In early September 2026, twenty-two Spiritan coordinators for interfaith dialogue from across Africa, together with two colleagues from Efesia in Belgium, met in Nairobi for a week of shared formation. Hosted at the Rosa Mystica Spiritual Centre from 6 to 10 September, the gathering combined study and prayer with a practical exercise in the dialogue the coordinators are asked to promote in their own circumscriptions.
On 8 September, the feast of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary, the group crossed the city to Adams Masjid, one of Nairobi’s mosques, for a visit arranged with the help of the Muslim Public Affairs organisation. Welcomed by the mosque’s imam, the coordinators were shown the ablutions performed before prayer, heard an explanation of their meaning, and stayed on to observe the evening prayer from inside the mosque rather than as distant onlookers.
Participants described the visit as a lesson learned as much through presence as through words: sharing a sacred space, even briefly, opened a conversation that a lecture alone could not have started. Several coordinators noted an interest, on both sides, in a return visit that would welcome Muslim neighbours into a Catholic church in the same spirit of hospitality. For the SCCAI network, the Nairobi mosque visit stands as a small but concrete example of the dialogue the coordinators exist to encourage — built less on formal statements than on the willingness to step, respectfully, into another community’s place of worship.
Adapted from SCCAI’s account of the visit — read the original on Substack in English or French.
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