SECRETARIAT FOR LASALLIAN FAMILY AND ASSOCIATION

 

Responsibilities: To advise the Superior General and his Council concerning the accompaniment of the different groups that make up the Lasallian Association. To promote and support the activities of local leaders in applying the decisions of the 43rd General Chapter (2000) for the development of Lasallian Association.

The principal work of the Secretariat is:
 

1. TO CLARIFY THE IDENTITY OF THE BROTHERS AND OTHER LASALLIAN ASSOCIATES: The aim is to recover the centrality of the Vow of "Association for the educational service of the poor" within the Lasallian identity and to do an in-depth study as to its current meaning. ACTIVITIES: 1. To prepare for and to launch the year of spiritual renewal for communities and for Associates (2005), based on a new understanding of association and of the vow of association for the educational service of the poor. 2. An international group of Lasallian experts has been charged with doing new research concerning the vow and the experience of association, as well as about the identity of the Brother and the lay Lasallian.

2. TO PROMOTE STRUCTURES OF ACCOMPANIMENT AND FORMATION FOR LASALLIAN ASSOCIATION

The aim is to assess and strengthen structures that already exist for this purpose, and to create new programs that will facilitate the development of deeper ties with the Lasallian mission and association.

ACTIVITIES:

1. To identify initial and ongoing formation programs already in existence that are used by both Brothers and partners and associates; to look for ways of creating a network for these programs; to make them known and to facilitate their use by all interested parties.
2. To identify new forms of association that have surfaced in recent years, with a view to providing better clarification and an in-depth understanding of the respective vocations of Brothers, associates and partners.

3. TO DISCERN THE CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LASALLIAN CHARISM IN THE PRESENT-DAY FORMS OF LIVING ASSOCIATION The aim is to become familiar with the different processes and structures of association that are currently under development in the Lasallian world, and to discern their characteristics. ACTIVITIES: 1. To identify persons and groups throughout all the Regions of the Institute who share the Lasallian educational mission. 2. To promote among them a shared reflection to determine and to clarify the ways that exist of understanding and living the Lasallian association and charism.