Australia, Melanesia and Pacific

The Oceania Council and the Oceania College of Leaders met in Auckland, New Zealand, from March 25 and 26 to develop six initiatives that answer the Calls of the 22^nd General Chapter.

Aside from strengthening its network of the administrative units, the six other initiatives the region’s leaders are currently working on are:

• Education Network,led by Benedict Tooming, Brother Terry Costello and Frank Malloy. They are actively exploring the probability of developing a school improvement programme for Melanesia and the Pacific, based on the experience of a similar programme developed by Australian Marists in Africa. 
• Pacific Marist Schools Leaders Course – Part IIFollowing the course for school leaders of Melanesia and the Pacific held at Lomeri, Fiji, in 2017, a second session will be held this month.   
• Marists in Kiribati have been running theEarly ChildhoodCentrefor several months. In Melanesia, the District Council is exploring the possibility of creating another early childhood centre in Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea. 
• Financial Administration Networkis made up of the bursars of the three administrative units of the Oceania region. Bursars from the Asia and Oceania regions will meet again this year, after their last meeting in February. 
• Edgesprovides opportunities for the younger Brothers to consider community life, spirituality and future possible mission activities. There is an ongoing consultation process with the International Brothers Today Commission, younger Brothers across the region and with leaders of the Asia and Oceania regions.
• Lavalla 200>The Marist Learning Zone(MLZ) of the Lavalla200> Mount Druitt community is running and will be launched officially on July 27. 
• The Oceania Council endorsed the strategic plan for 2018 – 2020 of the Oceania Partnership Commission. The two major strategies are to continue to identify and develop future leaders across the regions and to identify the resources required to promote Marist mission. Dan Dungey, the chair of the OPC will be attend the Marist Asia Commissions meeting in April to develop stronger networks across the regions of Asia and Oceania.      
• The leaders of the Oceania region are considering holding aRegional Assembly.

The Oceania Council and the Oceania College of Leaders will meet again in August through a video conference.

The Oceania region is made up of the Australia province and the Pacific and Melanesia districts. This includes 12 countries: Australia, Cambodia, East Timor, Fiji, Kiribati, New Caledonia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, American Samoa, Solomon Islands and Vanuatu.