The Jesuit focus on sustainability in Asia Pacific is gaining momentum. Just two days after the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific’s first sustainability conference, the chief executive officers of Jesuit institutions of higher learning agreed that their network would be the institutional home of JCAP’s sustainability movement.
In response to JCAP President Fr Mark Raper’s call for greater collaboration among Jesuit schools in Asia Pacific, the Board of Directors of the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities in Asia Pacific (AJCU-AP) agreed that it would provide guidance on inter-institutional collaboration to JCAP’s apostolic clusters. The decision was made during the annual AJCU-AP meeting, which was held on August 11 to 12, right after the sustainability conference and also at Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia.
The Board also designated Ateneo de Manila University in the Philippines as the host of the 2017 Service Learning Programme (SLP). The SLP is an AJCU-AP project that promotes a Jesuit “brand” of participative learning paradigm that propagates the service of the faith and the promotion of justice, appreciation of culture, and inter-cultural and inter-religious dialogue. For its ninth iteration, the programme will work closely with the JCAP sustainability movement.
A new chairman was also elected by the end of the meeting. Professor Eka Priyatma of Sanata Dharma University was elected to replace Fr Joel Tabora SJ of Ateneo de Davao University, who has served as AJCU-AP chair for 13 years.
This year’s meeting also saw additions to AJCU-AP membership. Joining the CEOs of its charter and regular members from Australia, Taiwan, Indonesia, Japan, Korea, Philippines and Thailand were the heads of Myanmar Leadership Institute, St Aloysius Gonzaga English Language Institute in Myanmar, and Instituto São João de Brito in Timor-Leste.
The next CEO meeting of AJCU-AP will be held from August 18 to 20, 2017 in Thailand.
Click here to read Fr Mark Raper’s keynote address to the AJCU-AP on 12 August, 2016.
For more information about the Association of Jesuit Colleges and Universities – Asia Pacific, go to http://ajcu-ap.org
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