For years, Catholic families in the small community of Mutoma have gathered for Mass under difficult and often makeshift conditions, without a permanent building large enough to serve their growing congregation. Like many rural communities in Kenya, Mutoma’s parishioners have limited disposable income, and construction materials and skilled labor represent a significant expense relative to what the community can raise on its own.
Despite these constraints, families have contributed what they can in money, labor, and materials over several years, determined to build a lasting home for their faith. Maryknoll is helping bring this long-held dream closer to completion. Once finished, the chapel will serve approximately 300 families, providing a proper space for Mass, the sacraments, faith formation classes, and community gatherings that currently have no adequate venue.
A parish church stands as a physical expression of the Catholic Social Teaching principle of Community and the Call to Family, reminding believers that faith is lived not in isolation but gathered together as the Body of Christ. In helping complete this chapel, Maryknoll continues its charism of building up local Church leadership and lasting faith communities, rather than simply passing through, so that the community’s spiritual life can take firm and permanent root.
Gifts to this project help complete construction of a permanent, dignified worship space where the Mutoma community can gather to pray, celebrate the sacraments, and pass their faith on to their children.
