IACM NEWSLETTER
International Association of Catholic Missiologists
Number 7 – December 2006

FROM THE PRESIDENT
A Blessed Christmas to all the members of the IACM, to your communities and families.
“The Child lying in the manger is truly God’s Son. God is not eternal solitude but rather a circle of love and mutual self-giving. He is Father, Son and Holy Spirit.… God’s everlasting “today” has come down into the fleeting today of the world and lifted our momentary today into God’s eternal today. God is so great that he can become small. God is so powerful that he can make himself vulnerable and come to us as a defenseless child, so that we can love him. God is so good that he can give up his divine splendor and come down to a stable, so that we might find him, so that his goodness might touch us, give itself to us and continue to work through us. This is Christmas: “You are my son, this day I have begotten you”. God has become one of us, so that we can be with him and become like him. As a sign, he chose the Child lying in the manger: this is how God is. This is how we come to know him.” (Benedict XVI, Christmas Homily 2005).
God who is “a circle of love and mutual self-giving” is God who is missionary by nature. Christmas is celebration of mission flowing from that circle of love which is mutual self-giving. This Christmas may we again find God in Jesus, may His goodness touch us and may we open ourselves again to Jesus continuing his mission through us.

What do we mean by region?

One discussion that the Executive Board recommends for the IAMC at our next assembly in Poland is a discussion about what we mean by region when we speak of regional representatives. Our Statutes (art. IV, 1) say that the Executive Board is made up of “a number of Regional Representatives” therefore leaving open the number of Regional Representatives. We read also that: “The Regional Representatives shall promote the objectives and activities of the IACM in the geographical or ecclesial areas assigned to them” (art IV, 2e).

At present our “regional” representatives are more like “continental” representatives. The vastness of the areas assigned to them is a difficulty for effective communication and coordination. The Statutes allow us to define “regional” in any manner that best fits our various situations around the world. What are the “geographical” or “ecclesial” areas that would be most effective for the regional representatives? 

We also see ourselves at the service of the local churches. We emphasize the priority of a local approach. Should we have and encourage more local associations? Can these then network in “regions” or then “continents” to coordinate with the IACM so that we can foster fellowship among Catholic missiologists? We need to have a limited number on the Executive Board for practical reasons but we also need local associations as places of belonging and communication. We have suggested the Newsletter and hopefully soon our web-site as places where regional or local groups can inform the IACM members of their activities and publications. Our regional representatives tell of the difficulty of communication. Yet there have been attempts to have gatherings or to use other occasions to the benefit of the IACM.

In Asia the regional Assembly in India planned for 2006 could not be organized. The Philippine Association of Catholic Missiologist continues to meet yearly with a mission conference each year. The IACM was invited to the Asian Mission Congress in Thailand last October 18-22, 2006. Jan Gorski came from Poland; Antonio Camacho Muñoz of the Missionaries of Guadalupe were present. Ten IACM members from Asia were also present. Jim Kroeger and John Prior were resource persons. All others were workshop facilitators. This was also an opportunity for Lazar Stanislaus and me to meet Ivan Cardinal Dias and to speak with him about the IACM.

In North America there was an attempt to have a workshop in 2006 but it didn’t materialize. In Africa there has been outreach to French speaking Africa but communication has been difficult. In Latin America while there was no meeting of the Latin American Association of Missiologists, there was communication among people involved in the research on “teologia indigena” (Congress in Manaus in 2006). The Mexican Association of Missiologists is involved in the preparation of CELAM V in Brazil (2007). In Europe, the European Conference of Missiology (Paris, August 2006) was an opportunity to inform others about IACM and to invite people to join the association. There is a suggestion to have a gathering of IACM members in Rome sometime before the Conference/Assembly beginning next August.

Towards our 2007 Conference and Assembly in Pieniężno

One constant concern should be to invite and involve a new generation of missiologists to keep the IACM current and open to new members. Practically we need to prepare for the 2007 Conference and Assembly. The Executive Board has requested some funding to offer assistance primarily to those from Asia, Africa and Latin America to attend. We can make no promises of assistance. It will depend on the funding we might get and the donations we receive from our sponsors. We have targeted May 1 as a date to make decisions on funding based on the actual cash that we have available at that time. Perhaps during this Christmas season some IACM members might be able to make some donations to help others to participate in the 2007 Conference/Assembly.

Again our vision is that the Missiological Conference in Pieniężno will not be a conference for the IACM where we invite speakers to talk to us but this will be a conference of the IACM where we all talk and listen to one another. All participants are to be presenters in one way or another either presenting a Continental Paper or a Member Paper. All are asked to personally contribute to missiological thinking around the theme of the Conference. We will gather and present to one another our research and insights around this theme. This conference will stress the professional nature of the association and the competency of all its members.

A Blessed Christmas and a Fruitful New Year to all.

Bill LaRousse
wlarousse@Maryknoll.org

FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY

As it was announced in the last Newsletter, the Missiological Conference and the Third Plenary Assembly of the IACM will be held from August 28 to September 2, 2007 at the SVD Seminary in Pieniężno, in the North of Poland.

Schedule

The arrival at Warsaw will be at the latest on Monday, August 27, and the participants will spend the night in Warsaw so that all can leave together to Pieniężno on Tuesday morning, August 28. This trip will be a time of exposure (information on Poland and its history, visits of historical sites, etc.). The participants will register at their arrival in Pieniężno in the afternoon.

The Missiological Conference will last three days, from Wedneday, August 29, to Friday,  August 31. The IACM Third Plenary Assembly will be held on Saturday, September 1.

On Sunday morning, September 2, the participants will travel together from Pieniężno to Warsaw. This trip will be a second opportunity for exposure (Sunday Eucharist with a local community, visit of historical sites, etc.). The participants will spend Sunday night in Warsaw and their departure from Warsaw will take place at the earliest on Monday morning, September 3.

An optional tour in the South of Poland (Krakow, Wadowice, Josna Gora, Auschwitz, etc.) will be offered by the Local Committee from Monday morning, September 3, to Wednesday evening, September 5. Participants to this tour will spend the Wednesday night in Warsaw and their departure from Warsaw will take place at the earliest on Thursday morning, September 6.  

Prices

*   This price includes transportation (Warsaw – Pieniężno – Warsaw), board and lodging in Warsaw and in Pieniężno from Monday 27 August (noon) until Monday 3 September (morning).

**  This price includes transportation, board and lodging from Monday 3 September (morning) to Thursday 6 September (morning).

Registration and mode of payment

More information about the registration, the mode of payment and the program of the Missiological Conference and Third Plenary Assembly of IACM will be available soon on our website. It is presently under construction and, hopefuly, will open at the beginning of 2007 at this address (iacm-aicm.com). Thank you for your comprehension and your patience.

To facilitate the planning of our gathering in Poland, I would be very grateful if you send me a short e-mail in order to indicate your intention to participate to the Missiological Conference and the Plenary Assembly, and also to join the group for the optional tour in the South of Poland. Just a few words as a “pre-registration” ... and also a good opportunity to share our best greetings during this Christmas season! 

Bertrand Roy
180 Place Juge-Desnoyers
Laval QC Canada H7G 1A4
bertrand@smelaval.org

P. S. Thank you to Lazar Stanislaus, member of the Executive Board as regional representative of Asia, who has kindly accepted to be in charge of the process of the Missiological Conference. Here he presents the theme and the methodology of the conference.

The choice of the theme

The choice of the theme and its formulation are the result of a brainstorming and a discussion by the members of the Executive Board at their meeting in Rome in July 2005. During this discussion, the cultural interaction as a challenge to mission emerged as the main focus. The interaction of cultures goes on very rapidly in the arena of globalization. In this context, sharing our Christian faith and living that faith are real concerns of individuals, communities and churches. Hence, an appropriate research and study will help to understand the missiological implications of sharing our faith in multicultural societies. 

Sub-topics

The theme of the Conference is broad and to narrow it down to certain contextual issues, the members of the Executive Board at their meeting in Pieniężno, Poland (September 2006) agreed on the following four sub-topics:
-            Integral Healing and Reconciliation
-            Cultural Globalization and Asserting Identity
-            Migration
-            Intercultural Communication in the Church

Christian faith is lived concretely by people affected either positively or negatively by the impact of intercultural encounter. Each sub-topic points to an area of concerns where intercultural relations challenge the experience, the understanding and the expression of the Christian faith. The sharing of experiences and reflections on these sub-topics will bring the participants to identify important areas of missiological research and discern how “the Word of God grew and multiplied” (Act 12:24) in those fields of intercultural relations.

Methodology

“The Missiological Conference in Pieniezno will not be a conference for the IACM where we invite speakers to talk to us but this will be a conference of the IACM where we all talk and listen to one another.  All the participants are to be presenters in one way or another either presenting a Continental Paper or a Member Paper.  All are asked to personnaly contribute to missiological thinking around the theme of the conference”
(From the President, IACM Newsletter, no 7, December 2006).

The conference will consist of (1) plenary sessions where Continental Papers will be presented and discussed, (2) group sessions where all Member Papers will also be presented and discussed, (3) worshop discussions in linguistic groups and (4) a synthesis in a final plenary session.

Continental Papers

Ten (10) Continental Papers (5,000 words; presentation and questions: 45 min.) will be given in five plenary sessions (Europe, Africa, Latin America, Asia, North-America/Oceania).  These continental presentations will approach the theme of the conference and explore its missiological implications from the broad perspective of a continent or subcontinent. The four sub-topics could be helpful to the continental presenters in order to give a focus to their papers. They can take all the four sub-topics or take two or three depending on the relevant context in which they base their papers.  Contacts with continental presentators are being made by the Executive Board and we are grateful to those who have already accepted our invitation to make this contribution.

Member Papers

All the participants are invited and expected to prepare a written contribution on the theme of the conference according to one of the four sub-topics. Participants will chose only one sub-topic and keep that as a base or focal point of their reflection on how the Good News can be shared in the interaction of cultures. Hence, the participants will have the opportunity to write from diverse contexts and issues, but the focus will be on how to share the Good News in the interaction of cultures according to one of the sub-topics. The participants will be divided into groups of nine persons based on the four sub-topics and their papers (3,000 words; presentation and questions: 30 min.) will be presented in three sessions of their respective group.

Workshop discussions

Every afternoon, after the plenary sessions and the group sessions of the day, participants will be given the opportunity to share their reflection in linguistic groups (workshop discussion).

Final Plenary Session

A final plenary session will offer the possibility of a synthesis of the conference.  A “listening group” formed at the beginning of the conference will identify the main results of the different activities in order to facilitate this synthesis.

All your suggestions are welcome. With you participation, it will be “a conference of the IACM where we all talk and listen to one another”..

Lazar Stanislaus
Ishvani Kendra
Off Nagar Road, Sainikwadi, P.B. 3003
Pune – 411014 – INDIA
ishvani@dataone.in
www.ishvanikendra.org

FROM THE TREASURER

The Executive Board agreed on membership fees of 30 US$ for every member. Without distinction, beginning in 2007. Dues can be paid by sending a US dollar check made payable to the International Association of Catholic Missiologists. (The name must be in full and not abbreviated as IACM). Please enclose a note that it is for the payment of your membership fees or a donation. This should be mailed to:

A direct transfer can be made to the account name: International Association of Catholic Missiologists to the LaSalle Bank NA, Chicago, Illinois, ABA 071000505. The account number is 5200956596. For record keeping, please send me a copy of your note to the SVD Mission Office or an e-mail to inform me of this payment. Thank you,

Luisa Melo Leyton
Via Stazione di S. Pietro, 6
000165 ROME, ITALY
lcapple@virgilio.it