Forming a New Kind of Affiliate Chapter

Gerald and Marita Grudzen – Kenyan Chapter

The goals of the hybrid Kenyan Maryknoll Affiliate Chapter, with members based in Kenya, Germany, and the United States, are twofold: to build a spiritual community within the Maryknoll Covenant, with members who are Muslim and Christian, through our in-person meetings and virtual meetings; and to focus on the strength and needs of Kenya within an interfaith context.

This international Maryknoll Affiliate chapter grew out of an interfaith ministry begun in Kenya by Jerry and Marita Grudzen with Christians and Muslims supported by Maryknoll Lay Missioner Judy Walter and Father Wilybard Lagho, Vicar General of the Archdiocese of Mombasa. Jerry’s doctoral studies focused on historical interfaith relations between Muslims and Christians. In our first visit to Kenya, Jerry was invited to give several trainings for the priests, religious, and seminarians. This connected us with several key individuals who wanted and have become integral to this Affiliate group.

In Mombasa, Munira Faraz distributes soap and masks bought with Kenyan Affiliate donations.

After returning every August for six years to further develop and implement this interfaith training, we acknowledged that a spiritual community was forming around this work. In 2017, we began to explore forming an Affiliate chapter that would provide the opportunity to share more deeply our different religious traditions and support interfaith understanding and apply it in new ways.

With the encouragement of local Maryknollers and the Affiliate leadership, we proceeded to ask people of both religious traditions we knew well and worked with if they would be interested in joining a new group of Maryknoll Affiliates specific to Kenyans and partners in US and Europe. We went on to explain the Four Pillars of the Affiliate Movement and how they would be integrated into our meetings. Frank Pisciotta and Genie Florczyk have invested a great deal in the development of the chapter, always participating in the Affiliate meetings.

After our August meeting, a few of us had a light repast. Clockwise from far left are RIch Tarro, MKLM, Gerry Grudzen, KImani Kibe—Founder of Kenyan Peace Clubs, Munira’s husband, Munira Faraz, Marita Grudzen, Munira’s daughter, and an unidentified Affiliate.

We had five meetings in 2017 and 2018 with our fledging, growing Affiliate group. We applied to be an Affiliate Chapter on the Feast of Epiphany in 2019. Richard Lessard, Bob Short, and Fr. Russ Feldmeier, MM, worked with us to revise the Maryknoll Affiliate Covenant for a Christian/Muslim Affiliate group.

We had to address the practical problems of meeting length, time to meet, limited resources, and technical issues because this Affiliate group was a hybrid. We would meet in Kenya every August when most of us were able to meet in one place and, at other times when several of us were in the US, our meetings were virtual. We hoped that several of those in Kenya could be in one place to provide more of a connection.

Affiiate Sr. Stella Ocholi, far right, a member of Mary Mother of God Community, has done a great deal to introduce interfaith activities. After working 12 hours that day, she and her religious sister, far left, stop by to visit. Genie Florczyk is on Gerry’s left and Marita is on his right.

We wanted to continue to build community as much as possible and hoped they might stay on after group meetings, sharing tea and conversation. That did not persist, even though it allowed people who didn’t have computers to be part of the conversation. Sixty minutes was about the longest amount of time for a meeting that most could pay for on cell phones or computer. At first, we used Skype and International Conference Call. Then we turned to our professional Zoom account and WhatsApp. Each approach has its limitations and advantages. Sundays at 5-6pm (Kenyan time) seems to work best across our five time zones.

Our chapter’s focus is always on Kenya and its needs. We elicit the meeting topic from those in Kenya. We send frequent reminders of the day/time, connecting info and topic. Some of our Kenyan members have demanding lives, especially in this era of COVID-19, so they are not always able to join, but most do. One of our goals has been to hand over the planning, agenda, and implementation of the meeting to Kenyans. It has to be their Affiliate group. We provide the Zoom and WhatsApp connections, and I take the minutes, which are then sent out to all the members. Recent topics included aspects of COVID-19: the necessary precautions for all and for the most vulnerable populations, widespread hunger due to restrictions on street sales and daily laborers, and the impact on youth with schools closed; and interfaith education.

“Zooming” on Sunday (August 16), 19 of us gathered for our Kenyan Maryknoll Affiliate meeting which was able to continue for 80 minutes.

Maryknoll Fr. Joseph Healey, a fifty-year-plus veteran missioner who specializes in small Christian communities, regularly participates in our meetings. Another of our Affiliates, Rich Tarro, is a Maryknoll Lay Missioner. He advantageously shows us another example of Maryknoll and has a specific connection with the poor and destitute. As a result, many of us have been able to fund him to purchase and distribute food to people who may not have eaten for days. His specific mission is providing an after-school program for AIDS orphans, many of whom are teenagers living in foster homes.

The sense of respect, concern, and trust that has developed in our Affiliate chapter over three years has fostered deep spiritual sharing and collaboration. Parallel to the Kenyan Maryknoll Affiliates’ growth and development is that of ‘Paths to Peace Kenya’ a 40-hour interfaith training for Muslim and Christian school principals. That is another story.

NOTE: This article was published in the September/October 2020 issue of Not So Far Afield.