A big "thank you" from the Brothers...

On Friday evening, 11th February, the Brothers hosted a Sundowner at Trinity College to thank representatives of all the Edmund Rice Ministries in Western Australia. A similar function will be held in Adelaide in a few weeks time. Following is the text of Province Leader, Br Kevin Ryan's address of thanks.

T IS WONDERFUL that so many of you can gather here this evening. It is the first time that the Province Leadership Team has invited such a diverse group to gather in our Province. Peter, Rod, Pat, Dean and I thank you for joining us.

Thanks for what has been achieved in 2004. Your energy, your knowledge and skills and your passion and compassion (which is a key quality of Edmund) keep the Edmund Rice Network alive.

I hope that this gathering helps you gain a sense of the bigger network – you have already heard the groups that are represented here this evening. More importantly I hope you draw into your heart some energy from others.

As an aside, I hope you do not talk to those you see often, I hope you talk to those you seldom see or have never met before.

If you get distracted as I talk because you are tired after a tough week or you have to get out of here soon to pick up the kids or to drop them at a party, don’t worry. If you really want to know what I said you can pick it up on the internet in the Edmund Rice Network Newsletter. It will be lodged there by Monday.

Let’s reflect on some key elements in the life of the Edmund Rice Network

Edmund Rice Network: For some of you it will feel like "I am here because someone at some time or other asked me to be on a committee to help out with ... or to do some good for someone". For others, you are here because of a lifetime commitment to the Gospel in the spirit of Edmund Rice. Around those two extremes and up and down the continuum in between, there are a myriad of other stories that have brought people to this place, at this time, to this celebration of what many of us would call the Edmund Rice Network.

Some of you are not in a formal Edmund Rice or Christian Brother ministry and simply gather to pray and reflect monthly about your life, your family or the world and/or to promote knowledge of Edmund in the Province. In whatever way you do that, it is a powerful, spiritual influence on the Edmund Rice Network. Even if it is a gathering of just a small number, do not underestimate its influence on the life of the Network and your power for good in the lives of those you interact with and in society in general.

Those of you who are involved in a formal Edmund Rice ministry are in the Network in a different way.

Much more could be explored in relation to the Network, but let us move on.

Healing and Reconciliation: This is a journey about the past and the future. It concerns a journey of healing with past students and residents of our schools and institutions, and with their families. A newly formed Towards Healing Consultative Panel is of great assistance with this process.

We are also on a journey of healing which involves Indigenous and Non Indigenous people in this country in a most practical way, and we hope in the long term, an empowering way. Through education, the development of employment skills, and through a deepening sense of culture and spirituality and who we are as Australians. As we all, Indigenous and non Indigenous come to a deeper understanding of Indigenous culture and spirituality we can become the nation I believe we are called to be.

And when twenty to thirty more Indigenous Australians are employed in the ministries of this Province I believe we will be the Network we are called to be!

New Wineskins for New Wine: What a good thing to talk about at a time of prayer and ritual in the middle of a wine filled celebration!

These few words, New Wineskins for New Wine, which are taken from the Gospel of Mark provide the image the Congregation of Christian Brothers chose to express its future. The Congregation, in both the developing world, and in places such us Australia and New Zealand is on about a future, a refoundation, with new structures and processes, about new ways of living our community life and being Brother.

That is what a recent very significant review of our communities in South Australia and Western Australia is all about, and that is what our work in the Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania, involving the Brothers of Papua New Guinea, New Zealand and Australia is focussed on. I will say more about this refoundation a little later.

The work of the Shaping Our Future Committee Oceania is also about the Spirituality of Being Brother. As we journey through the 'one upmanship' of an election process in Western Australia, as I reflect on the near genocidal extermination of people in the Sudan or Sierra Leone or elsewhere in the world, or the detention of people around the world without a just trial, I am often fascinated by the contrast of this with what we as Christian Brothers are trying to do in our lives. To come together to develop our relationship with God, to share our story of doing that, to pray together, to share money and goods in common, to work for others and work with big hearts for a more just world ... is an extraordinarily counter-cultural thing to do ... we don't always get it right but all of that is our dream, our hope, our vision. It is our spirituality of being brother.

Educating the Hearts and Minds of the Young: In 2004 we made a significant step in the journey of Catholic schooling in the Edmund Rice tradition in Australia. This was the launch of the Charter. At that time we affirmed the lives and work of so many Brothers on whose shoulders we are now carried. I do that again tonight and I thank you, Brothers, for keeping the flame of Edmund Rice education alive so that it can be passed on.

The work of exploring the implications of the Charter has only just begun, and the process of formation of the hearts and minds of those implementing that Charter: Board members, leaders and staff, students and parents, will be deepened through the work of our newly restructured Edmund Rice Network Formation Team.

The work of the National Planning Committee for Schools Governance continues the long and complex work of seeking structures and processes which will allow for the governance of our schools into the future in new and creative ways. We thank and congratulate the National Planning Committee members who are with us today.

I mentioned earlier the work of the Shaping Our Future committee which is planning for a new structure for the future of our Congregation in Oceania. That committee is also beginning to examine the future governance of ministries other than schools. That will include the Edmund Rice Camps, the Edmund Rice Centres at Fremantle and Mirrabooka and Eddy’s Carpentry Shop and Olly’s Wheelchair Workshop. This will be a journey of a few years. It is not something to be anxious about. In fact it is something to feel secure and comforted about.

The Quest of Justice: All of us in the Edmund Rice Network, are called to a quest, a quest for justice. In every ministry, with past students and residents, and with those whose lives we touch this year for the first time, our relationships are to be a journey of justice. We wish each ministry to be just in its operation and we also want people to be taught about the principles of Catholic Social teaching, to be ‘touched’ by them, and to learn by doing. Head, heart and hands

Three key matters come to mind on this issue. The first is the Risk Management process that was commenced in 2004 in all of our ministries and will continue into 2005 and beyond. This is a matter of protection for staff and students but it is also plainly a matter of justice.

The second is the struggle to keep the Edmund Rice Centre for Social Justice in Fremantle alive in its new form. It is now independent of the University of Notre Dame Australia. We think it is going to make it! We hope it will be a strong voice for justice into the future. Stand by for information about a ceremony to celebrate the re-launch in a couple of months.

Thirdly, I mention Christian Brothers ex Residents and Student Services (CBERS-s) about which many of you have heard little or nothing. It has worked away very quietly for ten years or more, reuniting families, counselling, supporting and generally bringing healing to the lives of former child migrants, other former residents of our institutions and also to former students of our other schools. Over the next couple of years it services will continue to wind down. I want to publicly acknowledge the work of Maria Harries, George Horton and Debbi Rosser from the management committee, because of all our Boards or committees, you get the least acknowledgement- thank you!!

New Brothers: It may surprise you to hear me raising this possibility.

Across Oceania there is a new and energetic exploration of this matter. If you want more details please speak to Brothers Bern White (WA Vocation Promoter) or John Webb (SA Vocation Promoter).

It should not be assumed that because we are exploring new models of governance for our ministries or restructuring our Provinces that we are in close down mode. Unfortunately, this is often the only interpretation given to these moves. From the Christian Brothers point of view these are freeing move, allowing flexibility and development.

We are open for business ... and the business is to explore with young adults what Christian Brotherhood could look like in this part of the world now, and into the future, in our international Congregation. If it sounds like I am marketing, it is because I am marketing!!

A part of that looking to the future is the opening of two new communities, one in Adelaide and one in Perth, to promote the development of young adult spirituality and to promote conversation and reflection on the future of Christian Brotherhood in Oceania.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have just taken you through what the Christian Brothers call the seven insights or strategic areas from the last International Chapter of the Christian Brothers which was held in 2002. Those insights were published in a very short document called "The Heart of Being Brother". Those insights were about:

• The Edmund Rice Network
• Healing and Reconciliation
• New Wineskins for New Wine – the restructuring of the Congregation for the future
• The Spirituality of Being Brother – and how that responds to the questions confronting the world today
• Edmund Rice Education – how it continues into the future
• The Quest for Justice
• New Brothers

Our reflection on this last matter, new Brothers, takes us back to the Strategic Direction in the Province strategic plan which was developed in late 2002 and early 2003:

Our strategic direction is guided by Edmund’s charism and focuses on two key outcomes:

1. Re-founding based on "The Heart of Being Brother".
2. The "Letting Go" of trusteeship (ie of our schools and ministries) by the brothers and the embracing of trusteeship by others in the Edmund Rice Network.

In relation to the both the Brothers and the ministries it is about REFOUNDATION. Refounding the ministries in new ways and refounding the Christian Brothers, taking on the spirit and energy of Edmund who founded the Congregation originally and who lives in our hearts now.

I thank you again for all your work within the Network in 2004. I especially thank Board members who are finishing their terms of appointment, members of our Province Committees such as the Province Education Committee and Aged Care committee who are now being replaced with new Reference Groups. I wish you and your families well.

I wish you well in 2005 and encourage you to consider every decision you make this year in the Edmund Rice Network and in your family and personal life not only with your head but also with your heart, with a heart which has contemplated the Charism of Edmund which is focussed on those who are most roughly treated in our city, our state and our world. And I think that today, that means not only focussing on the health and well being of the people themselves but on the ecological environment in which they and we live.

Thanks for being here, it is a privilege and honour for those of us on the Province Leadership Team, Pat, Peter, Rod, Dean and I to know, work with and pray with you.

May the spirit of Jesus and Edmund live in your hearts.

Br Kevin Ryan cfc
Province Leader