Igbos are globally known to organize themselves in one form or the other, either in Church, town meeting and or, business community. In this circumstance, Igbo Catholic faithfuls living in Northern California which comprise different cities known as Bay Area under the Catholic diocese of Oakland came together to worship God with Igbo language and Igbo culture.
Formed in early 2000, Igbo Catholic Community, Hayward (ICCH) have grown in numbers and strength to integrate their children into the affairs of the community. One of the goals of ICCH is to handover the community to their children to continue worshipping God with Igbo language. That direction gave birth to directorate of Youth and Young adult with an active adult director and assistant supervising their affairs. ICCH figured out one of the ways to get Youth and Young adult into ICCH system is to allocate an annual Youth and Young adult Day. It comes up every first Sunday of December.
ICCH Youth and Young adult day took place on Sunday, December 5th,2021. It started with a well attended Mass chiefly officiated by chaplain of the community, Rev Fr Modestus Osita Mgbaramuko. Concelebrated with him were Rev Fr (Dr) Alfred Amos, Rev Fr Anthony Nwankwo and Rev Fr Chikere Agbo. And Rev Sunny Offorjebe, the Deacon on the alter. In his filled with excitement homily, he reminded the community the importance of Youths as the bridge of the future. He analyzed that the direction of the Youths is the future of the Community be it family or nation. He charged the Community to totally embrace the Young ones into the Community activities by encouraging their total participation in the Community programs. Reminding the congregation the church teaching of the day been second Sunday in Advent, Fr Mgbaramuko preached that ‘The Church Community is not about my path or your way but the way of the Lord.
Youth directorate headed by Lady Onyinyechi Udeh thanked parent(s) and guardians and asked them to make their children available whenever they are needed. She pleaded that her Team cannot do it alone without their Participation.
Somachi Uwakwe, who is the President of the Youth and Young Adults appreciated the entire Community for their support and encouragement. She happily said that the Community has been supportive of their programs and challenges. She asked the Community to continue to care for and encourage the growth and development of Youths and Young adult if they want our families and the world to be a good place to be. Igbo Community, in return, recognized full implications of Youth and Young adult in our midst through the President of ICCH, Sir Austin Uwakwe. He assured that Youth ministry shall be given every attention and support they deserve to meet their goal. When the Youth succeed is only when the Community succeed, he said.
In another development, the Community also celebrated Family Thanksgiving during Mass for the first time in place of what is known as bazaar. This year is a bazaar year for ICCH but because of inconsistency of time brought by COVID-19 pandemic, the community could not put 2021 bazaar together.
However, ICCH opted to use Family Thanksgiving to Thank and Bless God for His numerous Blessings and Mercies on our families. The turnout and Participation were total.
Other highlights in the Liturgy was the inauguration of five member Community Finance Council. This Council is mandated and shall deal with the administration of the temporal goods of the Community. Men and Women in this Team are people of high integrity, tasted and respected professionals. Among them are Engineer, Accountant, Realtor and an Attorney at law. They are professionally balanced to discharge the expected duties base on Church requirement. Their duty took off with immediate effect. The community, through the Chaplain prayed and blessed them into office.
Thereafter, was the presentation of service award to past leadership of Catholic Women Organization (CWO).The chaplain thanked and blessed the awardees for selfless service to the Community and used the opportunity to emphasized that the blessings that come from serving (others) is unquantifiable. Impossible to measure in terms of quantity of Blessings, he said. He encouraged all members of the Community to always volunteer their skill set, time and other resources for the good of the Community. The current President of CWO, (Dr) Lady Ugochi Amuzie expressed profound gratitude for good job well done by the past leadership. She said, the tempo of ICCH greatness started from the past leadership and promised to sustain the vision of making ICCH CWO the best among others.
Recall that Angel Network News reported in last summer about the most organized and focus ICCH CWO August meeting. ICCH is the first Igbo Catholic in diaspora to hold annual August meeting. They hold this record tightly. They started it and it is today, the go to-get familiar Project in all the Catholic Communities in the United States, bar none. Thank you, Lady (Lolo) Ngozi Ajawara leadership Team for the vision. The reward for good job is more work.
Igbo Catholic Community offers Liturgical and Cultural diversity. It was inaugurated in 2004 to address the spiritual and social needs of the people of Igbo descent from Nigeria living in the the Bay Area. Igbo Catholic Community’s goal is to foster the propagation of Igbo culture and Language through the Eucharistic celebration. The hope is to transfer the richness of our culture to our children. The Igbo Mass celebration is held on the first Sunday of every month at All Saints Catholic Church, Hayward, California. Mass features Igbo ethnic liturgical hymns, charismatic songs and music with exotic musical instruments. Next Mass is January 2nd, 2022 at All Saints, Hayward, Ca.
