By: Andres Neria

On Thursday August 15th, the Feast of the Assumption, our Provincial Fr. Ted and his council met with the delegates and coordinators of the province. The purpose of this meeting, and future meetings to come, is to explore and implement better ways to serve our province at all levels. This idea was presented at this year’s Provincial Chapter and came out as a mandate for the province to have such meetings, to help animate the province and move it forward.

This first meeting included:
Fr. Ted Montemayor– Provincial
*Br. Al Vu- Delegate for Youth Ministry, Coordinator of Education
*Fr. Mel Trinidad – Provincial Councillor
*Fr. Tho Bui – Province Economer
*Fr. Thomas Prendiville – Provincial Secretary
Fr. Joe Farias – Delegate for Salesian Family
Mr. Andres Neria – Delegate for Social Communication
Mr. JC Montenegro – Delegate for Mission Animation
Fr. John Roche – Coordinator for Vocation

* – Provincial Councillor

Br. Ernie Martinez, Delegate for the Elderly and Sick and Fr. John Itzaina, Delegate for Formation were not able to attend this meeting but will be part of future meetings. The conversation began by looking at the Province Organic Plan (POP) and many other ideas that came out of the Provincial Chapter. Looking at the priorities of the (POP) we decided to focus on the following: Priority 2, Strategy 1, Line of action 1…

Priority 2: to seek out, call forth and accompany new vocations to the Salesian religious life.
Strategy 1; by rediscovering the joy of accompanying young people and finding out God’s plan for them.
Line of action 1: (to) foster among the confreres a strong sense of belonging in order to witness to the value of living and working together

This is an on-going conversation that will include many others as well in the future. These are exciting times in our province, with new ideas, projects, and dialogue! Our next meeting will be on September 24th in Watsonville, CA.