General Chapter Diary – A hopeful Vision of the Future

Currently the General Chapter of the Mill Hill Missionaries being held in Abingdon, UK, is receiving the reports of the General Council.

Andrew Mukulu, the Councillor for Africa, shared his vision of the future:

Looking to the Future
Even within a space of 7 years 2015-2022, a lot has changed on the African Continent. Our
mission has experienced a lot of growth, a few more missions have been opened, and even
though a number of our senior members have bowed out and gone back to their home
countries, growing numbers of younger members have been ordained and already engaging
in mission, this gave the opportunity for us to continue serving the Kingdom of God. The
picture looks good also in that, in all the countries where we work, there is great
appreciation on the whole by the Local Churches for the work that our members do.

Our Centres of Formation are also in a healthy shape preparing more young members for
mission. The Africa of the future is a digital one. Media Technology is spreading out not only
in the Urban Centres but in the rural areas too. These new means of communication are
gradually being embraced by Ministers of the Word. Corvid-19 has further accelerated the
need for these Technologies. It has exposed to us even more to what is possible with these
means of communication. Looking to the future, one can safely say that these means will
play a big part in the work of Evangelisation. In view of this there is need for our members to
embrace these newly discovered means of evangelization and take advantage of the
opportunities they offer.

Looking to the future there will be a need to continuously fine-tune our mission work. In the
areas where we work it’s easy to become complacent and settle for maintenance work. We
need to keep a focus on the Societies Priorities and to make sure these are not being
neglected in the Missions we are involved in. We need to identify aspects of great need
within the Missions where we work and give them particular attention; Justice and Peace
issues, Environmental concerns, Reconciliation among communities, Youth ministries
especially among the vulnerable, building up Small Christian Communities and others.
The future will demand further empowerment of members to take on specialised ministries.
The growth of modern Social Sciences has demonstrated that some of the pastoral needs of
our time, especially the needs of the young people growing up in an increasingly secular
world needs more than prayers to be effectively attended to.

Financial resources are an important part of any |Missionary endeavour. Currently the
greatest amount of support comes from the Central Financial office. As we look to the
future, there is need to increase the efforts to generate local resources. At the same time
there will need for an injection of some Funds to facilitate some Investment locally. This is
with the aim that with time it will begin yielding local income and lessen the need for
Funding from the Central Office. We have a number of members with expertise in finance
and equally the opportunities for investment are growing. In all the other countries where
there is investment activities, there was a beginning. Hence one has to begin somewhere.
Equally leadership teams on the ground also have a duty to do some detailed research of
what is available on the ground and find what is the best root path to take in terms of
Investment.

Further I foresee that as we continue to grow in numbers through Formation, there will
always be need to identify new opportunities for mission and take them on. However, the
taking on new of commitments has to be done prudently, to avoid over expansion that can
put unnecessary pressure on our personnel pool and resources..

Finally, in my view for Mission to have any future in Africa or any other part of the World for
that matter, we have to approach it, not with scepticism, but with a certain positive
outlook. The call of Jesus to go out and make Disciples of all Nations was as much relevant at
His time as it in these our times. It’s this that motivated Cardinal Vaughan to embark on
founding the Society. Moving around visiting missions around Africa, I have seen our
members through their ministry touching the lives of communities where they work and
realising Christian growth in them. This is at the centre of what we are about, and a cause to
celebrate when it’s realised because His desire was “That They May Have Life”. In the course of
execution of our Mission work we shall certainly encounter challenges, but when they come
we should approach them constructively, with confidence until we overcome them, simply
because the Lord’s mandate spurs us into the future.

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