•  FOCUSING ON THE PARISH AS AN ORGAN FOR COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT

The main implementing organ of ACK is the inter-diocesan RCCS. DOSS sees a possibility and a need to harness the potential of other Church structures, particularly the parish/congregation.

The parish, as a grassroots structure, has strategic advantages to be an effective organ for community development. It is hypothesized that if the Parish/congregation fulfils its mandate of being “Salt and Light”, it can transform its immediate environment irrespective of race, gender, status, religion or denomination.

In the 4-year plan period, DOSS intends to facilitate the RCCS for a Parish Focus Scheme. The Scheme will consist of two main components: capacity building for the clergy as development agents, and the Model Parish.

DOSS will work towards inclusion of the clergy as an important category of development agents in ACK. The clergy are daily involved in hearing and bearing the groaning of the poor. Furthermore, they are flooded with streams of requests for material assistance, besides pastoral counselling. They have ready weekly audience, through which awareness creation could effectively be carried out on ongoing basis. They are generally respected in the community at large, beyond their particular congregations. Lately, the HIV/AIDS pandemic is highlighting their strategic position in fostering behaviour change. However, they have not been sufficiently and systematically brought into development service in ACK. The RCCS will play an ongoing part in this regard. A few clergy at a time will be invited to participate in relevant ones among the regular RCCS workshops. Besides this, some workshops will be organised specifically for selected ministers to build their capacity for their role as development agents.

The ‘Model Parish' component is intended as a pilot intervention, whereby one parish per diocese (29 parishes) will be accompanied through a self-driven set of community development initiatives. The design will draw on ideas in ‘ The Transformed Church ' being tried out by Tear Fund in some Anglican Parishes in England and those in ‘ The Lumko Programme ' being piloted in the Catholic's Small Christian Communities (i.e. House Fellowships) in Uganda . The aim is organized systematic social action in the neighbourhood by the Worshipping Community, using local resources. The intention is to later replicate the ‘Model Parish' in more dioceses. It is noted however that the Model Parish is not meant to be necessarily led by clergy, although efficiency is enhanced where a minister is very supportive. Capacity building for the clergy is an important component of the Parish Focus. The collective experience of ACK in this Scheme will be documented and published as Action Research material.