Meeting of facilitators

On 12 January 2009, Brothers Óscar Martín (Compostela), Brendan Geary (Europe Centre-Ouest), Segundo Barragán (Ibérica), André Thizy (Hermitage), Josep Maria Rius (Mediterránea) and Josep Maria Soteras (coordination Europe), met in  Barcelona, to plan the next steps in preparation for the General Chapter.

The work arranged for the preparation up until the holding of the chapter meeting consists of reflecting upon three documents : The  Circular of convocation (September), the  Guidelines for reflection on the way to the  XXIst General Chapter (February) and the  Report of the General  Administration  (March).

The agenda of this meeting of the facilitators involved the examination of the results of the Initial Consultation, carried out throughout the whole Institute, and the preparation of materials and dynamics for the step of deeper study which is to follow. The calendar for this step goes from  January to August 2009. In this work there is an attempt to study more deeply the more prominent themes coming from the Initial Consultation, with the participation of brothers and lay people, as well as the preparation of the capitulants, by listening to them.

The provincial coordinators, in a first period which will take place in  January and February – « preparation » -, will concentrate on explaining the dynamics of this process to the Councils and the capitulants, on establishing in the Council the procedure of dialogue and listening in each Province, for brothers, lay people, youth…, and in preparing some simple tools, adapted to each local and provincial reality, to facilitate this dialogue and listening.

The second period, devoted to  « listening », which will take place from  March to June, will be dedicated to going deeper into the three reference documents, cited earlier, at the local level (brothers, communities, laity, young people …), as a means of preparing the exchange with the capitulants.
To achieve this work of listening, there will be the possibility of organising visits of capitulants to each community, inter-community meetings by groups of communities, a provincial assembly or assemblies by sector, optional provincial meetings and meetings with significant groups of lay and young people. These contacts will also be able to be made by electronic mail.  

In a third period, designated by the word « echoes », during  June and July, it is anticipated that the capitulants from each province will send to the brothers, lay people and youth, a letter in which they will recall the most prominent subjects raised and which aroused the most interest.  
The capitulants of each region will prepare for their part a summary of this process of listening at their regional level and send it to Rome.

At the meeting it was decided to have the document Guidelines for reflection on the XXIst General Chapter printed in different languages.