Nairobi church celebrates golden jubilee

A Nairobi Catholic church which has had the rare honour of being served by three priests who became archbishops, on Sunday, October 8 marked its golden jubilee. The Our Lady of Visitation church, based ay Makadara in the eastern side of the Kenyan capital, Nairobi , was founded in 1956 under the patronage of he Holy Ghost Fathers Order, who first evangelized the people within and around the city. The three archbishops include Emeritus John Njenga of Mombasa archdiocese, the current archbishop of the metropolitan archdiocese of Nairobi, His Grace Ndingi Mwana 'aNzeki and the current archbishop of Nyeri archdiocese in Central Kenya region, The Rt Rev Nocidemus Kirima. Addressing the huge congregation that turned up for the grand occasion, Archbishop Ndingi thanked the faithful and the clergy for their dedication towards bring about church development in the church, now a parish. He urged them to strive to bring more and more church development in the church/parish with aims to make God more present among His people. The Kenyan Catholic primate described the occasion as rare, observing, thus, "some of us might not be there when we next celebrate yet another fifty years of the church/parish". The occasion came to its climax with the Mass itself, the plating of a tree, the blessing of the church shield depicting fifty years of the church, now parish existence and the cutting of the cake. The occasion began with a grand procession from the Priests' House to the Church and then to the church compound , led by the church members of the Catholic Men Association, Catholic women association, and then the altar boys.