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SOFCO update...
Br Kevin Ryan,
Province Leader and member of the Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania
provides the following update...
 Dear
Brothers
and all members of the Edmund Rice Network,
I write to you again after a four day meeting of the Shaping
Our Future Committee Oceania which was held in Adelaide
at St Paul's Monastery which is conducted by the Passionist Order.
On one of the evenings we were joined by many of the Brothers from
the Adelaide communities. It was great to have them with us as it
continued to remind us of many of the experiences of the Brisbane
Conference. It deepened in our hearts the sense of Brotherhood we
had celebrated and also the experience we had of a Christian Brothers'
Oceania identity.
By now the Brothers will have all read the Souvenir Edition of "Where
to…?" which followed up the Shaping Our
Future Conference 2006. (Congratulations to Br Bob Wallace
on the publication!) In that final edition, we indicated that the
Committee members had done some initial personal reflection on the
Conference experience, and had listened to the feedback from the
Steering Committee and the Conference Reference Group. This happened
in the two days immediately after the Conference.
During the four days of this last meeting in Adelaide we have prayed
and discussed for extended periods about the total Shaping Our Future
experience since May 2003, the outcomes of the Conference and also
the impact upon us of the International Leadership Conference in
Manila. We have also noted comments on the website, other comments
from Brothers made to us personally, and reflective articles that
have begun appearing in Province publications.
In the light of all of the above, the Committee believes that underlying
everything that happens in Oceania in the Shaping Our Future process
over the next two years there needs to be:
- Discernment:
An underlying process of attentive listening to the Spirit who
is calling us all to live the charism creatively at this time
in our history and which the Brothers will be able to enter into
in a variety of forums. Most important, however, is that each
Brother and community continues to pray and share about our future
as Christian Brothers in Oceania. Further thoughts about the Committee's
understanding of discernment will be included later in the newsletter.
- Challenge:
Opportunities for Brothers to experience our life and ministry
as Christian Brothers in new and different ways.
- Connection:
That links are made between the different components of the Shaping
Our Future work whenever that is possible. These components will
be detailed below.
- Cross
cultural awareness: This invites us to not only be
aware of the diverse ethnic cultures but also the diversity among
the cultures of each of our Provinces/Regions.
Let us return again to the issue of discernment.
In the course of our meeting in Adelaide Peter Dowling developed
a statement upon which the members reflected, and with some adaptations
adopted, as a basis for our work. It is included here:
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Discernment of
Our Future Oceania Structures
At the February meeting in Adelaide of the 'Shaping Our
Future' Committee of Oceania, members reflected on the momentous
experience of the SOF2006 conference in Brisbane. With resources
including Brothers' personal evaluations from Brisbane, group
ideas of taking things forward, written contributions from
individual Brothers post-Brisbane (some on the SOFCO website),
numerous conversations with Brothers since the gathering,
and our own reflections, we SOFCO members looked for a way
of taking forward the great spirit of the assembled body of
Brothers.
While there has been no formal pronouncement as yet, the strong
feeling was that the consultations of the last year were confirmed
in the minds and hearts of the Brothers in Brisbane that there
be one Oceania Province into the future. We believe that this
is the result of much reflection by Brothers, and we wish
to name and recognise now our intent as Brothers of Oceania
to recommend to the Leadership Teams of Oceania and then to
the Inter-Province Leadership Committee (ILC) that one Province
be created in Oceania. If this recommendation is accepted
then it will in turn lead to the ILC making a recommendation
to the Congregation Leadership Team.
With one Oceania Province would come an Oceania Leadership
Team. Specifics of role, number of members and method of nomination
of Team Members needs further consideration in due course.
Another aspect receiving strong affirmation is that living
in community is central to our way of relating as Brothers,
and through our community living, we desire deeply to support
one another in embracing further a heart-centred spirituality
with its focus on relationship and its expression in mission.
What is clear is that more work is needed to determine the
'middle structures', the ways beyond community in which Brothers
are gathered together and express our mission in the Oceania
Province. After consultations last year, some models were
proposed which suggested both groupings akin to present Province
boundaries and also other forms of clustering of communities
in geographical areas. In Brisbane, another model, based on
groupings around particular forms of spirituality, was proposed
by Terry Kingston on behalf of a group of Brothers at the
Shaping Our Future Conference 2006. Are there other models
yet to emerge?
We believe that the way forward will only come about through
a process of discernment, a process of attentive listening
to the Spirit who is calling us all to live the charism creatively
at this time in our history. For this reason, we invite all
our Brothers to enter a time of discernment that we will have
ears attuned to the Spirit's call to us in terms of our future
structures. All of us are asked to make such discernment a
priority in our personal and community lives.
What are the elements of this discernment? We trust that the
structures will emerge if we all engage in prayer that we
be open to the Spirit of God. This is the first requirement
of any discernment process - that we are open to whatever
outcome may emerge. There also needs to be, as part of the
discernment process, opportunities for Brothers and others
with expertise to come together, to research ideas, to tease
out implications, to engage in dialogue, to propose models,
and to sit prayerfully with what emerges so that consensus
is reached as to ways ahead. It may be that we design a particular
model, implement it, reflect in due course on what is happening
and review the model as needed. Good discernment means trusting
our intuitions, testing them and being ready to adapt as our
experience tells us.
There is some urgency to begin this process as we know that
our timelines require that we present a concrete proposal
to the CLT by the end of the year, and that proposal needs
to be accepted by each of the current PLT's working in conjunction
with the ILC. What is presented to the CLT may be a starting
model which will be modified by our experience as we go along.
We trust that the commitment of the Brothers so evident in
Brisbane, the prayerful support of all of us, and the invitation
to all Brothers to take this process forward, will lead to
a decision being made about structures by the end of 2006.
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While the mandate of the Shaping Our
Future Committee Oceania has not changed, we have in the
light of 'where we have got to' reshaped how the work ahead of us
all will be achieved. There will be four focus areas in the future
which will be:
- Life and Spirituality
- Models and Transition
- Organisation and Resources
- Communications and Relationships
SOFCO members see this proposal for continuing to explore and live
the Heart of Being Brother, and for discerning and refining our
future structures, as a faithful response to what we are hearing,
and a key way of taking forward the momentum of Brisbane. As always,
we confidently ask the whole-hearted support of our Brothers in
moving ahead in discernment.
Who will be members of these groups
and what will be the basis on which they will operate?
Life and Spirituality:
The Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania will be recommending
to the Province and Region Leadership Teams and then to the Inter-Province
Leadership Committee that a group of Brothers from across Oceania
be drawn together to provide stimulus ideas and processes which
will help individual Brothers and groups:
- personal & communal growth in
Heart-Centered Spirituality;
- the building of a consciousness of
being part of Oceania; and
- exploration of our corporate mission.
This group will be accountable to the Inter-Province
Leadership Committee rather than to the Shaping Our Future Committee
Oceania. Assuming the approval of the Leadership Teams of Oceania
and the Inter-Province Leadership Committee, Peter Dowling from
the Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania will do all that is required
to bring this proposal to fruition.
Models and Transition:
The Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania will establish a Team
which will continue the exploration of the implications of becoming
one Oceania Province. This exploration will include:
- membership (that is the number of
members required) and role of the Oceania Leadership Team (OLT);
- the grouping of Brothers and ministries
in a 'middle structure'; and
- the broad relationship between the
OLT and any leaders in a middle structure.
In due course this Team will prepare transition
and implementation strategies that will help move from the present
structures to the new ones. This Team will be developing a broad
frameworks only.
The Team will be lead by Sr Marg Endicott rsm who was the recorder
at the Shaping Our Future Conference 2006. Marg was also a part
of the group who developed three consultation processes in the
second half of 2005. Two members of the Shaping Our Future Conference
2006 will be on the Team (Luke Quinn and Peter Dowling) and they
will be joined by other Brothers who have experience in designing
discernment and consultation processes and in the development
of broad organisational structures. This Team will be commencing
in the very near future.
Organisation and
Resources: This Team will function within the broad
frameworks developed by the Models and Transition Team. Its key
tasks will be in these areas of:
- Finance and Resources;
- Civil Structures;
- Transition processes; and
- Organisational Structure - this will
include detailed role descriptions, who Brothers contact about
what, who ministries are accountable to… etc.
Laurie Needham from the Shaping Our Future
Committee Oceania will be on this Team, as will Sr Marg Endicott
the Chair of the Models and Transitions Team. Marg's presence
will ensure that the work of this Team will be within the overall
framework which is emerging from the Models and Transitions Team.
The Chair of this Team and its membership is yet to be decided.
This Team will commence work by June.
Communications and
Relationships: The key tasks of this group will include:
- Monitoring and promoting communication
with and among Brothers and with the various groups in the Edmund
Rice Network;
- Carrying forward the dialogue on the
Edmund Rice Network in collaboration with the Oceania Coordinating
Group on the Edmund Rice Network; and
- Ongoing dialogue with Edmund Rice
Ministries in relation to characteristics of an Edmund Rice
Ministry.
The Chair of this Team will be Joe Lauren
from the Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania, and he will be
joined in the Team by another member of the Committee, Vince Duggan.
Other membership is yet to be decided.
Br John Corbett the hard working Executive Officer of the Shaping
Our Future Committee Oceania will provide support to the three
Teams accountable to the Committee. Br Kevin Ryan will keep in
touch with all of the Teams and support them in sharing information,
in staying on focus and in dealing with the new and unexpected
issues which are sure to surface as we journey forward over the
next fifteen months.
Mission Focus Statement: As you are
aware this matter was the source of some vigorous exploration at
the Shaping Our Future Conference 2006. After reflecting on that
discussion and also on the matters which we explored at the International
Leadership Conference in Manila the Shaping Our Future Committee
Oceania wishes to share its current position on the matter of the
Mission Focus Statement.
We believe that the issue of the Mission of the Congregation
will be one of the key matters addressed across the Congregation
as we prepare for the Congregation Chapter in 2008. We acknowledge
that further work needs to be done on the Mission Focus Statement
and we believe that most Brothers do not want to spend a lot of
time 'word smithing' the statement. We believe that it would be
better to suspend further formal work until after the next Congregation
Chapter but we do encourage continuing further discussion and prayer
on this matter. This discussion and prayer could include the role
of justice and eco-justice in the Mission of the Congregation in
Oceania. You are also encouraged to explore other issues which should
be brought into the conversation. You will recall that we will be
encouraging the new Lives and Spirituality Team to provide us with
support in continuing to explore the Mission of the Congregation.
Other Matters: Some other key pieces of information about
which you will hear more from this Committee and other sources over
the coming months:
- It is still planned that a recommendation
will be made to the Congregation Leadership Team about the
future model for the Oceania Province by December 2006.
- Subsequently it is expected that the
discernment processes for the Oceania Leadership Team will lead
to the appointment of the new Team by April 2007.
- The Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania
suggests that the new Team members move out of their current ministries
for two months (June and July 2007). It is expected that at this
time an Implementation Committee will be in place and that the
Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania will cease operation.
- It is further proposed that the Oceania
Leadership Team would be working with the implementation group
in August and September 2007 and that the inauguration of the
new Province be in very early October 2007.
- The Shaping Our Future Committee will also be recommending to
the Inter-Province Leadership Committee that it establish a Chapter
Planning Committee and that a pre-chapter gathering be held
in early October 2007 at the time of the inauguration of
the new Province. Our recommendation will propose that the
Chapter planning committee will among other matters need to address
the issues such as the 'type' of Oceania Province Chapter, pre
chapter gatherings, and election of delegates to the Congregation
Chapter.
Once again we wish to say how appreciative
we are of the extra-ordinary participation of the Brothers in the
Shaping Our Future Conference 2006, the energy of Brotherhood which
we experienced at the Conference and the sense of being 'Brothers
of Oceania' with which we journeyed home. It was a very historic
and Spirit-filled gathering and we will not know the full impact
of our time together for many years.
May the Spirit of love, wisdom and justice
continue to guide us in the months ahead of us.
Br Kevin Ryan
For the Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania
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Edition
21: April 2006 Holy Spirit Province
