DEPARTURE FROM THE TST

Declan’s decision to withdraw from

the TST was met with great disappoint-

ment by the rest of the team. We know

that his decision has come after much

reflection on his part.

We would like to extend heartfelt

thanks to Declan for his life and energy

as part of our community and his total

commitment to the work of our team.

He has shouldered the burden of man-

aging the finances and sourcing the

funding for us, putting in a huge

amount of time and effort. It has been

very demanding work to which he gave

his all.

We wish Declan every blessing as he

returns to Ireland for now. He is clear

that his commitment to the Journeying

Together project remains as strong as ev-

er and that he looks forward to engag-

ing in the project at some point in the

future, after he has had a good rest and

some time for reflection.

CONDOLENCES

The sudden

death of Da-

vid’s brother

Johnny in Cork

was a sad mo-

ment for David

and his family.

Johnny was a

frequent visi-

tor to the Brothers in Dublin and Rome,

and many Brothers remember his visits

with fondness. The funeral ceremony

was a most moving experience with the

Cork School of Music arranging the mu-

sic which comprised all Johnny’s com-

positions.

We wish David and his family sincere

condolences and pray that they may

hold the memory of Johnny alive in

their hearts.

JOHN GIBSON

1951-2016

THANKS, DECLAN

Page 2

FORMATION GATHERING

(Lusaka, September 4th - 11th 2016)

The Presenter of this workshop was

Fr Jerry McGlone SJ who is the resident

Psychologist at the North American

College in Rome and Director of Coun-

selling Services. The Gathering was the

brainchild of the CLT and Julian McDon-

ald was the Convenor. The main theme

for the Conference was: Creating a New

Era: Developing Competencies and

Managing Obstacles

The Gathering consisted of five, fair-

ly intense days of group work focused

on developing competencies for com-

munity living, transcultural ministry,

and managing related obstacles. Thirty

two brothers attended from all over the

Congregation.

A very significant piece of OWITF is

the emphasis on Community Life and

the challenge to live more intimately as

brothers. The understanding underpin-

ning the Conference was that there are

competencies which if learned will ena-

ble us to do this. The expectation is that

the participants will bring their newly

acquired skills home and share them

with their fellow brothers.

The specific competencies on which

Jerry focused on were:

Communication/Interpersonal/ Intimacy

Competency

Inter-Cultural Competency

Conflict Management Competency

Affective Maturity Competency

Stress Management Competency

(especially, role of loss and grief)

Addictions Competency - Internet, Alco-

hol, work

Leadership Competencies.

PARTICIPANTS OF THE FORMATION GATHERING

Page 3

explanation of the two-feet approach

to Advocacy. In summary this approach

comprises two dimensions of justice.

The first foot is direct service to those

in need. (The Good Samaritan). The

second foot is advocacy for social

change (Moses).

The goal here is to bring together a

rights-based approach to development

while not leaving out totally the imme-

diate needs of the poor.

Lots of enthusiasm was generated

and all went home with a plan to be fol-

lowed up in their local communities.

THE TST MEET IN LUSAKA

We in the TST are currently meeting

in Lusaka for the month of October.

Because of the nature of the work of

TST which involves us being apart for

most of the year, we come together

twice a year for a month-long period of

community building, reflection and

planning.

The first week is devoted to reflect-

ing on our community life, and we had

John Wilson from Armidale in Scotland

as our facilitator.

The final two weeks were devoted

to planning for the second and third

clusters. These two weeks will be an

We hope that some of the new

learnings will bear fruit into the Future.

ADVOCACY WORKSHOP

The TST joined the brothers in the

Cluster together with volunteers from

each of the four community sites in

Limulunga Pastoral centre for a three

days’ workshop on Advocacy (14-17

September. In all there were 32 partici-

pants. Sisters Lynette Rodrigues and

Prema Anthony, both Presentation Sis-

ters, facilitated the workshop very ex-

pertly and creatively.

The overall aim of the gathering

was to deepen our understanding of a

rights-based approach to community

engagement. The context was the UN

Sustainable Development Goals and

how we might address some of these in

our local areas.

A break-through moment was the

Page 4

to the Lord and to our project, Journey-

ing Together. An added bonus was the

beauty of the retreat centre and the

abundance of flora and fauna that was

a feast for the soul.

VISITS TO THE CLUSTER

Either before or after the Formation

Workshop, many Brothers decided to

visit the community cluster in Western

Province. Gussy Jairaj, Parag D’Costa

and Cedric Andrade from India were

joined by Eddie McArdle from Latin

America and Paul Hendrick from the

European Province came west after the

formation workshop. Peter Dowling

and Julian McDonald made the journey

west prior to the workshop. All were

warmly welcomed into the hub and

mission communities.

The opportunity to meet with the

Brothers of the Cluster was certainly a

rich and rewarding experience both to

important opportunity to do some fur-

ther detailed planning for the next year

or so. We were assisted in this work by

Hedwig Nafula from Nairobi who is ex-

perienced in facilitating organisations

working in the field of development.

THE TST RETREAT

The TST held their retreat at the

Servants of Mary Retreat Centre, Kasisi

in Lusaka from 9-16 October. This was

a graced moment for each of us as we

journeyed on the spiritual path under

the guidance of Fr Dave Larkin, a Kilte-

gan priest.

What a lovely setting it was to spend

time with our gracious God! Each of us

was blessed in unique ways and as we

celebrated the Eucharist each day, we

grew in love and appreciation of each

other. The daily meeting with our Spir-

itual Director offered each one the op-

portunity to deepen our commitment

PLANNING SESSION WITH HEDWIG NAFULA

Page 5

MY EXPERIENCE OF WESTERN

PROVINCE – FRANCIS HALL

My journey to Western Province to-

wards the end of July was a moment I’d

been waiting for for a long time. I was

blessed to have Senan D’Souza’s com-

pany and together we called to “the

garden of Oneness” near Kaoma,

where we were warmly greeted by our

Presentation Sisters, Terry and Lucy.

The wild bare beauty of that sacred

space of pathways, trees and small

buildings was a fitting gateway for me

to Western province, a different land

from the rest of Zambia. We also visit-

ed “Nano’s Farm” which trains farmers

in organic agriculture.

In Mongu we found the “Hub com-

munity” in full flow. Joe, Michael,

Mouvin and Sammy have transformed

the Brothers’ community house next to

St John’s school into a place of hospi-

tality, space for conversations and

meetings, for a project office and or-

ganic gardening – all in a few months!

We were soon down to business hear-

ing the feedback from Paschalia and

Dominic Kivulu Mbutu, the community

engagement mentors after their moni-

toring and evaluation visits to the mis-

sion communities. We heard that the

the visitors and to the host communi-

ties.

DEPARTURE FROM THE HUB

It is with sadness that we announce

the departure of Mouvin Fernandes

from the Hub community. Mouvin, af-

ter much discernment and consultation

with the hub community, the TST, and

his own PLT has decided to leave the

Congregation and has applied for dis-

pensation from his vows. Mouvin will

be sadly missed by his community but

also by the mission communities and

the TST.

During his short time in the hub,

Mouvin has contributed enormously

but especially in the area of the finan-

cial management of the cluster financ-

es. We are most grateful for his contri-

bution and wish him every blessing for

the future.

ALL THE BEST, MOUVIN

Page 6

agement for me. These fifteen men

and women are giving freely of their

time to work with the Brothers to bet-

ter their own communities.

Whenever TST members are in the

West they stay in a small rented house

in a village outside Mongu called

Malengwa. The house is generously

supplied by the Presentation Sisters

who run the nearby Cheshire Home for

people differently abled. I enjoyed

sharing simple community life with

Donal and David - cooking, washing

and chatting with neighbours, as we

went for our walks alongside the vast

Barotseland plain or along the main

road to Limulunga.

Over the course of the following

weeks I spent time in each mission

community. I greatly enjoyed recon-

necting with the men I’d journeyed

with during the Orientation Pro-

gramme in 2015. I saw how they have

adapted to their new surroundings and

made friends at all levels. They have

worked at building community among

themselves and it showed. They are

rightly proud of how far they have

come.

My first experience of a “Cluster” in

operation was an eye-opener. I saw

Brothers had collected a huge amount

of data from their listening and obser-

vation surveys and needed now to focus

in on one “generative theme” of need in

the local community. This was encour-

aging news.

I also joined the induction days for

Mr Martin Silutongwe, the newly ap-

pointed Project Co-ordinator. Martin’s

extensive experience of community en-

gagement and project management is

already giving Brothers confidence and

clear plans for future project work with

the local community. He has helped

Brothers and volunteers to engage with

government officials, non-government

organizations and other religious

groups, Catholic and other.

Meeting the four or five volunteer

survey assistants from each mission

community was another major encour-

FRANCIS AND DECLAN IN SENANGA

Page 7

months. We would like to pay tribute to

the Brothers of the Cluster for their

generosity and commitment to creat-

ing this new way of being Brother to-

gether.

www.journeying2gether.org

– NEW WEB NAME

Many people have visited the TST’s

website:

www.ourwayintothefuture.org to learn

of the work of the TST. Now, we are

about to change the name of the web-

site to www.journeying2gether.org.

When OWITF became the title of

the Nairobi Chapter Calls for all Broth-

ers, another term was created for the

specific role of the TST in establishing

15-20 new communities in the develop-

ing world. The new term is Journeying

Together which involves those Brothers

who are prepared to join the new com-

munities in the developing world.

The title Journeying Together cap-

tures every aspect of the life and minis-

tries of the Brothers in the new cluster.

growth in their life as Brothers and a

new commitment to each other …

Brothers, volunteer colleagues and lo-

cal people. Something new is being

born among us.

REVIEW OF

JOURNEYING TOGETHER

We are currently engaged in a Re-

view of the Journeying Togeth-

er project. We are working closely with

the CLT, South Central DLT and the Hub

community to create structures for the

ongoing life and work of the Brothers in

the Cluster in Western Zambia. The

“Cluster”, in the sense of a geographic

unit of mission communities and a “hub

community”, is new for us all and we

are beginning to appreciate its value

now that it has been running for six

MEETING WITH SOUTH CENTRAL DLT