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03.11.2015 03:45:39 770x read.
ARTICLES
Opening Address General Conference FIC 2015.

Opening Address General Conference FIC 2015.
November 1 – 13, 2015,  Wa (U.W.R), Ghana.
Dear brothers,
With a deep feeling of joy and gratitude, on behalf of the other members of the General Council, I wish to wholeheartedly welcome you all to the opening of the General Conference FIC 2015, taking place here in Wa, Ghana.  A special welcome goes to the delegates to this conference  from the five provinces: Chile, Indonesia, Malawi, Netherlands, and our host province Ghana. I hope every body feels at home under the hospitality and loving-care of our fellow brothers of the Ghana Province. This international gathering is for us a good opportunity to feel  and experience the beauty of being an international community of the Brothers FIC, and of being different in many aspects of life yet  united in the spirit of brotherhood. We thanks the Ghana province for having prepared and arranged everything necessary  that makes us possible to be together here and share our spirit of brotherhood among us.
As we might have realized, we are gathering here as a group of people entrusted by the congregation to serve our fellow brothers, so that they may grow towards our common ideals as expressed in our Constitutions, namely to form an apostolic and fraternal community of religious members (Essential Reflections). To be able to function well as leaders of the congregation we need to join hands, to work together, to think together, and to find common vision as to the direction we are going to take as a congregation.  Serving the congregation  in a good way involves among others taking several managerial steps  that includes making good plans, executing programs, and evaluating them regularly, so that we can see if our way of serving the congregation is effective and accountable.
Theme of the Conference
 We call this special gathering a General Conference, which takes place exactly in the middle of our  term of office and is attended by General Council and Provincial Superiors plus one or two representatives of each province. This is a kind of “mid-way” meeting, meant for evaluation, re-assessment, and if necessary adaptations of the congregational policy as established by the General Chapter 2012 (cf Congregational Statute art. 32). Hence the main objective of this meeting is to become more aware of our present state of affairs as Congregation, especially in connection with the Chapter’s resolutions 2012. Next to this we can hopefully gain more clarity about what and how to move forward with our journey as Congregation, and at the same time to make a “long-distance” preparation for the General Chapter 2018.
The theme of this conference is “Living Consecrated Life through Mission”.  The theme is derived from the theme of the General Chapter 2012 which was “Living consecrated life through Community and Service”. In the previous years we have deepened and discussed a lot on the community life, meanwhile we did not deepen the topic on our mission yet. Therefore in this gathering we will spend some time for the deepening of our mission. We do hope that from the deepening we will come to some significant actions and/or proposals to be developed in the coming years and in the General Chapter 2018.
Jubilee year of the Congregation
It is a divine providence that the General Conference 2015 we are opening today is coinciding with the golden jubilee of the FIC mission in Ghana, the 175th anniversary of the  Congregation as well as the year of consecrated life. Therefore it is proper and just that we share our sense of joy and gratitude with the brothers of Ghana Province in this jubilee year. We also  take this opportunity to express our gratitude to God and to all people supporting us, that  the Congregation has been able to reach this point of development. We are so grateful that    the congregation which was initially established in the Netherlands now has become an international Congregation. In the meantime  we  also realize that our congregation has been moving from the north to the south, from the western Europe to the third world continents,  with all its consequences. In the process of deliberation during this conference therefore we have to open our mind and heart, start thinking seriously about the future of the congregation in a concrete and  actual situation of the developing countries with the cultures we live.
As a Congregation we have seen the signs of the times that the tasks and the role of the Dutch  brothers have to be taken over by  the non-Dutch brothers. This is a very natural cycle of life. There is time to come, there is time to go.  We, non Dutch brothers, have to be ready to take more and more  responsibilities of the Congregation. At the same time we should remember with wholehearted gratitude   the Dutch brothers who steadfastly reached out to the people in need in Africa, Asia, and Latin America, by which they develop the Congregation into an International Congregation. 
In this year of consecrated life we should also ask ourselves, whether our presence among the people has been in accordance with the expectation of the Church? In this case we can refer to the apostolic letter of Pope Francis to all religious men and women,  in which he expect us to be men of joy and men of communion, and even more to be "men who wake up the world".  We are expected to "come out of ourselves and go forth to the existential peripheries".  In the process of deepening our apostolic mission we can use the apostolic letter of Pope Francis as our point of reference.
The Structure of the Conference
This conference is designed for ten working days only. As I mentioned earlier, the main objective of the meeting is to see our present state of affairs as Congregation in connection with the resolutions of  General Chapter 2012 and to gain more clarity on what and how to move forward as a Congregation. Accordingly the General Council has drawn  main topics to be discussed during this conference, as follows: 
• reflection and deepening on our apostolic mission as the continuation of the deepening of the theme of the General Chapter 2012.  
• report of the provinces to understand the latest situation of our congregation, and by so doing we strengthen our sense of unity and solidarity;
• resolutions of the General Chapter 2012 concerning the prevention of sexual abuse, formation issues, FIC Journey to Spiritual Enrichment, reflective document on Constitutions, and the review of our Congregational Statute.
We would like to approach those issues through discussion and sharing of experiences, to see what has been alive in each province, what challenges they encounter, and what way forward to be taken. Through this sharing of experiences we will be enriched and inspired by one another.  And through the discussion we can think of possible steps to be taken  in the years to come for the sake of the whole Congregation.
Aside from those issues of the chapters, we are as well going to discuss several urgent matters involving the whole congregation, such as: financial matters and the long distance preparation for the General Chapter 2018. 
Next to these, to accommodate  the particular issues of each province, the General Council has arranged  extra time to meet with individual provinces, during which specific issues can be talked over elaborately. 
Conclussion
Dear brothers,
I consider this general conference as an important international event  of the Congregation which is supposed to bear abundant fruit for  the whole Congregation.  Through the formal and informal interactions we wish to receive and give mutual support, inspirations, and encouragements. Further I believe that this meeting will be a way to help us become more and more aware of our call to serve the congregation and to carry out the call accordingly. We still remember well what the Constitutions ask of us, that we, brothers in authority, are expected to inspire and stimulate, to further mutual unity and cooperation, to give direction to our community, to listen to what is alive among the brothers, to show understanding for difficulties and human distress, to point out mistakes, and to act firmly whenever required (Const. art. 50).
I hope that the spirit of love and service continue to grow among us following the examples of Jesus who said of himself that he had not come to be served but to serve. May our being together here in this gathering be a true source of inspiration and support for one another and all the brothers back home.
Finally,  trusting in God’s guidance and the protection of Mary our mother,  I declare the FIC General Conference 2015 officially opened.   
Wa,  November 1st, 2015
Martin Handoko
General Superior




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