Transforming lifestyles for greater social and environmental action
16 May 2016

Transforming lifestyles for greater social and environmental action

by | posted in: JCAP News, Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

Jesuits and colleagues in the Asia Pacific region are gathering in the Philippines next month to discuss and share how transformed lifestyles are moving a more meaningful and effective response to environmental and social concerns in their ministries.  The three-day environmental reflection workshop will be held at the Culture and Ecology Centre in Bendum, Bukidnon from June 6 to 10, and is organized by the Reconciliation with Creation programme of the Jesuit Conference Asia Pacific (JCAP).

Cracks in the planet
26 Apr 2016

Cracks in the planet

by | posted in: Reconciliation with Creation | 0

There are “the cracks in the planet”.  As we mark Earth Day today, I am reminded of the startlingly fresh and visionary way Pope Francis called on all – not just Catholics – to be aware of the acute distress of our planet, our “common home” last year.  In his encyclical letter Laudato si’, Francis calls us to appreciate our moral responsibility to care for this wounded world even as we rejoice in the marvels of creation, the wonder of human life, the beauty of the stars, the forests and the macro- and the micro systems of our universe.

Registration opens for the JCAP conference on sustainability
24 Apr 2016

Registration opens for the JCAP conference on sustainability

by | posted in: Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

The Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific is inviting Jesuits, collaborators and friends to participate in a conference on sustainability.  Entitled A Call to Dialogue on the Sustainability of Life in the ASEAN Context, the meeting will be held in Sanata Dharma University in Yogyakarta from August 8 to 10, 2016.

Little big things in Chuuk: Earth Week in February
22 Apr 2016

Little big things in Chuuk: Earth Week in February

by | posted in: Province News, Reconciliation with Creation | 0

There are things happening in small and distant places around the world that speak out for a more sustainable world.  They go unheard in a globalised world, but does that mean they failed?  Like the “ooze of oil”*, activities of the youth are slowly and imperceptibly drawing people and nature together.

Dialogue with Buddhists on ecology and faith
22 Mar 2016

Dialogue with Buddhists on ecology and faith

by | posted in: Interreligious Dialogue, Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

Jesuits and Buddhist monks and nuns came together in early March to share and dialogue on ecology and religions in a workshop organised by the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific.

Organised locally by Fr Lawrence Soosai SJ of the Patna Jesuit Province, the three-day workshop was held in India, in the city of Bodhgaya where the Buddha is believed to have attained enlightenment, and which is one of the holiest of Buddhist cities.

Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the sustainability of life
26 Feb 2016

Buddhist-Christian dialogue and the sustainability of life

by | posted in: Interreligious Dialogue, JCAP News, Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

Sustainability is a hot word today among scientists, economists, politicians, religious leaders, and others especially concerned with humanitarian values. It has been linked to economics, ecology, social welfare, social justice, gender equality, financial security, conserving energy, eradicating poverty, and, of course, finding meaning in life.  And it is a topic of concern for the Jesuits engaged in dialogue with Buddhists.

Converging to dialogue on sustainability of life
26 Jan 2016

Converging to dialogue on sustainability of life

by | posted in: JCAP News, Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

This August will see an estimated 100 Jesuits, collaborators and friends converging in Indonesia to reflect, discuss and explore actions on sustainability of life in the ASEAN context. The meeting will be the largest collaboration across sectors in the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific in recent years.

Inspired by the experience of Tacloban
26 Jan 2016

Inspired by the experience of Tacloban

by | posted in: Formation, JCAP News, Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

From December 17 to January 1, 25 Jesuit scholastics from across the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific gathered in Tacloban City – one of the areas hardest hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan –to learn about disaster risk reduction and management, the theme of the 2015 Scholastics and Brothers Circle Workshop.  After talks, immersion and reflection, they each had to write a plan for disaster risk reduction and management in their own context.  Myanmar scholastic Paul Tu Ja SJ shares this reflection on his experience.

Scholastics learn how to plan for disasters
25 Jan 2016

Scholastics learn how to plan for disasters

by | posted in: JCAP News, Reconciliation with Creation, Social Justice | 0

A more perfect learning environment would have been hard to find for the recent Scholastics and Brothers Circle meeting.  With Disaster Risk Reduction and Management for a theme, Tacloban – one of the areas hardest hit by Super Typhoon Haiyan (Yolanda in the Philippines) in November 2013 – was the logical location.  During their workshop from December 18 and 30, the 25 Jesuit scholastics from across the Asia Pacific Conference were able to see with their own eyes the situation in Tacloban two years after the disaster.  They visited reconstructed sites, and met with local comm