Continental Mission Team for Europe

The second meeting of the Continental Mission Team for Europe took place at Geneva (Switzer-land) on the 14th and 15th December. This team includes, at the moment, one representative from each of the Provinces of Compostela, Ibérica, L?Hermitage and Mediterránea as well as Brothers Emili Turú and Juan Miguel Anaya from the General Administration.
The major part of the 14th December was dedicated to gaining a better knowledge of the current situation of the Provinces formed by restructuring, characterised by their internationality and com-plexity. The sharing was very rich and enlightening. Each of the Province representatives presented the main objectives of their own Province for the triennium, the objectives that are seen as priorities in the area of Mission and the structure adopted by the Province for this area. Given the responsibil-ity of the representatives in the co-ordination of this area in their Province, an appraisal was made of the way this is functioning in each Province, listing the principal successes and difficulties met up until now.
On the other hand, there was a great deal of discussion, as was agreed at the previous meeting, on how to offer support to the social works of the Provinces, according to the conclusions of the Col-loquium of L?Hermitage in December 2003. It seemed more opportune to help to setup a solidarity network for Marist Europe. With this in mind, a process was designed for 2005 that will conclude in November with a meeting of representatives of these works and activities.
The 14th December finished with some information on the Strategic Plan of BIS, presented by Brother Dominick Pujia, on the Meeting of Marist Institutions of Tertiary Education, on other Con-tinental Teams, on the International Marist Mission Assembly, etc.
The morning of the 15th December (the time when we took the photo) was dedicated to a meeting with the leadership team of Franciscans International, with whom the Institute has signed an agreement, such that will allow us to collaborate in the defence of the rights of children and young people before the United Nations from next January. The meeting was informed of the history of Franciscans International, the organisation of the work and the philosophy of the organisation. The Continental Team expressed its full support for this initiative of collaboration. Given the geographic proximity, it was thought that the Provinces of Europe will be greatly enriched by this new re-source, easy to access, that will be able to help in this area of Marist mission.