Moving the Continent?s Marist Mission Forward
The Sub-commission on Formation of Directories for the Americas (Ernesto Reyes (Coord.-Chile), Br. Wagner Cruz (Brazil Central North), Mercia Procopio (UMBRASIL), Irma Zamarripa (Western Mexico) and Br. Luis Carlos Gutiérrez (Central America)) met June 8-11, 2012 at the Marist Guest House in Sao Paulo, Brazil. We are grateful for the fraternal hospitality shown by the Province of Brazil-Central-South and by UMBRASIL.
The meeting was planned to carry out the following tasks:
1) To move forward with the formulation of the document “Formation Model for the Marist Directories in the Americas,” based on the contributions of the meeting in Florianopolis, the reflections of specialists and the various ideas sent via the Internet. In this sense, the commission, with the help of the Center of Marist Animation of Western Mexico, relied on the platform-tool Moodle to discuss in 8 different forums, the parts of the document mentioned above. This enabled numerous people from diverse locations on the continent to contribute to the editing of the document. At the end of the meeting, they succeeded in further developing the document, in order to submit it to the judgment of experts and for validation by the AUs. These steps will be undertaken in the coming months.
2) To advance the design and logistics of the II Encounter of Formation of Marist Directors, to be held in Guadalajara, México, April 12-15, 2013. The Sub-commission got this Encounter off to a very good start.
3) To revise the design of the Masters in Marist Educational Management for the Americas, as an initiative available for those AUs and directories that might wish to delve more deeply into the foundations and best practices of their mission and function. During the second semester they will work out the details and ways to implement the agreements with the universities.
At the feet of Our Lady of Aparecida, we offer the life and vitality of all the directories of the Americas, as well as the forward momentum of the Marist mission on our continent.
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Br. Luis Carlos Gutiérrez Blanco, fms – Provincial Coordinator of Education and Educational Ministry
Province of Central America