REPORT NO. 1

General Conference 2015.

Wa-Ghana, November 1, 2015.

First of all, we thank God that all participants of our General Conference have arrived in Wa-Ghana safely, yet in a good condition and healthy. We were happy to be in Ghana to meet our fellow brothers and to participate in the General Conference, Sunday 1st – 13th November 2015. We were very grateful for the warm welcoming of our fellow brothers especially Accra, Tamale, Damango, Kaleo, and St. Louis Community.

Bro. Seregeous Dery, the Provincial Superior of Ghana province welcoming all participants: Inline with our tradition, and as host I wish to once again extend to you our blessing and warmest welcome to our land. I wish to once again accord a special welcome to Bro. Martinus (GS) and his Councillors, the Provincial Superiors and delegates from all the five provinces. It is our hope that you would feel at home and enjoy the short time you will have with us. We hope you can bear with us and adjust to the demands of the dumso – dumso electricity supply situation we experience here. We wish you all good health, malaria free and a pleasant General Conference experience here at St. Louis Community, Wa.

After one or more days the participants took their rest, on Sunday evening we opened our General Conference with the opening prayer, led by Bro. Raphael. The theme of the opening prayer was “Living Consecrated Life through Mission”. One the thing that we have to reflect during a short individual reflection was about our “Essential Reflections”. 

The theme of the General Conference is “Living Consecrated Life through Mission”. As mention by Bro. Martin Handoko on his opening address General Conference FIC 2015 that 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 on 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.

Bro. Martin Handoko, our general superior officially opened the General Conference. On his opening address he mentioned that the main objective of the General Conference is to see our present state of affairs as Congregation in connection with the resolutions of the General Chapter 2012 and to gain more clarity on what and how to move forward as a Congregation. That why the main topics to be discussed during this conference most of all are about the resolutions of General Chapter 2012. Beside that the other topic is reflection and deepening on our apostolic mission as the continuation of the deepening on the theme of the General Chapter 2012.

From the sharing of “Green Round” we found that all participants were ready to participate on this gathering. All participants expected that the conference will bear abundant fruit for the whole Congregation. The atmosphere of the opening session was very good, each participant felt free to introduce themselves and honesty expressed their feeling and expectation in connection with the conference.

By trusting in God’s guidance and the protection of Mary, our mother and patroness, our General Superior officially opened the FIC General Conference 2015. In his conclusion of his opening address he also mentioned that through formal and informal interaction among the participants, we wish to receive and give mutual support, inspiration, and encouragement. We hope that the spirit of love and service continue to grow in us following the example of Jesus himself who said that he had not come to be served but to serve.

After the opening session we continued to celebrate our opening eucharist together with some brothers who came from some communities close to Wa at the chapel of Inservice Training Centre. Our opening eucharist was held by the Bishop of Wa diocese. After eucahrist we had our supper and followed by a recreation together. We were ready to start with our General-Conference 2015. We are sure and believe that Holy Spirit will lead and guide us during our meeting.

Theodorus Suwaryanto