?Conversations that transform?

The Secretariat of the Laity, responded to the proposal made by the General Council in 2014, has been reflecting on some possible actions that the next Chapter could introduce in the road map of the lay walk and the process of communion of the following years.

These actions were born from the meeting in the Hermitage of the Continental Commissions (October 2016) and after a process of discernment of almost a year.

These actions were born from the meeting in the Hermitage of the Continental Commissions (October 2016) and after a process of discernment of almost a year. With a draft of proposals to the Chapter, a dialogue has begun with various groups and teams from the provinces, from the conviction that they are brothers and lay people, co-creators of a common future. The proposals reaffirm the desire to enter together into the territory of the new, as Br Emili tells us.

The dialogue that is promoted in the workshops touches on the great contents that have been promoted in recent years: the need to develop in the provinces formative itineraries with a vocational character with the guidelines offered by the document Being a Lay Marist; implement the Champagnat Movement with the new accents that have emerged after the four years of process; to increase the experiences of communion so that we strengthen our vocational identities; to continue reflecting on a possible international associative structure that will lead to lay leadership, solid and well-formed, co-responsible with the brothers of the vitality of the charism; to look for shared spaces of formation to support us in our respective vocations;to continue exploring new ways of expressing the charism for our time, so that our presence among children and young people is more powerful and passionate.

At the moment, these dialogues have been promoted in Bolivia, Chile, Peru, Argentina (with the presence of Uruguay), Paraguay, Ecuador, Colombia and Brazil. In some of these countries Brother Javier Espinosa, director of the Secretariat of the Laity, has been accompanied by the lay Marists Raúl Amaya, Nohemy Pinto and Mauricio Fuentes.

With different formats, such meetings will also be held in the other regions of the Institute.

The contributions and suggestions of the groups are enriching the possible proposals to the Chapter, which in May, in Nairobi, the extended secretariat of the laity will resume and fine-tune.

The dialogues are already promoting hopeful smiles, gestures of satisfaction, search concerns, future looks … The process is already being transformative, as Brother Emili Turú tells us.