Significant progress on second day of Mission Assembly

Day two of the second District Mission Assembly in Malta saw significant progress on the journey to creating the Direction Statements.

At the first session on Tuesday morning, the thematic group Chairs and spokespersons presented the Horizon statements for completion. Joe Gilson and Mariella Vella presented Theme A, Joe Millea and Paul Norris presented Theme B, and Heather Ruple and Paul Johnson presented Theme C.

Some minor amendments were made to each before they were overwhelmingly passed by delegates.

Br. Ben, Br. Tommy and Br. Michael

Assembly Secretary, Joe Gilson, announced that this session officially concluded the Horizon Statement and the focus would now move to creating between four and six Direction Statements.

The groups then met separately to work on the Direction Statements in the afternoon and that process resulted in the presentation of the first draft of their proposals. Once again this met with a hugely positive reaction.

The afternoon session saw the Mission Team of Heather Ruple, Joe Gilson and Joe Millea give an overview of the Lasallian Identity Framework and opened discussion on how it can be updated with the feedback collected.

To further this process, it was proposed that the District Mission Assembly resolves that the Office of Mission with the direction of the District Mission Council and MEL Committees will convene a District-wide representative group that will consider all feedback to produce an updated LIF in time for the District Lasallian Ministry Leadership Conference at 2024.

Once again this was overwhelmingly passed by the delegates.

The day concluded with Evening Prayer, which provided a fitting opportunity to recognise the contribution of Sammy and Yvonne Borg. Sammy managed the La Salle Pastoral Centre, Mellieha, along with Yvonne, for 11 years before retiring at the end of 2022.

Br. Ben Hanlon and Br. Austin Gili spoke in glowing terms about Sammy and Yvonne’s contribution to the Lasallian Family before making presentation to honour their efforts.

The District Leadership Team