Together we are moving forward and we will go far

On 15 July 2015 we came together at Sacred Heart Marist College in Johannesburg. Four Marist Brothers and one Lay Marist prayed, worked, dreamed, planned, considered and celebrated together right through until 18 July. 

The purpose of our coming together was to consider the Strategic Plan that our Commission had generated in Nairobi in July 2014 and to enhance that plan by incorporating the appropriate aspects of all of the developments that have taken place in the institute since then.

Br Erick Silali joined the old team of Br Elias Odinaka, Br John Kusi-Mensah, Br Ernest Randriatsoa and Mike Greeff. Br Sylvain Ramandimbiarisoa was unfortunately not able to join his Commission Brothers due to other commitments.

In Johannesburg the team took the opportunity to work through the outputs from II MIMA, from the recent Lay Animators Workshop conducted in Rome, the old plan and the document, The Basic Elements to Design the Global Framework of a Marist Vocational Process for the Laity. We listened again to Br Emili’s Champagnat Day message which focusses so fully on the role of the Laity; all in the heart-rending conditions that our Marist Blues in Allepo are experiencing. We re-analysed the African environmnent and, considering all of the above, we regenerated the AL&BC Strategic Plan with more relevant and focussed content.

What we did realise was that much had been achieved since last year. Yes, there is still much to do but we had many successes to celebrate. 

We applied our minds to the request from the Secretariat of the Laity to contribute thoughts and input to the Continental Commission meeting being planned for October 2016. 

As we know in Africa; “If you want to go fast, go alone. If you want to go far, go together.” Together we are moving forward and we will go far.