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The MISSION
THE MISSION
Continental Mission:
After the General Conference of CELAM in Aparecida, the representative Bishops met at La Habana, Cuba, to translate the final document into a CONTINENTAL MISSION for the coming years (2008-11)
The CONTINENTAL MISSION has different objectives:
1. To carry out the vocation of the Church to evangelize: The mission must encourage the missionary vocation of every Christian, to strengthen the roots of their faith and to renew their responsibility as missionaries.
2. To promote a personal encounter with Jesus Christ: The mission must lead all disciples to a real encounter with Jesus Christ especially by means of the Word, the Eucharist, and Charity with the preferential option for the poor and those neglected in the community.
3. To stimulate the creation and the formation of communities of disciples and missionaries: a very important aim of the mission is the formation of communities on different levels: the family level so that each home may become a protective instance of life, educator in the faith and missionary of hope; on the parish level, so that the parish may truly become a living entity of community.
4. To renew pastoral structures: This renewal must stimulate a new form of the church in solidarity with the world, more in communion and participation by orientation, and more missionary by nature.
Diocesan Mission:
We firmly resolve to translate the CONTINENTAL MISSION into a Diocesan Mission. Together with the priests, the religious and the laity, we want to transform our Diocese into community of disciple-missionaries, so that each one of us may truly live and function as active witnesses of Jesus Christ.
We will focus on the FAMILY, the SCHOOL and the PARISH.
We will enter into the process of formation and evangelization, united with all other Dioceses of Latin America and the Caribbean.
We BELIEVE and HOPE that we are an ‘alive, faithful and credible Church, that nourishes itself on the Word of God and the Eucharist (final message of Aparecida, May 29, 2007)
We trust our DIOCESAN MISSION under the protection of Mother Mary, the Mother of God and mother of us all, she, being the first disciple and missionary at the service of life, love and peace.
One important event during the Jubilee Year is the planned Diocesan Conference to lay out a project of pastoral activities for the coming years after this Jubilee. We call it; The Mission 2008-11.
Prior to this conference will be the Pre-conferences to be held in each island. This will be an important opportunity to listen to and understand the problems, preoccupations, desires and point-o- view of our people in their own parochial (island) context. Thus overcoming our differences, we may come up with a better strategy to work as one, one church, one diocese, and one mission in Christ as always.
We welcome participation from all sectors of the community as many as possible, so that from the many ideas may crystallize some pressing points to be discussed during the Diocesan Conference.
Here are some;
1. How to strengthen our faith and invigorate our responsibility to accomplish our mission.
2. Discover a new and better way of an encounter with Christ through His Word, the Eucharist, and through serving the poor and those marginalized (preferential option for the poor).
3. Those pastoral areas which must be renewed to fully function as agents of evangelization; family and homes, school and education, and the parish community.
4. A challenge to find new pastoral activity more culturally attuned, promotes participation and community building, and missionary in nature.
It is our hope that this Conference will be a fruitful encounter of people who believe in Christ present in the Church and present in each one of us. Each one’s participation is an indispensable contribution to the success of this endeavor.
