Botswana National Assembly  28^th- 30^th May

 

Graham Pugin, Veronica Miller, Sabie Makgothi and Jane Hulley are going to Botswana to attend the Botswana National Assembly 28th-30^th May.

 

At the moment Botswana is not a full member of CLC World. There is a set of guidelines to help new national communities become full members. In these guidelines, it is suggested that a companion National Community accompanies the developing community so that the community is not left alone on its way to membership.  The "companions" help the candidate community to grow according to the General Principles and General Norms and the formation guidelines of the World CLC. They help in the formation of the members of the new community.

 

Since 1999 Veronica Miller, with the support of the National Exco. and help of various CLCers and Jesuits has been visiting Botswana regularly as a guide and companion.  Last year, when Fr Alberto Brito was in South Africa he had the opportunity to visit Botswana. He was impressed with their progress and felt that Botswana has fulfilled all the criteria required for becoming a full member of World CLC.    

 

Sabie and Veronica are going to facilitate this assembly. The work of the Assembly will be to consider the Fatima recommendations as we did at our Assembly at La Verna in 2008.

 

Graham will give some input at the Assembly and most importantly will take the opportunity to visit the Bishops of Gaborone and Francistown.  There is some resistance to CLC from the Church hierarchy and Graham is hoping to win the support of the Bishops, which is vital for the growth of CLC in Botswana.

 

Jane is going in her capacity as coordinator for CLC in Africa, to encourage the developing community and to share some experiences of  CLC communities in other parts of Africa.

 

Please pray that the Spirit at Pentecost will flood the meeting. Pray also for safety on the roads ….there are many kilometres to travel from Cape Town and Johannesburg to Mahalapye, the venue for the Assembly.