More than a year ago, the Vicariate of Ingwavuma chose "catechetics" as the priority for the next years.Though there are many things we'd like to do it was clear to us we could not have many "priorities" because it could lose its "urgency".
After a first meeting trying to discern how to implement it, two more meetings followed: the first one with all the priests of the Vicariate. It is always clear in the minds and hearts of the people that, unless priests are involved, things will not move forward easily. The second meeting, suggested by the priests themselves, involved all the priests and catechetical coordinators of the Vicariate.
Each step of this journey has been a very important one. The last one, on the weekend of March 11 - 13 will be treasured by us all.
For three years, our ecclesiastical province of Durban organised a workshop for catechists at Pax Christi (Newcastle). Considering that many times, our catechists are teachers at school, the workshop was held for one week each year during their school holidays.
At the end of the training, a number of them were trained to train others in their own dioceses (and Vicariate!). Bp Michael O'Shea, my predecessor, was part of this process making sure that some of our catechists would take part of this training.
Since 2010, ten catechists (two from each of our five Missions), have been ready to start training others and... that is what they did on that weekend.
First of all they met in January to prepare the contents and structure of the training. Then, they took a weekend in February to reflect and pray together.
When the time came to do the training they were more than surprised by the response of the two Missions involved (Hlabisa and Mtubatuba): 84 catechists arrived for the training. No one was fully ready for that number. There was not enough food, mattresses or space... but at the end, nothing was really a problem and the spirit was excellent.
A simillar training will be held in May for the other three Missions: Ingwavuma, Ngwanase and Ubombo.
