ROME: 23rd March 2005 --  The first of a series of published acts of Salesian mission seminars for this six year period, Mission Animation Notes 1, is about to reach provinces in the East Asia Oceania Region.  It contains the talks and discussions pertaining to the Salesian Family Mission Seminar held at Port Moresby, PNG, last September.

    The collection is particularly valuable for its wide coverage of an area that has not, in Salesian terms at least, received a special Salesian focus in the past.  An earlier seminar at Hua Hin six years ago, had recommended that it was time to allow Oceania a focus in its own right, since there is a developing richness to consider there .

    This richness is well represented in the first set of Mission Animation Notes: not just SDB and FMA, but Salesian Cooperators/Past Pupils/Lay partners, the Caritas Sisters of Miyazaki, a reflection on the missionary experience of the Michaelites in PNG.  The Michaelites, who also have a community in Australia, were founded by an ex-Salesian in Poland.  They have relatively recently become full members of the Salesian Family.

    The Oceania seminary looked at the challenges to the mission 'ad gentes' in Oceania.  There are particularly valuable reflections, now finding a worldwide audience, from SDBs and FMAs from Samoa.  Samoan Salesians reflecting on the 25 year growth of the charism in their part of Oceania.

    A gem amongst all of the contributions, however, is the reflection 'Missionary life, a choice of inculturation' by Fr Luciano Odorico, former General Councillor for Missions and now in charge of Salesian formation in Port Moresby.  He writes/speaks, as he indicates, with some diffidence, but was moved to do so by the thought that Fr John Fedrigotti, now deceased, a close friend and confidante, had encouraged him to put his long missionary experience and reflection into writing.

    Another way of coming into contact with all of this material, if you do not receive the booklet (only a limited number have been printed) is via the Reserved Area for EAO on www.sdb.org if you have registered.  There is serious thought being given to 'boosting' this cyber area to the level of an EAO bulletin board for easy access and exchange of materials as valuable as those described above, but more on that later.

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