists and its financial implications (Bernard Joinet, M.Afr.)
V. The ministry of the catechist considered theologically (Adrian Hastings)
VI. Catechists and the future of the Christian ministry (Marienus Rooyackers, M.Afr.)
VII. A case history from Uganda (Marienus Rooyackers, M.Afr.)
VIII. Three case histories from Tanzania (Bernard Joinet, M.Afr.)
IX. Sisters as catechists (Sister Maria Pouliot)
Appendices
I. Excerpts from the decrees on the missionary activity of the Church.
II. Excerpts from AMECEA study conference record.
III. Tentative resolutions at SECAM meeting
IV. Catechists in Rwanda and Burundi
Coordinator: Francis Nolan, M.Afr.
Origins and development in Eastern Africa (Francis P. Nolan)
A history of the catechist in Tanzania A research about their formation and work during the last hundred years (Siegfried Herlein)
The role of the catechist in the evangelisation of Western Tanzania (Francis P. Nolan)
Catechists in Western Uganda (Louise Pirouet)
Bikira catechist school (M. Rooyackers)
Doctor catechists in East Africa (M. Rooyackers)
Contribution of the catechist to the development of the Church in North Uganda (Gruppo Uganda Terzo Mondo)
Origins & development of the catechist system in Zambia (Southern/Central and Western provinces) (Coyne)
History of the catechists in North Zambia Thoughts on the history of the catechist system in North Eastern Zambia (A. Willekens)
The history of the catechist. Kasama Archdiocese (Northern Zambia) (Alain Guegueniat)
Catechists in Rwanda and Burundi (L. Goovaerts)