Expectations and surprise

Emmanuel Donkor writes about his experience as a Ghanaian seminarian arriving in the UK

That first-time experience of a life adventure leaves you with enduring memories to share. Since entering formation with the Spiritans in Ejisu, I had completed a degree, but the pandemic had stopped me from travelling outside Ghana for my pastoral missionary experience. It was not until the end of 2021, after a year of youth service, that I left for the UK for the first time.

Before I left Ghana on 21 December that year, I did a little research about the place to learn what might be awaiting me. The memory of the plane taking off still brings back the sense of anxiety I felt inside me. After all, this was my first intercontinental flight. More reassuring was the confidence of the flight attendants cheerfully doing their tasks. In spite of their confidence, my heart beat a little faster when the plane struggled through winter turbulence!

I was travelling to the UK in the depths of winter. Big mistake! Growing up in a country with an average temperature ranging between 25 and 32 degrees Celsius, the UK weather was harsh and unforgiving. The cold was biting. I dressed up like an astronaut going to bed on my first night.

Believe me or not, I questioned how people could live and work in such weather. Later a priest told me of the experience of the Irish Spiritans who came to Ghana for the first time on a new mission in the 1970s. I stopped grumbling about the weather.

For the first time in my life I experienced the four seasons of a year. I truly enjoyed the changes in climate, dress code, events, and time accompanying these weather seasons. The beauty of it is that each season puts me in a particular mood – just as the five liturgical seasons of the Church do – evoking in me an appreciation of my natural surroundings.

My year began in the southeast of England, in Kent and London. I had been told that secularisation had had an adverse effect on Catholicism, but I never imagined the impact could be so significant. Though I didn’t have high expectations for Mass attendance in my first parish, I was still disappointed with the number of people who came to Sunday Mass – not forgetting that most of the time I was alone with a priest for daily Mass. I told myself that it was probably because the parish was in the countryside that most people there were not interested in religion. 
This proved a fair assessment, since other parishes I visited had quite vibrant congregations. However, what shocked me the most was that in almost any parish I visited there were hardly any young people. Who is the future of the Church?

I asked why this was so. It seemed that even young people who were brought up as Catholics stop attending Mass for minor reasons, because somebody questions or challenges them about their faith. I feel we need more formation sessions, to empower young people to grow in their faith. If you understand your faith, then you won’t be too worried when someone who is ignorant about it belittles you. 

In September last year, I finished my parish work and moved to the Spiritan retirement home in Chester, where I also assist with administration in the provincial office. My encounters with the veteran Spiritans who have worked in different African countries have enriched me greatly; they have made my whole experience of the UK and its way of life very memorable. Life is such that I’ve not had a chance to see the more famous parts of the country, but I hope to have the chance this summer before I return to Ghana to continue my studies.

The retired Spiritans are remarkable: they are an example to me, not by their perfection, but in their enthusiasm for the community, their effort to pray, eat, and share their leisure together.  I am learning from and with them how to live a community life.

Emmanuel Donkor is a seminarian with the Spiritans.