The southern Philippine island of Mindanao is home to an abundance of natural resources, chief among them are forests and aquatic resources that sustain and nourish ecosystems. But big agricultural developments and large-scale mining activities have resulted in land dispossession of indigenous communities, violence and environmental degradation.
The third run of the Workshop on Ignatian School Leadership (WISL) brought together 38 school leaders from Jesuit-run schools in four provinces and regions within the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific (JCAP). Coming from Hong Kong, Macau, Taiwan, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Micronesia, and the Philippines, the participants ranged from administrators of a wide range of experience to teachers identified as having leadership potential.
It meant three days with no Internet connection or cellular phone signal, but 35 people from 10 countries within the Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP) happily gathered in a rural part of the Philippines for an ecology workshop in early June. They worked together, shared experiences, and developed 60 joint actions for strengthening networks, collaboration and communication as communities of practice.
Cardinal Charles Bo, Archbishop of Yangon, opened the 50th Anniversary Mid-Year Celebration of the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) on June 18 with affirming words recognizing EAPI’s significant role in the growth of the Church across Asia. The Cardinal, an EAPI alumnus himself, shared his testimony on the transforming impact of the institute in the lives of the participants and the life of the Church.
Jesuits and colleagues in the Asia Pacific region are gathering in the Philippines next month to discuss and share how transformed lifestyles are moving a more meaningful and effective response to environmental and social concerns in their ministries. The three-day environmental reflection workshop will be held at the Culture and Ecology Centre in Bendum, Bukidnon from June 6 to 10, and is organized by the Reconciliation with Creation programme of the Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP).
Fifty years ago, the East Asian Pastoral Institute (EAPI) embarked on a new mission through the initiative of Fr Pedro Arrupe SJ, then Superior General of the Society of Jesus. After providing liturgical renewal for missionaries for more than a decade, it changed its purpose in 1966 to providing programmes for renewal and aggiornamento in the spirit of Vatican II.
Are there lessons to be learnt from a silver jubilee? In a typically Jesuit fashion, Fr Renato Repole SJ, Rector of the Arrupe International Residence (AIR), looked back on the recently concluded celebratory activities spread out over the last seven months, and asked himself, “What have we learned and gained from the whole experience? What did it mean for us at Arrupe?”
From December 17 to January 1, 25 Jesuit scholastics from across the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific gathered in Tacloban City – one of the areas hardest hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan –to learn about disaster risk reduction and management, the theme of the 2015 Scholastics and Brothers Circle Workshop. After talks, immersion and reflection, they each had to write a plan for disaster risk reduction and management in their own context. Myanmar scholastic Paul Tu Ja SJ shares this reflection on his experience.
A more perfect learning environment would have been hard to find for the recent Scholastics and Brothers Circle meeting. With Disaster Risk Reduction and Management for a theme, Tacloban – one of the areas hardest hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda in the Philippines) in November 2013 – was the logical location. During their workshop from December 18 and 30, the 25 Jesuit scholastics from across the Asia Pacific Conference were able to see with their own eyes the situation in Tacloban two years after the disaster. They visited reconstructed sites, and met with local comm
A new life. That is how Lilia Advincula of Barangay Calvary Hill in Tacloban City described her community’s situation as they commemorated the second anniversary of Typhoon Yolanda (internationally known as Haiyan) on November 8. She remembers that even before Haiyan, many residents had been jobless with a stagnant quality of living. The coming of one of the strongest typhoons in recent memory made life even harder, but the surge of support that came after enabled them to rise.