1. THE YEAR OF CONSECRATED LIFE AND INTEGRAL DEVELOPMENT
WELCOME TO A PRESENTATION BY CHISHIMBA CHISHIMBA ON SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH

3. YOUTH SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITY
What is a small Christian community?
This is a group of people of one faith (or who believe and go to one church) Meeting together in other communities and share the word of God, help each other, eat together etc.
What is the difference between SCC and YSCC?
These two groups are almost the same. The only difference is that in YSCC youths meet on their own with their coordinators who represent the parents who are found in the SCC. In other ways SCC is made of both parents and youth.

4. ROLES OF YSCC
Youth SCCs to foster a strong sense of identity, Belonging, Communion and ministry by:
helping to build SCCs where the youth are able to experience that through their baptism, they are not spectators but worthy members in the ecclesial community and have something they can contribute to the local Church.
making an effort to meet young people where they are so as to understand their situation, experiences, plight, ambitions or dreams, then provide a forum for them to share these experiences in the light of faith. (1Cor 12:27; Rom 12:4-5).

5. providing for young people who are searching for good social relationships and friendship.
If the Parish is not able to provide this, we often find them drifting away and becoming resentful towards their faith or the Church.
Many young people have a lot of questions about their personal life experiences. The YSCCs should be the best forum for them to share and receive guidance in life.
Many young people are very passionate to volunteer or offer a certain kind of service to the community. Youth SCCs can help young people to feel and experience a strong sense of responsibility and make valuable contribution to the work of the Church.

6. Youth SCCs to promote sharing and celebration of life:
The AMECEA bishops described the SCCs/YSCCs as the natural communion of families in which life is received, lived, nurtured and enhanced, anything that promotes or destroys life is experienced by all members of the community.
For the young people, it is sometimes in these peer groups (e.g. school/club/Church mates, sports, music, art and learning teams) that they share and celebrate life.

7. Youth SCCs to promote Prayer Life and reverence for God:
Have you ever met a friend who said this: “I was a Catholic but did not know how to pray, but now I am praying and God is answering my prayers”. SCC/YSCC to promote prayer life.
We need to strive to bring the young people to the Mountain of Transfiguration, such that they are able to meet Jesus and say, “Lord it is good to be here, let us build three tents” (Mk 9:2 – 8).

8. Putting prayer at the center of every activity in Youth SCCs and initiating young people into an appreciation of the different models of praying.
Creating occasions for the youth to pray: retreats, pilgrimage, personal prayer etc.
Providing prayer guides for young people and to help them understand that prayer life is a relationship of friendship with God (Jn 15: 17ff).
encouraging young people to use events of their lives as occasion for prayer: before exams, after successfully getting employed even when in difficult situations.

9. Youth SCCs as place of Nourishment by the Word of God:
The AMECEA Bishops envisaged that the nature, life and mission of the SCCs is rooted in the Word of God.
The Word of God is the source of life and inspiration by drawing people to participation in the sacramental life, especially the Eucharist.
However, young people are faced with the question: “Where is it written in the Bible?”

10. Youth SCCs are Places for Nurturing of Vocations and Ministries:
“by virtue of our Baptism, we share the work of the one priesthood of Christ who is priest, prophet and king” (LG 10).
Proclamation of the word: In SCCs, youth should be helped to realize and appreciate their role as proclaimers of the Word of God among their own peers.
Teaching: The youth should be helped to teach young children the Word of God and catechism.

11. Worship and rituals: encourages active participation of all at liturgical celebrations.
Encourage the Youth to participate through choirs, reading the Scriptures during worship and preparation of liturgical celebrations.
Pastoral care of the sick and social commitment: The Youth in SCCs should be helped to assume a ministry of service to the needy, the sick, voluntary service at the Parish.

12. The building of fellowship in the community: The Youth are a vital part of building ecclesial fellowship and oppose all forms of division, segregation and violence.
Through SCCs, they foster strong bonds of friendship, peace, reconciliation, tolerance and mutual respect among members of the SCCs and beyond.
Wherever the youth are involved in the ministry of service, vocations to priesthood, religious life, and married life and other flourish.

13. Youth SCCs to Promote Integral Development:
We are all coming from situations where most of our young people are living in abject poverty, unemployment, abuses of all forms, and sense of hopelessness because society is not meeting their needs.
Youth SCCs can also be a forum to promote the integral development of the youth so that they are able to meet their economic, material, and social needs.
(E.g. some programs such as the micro-finance self-help program, CARYM and other entrepreneurship programs).

14. Reasons for YSCC:
To help young people to appreciate and love the Word of God as the only foundation to make friendship with Jesus Christ. “Ignorance of Scripture is ignorance of God.”
To encourage personal/group reading and sharing of the Word of God and to see how this message of life can guide them in their life, give them inspiration and strength to be true disciples of Christ.

15. To encourage each young persons to have personal Bible and use it when they meet in groups/SCCs to pray and share the Word of God.
To promote creative ways for young people to appreciate reading and listening to Word of God.
Some useful manuals, prayer guides and Bible formation programs can be very helpful to the Youth in SCCs.

16. Challenges faced by youths in SCCs/YSCCs
Youth facing the period of transition from teenage life to adulthood is characterized by:
Sense of self-assertion where we want to be independent of family, certain norms and a strong feeling to pursue our own dream different from that of the family.
Desire for relationships that are bonding us (peer groups) and building a strong sense of belonging beyond the family ties.

17. Discovering our emotional attachments, habits and a culture of our own.
The inner desire to pursue something and make a difference in family, society and the world.
Exploration and adventure of taking risks in life or venturing into the unknown.
Usually these SCCs do not address our challenges stated above which makes youth feel out of place and stop attending SCCs.

18. HOW TO ENCOURAGE YOUTHS TO BE PART OF SCCs:
By encouraging:
the celebration of individual/common birthdays,
exchange of group visitations,
social interactions such as sport/ culture etc.
meeting young people where they are and share the Gospel of Christ with them in that particular context.
Social media interactions..

19. CONCLUSION
SCCs/YSCCs are a new model of the church and a new way of being the church today. SCCs/YSCCs are not a movement in the church, they are the church on the move.
Poster at St Charles Lwaanga, Regiment Parish.

20. SELF HELP QUESTIONS
Are Youth SCCs important in your parish? If so why?
What methods would you use to bring more young people to active participation in SCCs?
What are you doing to encourage young people in your parish to appreciate their identity as Christians and promote the mission of salvation?

21. OLDER PRIESTS HELPING TO FOSTER YOUTH SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES IN THE AMECEA REGION….
HAPPY YOUTH/ SMALL CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES.
THANK YOU AND GOD BLESS!!!!