District of Melanesia
The Brothers’ Assembly was held at Sivarai Namona Pastoral Centre in Bomana, Port Moresby, Papua New Guinea, from July 17 to July 20. There were 13 Brothers who attended the assembly. The theme of the assembly was “The Name of God is Mercy”.
Br Michael de Waas (General Councillor) was the main facilitator of the assembly and helped the Brothers to reflect on the following theme: “Where am I?”, “Personal and Collective Leadership”, and “The Institute and the District”. Br. Michael reminded the group that we are part of one big family in liaison with the Celebration of Fourvière Year and the Bi-centenary of Fourvière commitment. At the same time, he highlighted the theme of the assembly with this Jubilee year of Mercy.
The main purposes of the gathering were: to celebrate these major events as a district, being part of one big Marist family, to reflect on our personal and collective leadership in the district, going into the 3rd year of Melanesian leadership, to be grateful for the blessings received in the last two years and to begin a discernment process for our future and the most important one was to celebrate our vocation as Marist Brothers together.
All these were done in a dynamic of prayer, In-put, group discussions, formal and informal conversations. There was a very good participation from the Brothers who attended the assembly.
The participants concluded the assembly with the Eucharistic celebration during which the brothers recommitted themselves to do God’s mission with a Marian face.