AFRICANEWS

Africa

Fear in the seminary

Church

According to some seminarians, life in the seminaries is filled with both fear and insecurity. And both of theseextendbeyondinto the wider Christian community with pervasive consequences.

In the March 1998 issue of Leadership magazine, a seminarian Henry F. Mulindwa discussed his experience of life in the seminary. He described the seminary system as one that, perhaps unknowingly, fosters insecurity and fear in the students. As the explanatory note to the article put it, the system "encourages the wearing of masks ... and deadens initiative in the process."

There will be some, I am sure, who will not agree with Mulindwa's analysis of the situation. But I have seen too much fear and consequent lack of initiative and hypocrisy in seminaries and other church institutions and, more often than I care to admit, participated in them, to honestly disagree with Mulindwa.

Wider application
On the contrary, based on my quarter of a century's experience in ministry and in academic work in various church institutions in East Africa, I would extend Mulindwa's remarks to cover the situation in much of the church in this region (and perhaps in Africa as a whole). I do not think it is an exaggeration to say that it is a situation marked by fear. Now fear is a reaction to situations perceived as threatening to one's existence or well being. In the church in East Africa what may be perceived as goods threatened are power and control on the part of the leaders, and loss of recognition, advancement, and/or financial gain for the rest. But at the end of the day, although in different ways, fear is pervasive.

Consequences of fear
Fear is itself invisible, of course, but in Africa it is clearly identifiable by its symptoms and consequences. Fear expresses itself in polar opposites of extreme domination, on the one hand, and excessive passivity, on the other. Domination may mask itself as concern for doctrinal purity, and passivity may appear and be blessed as obedience. But these are merely appearances; the reality is different and negative to integral human growth.

Where fear prevails, healthy adult communication, or real dialogue, ceases. It is replaced instead by relationships conducted in terms of coercion and dependence, that is, in terms of victors and victims, for that is the logic of power and powerlessness. This is the reality, even if it is not expressed in so many words, or even admitted as such. It creates a vicious cycle of fear which in turn generates more fear, and so on all around.

Victims of the fear cycle
The first casualty of the fear cycle in the East African church has been freedom and mature faithfulness. But as nature abhors vacuums, the void has been filled to a large extent by authoritarianism and insincerity. Despite the goodness of individual leaders, and the effort of lay people all over the region, authoritarianism and passivity truly characterize the modus operandi of the church here.

I am the first person who would have liked to believe that all of this is so much cheap "pop psychology," and that the life of the church is different. But the staged priest senate meetings with no genuine agendas, the fake parish councils with members selected and controlled by the parish priest, the non existent Christian communities (except in name only), are facts that tell a different story. This is what constitutes the real life of the East African church.

The death of dialogue
In this situation, dialogue is stifled because competent lay people are reluctant to advise the clergy, since they have been told that their task in the church is only to listen. and the clergy often resent advice from the laity for the same reason. But this logic applies also to the relationship between the bishop and his priests, or the superior with his or her community. With dialogue stifled, there is the danger that theology and liturgy will not develop.

Fear breeds suspicion, so that it destroys real fraternity and dialogue among priests as well as between priests and the bishop. Life goes on, but it is a diminished life, burdened by too much caution and lack of initiative. Deadening uniformity replaces healthy diversity of views and approaches to pastoral work.

Conclusion
Analyses such as that of Henry Mulindwa are important and useful. They serve to open us up to face the negative reality of the church in our environments and to devise means to change them. We should be grateful that there are people who make them.

| CONTENTS | AFRICANEWS HOMEPAGE |

AFRICANEWS - Koinonia Media Centre, P.O. Box 8034, Nairobi, Kenya
tel/fax: +254.2.560385 (voice) - +254.2.576175 (fax-modem)
AFRICANEWS on line is by Koinonia Media Centre