“Two years seem to be very short!” This remark by Korean Jesuit Fr Michael Ku captures well what many of the participants of JCAP’s Leadership Development Programme felt after completing module four on May 18. The programme began in Quezon City, Philippines in December 2015, continued in Chiang Mai, Thailand in May 2016, in Yogyakarta, Indonesia in November 2016, and concluded with the module on Change and Continuous Learning held a
Ignatian educators from four countries in Asia Pacific recently gathered in the Philippines to learn how to apply communal discernment as an added dimension to the decision making process in their schools.
|
4 FEBRUARY Opening of Instituto São João de Brito, the Jesuit teacher education institute in Timor-Leste 
A gift of joy from GodGratitude and joy for the love of God recently inspired two young Jesuits to write a song. Deacon Soo Young Theodore Park SJ from Korea and Scholastic Jun-G Bargayo SJ from the Philippines say the song Kutafuta Mungu (“Finding God” in Swahili) was a gift for them as 2017 began. The inspiration to compose the song came the night after Soo Young’s diaconate ordination. 
Of giving much and receiving moreThe Asia Pacific Tertianship programme includes a two-week Christmas exposure programme during which the tertians spend two weeks with various communities. They offer this joint reflection on the experience. 
Understanding the impact of migration on childrenMuch has been written about migrant workers and their lives and trials working in foreign country. What is often overlooked, however, is what happens to the children who are left behind by their migrant worker parents. How do the children cope with the absence of one or both parents? How are these children perceived by a society that still values traditional family and gender roles? To what extent does migration change the idea of child welfare or parenthood? 
Building a community of Jesuit schools#sfxjcap2016. In October this hashtag began appearing in Instagram as students, faculty and staff of Jesuit schools in Asia Pacific posted photographs of themselves and their friends in front of the Educate Magis map in their schools. The photos were entries to the St Francis Xavier Global Network Instagram Competition. Educate Magis is an online community that connects educators from more than 2,000 Jesuit and Ignatian schools all over the world and the map shows the rich diversity and wide reach of the global network of Jesuit schools. 
A safe house in the cityThe Utama Safe House (USH) is not just a safe house. It is a community that seeks to provide a safe haven for survivors of trafficking and domestic violence, especially those who have no support and are in need of protection. The staff also assist survivors through outreach programmes. 
Puskat Film Festival gains momentum with environment themeThis year’s Puskat Film Festival received five times more entries than last year, when it was launched by Studio Audio Visual (SAV) Puskat, the Jesuit audio-visual centre in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. SAV Puskat attributes the increase to aggressive promotion of the awards and the relevance of the theme, which is “Environment”. Also known as the Ruedi Hofmann Media Awards, the inaugural Puskat Film Festival in 2015 received 20 entries. The theme was “Faith versus Corruption”. 
Fr Franz Magnis-Suseno SJ bestowed Matteo Ricci AwardReligious extremism has been on the rise in Indonesia. Recently, Muslim hardliners have been staging massive protests in Jakarta demanding the arrest of the city’s governor, a Christian standing for re-election, for allegedly insulting the Koran. These protests can be viewed in part as a test of religious tolerance for Indonesia, a land of diverse cultures and religious plurality. In this context, dialogue is all the more important, and here Fr Franz Magnis-Suseno, an 80-year old Jesuit missionary, excels. |