austraLasia #2912 EAO Mission Study Days prelude to 142nd
missionary send-off
PORT MORESBY: 29 August 2011 -- The EAO set of
Mission Study Days is by now a past event - concluding on 25
August with the Oceania group (Australia, Melanesia,
Polynesia) in Port Moresby. The challenge ahead now for the
SDB and FMA Missions Teams (and for other Salesian Family
Groups who will join them) is the one month preparation
session in Rome, then in Piedmont, for the next annual
(142nd) mission send-off, in September.
The Mission Study Days, which began in
Sampran, Thailand, and concluded in Port Moresby, PNG,
focused on 'first proclamation' of the Gospel, and what it
means in local contexts. The same theme is being repeated
throughout the continents. This deeper, contextual approach
seeks to identify the real challenges and also note new
insights and perspectives arising from practice.
The situation for initial proclamation in
Oceania is vastly different than that for East Asia - and
indeed within 'Oceania', which includes at least Australia
and New Zealand, Melanesia and Polynesia, the situation is
again a varying one. These differences were reflected in the
contents, contributions and responses of participants at the
Oceania meeting. Perhaps the one similarity between East
Asia and Oceania was the value of storytelling as a way of
visualising proclamation in practice.
The Oceania group was helped by a number
of scholarly and practical reflections by experts in the
field - such as the talk by Fr Franco Zocca on initial
proclamation within the Melanesian (and specifically PNG)
context; Fr David WIllis OP reflecting on rapid
secularisation especially in societies (again largely in the
Melanesian context) where people have moved from Stone Age
to Digital Age over a relatively short period of time; Fr
Elio Capra SDB, an expert from Australia on the Catechumenal
model; Fr John Cabrido SDB who looked at the situation in
the Melanesian context. But there were no lack of
questions and reflections either on the situation for
Polynesia. One of the very real questions in a part of the
world which adopted Christianity almost totally, but less
than 200 years ago, and with the exception of Fiji, has very
few non-Christians, is what precisely 'first proclamation'
could mean in such a context.
Despite the fact that there are always
more questions than there are answers, the Oceania group has
drawn up a synthesis of insights based on 4 Cs: Context,
Culture, Community, Christ, with some ideas relating also to
post-initial proclamation (based on the same themes).
If readers wish to follow up on any of
the materials for both groups (East Asia and Oceania), all
documentation received is available on Bosconet.
