Province of Southern Africa
Twenty-two participants from six different countries as well as two brothers from Nairobi converged on Mtendere in central Malawi for the Seventh Provincial Chapter of the Province of Southern Africa over the period 23 – 26 August 2016.
Were present, from the General Administration, Brothers Emili Turú, Superior General, and Antonio Ramalho, Councillior.
Apart from the handing over of the baton of leadership from Brother Joe Walton to Brother Norbert Mwila, the Chapter spent four days examining the current situation of the Province, and outlining the way forward to a New Beginning.
The Preparatory Commission for the event had done sterling work in adapting procedures learned at a recent Sustainability Workshop held in Nairobi for the Chapter. Making use of suitable “matrices”, the Chapter covered five major themes:
- Mission – the impact made by the Montagne experience on Champagnat and its relevance for us today
- The Fourvière Promises led the Chapter to do a SWOT analysis of the Province.
- The Dream – The assembly was facilitated to propose dreams for the future, and to contrast them with the situation on the ground.
- Position of the Province – After reflection on the statistics of the Province as well as the challenging financial situation, the group emerged with four criteria that could be used for evaluating our current works.
- La Valla – This last theme led the group to work on the WAY FORWARD using key words such as ELIMINATE, REDUCE, RAISE/INCREASE, CREATE, DO DIFFERENTLY.
The last day of the Chapter was marked by the formulation of two resolutions, one concerning the future promotion of shared leadership in our schools by the establishment of Boards of Governors or the equivalent where these do not exist; and the other concerning the promotion and appreciation of the Lay Marist vocation in our Province.
The new Provincial Council is formed by the Brothers Frank Mwambucha, Ebel Muteveri, Geraldo Medida, Euclides Nangolo, Jude Pieterse e Patrick Bushilya.
The four days of work was animated throughout by the Christian Brother Michael Burke, a person with outstanding skills in listening to and guiding groups through an event of this nature. The Province is very thankful for his having made himself available for this event.