Marist Association of St Marcellin Champagnat holds regional meetings

Leaders of the Australian Conference of the Marist Association of Saint Marcellin Champagnat have released three videos in preparation for regional meetings of the Association across Australia.

The videos, published on the Australian Conference’s website (https://goo.gl/5oSnSC) include executive director of Marist Ministries Brother Michael Green, Council member Erica Pegorer, and Conference leader Brother Peter Carroll.

“The purpose of this short video is for the Council to report back to you, the members, how the life of the Association has developed and progressed in the first year and to provide an opportunity for you to give feedback,” affirms Br Peter in the first video.

The Marist Association, established by the Institute of the Marist Brothers and currently awaiting the Vatican’s recognition, has over 600 members in Australia, including laity, priests, sisters, a bishop and a hundred Brothers.  Australia has been invited to form the first Conference of the Association.  A ‘Conference’ is the name of an administrative unit within the Association, like a ‘Province’ within the Institute.

Once the Marist Association receives the Vatican’s approval, the Australian Conference will take over from the Australian Province the canonical and civil responsibility for Marist schools and ministries, as well as full leadership for its own life and mission as a new entity of Marists. It will have an interdependent relationship with the Province, but it will also have its own autonomy. It is a new space for all Marists, including the Brothers, to exercise communion and co-responsibility for Marist mission and shared Marist life.

In August 2015, 64 members who were attending the Australian Conference’s first Assembly nominated eight people to form its first Council.  Regional meetings were held for other members to have a say in the process.

During the Assembly, a major focus had been to review the proposals of MIMA II and discuss how the Association’s members could be “mystics and prophets” in their local Australian contexts, and in communion with one another as Marists.  

So far, the Council has established three new committees to help with its responsibilities: strategic planning, membership and formation, and governance.