With the release of the Universal Apostolic Preferences (UAPs) to guide the Society of Jesus and its works for the next 10 years, the Reconciliation with Creation program of the Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP) is organizing a Laudato Si’ spirituality for action workshop from 5 to 9 August 2019 at Balay Laudato Si’ in Bendum, Bukidnon in northern Mindanao, Philippines.
With a focus on discernment, depth, action and mission, the workshop intends to provide participants ways by which to deepen their work in the different ministries. The workshop also hopes to allow participants experience a process that contributes to a profound personal, community, and institutional conversion to transform our lives and ways of working. The JCAP-RwC workshop objectives are to:
- Provide an understanding of the UAPs as the basis for experiencing a deeper collaboration
- Develop amongst participants a context for deeper spiritual conversation as discernment is approached
- Engage in a deepened collaboration with people in the margins, the youth, and the degrading environment
- Explore creative and deep ways to respond to the struggle for a positive engagement with a secular society that has yet to mature
Father General Arturo Sosa announced the UAPs on 19 February 2019, and with confirmation from Pope Francis, presented the UAPs as the culmination of an attempt “to find the best way to collaborate in the Lord’s mission, the best way to serve the Church at this time, the best contribution we can make with what we are and have, seeking to do what is for the greater divine service and the more universal good.”
There are two major global references that juxtapose the UAPs. One is the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) that various countries agreed to achieve by 2030, and despite many limitations, still remains a critical global agreement for human development and social inclusion and which Pope Francis supports.
The other key global reference is the Special Report on Global Warming of 1.5℃ (SR15) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that shared with the world the most updated, authoritative, scientific advice to governments in October 2018. The report gave a bottom line warning to deeply reduce global net human-caused CO2 emissions by about 45% from 2010 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2045.
The global goals and the science warnings are giving us 11 years to respond. This is what the youth globally are very concerned with, staging school strikes and sitting outside parliaments to demand urgent attention and action from governments. And the Asia Pacific region is highly vulnerable to the changing climate, and so are the many who are poor and in the margins, our indigenous communities, refugees and migrants, and our youth.
This workshop is an effort to deepen our apostolic work through the UAPs and we hope that by joining, we are further strengthened in our discernment, in going deeper into the suffering of the world, and in addressing the root problems in collaboration with others.
For those interested to join, please send an email of interest and fill out and send this registration form to Sylvia Miclat at ecojcap@gmail.com. Workshop participants are requested to cover their travel expenses to Mindanao, after which workshop organizers will take over once participants arrive in Mindanao.
