austraLasia 766
SOUTH PACIFIC: SALESIAN SIX IN JOINT PROGRAMME FOR 'PERPETUALS'
SUVA: 4th December '03 -- Six South Pacific Salesians (five from Samoa, one from Tonga) later this week commence a two week initial 'Hesed' Programme with 20 other Religious from around the South Pacific region. It is certainly a first for the region, and also for the Salesians who have been planning carefully at the level of the Pacific sector of the Australian Province Formation Commission towards a fruitful one year preparation programme for those wanting to commit themselves to perpetual vows.
The idea is the brainchild of the Conference of Major Superiors of the Pacific Islands, and the Salesians have been closely involved in the planning of this event from the outset. Religious groups taking part include, besides the six Salesians, Marist Brothers and Fathers (SM), Marist Sisters (SM), Missionary Sisters of the Society of Mary (SMSM), Missionaries of the Sacred Heart (MSC), Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth(SOLN), and Sisters of Our Lady of the Sacred Heart (FDNSC/OLSH). Participants, roughly an equal gender split, come from Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Vanuatu, PNG, Kiribati, Solomon Islands and Rabi (accepted into the Republic of Fiji Islands but with autonomy of a kind - all Banabans from an island destroyed by phosphate mining).
The two week residential programme of prayer, study, recreation, reflection and sharing will focus on the meaning of commitment for vowed apostolic religious in today's world and the Pacific. Major themes include God's Faithful Love, His desire to enter into Covenant with us, the Call to follow Christ poor chaste and obedient, Consecration for Mission. Missionaries with experience in the Pacific as well as in formation and spiritual direction will facilitate the programme, and Pacific Religious and lay people will also be part of the team.
The programme is being held on one of Fiji's most beautiful and remote islands, Ovalau, where the British first established their power base after Cakobau, the self-styled King of Fiji, ceded the islands to the British Crown in October 1874.
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