austraLasia #2636
MSMHC Acts of the General Council
GUWAHATI: 4 May 2010 -- It just so happens that I have in my possession at the moment edition no. 1 of the ACTS of the General Council of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, January-April 2010. Big deal, you say? Big deal I say! For any number of reasons.
Here is a member group of the Salesian family adopting a similar means to our own well-known ACTS of the General Council.
To look at it is, at first sight, a clone of the various coloured versions of the AGC that dot the sdb world (Red for English, Blue for Italian, and so on). It seems that we are witnessing here a direct copy of the same tool for another member group of the Salesian Family - you can check out the details of the group and its foundation by Bishop Ferrando in 1942 on sdb.org. The cover, sea-green in colour, really is a clone in every sense: one reads, for example, 'official organ of animation and communication for the Missionary sisters of Mary Help of Christians'. The structure of the contents too is similar: Letter of the Superior General, Guidelines and Policies, Documents, Activities of the General Council (and the well-known 'chronicles' of the Superior General, General council) and finally Statistics. The stats, incidentally, tell us that there are 1020 Sisters in 171 communities, with 101 novices (not a bad figure proportionally speaking) in 6 provinces (in India) plus a gathering of Houses 'under the Generalate' which include at least Swaziland, Lesotho and Hawaii!
However, there is a small difference - the entire ACTS amount to just 66 pages (ours tend to run to 110 or thereabouts).
In her introductory comment, the Superior General, Sr Mary Thadavanal says: "The ACTS shall be used by the provincials and community leaders for the animation of their respective provinces and communities in order that the charism, spirit, spirituality and traditions of the Congregation may be preserved in their original vitality and freshness and that the whole Congregation may move ahead together accomplishing the mission entrusted to it by our Founder, Bishop Stephen Ferrando (1895-1978)". Her first ever letter, at least through this medium, is entitled, "Let us give Mary Help of Christians her rightful place in the Congregation".
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AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
MSMHC Acts of the General Council
GUWAHATI: 4 May 2010 -- It just so happens that I have in my possession at the moment edition no. 1 of the ACTS of the General Council of the Missionary Sisters of Mary Help of Christians, January-April 2010. Big deal, you say? Big deal I say! For any number of reasons.
Here is a member group of the Salesian family adopting a similar means to our own well-known ACTS of the General Council.
To look at it is, at first sight, a clone of the various coloured versions of the AGC that dot the sdb world (Red for English, Blue for Italian, and so on). It seems that we are witnessing here a direct copy of the same tool for another member group of the Salesian Family - you can check out the details of the group and its foundation by Bishop Ferrando in 1942 on sdb.org. The cover, sea-green in colour, really is a clone in every sense: one reads, for example, 'official organ of animation and communication for the Missionary sisters of Mary Help of Christians'. The structure of the contents too is similar: Letter of the Superior General, Guidelines and Policies, Documents, Activities of the General Council (and the well-known 'chronicles' of the Superior General, General council) and finally Statistics. The stats, incidentally, tell us that there are 1020 Sisters in 171 communities, with 101 novices (not a bad figure proportionally speaking) in 6 provinces (in India) plus a gathering of Houses 'under the Generalate' which include at least Swaziland, Lesotho and Hawaii!
However, there is a small difference - the entire ACTS amount to just 66 pages (ours tend to run to 110 or thereabouts).
In her introductory comment, the Superior General, Sr Mary Thadavanal says: "The ACTS shall be used by the provincials and community leaders for the animation of their respective provinces and communities in order that the charism, spirit, spirituality and traditions of the Congregation may be preserved in their original vitality and freshness and that the whole Congregation may move ahead together accomplishing the mission entrusted to it by our Founder, Bishop Stephen Ferrando (1895-1978)". Her first ever letter, at least through this medium, is entitled, "Let us give Mary Help of Christians her rightful place in the Congregation".
_________________
AustraLasia is an email service for the Salesian Family of Asia Pacific. It also functions as an agency for ANS based in Rome. For queries please contact admin@bosconet.aust.com . Use Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2009 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there. Or be interactive with the EAO blog Cetera Tolle. Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at http://sdl.sdb.org
