Stage 5 of the International Forum on the Lay Marist Vocation begins
The Secretariat of the Laity, on 4 November 2024, hosted over 60 Marists, who gathered online representing all the regions and time zones of the world to begin Stage 5, the final stage of the International Forum on the Lay Marist Vocation which began in 2021. Stage 5 consists of all the delegates who gathered for Stage 3 in Rome in November 2022 for the face-to-face forum, returning to offer input and suggestions. The online gathering is the first of four virtual gatherings taking place between 4 November to 5 December to officially close the International Forum on 5 December before the final document is presented to the General Council and General Chapter in 2025.
Br Ernesto Sanchez, Superior General of the Marist Institute welcomed all gathered online and thanked them for all the contributions and work they have made to the Forum process so far. The four online gatherings will give all participants a chance to read, reflect and discuss progress made since everyone met in Rome in 2022. Stage 4 continued through 2023 and consisted of twelve months of discernment groups engaged in deeper levels of discussion, dialogue and planning with 23 delegates nominated by the General Council to continue the work of the Forum.
Stage 5 has seen delegates be presented with three working documents as the fruit of the work of the discernment groups to reflect upon and discuss. The Virtual Forums have 4 main goals:
- To better understand the proposal the Secretariat of the Laity is offering based on the synodal conversations and dialogue since 2021;
- To hear how the group welcomes the proposal, both personally and at a global and institutional level;
- To receive new ideas and develop the thinking and expression;
- To reach consensus and validate the global proposal and each of it’s parts.
The first Virtual Forum examined the global proposal to create an International Association of Lay Marists of Champagnat. The characteristics of the Association would take the form of a canonical and a civil entity, autonomous but also in communion with the Institute, to take care of the life and mission of lay Marists. The Association whose main purpose would be to care for and promote the vocation and mission of Lay Marists, fully in communion and co-responsibility with the Brothers.
The International Forum has been a response to the calls of the XXII General Chapter to ‘Deepen the charismatic identity of all Marist vocations and develop new paths of animation and vocational accompaniment, as well as a new language and structures that foster communion.’ This strategy is developed in the project ‘Lighthouses of Hope’, whose objective is ‘Generate and accompany new Marist life, so as to build up our Global Charismatic Family’. The Secretariat of the Laity of the Institute has been entrusted with the task of carrying out this 4 year process in communion with the global charismatic family across all regions of the Marist world.
Delegates will gather again for Virtual Gathering #2 on Tuesday 12 November to discuss the Identity and Vocation component for Lay Marists of Champagnat.
