kenya Anglican Men Association.
The Kenya Anglican men’s Association traces its roots from the Mother’s Union operations. Retired Archbishop Manasses Kuria was so impressed by the work of the Mothers’ Union that he felt it right to start what was formerly referred to as the Fathers’ Union. The union first started in the same parish where the first pioneer Mothers’ Union members had been enrolled, namely Mwongoiya in Anglican Diocese of Mount Kenya South. It has over the years grown and spread to all the ACK Dioceses across the Country, becoming part and parcel of the Church ministry.
KAMA’s motto is: “As for me and my household will serve the Lord” Joshua 24:15-16. Its members are drawn from Anglican Clergy men and Laity. They must be over 25 years of age and Married. Membership is in some cases open to those below the age of 25, provided that they are married. The members must also ascribe to the Mission of the association and are publicly enrolled as members.
As for me and my household will serve the Lord.
a) We completed ACK St. Anne’s Mugalani Church, Mariakani which was consecrated by our Lord Bishop on 11th August, 2024.
b) We supported the building of Chirima cha Uha church in Kwale, which was consecrated on Sunday, 28th April, 2024.
We have identified two churches that we want to support as men in this year. These are: - the refurbishment of the ACK Mgombezi Church in Ukunda Archdeaconry as well as constructing Malomani church in Samburu - Mariakani Archdeaconry.
In the first year it had been reported that some parishes and archdeaconries were not active in KAMA activities, i.e. St. Peter’s, Nyali within Kisauni Archdeaconry and Matuga Archdeaconry. I wish to report that through our intervention and indulgence with the leadership and clergy of these entities and by divine intervention, we managed to change their perspectives and ACK St. Peter’s Nyali has now embraced KAMA and the AMF as evidenced by their strong participation in last year’s enrolment where they presented the most candidates for commissioning; Equally, Matuga Archdeaconry has re-embraced the men’s association and they too presented a formidable team to participate in the sports day held last year, on 20th October, 2024. At Changamwe Refinery grounds (Changamwe Archdeaconry
It is my prayer that going forward we shall continue to witness growth and development through such participation in all activities, not only by these two but by all parishes and Archdeaconries in the Diocese of Mombasa.
After serious soul-searching and in our effort to understand ourselves as men and what ails our ministry performance that makes our participation in church affair seem to be overshadowed by that of our women counterparts, despite being the households heads as ordained by God; we organized free interaction forums to engage with our Lord Bishop, the clergy and fellow men in ‘all day moderated’ events.
These were undertaken in Clusters for ease of coordination and to ensure maximum participation, where: -
Attendance to all these events was overwhelming and a raft of issues emerged, including land matters, development issues, administration within the diocese and basically men’s lackluster performance in church affairs, were raised by men and tackled by our Lord Bishop, the clergy and other panelists present. These have been well documented for future reference.
We do sincerely thank our Lord Bishop Rt. Rev. Dr. Alphonce Mwaro Baya for creating time to participate in all these events.
Men, generally agreed that we need to have such forums periodically, to discuss our general and development affairs.
We realized that for a long time not all men responded to calls to support their church activities because some associated the call for men’s support with being a registered KAMA member, yet many men had for one reason or another finding hindrance in being registered and commissioned as a KAMA member.
This concern was taken up at the highest level within the Diocese and the Province of the Anglican Church of Kenya and this led to the creation of a sub-group within KAMA to be known as the ‘Anglican Men’s Fellowship’ which would enroll all other men, facing challenges for straight enrolment into the mainstream KAMA, as they have their challenges addressed as they play active roles in church affairs.
The first roll out of the Anglican Men’s Fellowship was held on when together with KAMA, the Bishop presided over the commissioning of AMF members and KAMA members in a ceremony held at the ACK St. John the Baptist Memorial Cathedral, Mombasa.
We pray that this will continue as we expect to see more members being commissioned this year on 26th April, 2025 at . We have appealed to all parishes to undertake vigorous recruitment drives and training of their members who would wish to be enrolled in the two formations.
In full realization that the future of the church is in the hands of the Boy-child who shall be at the helm of their households long after we have exited, we as men have an obligation to nurture the Boy-child into responsible God-fearing citizens. At the Diocesan level we have formulated a number of programs towards achieving this feat, which includes
We have had two successful events at which we have endeavored to eliminate the cut-throat competition previously associated with these events and embraced more of a fellowship approach. Through specific sub-committees to oversee these developments, our Sports Day events, held on at turned out to be a culmination of activities held at archdeaconry levels throughout the season, when only finalists met. The day has seen the introduction of other new indoor activities, i.e. Martial Arts, Darts, Ajua, Badminton, Table-tennis, etc.
The Music Sub-committee is also in the process of re-organizing its activities so that we have finalists showcasing on the main day as well as introducing new activities such as dramatizing the gospel and poetry. Our last Music Festival was held at ACK Emmanuel Church, Kengeleni and our attendance and participation to the event, as men, was not very encouraging but I trust that this will change for the better as we get along.
The above is ‘work-in-progress’ and I would wish to appeal to the in-coming team to uphold and develop on these ideas so that we can move our participation to another higher level.
I can report that these have continued to take place in several parishes and have even had others organized at Archdeaconry level as I have been privileged to attend quite a number through invitation. We want to escalate these further to fellowships, where apart from the spiritual nourishment of the WORD and swallow-ship, we also engage experts to address us on specific topics that can empower us economically, socially and even maritally
We have continued to participate in the Provincial KAMA conferences, where apart from the TOT meeting in Cheptubo at which we sent three representatives, the Diocese was also represented at the Provincial KAMA conference held at Chemelil in December last year.
Note that Tsavo Regional KAMA meetinge was held early this month in Kitui Diocese and I, together with our Coordinator represented the Diocese. The Tsavo Regional Conference will be held from 7th to 11th April 2025 at Voi within Taita Taveta Diocese.
Plans are underway to organize one major Diocesan Men’s Conference, which will be a first within the Diocese. It is our appeal that many men will take up the advantage of having a homegrown Conference for all men in the Diocese.
Sharing the word of God with children. Mark 16:15 "And He said to them, “Go into all the world and preach the gospel to all creation."
Organizing services, fellowship and forums for children to grow spiritually, physically emotionally mentally and socially. Proverbs 22:6 "Train up a child in the way he should go; even when he is old he will not depart from it.”
he Mothers’ Union was started in 1918 at All Saints’ Cathedral but only among the European Ladies. On 4 March 1956, the first African Mothers’ Union members were enrolled. At that time the whole country fell under the Diocese of Mombasa. This took place at Mwongoiya Church which is within the present Anglican Diocese of Mount Kenya South. Mrs. Gladys Beecher, wife to the first Bishop Leonard Beecher, was instrumental in beginning the Mothers’ Union among African ladies in Kenya. She invited Mrs. Fisher, the wife of the then Archbishop of Canterbury Dr. Fisher, to speak to the Mothers Union-Europeans and Africans–who gathered at All Saints’ Cathedral Nairobi.
Tn 1962, the then Bishop of (the former) Mt. Kenya Diocese, the late Obadiah Kariuki, had a vision for young people. He established the Anglican Youth Organization (AYO) with the main aim of bringing the young people back to the mainstream of the Church of Christ. In 1964, the bishop launched the Diocesan Anglican Youth Organization at the St. Paul’s Mother Church, Kabete and he commissioned a Youth Committee to carry on the extension work in the Diocese.