Sherman on the Mount: FABC-OCL Symposium II (Part 1)

The Office for Consecrated Life (OCL) of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC) is now holding its Second Symposium on Consecrated Life in Hua Hin, Thailand. It is to be held from 16 to 21 November 2009.

The topic of this symposium is "The Impact of Today's Culture on the Church Especially with Regards to Consecrated Life".

I flew from Changi Airport with two Mother Superiors of Franciscan congregations in Sabah and Sarawak, and the Right Rev. Paul Tan, SJ, Bishop of Melaka-Johor (who is also in charge of the Office for Consecrated Life in the FABC).

Here we are upon arrival at the Suvarnabhumi Airport in Bangkok, afterwhich we had to take a big van to our venue in Hua Hin (200 km south of Bangkok). It was a three-hour drive to the Salesian retreat centre there where our symposium was to be held. In the picture above is Bishop Paul Tan, SJ, looking all casual - and exhausted from his recent return to Rome, afterwhich we had to fly to Bangkok almost immediately upon his return.

Here is the stage of the conference hall, all decorated and waiting for the symposium to begin.

Participants trickled in throughout the whole of yesterday (until late last night). Our day began this morning with the Morning Office and the Holy Mass celebrated by Archbishop Orlando Quevedo, OMI. The participants consisted of Asian bishops, religious priests, and a vast many major superiors of the various religious orders in different Asian countries.

Archbishop Orlando Quevedo is the Secretary General of the Federation of Asian Bishops Conferences (FABC). He began the entire symposium with his keynote address, outlining some of the socio-political and cultural issues peculiar to the Asian context. This keynote address would then open the way for further explication by the subsequent speakers as they considered how religious life in Asia was being challenged today.