We began the second day of the General Assembly (GA) with Morning Prayer of the Church.
It was a day for Reports: the Financial Report from the Bursar General and presentation of the different Society units (Generalate, Provinces, Districts and Districts-in-formation) and the GA participants. We also had to adopt the Methodology to be used at the GA.
There are delegates from six Provinces (Lyon, Ireland, Great Britain, Holland, USA and Italy), three Districts (Spain, Canada, Strasbourg), 6 Districts-in-formation (Bight of Benin, Great Lakes, Gulf of Guinea, India, Philippines and Poland). A Lay missionary from the United States represents all SMA Lay missionaries.
From the presentation the following points are worth highlighting:
– The ever present desire on the part of our members to continue the missionary work begun 156 years ago by Bishop Marion Brésillac
– The desire to provide young people with the right qualities needed for the mission, the necessity for good academic training, a simple lifestyle and spirituality rooted in Christ.
– The desire to increase collaboration between units, particularly in the areas of personnel management, in initial and ongoing formation work, in mission animation and challenges of mission in Africa and beyond Africa.
– Concern of the young units regarding financial self-sufficiency, their efforts to reach the level recommended by the 2007 General Assembly: i.e. that each unit must source 50% of its budget locally.
– The ageing of members in the older units is compensated by the abundance of vocations in the Districts-in-formation. It was noted that 2/3 of our membership is from the northern hemisphere.
A friendly and fraternal environment is present during our sessions. Your prayers support the common will of the whole Society to always go forward.