Laity and youth ministry, two big projects
From the 26th to the 28th October 2006, the first meeting of the Mission team for Africa was held at Accra (Ghana) in the District House. It was formed by Brothers JOHN KUSI MENSAH (District of West Africa), IFEANYI STEPHEN MBAEGBU (Nigeria), EMMANUEL MWANALIRENJI (Southern Africa), VALENTIN DJAWU (East Central Africa), THOMAS RANDRIANANTENAINA (Madagascar). Brothers Emili Turú and Juan Miguel Anaya also participated in this meeting as members of the General Council?s Mission Commission, as well as Brother Pau Fornells, Director of the Bureau of the Laity.
The experience was highly satisfying for all the participants: the objectives proposed were perfectly attained and the meeting was held in a climate of great liberty, confidence and constructive spirit.
This first meeting had as its aim the clarification and definition of the place of this Mission team in the African context and in the whole Institute, and to put in place the first programming of activities to be realised, according to the needs discovered in the Provinces and the District. Throughout all of our meeting, the children and young people of this continent, the raison d?être of our vocation, were very much present to us in profound affection. They were our point of reference and motivated our prayer and our work during these days.
The team chose the following two domains as priorities: Marist laity and youth ministry. This choice did not exclude other centres of interest for the group. It was simply a matter of priorities. On the other hand, the team showed itself open to supporting different initiatives which are being launched at the level of the Institute: the celebration of the Marist International Mission Assembly; the development of a document on the identity of the lay Marist (Bureau of the Laity); the study on the financial autonomy of the Administrative Units (Commission for the Evangelical Use of Goods); the defence of the Rights of the Child, in particular the right to education (new presence of the Institute at Geneva).
The next meeting of the Team was set for the month of December 2007, at Harare (Zimbabwe).