IACM NEWSLETTER
International Association of Catholic Missiologists
Number 8 – March 2007
www.iacm-aimc.com
FROM THE PRESIDENT
A Blessed Season of Lent and Easter to all members of the IACM. Let me quote from the Message for Lent 2007 of Benedict XVI :
Dear brothers and sisters, let us look at Christ pierced on the Cross! He is the unsurpassing revelation of God’s love.… In all truth, only the love that unites the free gift of oneself with the impassioned desire for reciprocity instills a joy which eases the heaviest of burdens. Jesus said: “When I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw all men to myself” (Jn 12:32). The response the Lord ardently desires of us is above all that we welcome his love and allow ourselves to be drawn to him. Accepting his love, however, is not enough. We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others. Christ “draws me to himself” in order to unite himself to me, so that I learn to love the brothers with his own love.
“We need to respond to such love and devote ourselves to communicating it to others.” This devotion to the communication of God’s love is the theme of our Missiological Conference this year, in only 6 months. Sharing the Good News in the Interaction of Cultures. The Lenten and Easter seasons can aid our deeper reflection on this theme.
IACM Website
We are very thankful to Bertrand Roy, our executive secretary, who has gotten the IACM its own website: www.iacm-aimc.com
The website is up and running but not yet complete. Here can be found the registration form and the details about the up-coming IACM Conference and Assembly in Pieniężno. The history and statutes of our association are also there along with much more information. The explanation of the logo can be found by clicking on the logo.
How can we better use the website? This can be one topic at our assembly. The website can be an instrument for encouraging collaboration among missiologists. It can be a place for us to share articles or book reviews. We can use it to report on what regional or local groups of missiologists are doing including activities and publications. We can use it to revitalize the Study Groups that were formed at the 2004 assembly. We can offer links to other sites and we can request others to offer our site as one of their links. It has the potential for many things but we as the IACM will need to discuss how best to use it and how we will coordinate the running of the site.
The website gives the IACM a “face” or a presence. In one sense we exist through the website. What do we need to do as an association to make the website a place of exchange that fosters missiological research and education?
IAMS
We are very grateful to the International Association for Mission Studies (IAMS) who had and still has kept us as part of their website. They kept our statues, the assembly reports and application form up on their website.
The 12th Assembly of IAMS will be in Balaton, Hungary, August 16–22, 2008. The theme is: Human Identity and the Gospel of Reconciliation: Agenda for Mission Studies and Praxis in the 21st Century. Since many members of the IACM are also members of IAMS, this is one reason that we are a having our conference this year so that members who belong to both associations can possibly attend both conferences. This was urged by the founding assembly in 2000. Again, we express our gratefulness to IAMS for hosting us on their website.
IACM Members
We are happy to say that there have recently been a number of new applications for membership in the IACM. This is good as it will broaden our membership and hopefully a number of these members will attend the Missiological Conference in Pieniężno, Poland.
IACM Missiological Conference & Third Plenary Assembly
We are six months away from the 2007 IACM Missiological Conference and Third Plenary Assembly in Pieniężno, Poland. As mentioned previously, the Executive Board has requested some funding to offer assistance primarily to those from Asia, Africa and Latin America to attend. We have not yet gotten any positive responses. 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.
Again our vision is that the Missiological Conference in Pieniężno 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. Hopefully after the Conference all of these can be published. We hope many will attend and encourage other to attend. You can get the registration form via the website.
Edinburgh 2010
In 1910, Edinburgh was the venue for the historic World Missionary Conference. This was a gathering which lead to the modern ecumenical movement. There is an effort to reflect on the significance of this event in the light of the experience of the past hundred years and the realities of Christian Mission in the 21st century. More information can be found at the website: www.towards2010.org.uk The organizers would be grateful for Catholic participation.
Bill LaRousse
wlarousse@Maryknoll.org
FROM THE VICE PRESIDENT
Eleazar López Hernández, Misionología desde la periferia del mundo, 2007.
On IACM website, you will find a reflection about missiology offered by IACM Vice President as a contribution to the Study Group on Missiology and Praxis. This article is presented in the Spanish pages. Visit the section “publicaciones – artículos”.
www.iacm-aimc.com/espagnol/publicaciones/articulo1.html
FROM THE EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
IACM Missiological Conference & Third Plenary Assembly
Pieniężno, Poland, August 28 – September 2, 2007
Information about the conference is available at our web site.
Visit the section “events”, then “Pieniezno 2007”:
http://www.iacm-aimc.com/english/events/pieniezno.html
or http://www.iacm-aimc.com/espanol/eventos/pieniezno.html
You will find there the latest version of the program, the registration form and the application form for subsidies if necessary. The deadline for application for subsidies is April 30, 2007.
The participants who must apply for a visa to travel to Poland will need a letter of invitation. The Provincial of the Polish SVD Province has kindly accepted to prepare this letter. The participants who need such a letter should communicate with Fr Andrzej Pietrzak SVD, from the Local Committee, before March 31, 2007.
Re: Fr Andrzej Pietrzak, Ul. Jagiellonska, 45, 20-950 Lublin, Poland - e-mail: onru@adres.pl
To facilitate the planning of our gathering in Poland, we will be very grateful if you send your registration as soon as possible, or at least a short e-mail indicating your intention to participate to this event and join the group for the optional tour in the South of Poland. Thank you!
Bertrand Roy
180 Place Juge-Desnoyers
Laval QC Canada H7G 1A4
bertrand@smelaval.org