The international gathering of Jesuit schools dubbed, II COLLOQUIUM JESEDU-Global2021, will be held as a purely online event from 28 June to 2 July. It replaces the II COLLOQUIUM JESEDU-Jogjakarta2020, originally intended last year.
Centred on the theme, “The Global Jesuit Network of Schools: Discerning for a Hope-Filled Future”, the virtual colloquium is expected to draw in some 500 participants from the six Jesuit conferences, the Secretariat for Education, and the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education. They will take part in a mix of synchronous and asynchronous sessions.
The colloquium has been designed in the context of the ongoing discernment called for by the document, Jesuit Schools: A Living Tradition in the 21st Century. It will have four strands, each focusing on an important component of the Jesuit mission today: Educating for Faith, Education for Depth, Educating for Reconciliation, and Education for Global Citizenship. For each strand, there will be two keynote speakers who will provoke reflection and conversations.
This year’s event holds special significance as it is taking place during the Ignatian Year, particularly on the occasion of the 500th Anniversary of the Conversion of St Ignatius of Loyola. The organisers hope that the global education forum will serve as an invitation “to conversion — a change in our usual way of proceeding, and to join Ignatius in a pilgrimage that will hopefully continue transforming Jesuit education”.
Just like the soldier Iñigo de Loyola, whose life was disrupted by a cannonball, leaving his leg–and all his worldly dreams—broken, the Covid-19 crisis has been a “cannonball” moment, exposing the flaws, limitations, and even brokenness of the current educational structures and systems. The colloquium is an opportunity “to discern where the mission of Jesuit education is being led, despite detours and dead ends”.
The colloquium is also being held with the awareness of Pope Francis’ appeal to support the Global Compact on Education, which seeks to make education a creator of fraternity, peace, and justice that can bring hope and transformation to our broken world. As the Holy Father says, “to educate is an act of hope”.
II COLLOQUIUM JESEDU-Global2021 will be hosted by the International Commission on the Apostolate of Jesuit Education (ICAJE). It is organised by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific with the Steering Committee based in the Philippines, and with the support of the Secretariat for Education of the Society of Jesus and Educate Magis.