Missiological Strategy for Urban Ministry in the Context of Migration

The urban parishes forming the Eastern Deanery1 of the Archdiocese of Pretoria are witnessing an unprecedented influx of the migrants. What makes these parishes to be migrant receiving Christian communities is that they are a “bedroom extension” of the capital city of South Africa. In his recent presentation Archbishop William Slattery (2016) demonstrated that Pretoria as the city nestling these parish communities receives an average of 12000 migrants every month2. In line with this phenomenon of urban migration one South African government minister (Business Day Live 2015) has recently reported that the South African urban population is “growing larger and younger”. Echoing the United Nations he has forecast that if the government continues to neglect the development of the rural areas by the year 2030 71.3 % of South African population will live in the urban areas majority of them being the youth.