The SMA Provincial Assembly or Chapter Meeting opens today at the SMA Retreat and Conference Centre in Dromantine, Newry, Co. Down. The Assembly takes place every six years and will last for a period of two-weeks.
Twenty-eight SMA members and staff have gathered to discuss and decide the direction and work of the Irish Province of the Society of African Missions for the next six years. A new leadership team will also be elected during the Assembly.
The deliberations of the meeting will be guided by the plans and direction provided by the recent international meeting or General Assembly of the Society of African Missions, which took place in Rome, by submissions from Irish members and from preliminary meetings that took place in SMA Communities around Ireland earlier this year. From these the Agenda and topics to be discussed in Dromantine was drawn up.
The Assembly begins today with a period of refection and prayer during which participants pray for the gift of discernment and the guidance of the Holy Sprit over the coming two weeks. We ask that you remember them in your prayers, that they may, inspired by the Holy Spirit, make wise decisions and discern a path for the SMA Irish Province that is faithful to Gospel and to its mission charism.
“Come Holy Spirit fill the hearts of our faithful
and light up in them the fire of your love.
Send forth your Spirit and they shall be created
an you will renew the face of the earth.”
