St Michael’s Parish YCS Members Urged to be Agents of Change
By Paul Lonely Mwandira
It was a youth weekend for St Michael’s Parish on 04th-06th May, 2018 when youth from 10 different schools within St Michael’s and St John Paul II’s parishes gathered at St Michael’s Parish.
The youth weekend was celebrated under the theme, “youth as agents of change”. Different talks were presented to initiate the youth into their roles in the Catholic Church and to foster mindset change as far as governance is concerned.
In discussing the recent pastoral letter entitled “A Call to a New Era in Malawi”, the Catechetical Methodology Advisor of St Michael’s Parish advised members to heed the Bishops’ call to change their ways of thinking if lasting change is to be achieved.
“The pastoral letter is challenging us Catholic youths, who are often used by politicians as agents of violence, to change our perception of democracy and ensure that democracy is entrenched at all levels,” said Mwandira.
Facilitating to 324 students who gathered at the function, students were urged not to be idle in the Church.
Chipalamoto Nyirenda, who took the students through life skills lessons, advised them to cultivate positive behavior at school and at home.
“As students you need to show signs that you are growing up both physically, intellectually and spiritually. These changes need to be accompanied playing critical roles in the Church. As youth we should be mindful that we participate in leading activities in the Church,” said Chipalamoto.
Students were mentored on career guidance and reading skills by George Silungwe from Kaseye Girls Secondary School. Mr Silungwe rebuffed the opinion that many students fail to be selected to university due to quota system. He indicated that students lack proper career guidance when selecting programmes to pursue at the university.
The youth weekend was closed by a Eucharistic Celebration, during which Young Christian Students group donated assorted kitchen items to support visitors who camp at the parish for different activities.