Director's Letter
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Fr. Steven Payne, O.C.D. |
Director |
limu ni bahari, says a familiar Swahili proverb. “Education is an ocean,” a rich and inexhaustible sea where we are forever exploring new lands and finding new treasures. The Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation (ISRF) invites you to join us on an exciting voyage of learning, discovery, personal growth, discipleship and service that will last a lifetime.
As other African proverbs often remind us, great trees grow from tiny seeds. Roughly two decades ago, Tangaza College began with only 20 students from three religious congregations. Today it has over 20 congregations as corporate members, with more than 1100 students (religious and lay, women and men) in the theology school and six affiliated institutes.
One of these, the Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation, was founded by the Tangaza Board of Governors in August 1996. Like Tangaza itself, its beginnings were modest, but it was entrusted with an important, even crucial, mission: to help train those preparing to become formators and spiritual guides in their religious congregations, especially those who would be working in an African context.
Thus the Institute started by offering a diploma in religious formation and a diploma in spirituality/spiritual guidance. Later a more general diploma in spirituality was added as a third option, especially for those seeking greater flexibility or taking our courses as part of their own religious formation. Likewise, because many potential students were unable to devote a full two years to study, the ISRF inaugurated a one-year certificate in spirituality, as well as a spirituality/renewal programme for those wishing simply to audit our courses for their own personal growth. And just recently, in partnership with our Institute, the School for New Learning of DePaul University in Chicago has begun offering a DePaul BA programme at Tangaza College for students holding a diploma from ISRF or the Institute of Social Ministry in Mission.
To meet the varied needs of our students in these different programmes, our courses range from basic classes in Scripture, psychology and Christian doctrine to more specialized training for spiritual guidance and religious formation ministries. During their time with us, students receive monthly spiritual direction and have the opportunity for personal counseling. They also participate regularly in integration groups to help them assimilate what they are learning, so that it doesn’t remain merely theoretical. In this way, our programmes combine serious academic study with a pastoral and practical focus. At present we have 55 students (women and men, religious, diocesan, and lay) from 37 religious congregations and nearly 20 different countries in our renewal programme, one-year certificate programme and two-year diploma programmes, as well as 15 in the new DePaul BA programme. We find the diversity enormously enriching!
The Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation also reaches out in many ways to the local community and beyond. Our “Prayer Guidance Practicum” has given Christians from various walks of life (from women prisoners to business people and the working poor) the opportunity for an enriching “retreat in daily life” that they would not otherwise have. We collaborate with the Vincentians in their Emmaus Programme of continuing education for diocesan clergy. Our annual three-day ISRF Symposium has received international press coverage; recent themes have included “Belief in Witchcraft as a Pastoral Challenge”, “Divination and Healing”, and “Forms of Accompaniment in Africa.” And during the last academic year, in collaboration with the Catholic University of Eastern Africa and St. Paul’s United Theological College, the Institute hosted a major international conference on African spirituality at Tangaza College, on the theme of “African Spirituality and Its Definitions in the African Context.” The conference attracted over 170 participants, with an ecumenical panel of distinguished speakers that included John Mbiti, Laurenti Magesa, Charles Nyamiti, Jesse Mugambi, Mary Getui, Diane Stinton, and many others. So successful was the conference that we are planning to make it an annual event, and to explore the possibility of establishing some kind of “African Spirituality Association” for East African scholars.
For my own Order of Discalced Carmelites, the story of the ISRF has, in a certain sense, come full circle. The idea of founding an “Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation” at Tangaza College was originally proposed in the mid-1990s by a Discalced Carmelite friar, Tom Curran, OCD, who was then teaching in the college and became the first ISRF director (later followed by Tom Kearney, FSC, Dominic Izzo, OP, Carmel Powell, FMM, and Loretta Brennan, CSB). Over the years, as Tangaza College has continued to grow, the college administration has been asking different congregations to assume “sponsorship” of the institutes in order to insure continuity and quality control. Accordingly, during the 2006-2007 academic year (and a decade after its founding), the Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation came under the sponsorship of the Discalced Carmelite Order, with myself as the new director. In January 2007 we marked the 10th anniversary of the Institute and the beginning of the OCD sponsorship with a lecture on “The Future of African Spirituality” by the distinguished Malawian bishop and theologian, Most Rev. Patrick Kalilombe. Given their own rich spiritual heritage, the Carmelite family welcomes this new opportunity to promote authentic spirituality in all its manifold expressions here in Africa, and to train young African religious for truly inculturated ministries of formation and spiritual guidance that draw upon the best in the African and Christian spiritual traditions.
The symbol of the Institute is the mugumo, a type of wild fig tree found in abundance near Mount Kenya and sacred to many peoples in East Africa. It is known for its wide-spreading branches and deep roots, which enable it to weather even the worst droughts. Ancestral spirits are said to gather in its shade, and elders come together beneath its branches to solve community problems and share their wisdom. Similarly, the ISRF strives to be a “sacred place of growth” where students may flourish, develop deep roots, open themselves to the Spirit and learn the wisdom of their Christian and African traditions, so that they may become effective instruments of God’s care and concern for his people today, especially those entrusted to them for guidance and formation. We welcome you to join us!
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Steven Payne, OCD
Director, Institute of Spirituality and Religious Formation, Tangaza College
