Onitsha Archdiocesan Laity Council Holds Annual Leadership Seminar highlights the family as a domestic church-key speaker,Rev Fr Dr Adimike urges lay faithful to rise up to their duties

By Ononye
Members of the Onitsha Archdiocesan Laity Council on Saturday held their annual leadership seminar with a theme,”The mandate of the laity in the family and in the church”.
The seminar which started with a Eucharistic celebration was presided over by the Onitsha Archdiocesan Laity Council chaplain,Very Rev Fr Celestine Aniofor,and was held at the Madonna Retreat Centre,Nkpor.
In his double barrel keynote address titled,”Duties and responsibilities of the Laity in the growth of the local church” and “The family as a domestic Church”,the Onitsha Archdiocesan Director of Social Communications,Rev Fr Dr George Adimike made a strong appeal to members of the laity to “rise up ” to the multifarious challenges facing the church and families.
According to Fr Adimike,the lay faithful share in the priesthood through Baptism as “common priests” while the ordained priests remain in the “ministerial priesthood”.
Fr Adimike pointed out that families are domestic churches where the children of God are nurtured before before they venture into the ministerial or other vocations and as such have a big role to play in making the society a better place.
Today,he said,the devil has invaded many families such that many marriages are engulfed in crisis while men are fast losing grip of the church to women.
Fr Adimike lamented that due to lack of diligence on the part of parents in training their children,many of them do not attend masses any more but have embraced idolatory and converted the church’s days of obligations for sporting activities.
He further pointed out that the mission schools are trying to bridge the gap of making the youths grow in faith but that the laity as a body should rise up and tackle the various challenges facing the church.
Earlier in his homily during the mass,the Onitsha Archdiocesan Laity chaplain,Very Rev Fr Celestine Aniofor,challenged members of the laity to chat a new and proper part to follow pointing out that done members are into leadership to see God,make money,have influence or render service to humanity.
He charged them to be committed to their various apostolates and never to be thesame person they were after the seminar.
In their various remarks,the Onitsha Archdiocesan Laity Council chairman Engr Leo Obiefuna and the chairperson of the Seminar Planning Committee,Lady Theresa Okonkwo,thanked the chaplain,the speakers and the participants for turning out in their numbers for the seminar inspite of the harsh economic situation in the country.
A communique is expected to be released on the seminar in due course.