On June 3, the Missionary Course begins in Cebu, Philippines, with the participation of 17 friars. From the First Order: 3 Conventual friars (all from India); 6 Capuchin friars (3 from India, 2 from Indonesia, and 1 from the US); 7 OFM friars (3 from the Philippines, 3 from Vietnam and 1 from Pakistan). And 1 TOR friar (from Sri Lanka). The course concludes on 29 July.
This is the second year that the traditional Brussels missionary course has been held on the continents. Last year it started in Uganda, Africa. In 2023 it will be the turn of Asia, where participants will be hosted by the OFM Province of St. Anthony of Padua.
Coinciding with the centennial celebration, the theme is "Sent to Asia to deepen our missions of proclaiming the Gospel in the spirit of the Franciscan Jubilee, as lesser brothers in synodality."
The meeting is organized by the four General Ministers of the First Order, through the GSME. The OFM Curia is sending Br. Francisco Gómez Vargas, General Secretary ME who will be present in the first week to open the course, and Br. Dennis Tayo, General Animator for Missions who will be journeying with the participants for two months, along with two other friars from OFM cap and OFM conv to animate this course.
The objectives of the course are threefold:
The first week will be the “Orientation, Goal-setting and Getting to Know” week, while the last week will be the “Assimilation, Processing, and Evaluation Week”, both of which will be facilitated by the Course Animators. The remaining weeks will be covered by five expert speakers on relevant mission topics, contextualizing their inputs where participants have their mission assignments, namely: Melanesia (4), Vietnam (4), India (3), Sri Lanka (3), Bangladesh (1), East Timor (1), and Myanmar (1).
Following last year's positive practices in Uganda that facilitated active participation, greater fraternal bonding, and future collaboration, participants will be divided into 3 Working Committees, are to come up with a batch WhatsApp group and a Facebook page, as well as an official Franciscan publication: “IMCA 2023” at the end of the course, to share their learnings and realizations.
Finally, IMCA is hoped to provide avenues for turning course learnings into a demonstrable experience and holistically prepare missionaries. Thus, for each of the week’s topics, there are corresponding Saturday exposure visits that deepen the inputs, aimed to achieve this desire. An “IMCA learning Journal” will also be provided to guide the participants towards introspection and prayer, to crystallize realizations and learnings hoped to make them better missionaries, given one’s internal reality and in the context of Asia.
