The Annual Gathering of Recently Ordained Priests (AGROP) is an opportunity for priests to grow in their ministry and to “share experiences,” says the Archbishop of Bloemfontein Metropolitan Archdiocese.

The AGROP meeting “is meant for recently ordained priests, less than five years… to gather, to share their experiences… to grow together and to know each other, because they’ll certainly be different” experiences says Archbishop Zolile Mpambani.

Held annually since 2007, the 5-day AGROP meeting brings together recently ordained priests from the Ecclesiastical province of Bloemfontein which comprises the suffragan dioceses of Bethlehem, Kroonstad, Kimberley, and Keimoes-Upington.

In a separate conversation with the Southern African Catholic Bishops Conference (SACBC) communications office Bishop Edward Risi of Keimoes-Upington Diocese says the annual gathering “ has been working very well every year.”

Bishop Risi goes on to say that the five-year program covers “certain subjects” and that this year the program covered “personal integration and ethical teaching of the church and then also communications with the whole look around communication and how important the social media is in the in the work of evangelization, but also being critical.”

Asked about their impression of the five-day meeting held at Fourteenstreams Warrenton, Fr Malvin Nkebenya Ngi and Fr Thabo Johannes Molukule of Kroonstad Diocese say the meeting was a “wonderful” and “fruitful” experience.