austraLasia #2028

Don Bosco Youth Ministry Centre in Korea now afloat!

SEOUL: 15th January 2008 -- Fr Marcelo Baek Kwang Hyun sdb, provincial delegate for Youth Ministry and recently appointed as the first director of the Don Bosco Youth Ministry Centre (DBYMC) in Seoul, has sent  information regarding the announcement of the first official Centre program: the 2008 Youth Ministry Academy program open to any priest, religious or lay person interested in youth ministry.
    The Centre forms part of the new Provincial House Complex in Seoul, where the proposed program will take place.  The two year youth ministry program involves four semesters and can take as many as 40 people.  Each semester has special topic clusters such as catechetics, youth culture and pedagogy, liturgy and sacraments, youth social welfare, youth communications, the Preventive System....    Amongst the 16 main resource persons are 6 Salesians of Don Bosco, 2 Salesian Sisters, 2 diocesan clergy, 7 other lecturers all involved in the youth ministry field.
    It has long been the dream of the Korea province to share the Salesian charismatic experience of living for and with young people not only in school, camp, youth at risk and youth movement settings but also through formation of youth ministers.  Fr Baek is an MA graduate of the UPS and also teaches Youth Ministry at the Catholic University of Incheon.  The planning for the new DBYMC was carried forward by PC2004.
    At the moment the entire Korean Church is seeking new models for youth ministry, facing the problem of many youngsters leaving Church life, particularly Sunday Mass and Sunday School, for other attractions. The overall feeling amongst lay people involved in children and youth catechesis is that the Church has been unable to understand the values of the youth generation today, so the earnest desire is for a radical change in approach and method. In one diocese, Busan, a Bible-centred catechetics ministry has begun, and some parishes have formed a Youth Parish Council with a degree of autonomy and a budget.  It is within this sort of context that the Salesian System seems to fit the needs of the Korean Church. Catholci media and the Archdiocese of Seoul's Youth Ministry Office have shown much interest in the new Centre and its programs.
    The new provincial house complex comprises, as well as provincial house offices, the DBYM Centre, a large church, auditorium and gymnasium, about 40 rooms for visitors, three dormitories for working youth, DB social communications centre, and a vocational training centre. It is a seven-storey as-yet-uncompleted building occupying 20,000 square metres. The building is expected to reach completion in June 2008.  It will also be available for EAO Regional events, the first of which is scheduled to be held there in November 2008 - the annual meeting of EAo Formation Delegates.   _________________
 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 Bosconet-wiki to be interactive. RSS feeds - just go to Bosconet, click on austraLasia 2008 in the sidebar. You will see the RSS orange icon in your browser address bar - add it from there.  Avail yourself of the Salesian Digital Library at at http://sdl.sdb.org

Title: australasia 2028
Subject and key words: EAO Provinces KOR Youth Ministry
Date (year): 2008
ID: 2000-2099|2028