The second meeting of the social and innovative ministry forum of SE India Province with Fr. Agnelo Fernandes, the General Councilor in charge of Mission and of the social and innovative ministry took place on the 15th of September, 2017 at the Provincialate, in the presence of our Provincial Rev. Fr. K. Ignacimuthu. The meeting was attended by all the members of the forum except, a few who could not make it, due to personal reasons. The daylong meeting was an enriching one for all us and sincere thanks to the input session by Fr. Agnelo Fernandes, the resource person and to all the members, who were present, for their active participation.
In the morning, we had the input session by Fr. Agnelo, who stressed on the importance of rejuvenating the thirst for the social and innovative ministry. The foundation for such ministry is to be seen in the social teachings of the church. To carry out the social ministry effectively, he presented the Pastoral Spiral. With the inspiration from the resource person, all the members actively shared their experiences, activities and challenges in their respective ministry places. In the process, many innovative ideas came out. At the same time, we could understand the new challenges that were emerging and the ways to address them. A serious discussion was made on, how to mark the year of education and social and innovative ministry meaningful. Few interesting proposals were made in this regard. After the sharing session, Fr. Agnelo shared information from the side of the General Curia. At the end Fr. Amirtharajan, the Councilor in charge of innovative ministry thanked everyone present.
Fr. X. George Navin