Clifton students help young Kenyans sow seeds of faith and ecology with tree-planting project

This week, students of St. Philip Preparatory School in Clifton helped young Catholics in Eastern Africa plant seeds of faith in their neighborhoods — first by helping them in their mission to plant thousands of trees to benefit their people and the environment.

The St. Philip’s community donated $720 for seeds to plant the trees — a project initiated by the Young People Seekers of Kenyatta University in Nairobi, the capital of Kenya. It’s part of a movement of 195,000 Small Christian Communities [SCCs] that gather weekly throughout Eastern Africa. On Jan. 29, during Catholic Schools Week (CSW), Maryknoll Father Joseph Healey, 85, an African missionary for the past 56 years, delighted St. Philip’s students with talks about his ministry and the seeding project.

Wearing colorful African clothing, Father Healey told students that Jesus calls every Catholic to be “a missionary disciple.” The seeding project helps spread the Gospel message from New Jersey to Eastern Africa inspired by Church teachings about “care of creation.” The trees reduce soil erosion, which cuts down on dangerous mudslides. Some trees produce essential medicines, he said.

“This tree-planting project shows that young people can make a difference in ecology in the form of practical action,” Father Healey said.

Practical action is the fruit of the SCCs’ weekly meetings. Each group consists of 15 people and meets in the middle of the day in person or via video-conferencing. They sit in a circle, read the Gospel “and connect it with their daily lives.” Then, members take action, said Father Healey, who taught about SCCs at the Catholic university in Nairobi and has written on the subject.

“Small Christian Communities are not projects or programs of a parish. They are a way of life,” Father Healey said.

Father Healey spoke to students divided into four 30-minute sessions. He led some groups on an interactive, virtual African safari to meet native children and animals and learn a few words in Swahili, the primary language in Eastern Africa.

“I enjoyed how Father Healey compared the Catholic faith to a Safari. It helped me get closer to God,” a 7th-grader said.

Alloys Nyakundi of the Young People Seekers expressed his gratitude for St. Philip’s donation, adding that it will “go a long way supporting the young people in their social justice and environmental justice ministry.”

A $2,200 grant from the Missionary Cooperative Plan helps Father Healey promote SCCs and the faithful’s participation in the Synod on Synodality. Through the Mission Office, the Paterson Diocese partners each year with eight foreign missionaries, including Father Healey — most of whom grew up in the Church of Paterson and now belong to religious communities, the Mission Office stated.

St. Philip’s Principal Danielle Gonzalez thanked Father Healey for “sharing his passion for the missions.”

“He helped students understand that the universal Church is bigger than our local Church and that a lot is going on in the world,” she said.

Information on Small Christian Communities in Eastern Africa: https://www.smallchristiancommunities.org