Forming missionary disciples and leaders
‘Dear young people, have a great soul! Don’t be afraid to dream great things!’ Pope Francis, April 24, 2013.
Fr Tony Alex
Since 1988, the Institute of World Evangelisation (ICPE) Mission New Zealand, based at St Gerard’s Monastery in Wellington has provided a great opportunity for young people to ‘have a great soul,’ step out of the ordinary and ‘dream great things.’ Every year it runs a School of Mission, a five-month, residential programme to train Catholics between ages 18 and 35, from around the world. It trains young people to be ‘activated in their Catholic faith, discover a personal relationship with God and be instilled with a passion and zeal to be witnesses of the good news to the ends of the earth’.
The School of Mission contributes to spiritual, emotional, relational, intellectual and mission-oriented growth in a participant’s life – a personal encounter with God and discovering one’s identity in Him. There are liturgies, personal and community prayer, lectures, spiritual reading, development of Christian leadership values and embracing the Church’s richness.
Community life, sharing rooms, duties, assignments and projects, facilitates faith and learning into action. The programme culminates with the new ‘Missionary Disciples’ sharing knowledge with parishes, schools, colleges, homes, rest homes, and on the street, through music, skits, mimes, sign language, testimonies, dance and teaching.
This year’s programme started on 22 February and runs to 12 July 2015 with 21 participants from 10 different countries. Over the years, hundreds of participants from more than 25 countries have taken part in our programme. Today, they are pastoral leaders, itinerant missionaries, committed witnesses in their respective workplaces or full-time ICPE missionaries. A participant becomes a full-time covenanted missionary after having lived in a community for a year and undergone a two-year formation in the Mission Spirituality.
Please visit us at www.icpe.org or email us for more information.
Fr Tony Alex is a formator for the Institute of World Evangelisation (ICPE) Mission New Zealand.