Rwanda from December 27-30
The III Provincial Chapter of the Marist Province of Africa Central East (PACE) has gathered at Butare, Rwanda from December 27-30, 2009 in order to begin the provincialate of Bro. Valentin Djawu who takes over from Bro. Eugène Kabanguka who just finished his second term of 3 years as provincial, and recently has been elected General Councilor in our XXIst General Chapter.
The Chapter was composed by 14 elected members + 6 members by right, coming from the five countries that form the province: Central Africa Republic, Dem. Republic of Congo, Rwanda, Kenya and Tanzania. The province has 104 professed members, with 60% of them being less than 40 yrs of age. It is the province of the Institute that has the largest number of young brothers in the life range of 20-30 years (36 brothers).
The province is only 6 yrs old, and has shown some signs of development such as working for vocations, having a central Provincial administration (full time secretariat and provincial bursar), plus establishing a new house as headquarters of the province in the city of Nairobi, and the animation of the province through the visitation to each one of the communities. At the same time, this province faces big challenges, such as struggling to get a financial autonomy and unification on the expenditure reports, to increase the mobility of brothers among the different countries, and the challenge faced on everyday life to witness the evangelical values we have decided to live.
The Chapter took the decision of following a consensus method in the procedures, and committed then to look for the priorities ? calls that are the most important for this time. First of all we listened to the reports from the different Provincial Commissions and also to some invited guests: Fr. Oreste Inchimatata, a Diocesan priest who shared with us what he had begun as a self-reliance project, pointing out that an important point is to be creative and having a vision on what one wants to do, as self-reliance will also give us freedom of action and mind; Bro. Joe McKee, our Vicar General who has come as representative of Bro. Emili Turú, shared with us on the challenge of living in unity within our restructured province, giving a strong emphasis on a deep dialogue as a means to help the growth of our province, definitively we need to create spaces to talk. Also a capitulant, Bro. Christian Gisamonyo shared with us his insights on Community Life, which he helped us to deepen into our realities in the province, and looking into the practical means that can help us to improve our life. After having this information, then the Chapter pointed out the following priorities: Revitalized Communities, Working on our Finance Autonomy, Looking into a
Unity of life and Government.
The Provincial Chapter choose the team of brothers who will be working together with Bro. Valentin as councilors, are: Brothers Albert Nzabonaliba, Charles Nzabanita, Hosea Mugera, Straton Malisaba and Teodoro Grageda, a council that together with the provincial has 46 years as a mean of age.
In the end, the Chapter also looked into the Norms for the Province and the Rules of Procedure for the Chapter. We closed the gathering with a celebration of birthdays and silver jubilee of the brothers, together with the attendance of the brothers from the neighbouring communities in Rwabuye and Save.