North American Region
CLC - USA
CLC Canada
CVX Canada
About the Conference:
- Introduction by the facilitator of the program
- The purpose of the program
- Basic outline of the conference
NEW!
Reflections on Water
A Communal Experience of the
18th Annotation with a focus on water
About the Conference:
The
Purpose of the Program
Background
World CLC has long envisioned and encouraged regional meetings of groups of National CLC’s. Such groups have emerged in Europe, Latin America, Africa, and Asia. Five years ago the first meeting was held in North America, hosted by CLC Canada, involving them, CLC USA and CVX in French-speaking Canada. It was a successful first meeting, an opportunity to make friends and “get to know you.” It is a time again to meet together and to move on to action of mutual support and jointly addressing what are common issues.
Purpose and Theme of Our October 2005 Meeting
The purposes of the meeting were to:
- Learn how to work together in the context of being sisters and brothers together in CLC.
- Learn how we can learn from each other and help each other in formation for mission in the place where we live, where God has placed us, North America. Formation for mission is a life-long activity for all of us, it is not just forming small communities, but also learning to be adept at social analysis as we “discern, send, support, and evaluate” each other’s work and our common calling.
- Leave the Cenacle Retreat Center with a common formation activity and a common social action activity focused on water issues that we can accomplish and the beginnings of a structure to do it.
We chose to focus on water as a topic for social action and as a vehicle for learning. As a symbol, water is very important to us as Christians. As an issue, it is very important in North America as our two countries surround and are entrusted with the stewardship of the greatest source of fresh water on the planet, the Great Lakes. And of course the water issues are great between the USA and Mexico with dramatic implications for the poor. We have some wonderful water experts in our communities. Most important, part of formation into CLC must be learning to do social analysis, and the water issues provide a perfect opportunity for this aspect of formation, as we also form ourselves in the Exercises and in CLC as community.
Who Is Invited to Participate and What Are the Expectations?
This decision of who will participate was made by each of the three national communities and in the context of their normal way of proceeding. The total number of participants was limited by space and our desire for all participants to participate fully, and a reasonable balance in numbers of participants between the three communities. Each national community made decisions in regard to financial support and other such issues. .
We did have some expectations of those who participate. First, some papers and documents were distributed before the meeting, and each participant read and prayed over these documents prior to the meeting. Also, a local community may have asked the participant to perform certain roles at the meeting. Finally, the meeting will have been a success only if the participants return to their communities and work to accomplish the agenda set during the weekend.
The hope was that all participants would be sent, in the sense that word is used in the Nairobi documents, to the meeting by their community (CVX, CLC – Canada, or CLC – USA), for we desire that the communities take ownership of the outcomes of the meeting and that those in attendance become those taking the lead in making the North American Region come alive.
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2006 NCLC-USA. All rights reserved.
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