Liturgy November
Situating ourselves in the tradition of Canons Regular, we have a special concern for the liturgy, adapted especially to our culture (Congolese Regional Statutes, Intro. 1.2).
The document, Ecclesia in Africa, of the African Synod of 1994 strongly calls for the inculturation of Christian life in Africa at every level and certainly that of the liturgy. It considers the work of inculturation as “one of the major issues of the Church on the continent” (p. 65) and it invites all the pastors of the Church “to exploit to the maximum the numerous permissions that the current discipline of the Church grants regarding this subject” (pp. 68-69). The Relict of the Crosier General Chapter of 1997, as well as the Directives for Formation dealt with at the same Chapter, asked that formation cultivate an inculturating vision in the confreres. The Congolese Regional Statutes (1.28-30; 8.1-3) are clear and rather demanding about the task of inculturation. And why not? In every epoch of Church history (except for a hiatus of 500 years after the Protestant Reformation), Christians have looked for a way to pray in various rites that accord with their own times and cultures. Happily, the Second Vatican Council and the post-conciliar papal declarations have renewed the concern for inculturation. If the Church had been born in Kinshasa in the Congo instead of in Jerusalem, what would have been the evolution of its liturgy?
The tree that doesn´t dare sink roots is unproductive. (Bakongo)
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