May Steering Meeting

Report of the Meeting of the Steering Group for GB Brothers


Following the meeting of Brothers Provincials, Vocations Directors and other interested representative Brothers in London in February, Brothers Benedict Foy FSC, James Hayes FIC and Michael Newman OH were mandated to form a steering group to facilitate collaboration between Brothers.

A meeting was held at St John’s House, St Helens Friday and Saturday 21st 22nd May 2006 to make progress along the lines of what had been agreed.

We were most grateful for the wonderful hospitality we received from the Brothers of the community.

We agreed the following practical issues

1 Brothers UK Directory: We agreed as a matter of urgency to create a Directory of Brothers in Great Britain, listing communities and individual Brothers. We will invite all Brothers to have their names, addresses, e-mail addresses and phone numbers listed to facilitate communication between Brothers. Bro James will take responsibility for compiling this information.

2 Communication: We will endeavour to communicate with all brothers by means of the Directory. We intend using the CoR mailing shots, and Serra and NoV connections to inform Brothers and others who might be interested, of our activities.

3 Vocations Collaboration: We will invite all the Brothers congregations to work collaboratively in the promotion of Vocations. We undertook to introduce onto our own websites information about the variety of Vocations including creating links to the websites of other religious congregations.

4 Promotion of Vocations: The key message we wish to communicate to Brothers and others interested in the Religious Life is that “we are here” and that we welcome being invited together, to cooperate with whoever, to speak in schools, colleges, universities or parishes on vocations – in general or specifically), retreats for busy people, effective living out of the Christian spirituality, etc.

5 Wider involvement: We will encourage members of our own congregations to offer their services, to work together, to talk to and to accompany others in living out their Christian Vocation.

6 Blogsite: We will particularly encourage the use of the brosuk blogsite as a way of collaborating and sharing between Brothers and to facilitate the development of this collaborative ministry. (Contact Bro James Hayes at bro_james@blueyonder.co.uk to sign up for this website!)

7 Formation: We agreed that to work together on issues of formation, working with seekers, postulants etc. Bro Michael is happy to coordinate sessions for four or more participants (plus their Brother-accompaniers). We felt that it is also important for Brothers in initial formation to participate in the inter-congregationsal sessions which CoR organises.

8 National Vocations Pilgrimage: We again encourage Brothers to participate in the Nation Vocations Pilgrimage to Walsingham on Saturday 3rd June 2006. Gather at Slipper Chapel, bring a packed lunch; walk from Walsingham to Slipper Chapel starts at 1.00; Holy Hour, finishes with Mass at 4.00.

9 Gatherings: We are planning a series of Gatherings for Brothers during 2007 which we hope will be occasions for Brothers to come together to pray, address issues for on-going formation and to socialise.
These will be:-
a) On-Going Formation Session: A 2-night session (hopefully between 28 May 1st June 2007 at Hinsley Hall) where we intend inviting a significant speaker to speak and guide a reflection on Vision.
b) Retreat A week retreat during August 2007 (hopefully at Worth Abbey) again with a significant speaker / team around the theme “The Prophetic Role of Religious Today and Tomorrow.”
c) Gathering: a North and a South 24 hour gathering (hopefully at Hinsley Hall and London Colney) a Saturday – Sunday during October / November 2007.
Benedict will make the initial contacts about these sessions.

10 We encourage local gatherings of Brothers for prayer / meal and we undertook to start these in our own areas, and to publicise them on the Brothers blogsite.

11 Consultation: Whilst we agreed that a formal association of Brothers in GB is probably rather premature at this time we though that we would like to invite responses to the suggestion of “bcuk” “Brothers Communities in United Kingdom” as a working title to cover the coordinated efforts being proposed.

12 Interest: We are encouraged by the interest show by a number of Brothers in clerical congregations but are conscious that we have had little contact to date with Brothers in monastic communities. Benedict reported that some interest has also been shown in what we are doing by some vowed male members of some of the newer ecclesial communities. We believe that as Brothers we are open to anyone who wishes to stand alongside us.

13 The next meeting of the steering group will take place at St John’s House, St Helens, Tuesday 22nd August at 11.00.