Kenyan Church set to embrace IT for evangelisation

Kenya Conference of Catholic Bishops’ social communications has unveiled a five year strategic plan that embraces IT and social media platforms for effective evangelisation.

Managers of Catholic Radios and Communications Co-ordinators from different dioceses of Kenya camped at ‘Donum Dei’ centre, Nairobi from 25th to 29th May 2015 to come up with a five year strategic plan that will guide the Kenyan Church’s main communications efforts.

Waumini Communications Managing Director, David Omwoyo and other individuals working in the Church’s social communications sector came together to establish a strategic plan of common vision, mission and objectives that would help operations of Waumini Communications.

Speaking during the closing ceremonies, Kenya’s Bishop of Kakamega Diocese who is also the newly elected Chairman of the Commission for Social Communications, Bishop Joseph Obanyi said the strategic plan would help the Church remain focused on addressing communication channels needed for effective evangelisation.

Bishop Obanyi encouraged Catholic journalists to focus on social justice issues that affect Kenyans, especially insecurity and poverty.

Tanzania’s Bishop of Kondoa Diocese and Chairman of the Social Communications Commission at the Tanzanian Episcopal Conference, Bernadin Francis Mfumbusa also spoke during the strategic planning sessions.  He pointed out that the Catholic Church in general lags behind in the use of Information Technologies (IT). He lamented the fact that as future priests most seminarians were not exposed to new Information technologies during their formation.

Bishop Mfumbusa said that the Church must move with the times and embrace the digital revolution. “The church is still living in a dark world, the Church must change to remain relevant or lose a lot of things,” he said.

Bishop Mfumbusa suggested the creation of internet websites, learning about multi-media communication skills and committing more resources to IT as content for the Kenyan strategic plan. 

(By Rose Achiego; Photos by Samuel Waweru: Waumini Communications)

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