Happy Feast of the Ascension of our Lord!
In today’s Gospel from Matthew, our Lord sends his disciples to the ends of the earth with a mission of love and service. Within their lifetime those disciples, despite their simple backgrounds, had overcome all obstacles to tell their story and to share their dramatic message of conversion with peoples at the very edges of the known world. What courage and initiative they showed, strengthened by his parting words – “know that I am with you always; yes, to the end of time”.
The same mission of our Lord is given to us in Asia Pacific, where vibrancy and energy of youth can be found together with the wisdom of the ages. The same mission drives the followers of Jesus to continue his work in our broken world, opening our hearts to learn from the wisdom of millennia, extending a hand in partnership with others as friends in the Lord.
Our annual report, Jesuits in Asia Pacific 2014, which is now available, opens a window on the life and work of Jesuits, partners and collaborators in Asia Pacific, on new initiatives today and on our history.
In addition to my report on 2013, you may find updates on our work in formation, migration, and reconciliation with creation.
With one third of Jesuits in Asia Pacific preparing for ministry, formation is a necessary focus for our Conference. Learning from Asia in Asia is an article about formation that shows how our Conference is responding to the need to form Jesuits to learn from their context and to serve the mission of God in Asia, where Christianity is a minority religion. In particular, the article outlines the programme the Loyola School of Theology (LST) in Manila has developed to enable students to engage with Asian contexts. This coincides with the invitation extended by LST and Arrupe International Residence in April to Jesuit Provincials across the world to send scholastics to study theology in Asia.
The situation of masses of people put at risk as migrants is a major concern of our Conference and in Accompanying People on the Move, we offer a picture of the migrant situation in some countries in our part of the world and how we are responding to the needs of vulnerable migrants.
With Typhoon Haiyan still fairly fresh in our minds, we felt it important to stress the need for disaster preparedness and so have chosen to devote an article to the JCAP disaster risk reduction and management protocol which provides a useful guide to how Jesuit institutions can respond in the face of natural disasters.
Finally, we wanted as a Conference to mark the 200th anniversary of the Restoration in 1814, and so we offer an article on the Philippine Province, which recounts the history of the Society of Jesus in the country before the Suppression and Restoration.
I hope you enjoy the read, and welcome any comment and feedback you may have.
God bless,
Fr Mark Raper SJ
President, Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific
Download Jesuits in Asia Pacific 2014 or read it online. If you would like a printed copy, please send an email to comms@jcapsj.org.