The influence of evangelisation in this contemporary period in light of evangelii nuntiandi – case study: Usuk Parish

Abstract

Evangelization as described in Evangelii Nuntiandi (Evangelization in the Modern World), An Apostolic Exhortation of Pope Paul VI issued on 8 December 1975 on the theme of Catholic evangelization deals mainly with “The effort to proclaim the Gospel to the men of our time”. The exhortation affirms that the role of every Christian is to make an effort to collaborate in the work of evangelization not only to be left to the hands of the church’s ordained ministers and the religious but a responsibility that is attached to every baptized Christian as Christ intended. My topic is the influence of evangelization in this contemporary period in light of Evangelii Nuntiandi in Usuk parish. In Usuk parish the level of Christian’s participation is going low and the members seem not to see the value of evangelization since every person minds his or her business amidst the changing times of our time. I am tempted to think that evangelization has lost meaning in the lives of Usuk people therefore prompting a study for this area. Finding out whether the people of Usuk understand evangelization or not. In the study the main objective was to find out the influence of evangelization on the people of Usuk parish today which was specifically examined through the specific objectives such as: • To find out the understanding of evangelization among the people of Usuk. • To find out the positive impact of evangelization on the people of Usuk. • To examine the negative impact of evangelization among the people in Usuk. In the chapter three various instruments were applied in the data collection such as questionnaires, oral interviews, observation, and focus group discussions. These enabled the data to be collected and fully analyzed and the results were later on scrutinized and systematically computed in chapter four in order to bring out the real situation on the ground in the study. Finally chapter five gives a detailed discussion of the impact of evangelization in Usuk parish whereby in reality, though the Christians neglect the work of evangelization hence unable to fill its effect; they understand what evangelization is even though a minority are still not aware of this duty which requires more ways of evangelization to be used in order to cover all the members of the area. In the conclusion one of the observations which pertains to the world today is that as the times change challenges to evangelization also change and need new skills and techniques of handling the situation although there is still more need to engage in evangelization.