Road Map for August Meeting I feel delighted at the opportunity given me to deliver a goodwill message to you, women, during your august meetings. I take the opportunity to congratulate you on the good works you are doing for God and his church. Your impact is felt in many dioceses in the world. You are indeed the mainstay of the church in our country, Nigeria. On behalf of other laborers in God’s vineyard, I thank God for you. May the male folk follow your light! Here I don’t want to bore you with clichés. I only wish to offer some suggestions and guidelines that can serve as a road map for your deliberations. I first of all remind you of the importance of this annual get together. Among others, August meeting is a forum for social interaction, an opportunity to meet friends and make new ones. It is an occasion for those in diaspora to remember their roots and renew their communion with their kith and kin. More importantly, while ensuring that women do not loose touch with their relations, August meeting servers as an outlet for the abroad members to make their contributions to the development of their communities. As you begin this year’s convention, it is expected that all of you will use the wealth of experiences gained in your places of sojourn to revamp and develop your homelands. Here it is important to note that each community has its own specific needs and peculiar problems. It belongs to those residents at home to awaken their abroad colleagues to the realities in their homes and identify areas needing attention. This brings into focus the importance of self-examination. More than anything else, August Meeting is a serious soul-searching exercise. It is a time to renew your past records, assess your present activities and evolve an action plan for the future. During the discussions, you should pause and think about the dignity of womanhood, and the corresponding values that should govern your lives as women. This becomes most urgent in a climate of feminism. In the past when there was good orderliness in human affairs, women took their rightful place in society, but now, with the emergence of feminism, all that is going. There is now an unbridled clamour for freedom, and every means, whether fair or foul, is employed in the pursuit of that goal. Women should think about this and ask themselves whether such an extreme vengeful approach will solve the problem of male domination, which is the bone of contention. Vengeance can never, except by some rare accident, solve the problem of human aggression and oppression. Here one sees the obvious need for communal spirit and teamwork. Often projects fail on account of in-fighting. Often plans are cancelled because of a clash of interests and mutual recriminations. From experience, women have also shown themselves capable of double-dealing. It is a known fact that many of the outrageous customs involving widowhood, trial marriages, underage marriages, prostitution, and suchlike, are sustained by women who run with the hare and hunt with the hound. There is a compelling need to put aside self-interest and seek Christian responses to the challenges. This should bring home the importance of in-house clean up. You need to keep your house in order to be credible agents of peace. This you can achieve by walking the path of dialogue. As Emeka Ojukwu wrote, No dispute, however seemingly intractable, can defy dialogue. I urge you to take this to heart. As you gather in your respective venues, kindly make out time for internal peace initiatives. In conclusion, I wish to affirm the importance of August Meeting as an august occasion laden with significance both in the church and in the wider society. The track records tell the whole story. One who is abreast of developments in our country is left in no doubt about this. August meeting has brought so many benefits to humanity that today in many parts of Nigeria, people look forward to the event with great expectation. We thank God for the initiative he gave to those who conceived and hatched the idea. We thank him also for the generosity shown by those who brought the light to people in other areas. As we praise you for the past successes, we wish to warn you against complacency. You should not rest on your oars; for at all times and in all places, there is sorrow to be comforted, needs to be supplied, and pain to be relieved. The occasion of your august meeting offers you the opportunity to do just that. May it evince in you a firm commitment to your vocation as women and may the spirit of God guide you with his graces.
Posted on: Mon, 22 Jul 2013 15:04:00 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015