austraLasia - 5669(III)_EAO Don Bosco Green Alliance ready for the Season of Creation 2021

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By EAO Don Bosco Green Alliance Eco Team

EAO, 11 August 2021 -- The monthly (almost regular since December 2020) meeting of the DB Green Alliance East Asia-Oceania ECO TEAM was held on 10 August 2021 with the participation of 30 representatives from most of our 12 provinces for 85 minutes online.

At the beginning, the ECO team members, both SDB and lay mission partners, were encouraged by the greeting of Fr Joseph Phuoc (EAO SDB Regional Councillor) who mentioned the recent concern of the General Council about a more effective accompaniment of the DBGA movement at global level.

The founder and present convener of the DBGA, Fr Savio Silveira (INB provincial) introduced the incoming 'SOC' (Season of Creation) an annual ecumenical Christian month-long event (Sept 1 - Oct 4, 2021) animated by Pope Francis since 2015 as one of the most visible follow ups to the 'Laudato Si' encyclical: with prayer, awareness, concrete action and advocacy - as expressions of 'integral ecology'. This year the theme of the SOC is 'Home for All? Renewing the Oikos of God' (Oikos from Greek means 'home' or 'household')

Since the DB Green Alliance is an official partner in the Season of Creation, given the global spread (79 countries and 446 members) the presentation by Fr Savio was followed by questions and sharing (http://seasonofcreation.org).

It's encouraging to breath the enthusiastic, proactive and family spirit among the ECO team members, a good number of them being the frontliners in 'integral ecology' (e.g. school youth animation: CIN, rural agriculture cooperative: FIN, parish activist: INA, representative of Salesian Cooperators: KOR, SDB and Past Pupils: PGS etc). Many new faces on the screen witness to the growth of the DBGA around the region: at present 91 registered institutions from 17 countries, with a growing number of SDB formation houses.

A special 'parish' focus was raised by Fr Antonio Molavin (FIN) with the Manila, Makati - St Ildefonso parish movement of 'Laudato Si' families (goal to attract 500 families in 3 years time). This family movement is actually a part of the 'Laudato Si Action Platform' of Pope Francis, that will be unveiled at the end of this Season of Creation, October 4, 2021 with a detailed Road Map (2021-2017:https://laudatosiactionplatform.org) for the global Catholic community.

Given this enthusiastic atmosphere of the August ECO team meeting, a time for next month's meeting was set (21 Sept.) with special contributions promised from from PGS, THA-Cambodia and FIN province (3 min videos).