austraLasia #1923
Rectors at Hua Hin bringing the issues together
HUA HIN: 8th August 2007 -- With just two days to go - the gathering concludes on 10th August - the very successful gathering of 60 plus people involved in the Rectors Formation event for 2007 at Hua Hin, Thailand, is beginning to bring things together. A clear indication of this are the results (available from Bosconet homepage under 'Rectors Formation') of a survey of the Rectors present on the wide range of practical issues involved in day-to-day animation of a community.
The days continue along the pattern established earlier of input, group discussion, Question and Answer time, mutual sharing, time for personal reflection and time for community building exercises. Given the presence of at least one province with a history of martyrdom, and drawing on the story and example of people like Versiglia and Caravario, the homilist for 7th August also offered Rectors the example of some famous 'first' Rectors in the Region - names such as Fr Acquistapace, Braga.
Fr Michael Winstanley characterised Tuesday 7th August as 'Holy Ground', his Salesian-seen-through-the-eyes-of-Scripture input for the day. This gave him an opportunity to take the Exodus event which the phrase 'holy ground' refers to and tie it to the core value of Salesian oratorian joy, where everything on 'holy ground' takes on great significance. Our problem can be that we 'forget to take off our sandals', forget to cast that contemplative eye of Salesian life on things, and people.
The day continued with input which looked at the Rector's role as spiritual father, promoter, along with Don Bosco, of the Preventive System. it included handout of large sections of the now out-of-print Rectors Manual. even if this item really does need revision, it happens to be the only thing of its kind around and much of it is still valid. The document will soon be made available for reading and download on Salesian Digital Library (and, incidentally, this library is now being added to daily in a variety of languages - it would be worth taking a look - see the link below).
The sharing that followed the input on the Preventive System highlighted key aspects in a Rector's task: our presence among the young, punishment in our works, explaining the preventive system to lay helpers, teaching Christian values on our schools, the whole challenge of inculturation where these matters are concerned.
An on-the-run summary of each of the days has been put together by one of those present - it would need refashioning, rewriting but it contains a blow-by-blow description of everything that has happened over these days. All this material can be viewed from the Bosconet 'Rectors Formation' link indicated earlier. When appropriately prepared formal materials are available, these will replace the current items, but at least those not present at the event have a chance to gain some appreciation of the wealth of materials offered to Rectors at this formatiion gathering.
austraLasia will be offline for several days - resumes on Tuesday 14th.
_________________
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 BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
Rectors at Hua Hin bringing the issues together
HUA HIN: 8th August 2007 -- With just two days to go - the gathering concludes on 10th August - the very successful gathering of 60 plus people involved in the Rectors Formation event for 2007 at Hua Hin, Thailand, is beginning to bring things together. A clear indication of this are the results (available from Bosconet homepage under 'Rectors Formation') of a survey of the Rectors present on the wide range of practical issues involved in day-to-day animation of a community.
The days continue along the pattern established earlier of input, group discussion, Question and Answer time, mutual sharing, time for personal reflection and time for community building exercises. Given the presence of at least one province with a history of martyrdom, and drawing on the story and example of people like Versiglia and Caravario, the homilist for 7th August also offered Rectors the example of some famous 'first' Rectors in the Region - names such as Fr Acquistapace, Braga.
Fr Michael Winstanley characterised Tuesday 7th August as 'Holy Ground', his Salesian-seen-through-the-eyes-of-Scripture input for the day. This gave him an opportunity to take the Exodus event which the phrase 'holy ground' refers to and tie it to the core value of Salesian oratorian joy, where everything on 'holy ground' takes on great significance. Our problem can be that we 'forget to take off our sandals', forget to cast that contemplative eye of Salesian life on things, and people.
The day continued with input which looked at the Rector's role as spiritual father, promoter, along with Don Bosco, of the Preventive System. it included handout of large sections of the now out-of-print Rectors Manual. even if this item really does need revision, it happens to be the only thing of its kind around and much of it is still valid. The document will soon be made available for reading and download on Salesian Digital Library (and, incidentally, this library is now being added to daily in a variety of languages - it would be worth taking a look - see the link below).
The sharing that followed the input on the Preventive System highlighted key aspects in a Rector's task: our presence among the young, punishment in our works, explaining the preventive system to lay helpers, teaching Christian values on our schools, the whole challenge of inculturation where these matters are concerned.
An on-the-run summary of each of the days has been put together by one of those present - it would need refashioning, rewriting but it contains a blow-by-blow description of everything that has happened over these days. All this material can be viewed from the Bosconet 'Rectors Formation' link indicated earlier. When appropriately prepared formal materials are available, these will replace the current items, but at least those not present at the event have a chance to gain some appreciation of the wealth of materials offered to Rectors at this formatiion gathering.
austraLasia will be offline for several days - resumes on Tuesday 14th.
_________________
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 BoscoWiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - subscribe to www.bosconet.aust.com/RSS/rssala.xml Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org
