Day Six Report on General Conference 2015, Wa.

The sixth day of the General Conference 2015 began with the morning prayer service led by Bros. Wim Luiten and Marteen Bouw from The Netherlands province. The theme of our morning prayer was "Being called". It was centered on the formation, promotion and associated life which are the topics of the today discussions. Prayer helped us to reflect on the following of Jesus.  

On the topic “International Meeting of Formators” we agreed to put the attention in the initial formation with the suggested contents at the Con-Con 2011 in Malawi : revision the FIC values , the work to achieve a core curriculum to feed our formation program and to upgrade the quality of the formators.  The international meeting will be during the Con-Con 2016, July 24th to 6th august. Twelve formators will also discuss about the situation of the youth, constitutions and sexuality.

On the second topic  “Involvement of Professionals in Our Formation”, the provinces try to employ the services of professionals within and outside of FIC resources

On the third topic “A interprovincial exchange of experts in formation”, even though barriers of language are a problem that can be solve, provinces don´t see the need to exchange experts meantime it is sufficient local experts.  About having the meeting before or after the Con-Con 2016, the General Council will communicate the event.

The fourth topic “Promotion of Vocations” was shared on the experience of promotion during the past year. Provinces showed different means to promote including their materials such brochures, leaflets, use of website, Facebook, radio. Brothers of Indonesia using the new logo and habit have experienced as effective to promote vocations. They are grateful for the last 5 candidates that have come from their schools. Malawi works happily as a team with other congregations. Ghana coordinators of the promotion work hard taking contact with aspirants in meetings well organized, even though not all them respond there are candidates.  Chile has experienced to be a good idea  the participation of the community sharing life with the  aspirants. The Netherlands is opened to talk about religious life with people when they are interested specially the communities of  the Hague and Red Lion. Lifestyle and quality of our lives appeals more to people doing the services in schools than the community life means.

On the topic “Associated Life”, provinces are invited to get involved to promote association in order to accommodate people of good will who want to live the spirit of our Founders and to journey together with FIC brothers. The experience and situation change from one to another province. The Netherlands go ahead with some associated members.  Indonesia and Chile have promoted associated life meeting collaborators to pray and to share experiences doing the apostolate. It is expected to go on the way to reach the communion among lay people and brothers sharing the same charism.  

Bro. Diego Izquierdo (Chile).