CONCON FIC Brothers, Saturday, 24^th of June 2023. The closing session. (Reported by: Bro. Theo Riyanto)

We started our day with our morning prayer with the theme "Being Good and Doing Good" led by Bro. Wim Luiten from FIC Religious House of The Netherlands. He invited us to reflect on four simple words from Bro. Bernard Hoecken, namely Be good and Do good. Our founding fathers placed different emphases on this. Msgr. Louis Rutten is generally associated with “Doing Good”, our more apostolic dimension, and Bro. Bernard Hoecken with “Being Good” the religious community life. But both focus on loving attention and a respectful approach to people and things. They form a unity. These clear words may be understood to make goodness as a person, more visible.

After the Morning prayer and breakfast, participants gather in the Conference Hall at 9.00 am for some agendas, namely: Conclusions of the ConCon 2023, Official closing, Sharing gifts, Open day, and Eucharist. 

On the evaluation of the meeting, the participants did it in writing, and there was also the opportunity to express it orally. All participants expressed their gratitude for the gathering, the presence of each of us, the inputs, our sharing and learning from each other, etc. We demonstrate our spirit of unity in diversity and our brotherhood as FIC Brothers. All participants were satisfied with the process of the meeting, the atmosphere, and the result of the meeting. We are happy with all the services done by the FIC Indonesia Province. They also see how good the teamwork of the General Council is. We were also grateful for the help of some guest speakers or facilitators, like Bro. Martin Handoko, Fr. Efendi SJ, Fr. Robert SVD who lead our eucharistic celebration everyday, Bro. Antonius Karyadi, Bro. Simon Andrus, and Bro. Heribertus Iriyanto.

In his closing speech Bro. Augustine expresses his gratitude for our gathering to deepen some of our General Chapter 2018 Resolutions. We are also grateful for our togetherness and presence together as fellow brothers. Dear fellow leaders, our special task is an office of service, a gift from God and to those who elected us. Therefore, the gift giver: God and fellow Brothers, should be our priority. Let us exercise this task with a great sense of gratitude. Let us overcome the temptations of counting only the difficulties and challenges we face in our time. I invite all of us to strive to be more positive than negative in calculating our leadership tasks and their outcomes. There are more possibilities for growth, for the success of our mandate, and more blessings of God than we can explain or understand. In all circumstances, let us judge information wisely, accept criticisms with humility and consider appropriate to use, when necessary, the authority that God and our fellow Brothers gave us. Let us open our hearts to everyone and always seek what is best for people. Let our leadership promote peace, unity, and continuous growth in the life of all who encounter us. In constant prayer, let us ask God to intervene in what we described as an increasing lack of fidelity and perseverance to our divine call. Let our leadership style announce God's presence in every situation.

We close the event of our Congregational Conference by having a relaxed time together before our lunch. Some of us took this opportunity to finish some of our tasks as secretaries, a coordinator, and as the ones responsible for communicating the ConCon to our fellow brothers and associated members.

We also have what we call an open day. This event is the time to inform and share the process, atmosphere, and results of our conference with the brothers in Indonesia province. At this event, we also listen to the sharing of each province and the Religious House of the Netherlands about the latest situation in the provinces. About 40 brothers from the surrounding attended this open day, especially the local councils. We conclude our open day with the eucharist at 17.45, followed by dinner.

Reported by: Bro. Theo Riyanto