Asia Pacific Regional Formators Meeting (APRF) Prigen, Indonesia June 12-18, 2017
One of the important initiatives of APVC is Asia-Pacific Regional Formators Meeting (APRF). To enable formators in Asia-Pacific Region to know and help each other, while at the same time to pursue ongoing professional development, the Visitors of Asia-Pacific Region decided to establish what is known as APRF in the year 1996. Ever since the Asia-Pacific Regional Formators Meeting (APRF) is conducted every eighteen months. This year the APRF is held in Prigen, Indonesia from 12-18 June. The six-day meeting is attended by 19 formators from the seven provinces of the APVC and the International mission of Papua New Guinea. The theme of this year’s meeting was “welcoming the strangers in the context of formation.”
The program commenced with Fr. Robertus Wijanarko, CM, the Visitor of Indonesia, celebrating the Eucharist and the inaugural ceremony with traditional Indonesian music and dance. Fr. Yustinus CM from the Province of Indonesia coordinated the six-day meeting with the help of confreres from his province.
The program had two speakers. Fr. Robertus Wijanarko, CM, talked on “the anthropological approach to formation in the context of globalization and welcoming the strangers.” Fr. Serafin F. Peralta, CM, from the Philippine Province, spoke on “Welcoming the stranger-Vincentian Inspiration” and “Profile of Formators- Vincentian Inspiration and Ratio Formationis of CM.” Besides the talks, the participants from each province presented reports of the formation programof the respective provinces and shared their formation experiences in group discussions and personal interactions. Last two days of the program was a trip to the island of Bali. The Lazaristfoundation and the Indonesia province sponsored the trip for the Formators.
At the end of the program, the Formators recommended the following points to the APVC for consideration and implementation;
The Formators also suggested North India as the venue for the next APRF meeting.
Baiju A. Chittuparamban, CM
Executive Secretary, APVC
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May I offer my admiration! It takes courage,even within the context of your Vincentian faithful lives,to make the adaptations to the needs of a world very different from the culture of the 1950’s when many of us were boys at Saint Joe’s. As I read the information sent down the line,it’s obvious that you are using Saint Vincent’s principles to serve our poor friends. I feel that you cannot do this without God’s grace to leave comfort zones and tread into a confused secularized world. Richest Blessings! Kudos!
Ed Ambrose,AA,St. Joe’s,1957