The Reconciliation with Creation (RwC) programme of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP) is organising a series of Living Laudato si’ workshops in Mindanao, Philippines this year to contribute to the formation of apostolic communities of practice capable of reconciling with creation.

“These Living Laudato si’ workshops bring together the experiences of Jesuits and justice, of communities of practice and discernment. In doing so, they allow participants to review their spirituality and discernment towards more effective planning and implementation in their various apostolates,” said JCAP RwC Secretary Fr Pedro Walpole SJ.

There are four objectives for the workshops. These are: 1) to share an understanding of the challenges for Generation 2030; 2) to internalise what it means to pursue integral ecology in daily life; 3) to form apostolic communities of practice capable of reconciling with creation; and 4) to discern the ecological action plans of the various apostolates for 2018 and beyond.

To achieve these objectives, the workshop process includes orientation input, country/area updates and workshop sessions. These are complemented with daily activities to foster spiritual conversations among participants: morning reflections, local engagements, examen and gathering for the Eucharist at the end of the day.

There are also discernment discussions using Fr General Arturo Sosa’s three letters to the Society of Jesus, “Our life is mission, mission is our life”, “On discernment in common”, and “Discernment of universal apostolic preferences” to guide workshop participants.

“In these letters, there is a request to be communities and institutes capable of experiencing reconciling with creation and to involve every apostolic work, drawing profit from the tensions and providing spiritual and intellectual depths during the process of discerning common apostolic planning and priorities,” shared Fr Walpole.

The first workshop, held in Bendum, Bukidnon from January 21 to 25, drew 32 participants from 13 Jesuit works in four countries. It was timed to dovetail with the annual colloquium of the Society of Jesus Social Apostolate (SJSA) in the Philippines, which broadened the Philippine participation to include local parish participants in the Bukidnon Mission District. Many SJSA participants are involved in university ecological and social outreach programmes and some teach in high school and college.

Fr Walpole, who was part of the Ecojesuit team during COP23 in Bonn, Germany, said that better collaboration is being sought towards more united action and communication in implementing disaster risk reduction programmes and protocols; supporting small island developing states vulnerable to the threat of rising sea levels; shifting from fossil fuel and destructive extraction industries; initiating greater agroecological food production; contributing to more collective forest, watershed and marine resource management; and engaging with communities, faith-based organisations and church groups in achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.

He also highlighted the importance of promoting an education in solidarity that is capable of forming a new generation with hope and responsibility to create a better world.

“The development of knowledge products like the Healing Earth text, the Ignatian Carbon Challenge, Flights for Forests and strategic outcomes from environmental conferences and workshops are resources needing integration into an educational model for change,” he said.

For Fr Walpole, the serious social and ecological concerns in the Asia Pacific region call for different degrees of responses from various JCAP apostolates. “The Holy Father reminded us that ‘(t)here needs to be a distinctive way of looking at things, a way of thinking, policies, an educational programme, a lifestyle and a spirituality which together generate resistance to the assault of the technocratic paradigm’ and create a better alternative.”

The Living Laudato si’ workshops were conceived to support apostolic action. It is hoped that participation will result in further discernment strengthening and a deeper understanding of the suffering of the world and in addressing the root problems in collaboration with others.

The next Living Laudato si’ workshop will be held from May 29 to June 2 at Balay Laudato si’ in Bendum, Bukidnon in Mindanao. For more information, email ecojcap@gmail.com.

The workbook of the first Living Laudato si’ workshop can be viewed here.