austraLasia #1929
One year on - fruits of the August 2006 EAO Brothers Seminar
EAO: 21st August 2007 -- It comes as a shock to realise that one year has already passed since the Brothers' Seminar in Cambodia last year, arguably one of the best formation gatherings in EAO's short six year history. The fruits, at least at a general level, have become obvious if we take as our starting point the four major elements offered by Fr Cereda, Councillor for Formation, in AGC 382:
Visibility: By this stage it so happens that most provincial councils in the EAO region have a Brother as a councillor. The only province in the region with the right to send two delegates as well as the provincial to GC26 (VIE) has chosen a Brother as one of the delegates. Those mission territories in the region without a single Brother in their midst are to receive or have already received a Brother in missionary capacity. And thanks to the generosity and hard work of the former THA provincial secretary, Fr John Lissandrin, the EAO Regional Directory of 202 Brothers has been compiled, printed and distributed - 300 copies - throughout the region. Finally, at the level of literature and general publicity, one notes the more frequent articles in the Salesian Bulletin, and the vocational promotion literature from various provinces in the region highlighting the Brother and his role. In all, the Salesian Brother is much more visible now than a year ago.
Recruitment: even within the relatively small number of novices represented across EAO it is notable that the discernment process has resulted in an increased number of choices for the Brother. Evidence for this comes from VIE, KOR, ITM, FIN - their one novice, a Brother, GIA likewise. In one case, after a serious discernment, a clerical candidate switched. More Brothers are now involved as provincial vocation directors or joining a priest-brother team.
Awareness: a renewed effort has ensued on the part of provinces to ensure annual or semester meetings of Brothers in the province. Some provinces have even created a 'Brothers Week' around the celebrations for Blessed Artemides Zatti (KOR for instance). This entails an awareness campaign in all communities or high profile celebrations at province level around events such as the Silver Jubilee of Profession of Brothers in the province. An additional aid around the region - and for that matter around the Congregation and rapidly growing in popularity as a consultation point has been the Bosconet collection of digital material on the Brother, in English. Provincial newsletters often use this material, and translate it into local languages for their purposes. Along these lines the new SDL or Salesian Digital Library will include this material in any local language. Finally, in this area of awareness, more Brothers have been assigned around the region to formation communities (e.g. a temporary professed Brother assigned as assistant to Lawaan (FIS) and four elderly Brothers to the formation community at Chofu (GIA).
Quality formation: the largest difficulty here has been the availability of prepared formators but we can say that all EAO renewed Provincial Directories mirror the growing sensitivity and attention to the integral and ongoing quality formation of the Brother (specialisation, specific formation, vocation discernment are amongst the important headings).
It is a start - but as Fr Cereda says, we need to look ahead twenty years in the Congregation to see th real fruits. That leaves just nineteen years of patient work!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
One year on - fruits of the August 2006 EAO Brothers Seminar
EAO: 21st August 2007 -- It comes as a shock to realise that one year has already passed since the Brothers' Seminar in Cambodia last year, arguably one of the best formation gatherings in EAO's short six year history. The fruits, at least at a general level, have become obvious if we take as our starting point the four major elements offered by Fr Cereda, Councillor for Formation, in AGC 382:
Visibility: By this stage it so happens that most provincial councils in the EAO region have a Brother as a councillor. The only province in the region with the right to send two delegates as well as the provincial to GC26 (VIE) has chosen a Brother as one of the delegates. Those mission territories in the region without a single Brother in their midst are to receive or have already received a Brother in missionary capacity. And thanks to the generosity and hard work of the former THA provincial secretary, Fr John Lissandrin, the EAO Regional Directory of 202 Brothers has been compiled, printed and distributed - 300 copies - throughout the region. Finally, at the level of literature and general publicity, one notes the more frequent articles in the Salesian Bulletin, and the vocational promotion literature from various provinces in the region highlighting the Brother and his role. In all, the Salesian Brother is much more visible now than a year ago.
Recruitment: even within the relatively small number of novices represented across EAO it is notable that the discernment process has resulted in an increased number of choices for the Brother. Evidence for this comes from VIE, KOR, ITM, FIN - their one novice, a Brother, GIA likewise. In one case, after a serious discernment, a clerical candidate switched. More Brothers are now involved as provincial vocation directors or joining a priest-brother team.
Awareness: a renewed effort has ensued on the part of provinces to ensure annual or semester meetings of Brothers in the province. Some provinces have even created a 'Brothers Week' around the celebrations for Blessed Artemides Zatti (KOR for instance). This entails an awareness campaign in all communities or high profile celebrations at province level around events such as the Silver Jubilee of Profession of Brothers in the province. An additional aid around the region - and for that matter around the Congregation and rapidly growing in popularity as a consultation point has been the Bosconet collection of digital material on the Brother, in English. Provincial newsletters often use this material, and translate it into local languages for their purposes. Along these lines the new SDL or Salesian Digital Library will include this material in any local language. Finally, in this area of awareness, more Brothers have been assigned around the region to formation communities (e.g. a temporary professed Brother assigned as assistant to Lawaan (FIS) and four elderly Brothers to the formation community at Chofu (GIA).
Quality formation: the largest difficulty here has been the availability of prepared formators but we can say that all EAO renewed Provincial Directories mirror the growing sensitivity and attention to the integral and ongoing quality formation of the Brother (specialisation, specific formation, vocation discernment are amongst the important headings).
It is a start - but as Fr Cereda says, we need to look ahead twenty years in the Congregation to see th real fruits. That leaves just nineteen years of patient work!
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
