Thanksgiving for 2016 of the CRE
We have just finished 2016 and it is an appropriate time to reflect and give thanks for some important moments of the past year.
Really for the CRE it was very important year. There are many reasons for this. I would like to stress only three aspects: the decision to continue the process of restructuring with the help of the Conferences, the new possibilities of collaboration between Conferences, and the stability of some new projects started by the CRE.
One of the most important events of the past year was of course the XXV General Chapter. I am not thinking only about the many decisions taken during the Chapter, but rather that with regard to the Conferences there was a fundamental choice that we continue the process of restructuring for Mission with all its implications by the help of the Conferences. This means that the Conferences after these first seven years were recognised as important and valuable structures within the Congregation. Of course we wish to improve the work of the Conferences but the Conferences and their Assembles will be included in the Directory of Chapters and will receive more stable status. I hope that it will help us in our future work.
The second very important aspect for me in the past year was the new way of helping each other. One example was a new community composed of five Redemptorists from Brazil which started its activity in Lisbon on 17 July 2016. This is – in some ways – the first inter-conference community in the Conference of Redemptorists of Europe.
Every member of this new community belongs to different Redemptorist Units. The contract was signed between the Lisbon Province and the URB (União dos Redentoristas do Brasil). My personal opinion is that we have not taken advantage of the new possibilities connected to the new structures as the Conferences or sub-conferences yet in the full sense. So now is the time to think about it more deeply.
The third aspect is the growing consciousness that the missionary activities started by the CRE are more present year by year in our perceptions when we are looking at the future missionary in Europe. I am thinking about our Interprovincial Community in Albania, our common formation meetings, our evangelization actions as the REDCAM or youth gatherings.
The Conference structure has been created to help all of us to find new ways of collaboration among the Units, the communities and among Redemptorists. It seems that the Conferences can help in this.
The wider missionary discernment undertaken by the CRE gave us a vision of our work on three levels: common permanent missionary projects for all the Units in the CRE (e.g. Albania), temporary missionary work for all (e.g. REDCAMP, formation and Partnership in Mission meetings), and the possibility when one Unit opens its missionary work for all the Units in the CRE (e.g. Astorga, youth meetings).
So these are only three aspects. However we should be grateful to God for much, much more. Thank you for your collaboration and may God bless us in the New Year 2017.
Jacek Zdrzałek C.Ss.R.
