Internacional Catholic Conference of Guiding
Letter nº 7
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Letter 7 Reference
World Council 2009
OBJECTIVES § Getting to know, sharing and understanding the socioeconomic, cultural and ecclesiastical realities of the regions and learning their great challenges. Going deep into the fact that the girls and adolescents and their education is the place where we can live the experience of being Jesus’ disciples and missionaries. § Opening up to the rich values which Girl Guiding expresses in each particular region. § Listening and talking to the Irish people, about its history, its culture, its life of faith. § Re – establishing the identity of the ICCG in the WAGGS, acknowledging the value of the work with other lay organizations which have objectives in common. § Contributing to the regional dynamics and the inter-regional bonds from relationships based on solidarity and reciprocity. § Living the Council meeting as a gathering, as an experience of faith in which liturgy becomes the main link.
COUNCIL DYNAMICS
As it is usual for the
ICCG’s meetings (See Appendix 1: The
pedagogical process), this World Council
meeting wants to become § asks about our presence in the Girl Guiding World, in society and in the Church; § lets create bonds among people, associations and regions in an environment of solidarity; § turns out being a path of faith which makes us listen to God, who calls us to become disciples and missionaries. § takes decisions for the Conference’s future and opens up to new associations and new challenges.
THE KING'S HOSPITAL SCHOOL – Dublin, Ireland
17TH WORLD MEETING DATE
The ones invited to the Council are the following: (article 9 from the ICCG bylaw) § Two representatives from each member Association empowered with the Association’s decision making body to commit it in the ICCG’s decisions. § The National Chaplain from each member Association.
The correspondent Associations, which are working on the process of becoming members, are invited as observer participants. Please send the pre-enrollment form (Appendix 2) with all the required information BEFORE JULY 7th 2008 to the EXECUTIVE SECRETARY
It will be understood
that those countries which do not send this pre- enrollment form before the
above mentioned date will
We also request you to collect during the local
events planned for this year and send
Euros 60 (this amount will be later
It is essential to have this information
available to be able to determine the number of reservations at the place we
are going
The budget is being worked on. It is intended not to exceed excessively the amount requested for the last event.
During the Dublin Council meeting the election of the new World Executive will take place and the position of the Regional Executives, who will form part of the new World Committee, will be confirmed. During the Regional Assemblies, the Regional Teams will also be formed. The situation of the members of the current World Committee is the following: World Executive Silvia Staib de Chanes (finishes) Regional Executive African Region Goretti Mukakamali (can be renewed) Latin American Region Silvia Campisi (finishes) European Region Catherine Faucher (can be renewed) Middle East Region Maya Assioum (can be renewed)
We are sending this information far in advance for the associations and regions to start thinking about who could be appointed in the near future for fulfilling these responsibilities. We remind you of the roles and duties of each position:
§ WORLD AND REGIONAL RESPONSIBLES The candidates for Responsibles in the world and regional level, according to paragraph 9 of the Inner Regulation, must: · Be appointed with the agreement of their association · Be part of the policy making body of their own association to insure that the standpoints taken within the ICCG reflect the standpoints of its member organisations and are not personal vewpoints. · Have experienced and acquired the ICCG working methods so as to be able to transmit it to others. · Have international experience · Speak one (preferably two) of the official languages of the ICCG. · Have knowledge of the workings of the Church.
Her functions are
WORLD EXECUTIVE According to the 16th paragraph of the Bye-Laws · To convene, prepare and conduct the meetings of the World Committee · To co-ordinate the various tasks of the Regional Executives and see that they are duly and properly carried out… · To ensure that the decisions taken by the World Committee are effectively put into practice and that there is continuity in the performance of the various tasks during the intervals of its meetings. · Represent the ICCG in the organisations with whom it is in contact and where it seems necessary.
REGIONAL EXECUTIVE According to the paragraph 20 of the Bye-Laws, together with the Regional Team will be in charge of: · To convene, prepare and conduct the meetings of the Regional Team · To co-ordinate the various tasks of the Regional Team members and see that they are duly and properly carried out… · To ensure that the decisions taken by the Region are effectively put into practice. · Ensure a regular cooperation between associations of the Region. · Organize Regional Gatherings, prepare reports that can be used as pedagogical documents by the associations of the Region.
It is very important that the people who take on this service at a World or Regional level have the support from their national Organizations all along their working periods, not only by providing them with human, technical or financial resources, but also by becoming aware that this kind of task implies having the concrete time to be able to fulfill the duties concerning the organization and management of the ICCG’s life and to make it more lively not only at a world level but also at a regional level, to be able to attend meetings and gatherings and so on and so forth.
Wishing that you start preparing yourselves for this opportunity to get together, participate and take decisions. Kind Regards,
APPENDIX 1 The ICCG meeting is not a date of tourists that accept mixing themselves with foreigners for some days and then say goodbye and go back to their houses as if nothing had happened.
AN
EVENT A ICCG meeting is always a date that becomes an event, that means, a nowadays event that goes into our lives. It is not meant to be an answer, but a question that asks my life, that alters and that crashes into it to change it.
AN
AGREEMENT A ICCG meeting is always an agreement among all the participants. The ICCG “meeting" is always a discovery. Give you the chance of being amazed, being surprised. The "meeting" is the background that creates new common causes, new friendships, new faces, new projects, that sets new looks in the world, that makes a new guide life be born, that shows a new world and a complete new future.
A
WAY To do so, the ICCG "meeting" needs a way, an itinerary of stages, of directions and of sense. This way is opened by the ICCG pedagogy.
A
PEDAGOGY This ICCG pedagogy is that one of the World Guide that has all the good actions of the AMGS. But ICCG lights this pedagogy with the Gospel light. The "Good news" from Jesus Christ Gospel is not a different pedagogy, it is the same pedagogy but in a different way. It is not one more idea, or an aside idea, it is not a doctrine or an advertisement, and it means giving it a sense.
THE YEAST OF GOSPEL It's a breath, it's a smell, it's "a pinch of salt" that gives taste. Gospel is a nice taste that makes people want to live. It is yeast that makes us rise, that calls us to move, to go further, deeper. It is yeast that makes move. Because the ICCG pedagogy is rhythm. It is a score. It is an orchestra that respects times. It really is a process.
MEETING TIME First time, it is the "meeting time" that starts learning, it is time to open the eyes, to discover faces, the faces' names, the languages, the countries, the culture, the guides' responsibilities, each one's profession or studies. It is giving time, taking time. Not to jump to conclusions. To welcome. To refuse to make any conclusion too fast. To walk. Not to have prejudices.
BASE GROUP CONSTITUTION TIME As everything in Guiding, the ICCG "meeting" is a team experience. For all the ages, in every Guiding branch, to every responsibility, the team is the link of Christian community, the close church also called "base community". The meeting takes its time to build base groups taking into account different languages and cultures and choosing a kind of communication based on the respect and the will of those differences.
IN-CULTURE TIME Every ICCG meeting is always situated in a place, a country, a history, and so in a culture. This is never random, it is always a choice. The meeting place is always part of the "meeting", it is a "meeting" Word. Because immersion in cultural realities in the "meeting" country does not mean tourism but the process of a real in-culture, the will of being interrogated by the cultural realities of that country, of taking time, of being marked, of inviting oneself, of understanding, of welcoming, of owning and helping. It is the way to go into the meeting.
NEW SOLIDARITIES It is, of course, about the respect of differences that will be founded in the base groups, but most of all, it is about trying to avoid these differences from being walls that divide but being engines that make new solidarities work. Differences, should not be seen as obstacles to the meeting to take the meeting value. It is not about stopping the differences or pretending they do not exist anymore. New solidarities can only be born from the truth, with no tricks, calling one by one to get to their own best extreme. New solidarities are not built by ideas but by living experiences.
CONFRONTATION TIME
The "meeting" is a once in a life moment that allows us to discover what happens in other places, trespassing my boundaries, my prejudices, my history, my customs. It is time to confront what we do our way in our association with what other associations do their way. But all the same, it is clearly seen that in the ICCG process Guiding is a concrete project of living "with the others and not a charity to the others". Guiding is a concrete project of living together. It is the shared will and dynamic that makes people work to build a new world, the one that Gospel wants, a world full of beauties that makes an option in favour of the poor. Every time we live it together, we are changing the world.
DESERT TIME The desert is the "nothing" place. It is the "imperfection and emptiness" of the beginning of the world, when it hadn't been created yet. The desert is the place where there are so many things to be done, where everything is to be created, so everything is possible. The desert time is the option time. Among all these things that I've lived during the meeting time; which are the things I choose to live everyday? What can they change my daily life? What do they mean to my compromise as a Guide? Which Gospel words call me as a voice during this meeting and change my life?
EVALUATION TIME During this time we work together in teams or in base groups to find the changes that we have experienced during the "meeting". We re-read, going back to every moment of this "meeting" being sincere to oneself and to the others, with the concrete reality of what we have lived and being under the Gospel light. In which sense has this meeting changed us? In which sense have we got a new point of view? In which sense is today a starting point? Why have we been able to go out of our own prejudices prison? Of our routine? Of our habits? What will make us rise? And, how are we going to rise? What will make me work and advance for three years? What about you? Which stages do I propose? Which times? What about you? What about your group? Am I aware of being responsible of translating my own decisions into actions, in activities for my association, in my ICCG region? How can I register them in this three years long calendar? How will I check that I've done it well?
CELEBRATION, PARTY AND SENDING TIME It is time to celebrate together this meeting that is now an authentic international event. Each one's particular experience, each one's feelings, this amazement is worth being celebrated. This new happiness becomes a song, this end becomes a beginning, this being together becomes a dance, each of us recognises the other one, and the other recognises one. Everybody is in the sight of the other. The head raises meaning and endless thanks, the thanksgiving celebration that lays the tablecloth to start celebrating the feast of bread, wine and the Eucharist, which means Thanks in Greek. We only have to leave, but it is not an end or a separation. It is not a split or sadness, it is a sending.
ASSOCIATION:
WE ARE GOING TO PARTICIPATE IN THE ICCG 17TH WORLD COUNCIL YES NO
ESTIMATED NUMBER OF DELEGATES:
SIGNATURE: PRINTED NAME:
POSITION: DATE:
Note: this pre-enrollment form should be completed in clear handwriting and should be submitted by the Association’s President or International Commissioner.
APPENDIX 3 - VISAS
Accueil (section française) Home (english section) Acogida (sección en español)
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COSTS
IMPORTANT