Dunedin Otago Peninsula, New Zealand
Living Values for Mission, Nairobi, 2014
Mission
To be a Christian Brother is to engage with and be present to all people with humility, empathy, and an open heart. Taking the “search for God” honestly and seriously is a particular gift a Christian Brother offers the Church. It can lead a Christian Brother to a thoughtful and critical understanding of the Catholic faith.
The fruits of this understanding, when shared are often an inspiration to the faith of other Church members searching to deepen their own faith.
Within Religious Life, the Christian Brother’s vocation is complete and internally coherent; it expresses a particular identity and mission in the Catholic Church. It is also a way of life lived in freedom from clericalism. As a man, a Christian Brother can show to others, especially women, a face of Christ that does not seek to dominate but to remain gently present.
Christian Brothers’ Congregation, Nairobi 2014
Encountering the Mystery
At the core of our call to be brother (and sister) for the world is our being drawn into the Mystery we call God. At this pivotal time in the history of our Congregation we are awakened to the presence of God in our midst, as we seek meaningful and respectful ways of standing in solidarity with the whole Earth community. People who stand in solidarity with the whole Earth community, listen deeply to our groaning earth and her suffering people respond with compassion and justice and move to be in right relationships with all life. In a contemplative stance to the world, the Church and Congregation experience God calling them to be agents of change, hope and transformation.
The Nairobi Congregation reminds us:
It is the agenda of the world that sets the mission direction of the Church and our Congregation. On behalf of the Oceania Province Leadership Team, our hope is that all who visit this website will be inspired and informed of how followers of Blessed Edmund Rice are fired by the Gospel of Jesus to be immersed in the God quest, live a simple life, and engage with people made poor.
The agenda of our world impels us to find a new and radical way of being brother and sister for the world. In doing so, we embrace our fragility and move forward with our new-found humility.
This website concentrates on the region of Oceania. Hopefully it will inspire people to be involved in the mission of Oceania Province and to enquire further how to participate in building joyful, healing and life-giving communities and to listen, walk and advocate in a spirit of respectful engagement with those made poor and those abused.
Insights & Directions
Advocacy
There is an exciting initiative beginning here in Brisbane. It is called the Queensland Community Alliance and it attempts to bring Faith communities, Trade Unions and private enterprise together to work for the common good of those marginalised in our society.
The Brothers around Brisbane are encouraged to join this alliance and become active in the area of advocacy. This venture already running in London, Boston and Sydney to name a few places.
The Brothers Formation Team is responsible for the delivery of services and support to Brothers as members of religious communities and involved in delivering the Mission in these diverse ways.
The team is responsible for developing and delivering a Spiral of Offerings (formation) for the Brothers.
The Edmund Rice Tradition
Our History
From the humblest of beginnings in 1802, Blessed Edmund Rice and his Christian Brothers have grown from their first stable school in Waterford in post-Penal Ireland, to classrooms and ministries in 29 countries across the globe.