Embracing a Common Future

Edmund Rice Christian Brothers

North America

Thursday, 09 August 2007

Province Leadership Team of North America

May 2005                                                                                           

Dear Brother,

As you know, we the members of the Province Leadership Team of North America recently gathered for several days of prayer and planning at the Carter Centre in Aurora, Ontario.  We would like to take this opportunity to fill you in on a number of significant developments which emerged from our time together.

After prayerful reflection and much conversation, we have created and adopted the following Vision Statement to guide and inspire our ministry of service:

Open to new realities, we in leadership are accountable for revitalizing and transforming ourselves and our brotherhood through heart-centered spirituality and service with the marginalized.

The process by which we arrived at this articulation of our vision also prompted us to revisit some of our earlier discussions.  You may recall that at our March meeting in New Rochelle we made a decision to form community as two groups: five Brothers in one group and four in the other.  As we continued to wrestle with our understanding of what our mission and goals are to be for the next three years, we found a growing desire and need to know each other in a deeper and more personal way.  This will take both time and opportunity for sharing our lives and listening to each other’s story.  Furthermore, we have consistently returned to the question of how we might best respond to the challenge of transforming minds and hearts, facilitating new life in mission and ministry, and promoting prophetic religious living among each of us.  Given this further reflection, we now believe that forming a single community of all nine members, at least for an initial period, will provide the most fruitful context for beginning our service of leadership.

Needless to say, finding appropriate living and work space for nine people is quite a challenge.  It becomes an even greater challenge as we strive to keep in mind our commitment to a Gospel way of life and personal service with the marginalized of our society.  For the time being, therefore, we have decided to form community at 21 Pryer Terrace, in New Rochelle, with the understanding that this available location will afford us the opportunity to grow together as Brothers and to discern how we might choose to live and minister for the future.  We will take up residence in July.

The process for choosing a new center for our province will continue to be one of our highest priorities.  We will need your input and support as this project progresses.  In the meantime, we wish to share with you some of the criteria which will guide our discernment.

The new Province Center of North America seeks to:

Though these criteria do not represent an exhaustive list of the considerations that will inform our eventual choice of a Province Center, they do reflect significant convictions which underlie our understanding of Christian Brother leadership.  We welcome your insights and suggestions for criteria as well.

As we continue our journey toward a hope-filled future, it is important to remember that our Foundational Assembly in Cornwall declared that “all of us are called to a prophetic witness of the Gospels” and are to be open to new realities.  The decisions and actions that we will prayerfully undertake in the days ahead are grounded, not primarily in our roles as leaders, but ultimately in our common brotherhood and in response to our call as followers of Jesus and Edmund.

May the Spirit of Pentecost rekindle our hearts and renew our lives for the mission entrusted to each one of us as Christian Brothers.

Hugh                 Nick                 Brian                    Dan          Dave        

         Derm                 Kevin                      Kieran              Mark