AGBOWO IBADAN NIGERIA

Life in St Thomas’ Parish

By Cyriaque Mounkoro M.Afr.

Apart from daily Mass, daily Confessions in several communities and the administration of various Sacraments, the Missionary of Africa Community in Ibadan is also involved in Youth Apostolate, Encounter (Ecumenism), Justice Development Peace Commission and African Traditional Religion.

Youth Apostolate
Agbowo, the area where St Thomas Catholic Church is situated, is the closest community to the University of Ibadan, just about 500 metres from the University gates. Consequently, a good number of young graduates either seeking admission to further studies or seeking employment reside in Agbowo. These people need special attention. They need to be helped spiritually, socially, intellectually, and psychologically. The only place they can find solace is the Catholic Church, because it shows a special interest in their growth and relaxation by organising sports activities, and often seminars.

Since 2003, we have a volleyball court in the church compound, where Catholics and non-Catholics meet to interact. In 2006, we organised and hosted a Youth Congress at the Archdiocesan level. For three days, 700 young people gathered for various activities: sports competitions, cultural displays; topics like HIV/AIDS, girl trafficking, prostitution, alcoholism, armed robberies, cultism and cultures were treated by experts. Fr John Kamamngo and myself where the engineers of that Congress.

Last year, 2007, the Youth Congress in the Archdiocese took place on the SS Peter and Paul Major Seminary premises. 500 young people from 24 parishes where present at the event, out of which 84 were from our Parish. The two Missionaries of Africa students on ‘stage’, Sydney K. Mulenga and Justin Binikundavyi, took on the challenge of organising the youth and preparing them for the Congress. The ongoing formation of youth is one of our priorities.

Encounter / Ecumenism
Ibadan is the capital city of the Yoruba people of Western Nigeria, located about 200 km north of Lagos, the capital city. Ibadan is the second largest city in Nigeria with about 8 million inhabitants. It is a metropolis. This part of Nigeria is the best place for Ecumenism. It is not like the East, where Catholics are in the majority or the North, where Muslims are in the majority. The West of Nigeria, particularly Ibadan and Oshogbo, where Missionary of Africa communities are based, is a serious fault line as regards New Religious Movements. We can count more than 5,000 Pentecostal Churches in Ibadan alone. Encounter or Interreligious Dialogue is a daily experience for us, we talk less about it, we live it. It is part and parcel of our lives. Our home visits and Communion to the sick once a week make a huge difference to society.

In 2005, our community organised and hosted a week’s revival of CAN (Christian Association of Nigeria) : six days of prayer, during which spiritual talks were given on the theme of Jesus the Saviour. I am convinced that there is no better place in the world for Ecumenism than Nigeria: come and see and you will believe.

Justice, Development, Peace Commission
As Missionaries of Africa, we try to go to the grassroots by setting up Parish JDPC called: PJDPC (Parish Justice Development and Peace Commission). It was inaugurated in June 2007. The Commission meets twice a month on every second and last Friday. The Commission is composed of members from the 7 outstations of our parish and two of our confreres: Felix Kamunenge and John Chrysostome Kamango coordinate the activities of the Commission. Last year, we organised seminars on leadership training. It was a great success. The PJDPC was very active as observers at the 2007 election in our locality.

ATR: African Traditional Religion
Two of our outstations are outside Ibadan Town, in rural areas. The majority of the population in those places are illiterate. We have started an Adult Education Project, in order to facilitate communication between them and us and other parishioners. In those places, we do more visits, listening, interacting, and sharing meals with the people than preaching about Jesus Christ. Nigeria is indeed a fertile land for missionary work.
Come and your missionary dream will be fulfilled!

Cyriaque Mounkoro