JPIC Zonal Meeting, St. Gabriel 2010

Background Information
Since my appointment as the province coordinator of JPIC of the German Province, we have not yet had a meeting. This is because the appointment took place shortly before the summer holidays. The long and short of it all is that I am gradually getting immersed into my work as Coordinator of Justice and Peace and Integration of creation. All the same, we have been doing some few things. One of the major tasks of the commission in the German province is the contribution in the form of articles that we publish in the “Provinz Nachrichten”, where issues are handled to sensitise confreres on burning issues relating to Justice and Peace and Integration of Creation. This is to conscientise confreres on issues pertaining to this commission and how much each one of us can participate in it. In the last number of the Provinz Nachrichten, I wrote an article on the football world cup in South Africa, with special emphasis on honesty and world peace. The next article will deal with the world AIDS Conference 2010 written by another member of the commission who is working with people having AIDS.
I have also talked to some confreres to find out what they expect from the commission. Their answer is: get practical and less theoretical. We will try to accomplish this as much as we can.

Membership of the Commission
The commission consists of five members, three confreres in perpetual vows, one confrere in temporary vows and a lay worker from the Bank. My predecessor is Br. Paul Heider, who is yet to officially hand over to me.

Plans for the triennium
The first meeting will take place on the 22nd of November 2010. At that meeting we will look at how to cooperate with other apostolates in the province. I intend to propose the work with immigrants (Apostolate with migrants) as a priority. One of the members works with the Spanish speaking community in the archdiocese of Cologne. This will mean bringing together all the confreres working in this field to share with us their joys and sorrows and to make suggestions as to how we can support them. Migration is connected to integration. We, therefore, need to help our communities to get integrated into the German local Church, in order to contribute to the life of the Church as a whole. This brings out the beauty of belonging to this one Church but coming from different countries and cultural backgrounds.
I am hoping that we will also be able to team up with SSpS. This area is inexhaustible and I look forward to this collaboration.
We will continue with publishing articles in our “Pronvinz Nachrichten”. These may not only come from members of the commission but also from confreres in different apostolates. These would be encouraged to reflect on the contribution of their work to Justice and peace and integration of recreation.
The SVD in German is a member of Netzwerk Afrika. Fathers Krause and Muschof were part of the executive committee of this organisation. Our participation has been very minimal for the past three years and it is the hope of all that we contribute more positively as SVDs to the work of the Netzwerk. Every two years Sankt Augustin celebrates Klosterfest. As a way of presenting the commission not only to confreres but also to the outside world, we will want to be part of it. This is one good avenue for it. ^

Fr. Moses Asaah Awinongya
JPIC Coordinator - GER