JOURNEYING WITH YOUTH
By Fr Iain Radvan SJ
In conversation with Janark Gray, Communications Officer at the Australian Province
The four-day meeting of the Christian Life Community (CLC) Asia-Pacific Assembly, held in Tokyo from 20 to 23 February, was a follow-up to the 18th CVX-CLC World Assembly held in Amiens, France in 2023. The idea was to see how CLC across the Asia Pacific nations could carry the statements of that assembly into the region in a more concrete way.
Fr Iain Radvan SJ explains the meaning of a picture drawn during a small group discussion on the seeds of hope. Holding the artwork is Antonia Lo, the new CLC president in Hong Kong.
The theme of the gathering, held at the National Olympics Memorial Youth Centre (NYC), was “Walking together as companions of hope”, which mirrored the experiences of the disciples on the road to Emmaus. With me were two other Australian representatives: Michael Walker, the President here, and Teresa O’Brien, one of the CLC delegates from Victoria, and we were joined by teams from Japan, Korea, the Philippines, Indonesia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Vietnam, China (including Hong Kong and Macau), and Singapore.
It was an honour to have Fr José de Pablo SJ, our World Vice-Ecclesiastical Assistant (EA), with us during the assembly.
We began the Assembly with each national delegation using symbols to explain our respective journeys since our last assembly in Korea, which took place in 2019. Then there was one evening where each delegation was asked to do a performance; either a song or a poem or a story, so Teresa, Michael and I (with the assistance of Sarah Dench, the New Zealand representative) did a dramatised Dreamtime story. We used simple costumes, masks, a recording of Aboriginal music, and I narrated a story which the others acted out. It was received very well, even by many of those did not have English as their first language, of whom there were quite a few.
A key item on our agenda in Tokyo was to elect five members of the new Animating Team, a body that doesn’t have executive power, but that tries to get different national communities to communicate among themselves and to coordinate their apostolic efforts.
Whatever CLC does in any one region of Asia Pacific for youth will be communicated to the Animating Team, who will then spread it around to the other Asia Pacific national groups so that we share resources rather than operating in silos.
In Australia, there are seven members of the National Executive Council (NexCo) of CLC, the organisation’s governing body. These members are elected for four-year terms by the National Assembly. As Ecclesial Assistant, I am appointed by the Provincial.
In Tokyo, there were about a dozen Jesuit EAs, from each participating country. Our role is really supportive; we don’t direct any projects, but rather ensure that the NexCo of each country works out what they want to do to grow CLC, to encourage people to join and to offer Ignatian retreats. The EAs are there to pray, to back them up, to confirm, to offer wisdom.
Certainly, our intention is to work with more young people. We’ve always wanted to attract younger people and offer them discernment, Ignatian prayer and other aspects as well, but the older we get, the harder that gets. We really want lay people, especially youth, to appreciate and connect with our spirituality. The World Youth Day in Seoul is a big goal for us in terms of what we can do to promote CLC there. We’ll be working towards this over the next 18 months.
To enquire about becoming a Jesuit in Australia, contact vocations@sjasl.org.au and for more info, visit our Vocations page.