S’ASSEOIR « ET » MARCHER ENSEMBLE AG

The first preparatory session of the XVth general Assembly opened on Monday September 6 with a Eucharistic celebration and it is taking place at the Central house until September 15.
 
On that occasion, Roland Laneuville recalled the evangelical image of the builder who begins by sitting down to reflect and to make his estimates. At the same time, he cited the leitmotiv chosen for that general Assembly: let us Journeying together. « To build our SME tower or consolidate it, do we have to sit down or journeying together? Sit down of course! Those will be our sessions. To journeying together, yes. Our assembly, in a synodal perspective, invites us to journey. » (For the text of the homily at the Eucharist and the group picture of the participants, see the chronicle.)
 
To sit down « and » journeying together. We did both during the first days of this session. In addition to having a good seat around the table, we have covered many kilometers so as to meet by zoom five participants who had not received their visas. For the seventeen others here present, including three substitutes, it was a sharing of tasks (coordination, secretariate, liturgy, information, etc.), followed by a short period of formation by Mposo Makwanda on shared leadership, especially from a strategic planning perspective.
 
The presentation of the reports of the Central Council and of the General Services gave us a first overall view of the current life of the Society.  The reports of the three sectors (Latin America, Asia/Kenya and Canada) and that of the temporary members then enabled us to share the experience of recent years. Those reports also mentioned the questions and the propositions coming from the different groups for the attention of the General Assembly.
 
It is impossible to enter here into the details of that information period that will feed the future discussions of the Assembly. It goes without saying, however, that the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic has affected everyone and was also, despite everything, a call for creativity in animation and communication. (Bertrand Roy)
 
Friday afternoon, all the reports having been read, Mposo Makwanda offered us a first exercise: identify the important issues that emerge from the reports and express why those issues are important. An issue is something that affects the future of the group, something that requires from us to take the necessary means to face it.  
 
In plenary session, we saw that those issues revolve around the mission that is and will be ours tomorrow. The challenges of today’s world.  What gives meaning, what is relevant with the style of a Church that we want to live.  Relationships between us. The challenges of communication, brotherhood, the  style de governance. What missionary animation and formation are we ready to adapt to the mission that will be ours? During the second week of this preparatory session, we will now deepen and clarify the reflection on those challenges (Jean Greffard)