What's Next?

When we met by province yesterday Alice, Maureen and I discussed how we will take the spirit and message of the second Maist International Mission Assembly back home.  Our hope is that at least one of us will share the message in person with each entity in the province during the upcoming year.  We also intend to meet with the provincial council to share our thoughts and listen to their suggestions.  And we hope to schedule a conference call with the school liaisons to discuss how to integrate the message into the activities of the upcoming Montagne year.  

What is the message that we will share?  While the formal message is still bring refined and translated we intend to convey the heart of what is new (or not so new):  our call to deepen our spirituality (to be mystics), our call to minister at the peripheries (to be prophets) and our common mission as Champagnat Marists (to be in communion).

Lastly, this blog will continue as a way for each of us to share our stories as we grow together.  Look for details in the near future.

Below is a quote to ponder as we continue to advance the Marist mission:

Still working/still praying

Our synthesizing process has been long and hard - as much as we all have similarities in our Marist way of being, we also have a wide spectrum of what is valid for each of our regions and provinces.  So to come up with a summary that works for everyone is quite an interesting process.  We've  contemplated individually, in small groups and large groups.  We've " voted" with our yellow and orange dots on what we think the priorities are, and a small committee of synthesizers has taken all that and put it into several documents that we've examined and pulled apart and put together again.  Today, we heard the final statement, an all inclusive document - but one that will, after our group reflection on it, will still undergo changes.  We also met with our region, Arco Norte, to talk about how to share the excitement with everyone back home, on a community level, a province level and a regional level.  Lots of good ideas...

                                                                  Hard at work

                                                            Arco Norte Regional meeting

                                                                candles at prayer

                                                             Br. Tony Leon making his decisions

                                                     Dancing at morning prayer

                                                       Hashing out the priorities

Br. Michael, Sri Lanka

Wrapping Up

As Maureen noted, we are winding down and wrapping up here in Nairobi.  The last two days have been intense.  We have been processing all that we shared, looking for commonalities and examining the challenges and opportunities inherent in our conclusions.  Today we will receive a synthesis of all of our work.

We are not sure what the form of the synthesis will be - a statement, a letter, or a document but it is clear that it will indicate the beginning and not the end of our work.  One of the challenges noted yesterday was how to take the richness of our discussions back to our provinces.  That is a question that we will tackle in the upcoming days. 

What will we share?  That answer is not clear either. However, we will try to give a synopsis of what the group has said about being a new Marist in mission - the need for communion and not simply collaboration between all Marists, our call to be spirit-filled evangelizers to those on the margins, and the need to be both prophets and mystics.  How will all this come about?  Stay tuned.

Here are a few pictures of the process we used to finalize our work:

One more day!

The list is posted outside of our meeting room - everyone has to confirm their departure times for airport transport.  Today we had several "lasts'...our last small group meeting and our last dinner at St. Joseph House.  Tomorrow we start the closings - we'll all wear our assembly t-shirts for the group picture.   We're having a "good-bye" dinner out in the garden.  But not before we finish up our work.
It's been amazing...hope you get to be in on some of the sharing that we'll do when we get back.

Winding Down

I second Steve's feelings about yesterday.  I was also at the same orphanage - and was totally taken aback by the sights, sounds and smells.  Besides being difficult to see, it brought up all kinds of realizations - like the fact that I would have a very, very hard time going there everyday to work.  I can't even imagine the difficulty of that.  It's rather humbling.  We had a chance to process a little bit last night with the people in our house - everyone shared their own experiences.  It helped a little to hear the others express a lot of the same feelings that I had.
Today was "crunch time" and it will continue tomorrow.  We are winding down, and thus need to synthesize and consolidate all that we've been discussing.  This is hard work -first, we had 3 hours of silence to do a personal synthesizing.  These are the materials we've been working with - I found a nice spot outside to go through everything.  But my head was spinning - so much to think about!

 The we got into our small groups.  In a small group of eight people, trying to come up with a consensus on what the priorities should be is difficult enough.  But then we moved into the larger group and attempted the same thing.  The group leaders had to meet to present their own group's list...and now a committee of representatives is meeting, probably well into the night, to put it all into a form upon which we can work tomorrow.  Our question today - what are your dreams for Marist 2030?  What will it look like, what will it mean to be Marist in the future?  Share your thoughts!

                                                                  Listening intently!

                                                      Our large group meeting this morning.

                                                              Scenes from morning prayer - the drum was our symbol today

And tonight our last cultural presentations - Europe and Africa

A Challenging Day

Tuesday was by far the most difficult day for me in Nairobi.  We began the day with a prayer challenging us to look at the world through the eyes of a child.  We then heard from the younger members of the assembly who shared their thoughts on the future of Marist life through a skit imagining what things will be like when the third Marist International Mission Assembly is held.  Both challenged us (me) to look at things differently.

Following a short break four presenters shared about their province's experience with lay formation and association.  In less than hour, we heard about efforts in Norandina, Canada, Iberica and Australia.  They ranged from two year formal formation programs to creations of new entities.  My head was spinning!

After lunch we were sent to an immersion experience.  My group was assigned to an "orphanage".  I was expecting to spend the afternoon playing with some young children.  The reality was quite different. The home that we visited was for multi-handicapped, mentally challenged young women.  Many of the women were rescued from garbage heaps or brought to the home by neighbors in a plastic bag.  The sights and smells were overwhelming and beyond description.

Even the bus ride to and from the home was disturbing.  The area we visited was poorer than Karen, the section in which we are staying, but still not considered the slums.  During the brief walk down the road to the home we saw a lot of refuse, people living in shanties and scantily clad children.  As someone said to me, these are the things that we see in an infomercial shown at 3 AM in the United States - something we keep at a distance and which we often refuse to believe exists. 

It will take some time to process the experiences of the day.  I have a feeling that the work of the assembly only begins in Nairobi!

Few more pix

Inside in our main meeting room, the giraffes showed up.

 And the map continually has more added to it...Marcellin helping us see through the eyes of the children.

On A Lighter Note- random photos

The young people presented a panel on Seeing the World through the Eyes of the Children

 The Plaque outside Mother Theresa Orphanage that we visited yesterday.

 The video message from the students of the United States being shown before afternoon prayer.

 New decorations are always appearing - the elands disappeared and the chimps showed up.

Each group meeting spot had this centerpiece - designed to look like the II MIMA logo of the flame.

The spot where we have coffee break reminds us of our Marist qualities.

Marist Mision and Marial Prayer

On Monday the delegation from the United States was responsible for creating and leading a prayer focused on Mary.  The theme for the day was Marist mission so for prayer we chose to use the story of the Visitation, Mary's response to her call.  We began the prayer by showing a video of the liftoff to Nairobi featuring the prayer services held in each school along with a bit about how our students respond to their call.  (Thanks to Erin Sisk and Anthony Gonzalez, a sophomore at Roselle Catholic High School for producing the video.) You can view the video by clicking on the link below:

Lift Off to Nairobi

The prayer also included multicultural images of the visitation and ended with the Hail Mary recited in English, Spanish and French with accompanying gestures. Here are a couple of pictures:

 

 

Storming

As a social worker, we talk about the stages of a group or a community - and in shorthand, we say, "Forming, norming, storming, performing and adjourning" and variations thereof.  Our group here has certainly formed - community created.  And normed - settled in to the routine, getting to know one another.  Storming, with a group such as this,  simply means becoming comfortable enough to be uncomfortable - to face the challenging aspects, knowing that what one says will be treated gently.  Storming is where I am right now - acknowledging that there are some tough questions here, with no easy answers.  What may seem black and white to some is actually very complex.
 One question - how will the lay Marist role play out in the larger institute?
Are we merely helpers to the brothers?  Are we full partners?  Is a lay call to being Marist as valid as that of a brother?  What do you think?   It would be great for us to hear from  you WHILE WE ARE STILL HERE!  Please send along your thought in the comment section,

And just so have at least one photo here - this was our prayer around the fire this morning.  We had to choose a color that represented our feelings now - blue for strength and energy, green for harmony and hope, white for spirituality and faith, yellow for stability and depth.  We hung them on the line so we could see all that was represented.

Guess which colors we picked...

Culture: Respect for Our Past as We Look to Our Future

As Maureen mentioned here are some additional pictures from yesterday.

Procession before the Liturgy of the Word

 

First Reading at Mass

 

Drums leading to the dedication of the Charles Howard Park

 

And pictures from our time at Bomas...

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is interesting to me that despite the colonization that took place in Africa, people retained their customs and language.  In Kenya we saw that there are even distinct regional dances and customs.  What is the message for us?  Perhaps as we look at what it means to be "new" we need to make sure that we respect and preserve the traditions that are at our core.

And here is a quote to consider as we continue our discussion of what it means to be "New Marists in Mission".

For it's not light that is needed, but fire; it's not the gentle shower, but thunder. We need the storm, the whirlwind and the earthquake in our hearts.

— Frederick Douglass

workday/rest dayI

Saturday here in Nairobi was a challenging work day, full of important questions about brothers and lay, working together in communion.  Presentations, small groups, and large group processing drained my brain.  All good stuff...just lots to think about.

After dinner, though, we headed out to the garden for the Hakuna Matata party - a chance to let off a little steam.

Today, Sunday, was a "rest day".  We had breakfast at 8 instead of 7:15, went to Mass at the MIC, which was quite a celebration with great music, drumming, dance.  We then took part in a tree planting ceremony there at the MIC, followed by a picnic lunch.

THEN, we went to Bomas of Kenya - a place to see traditional villages of the various tribes of Kenya, plus dance and acrobatic performances of the many cultures here.

I think Br. Steve will have some better photos of the dancers.  Plus you can check the champagnat.org website and click on assembly or go to facebook page nairobi2014 to see lots of good pix.

Our first week is complete - many great memories, lots of good work, great conversations, beautiful prayer services...Marists do it right!