INTRODUCTION:
Who Initiated This Statement; For Whom it is Intended
RATIONALE:
Why RFC is Initiating This Articulation of a Context
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INTRODUCTION: Who Initiated This
Statement; For Whom it is Intended
The
Religious Formation Conference, the oldest national conference in
the United States of America serving women and men religious, is a
resource for religious congregations. Through its mission, the RFC
is committed to the transformative process of the Holy Spirit and
strives to be attentive to the signs of the times in a spirit of
collaboration, mutuality, and hope. In this spirit, the Religious
Formation Conference wishes to articulate, in collaboration with its
members, a world view in which religious formation is taking place
at this time in history and indicate RFC's direction in the first
decade of the new millennium in the light of this world
view.
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RATIONALE: Why RFC is Initiating This
Articulation of a Context
It is
important for any national organization to articulate a context out
of which it does what it does. While there are many influences on
the formative process of religious in the twenty-first century, the
Religious Formation Conference recognizes that within one's
relationship with God reside five indispensable relationships: one's
inner life which includes one's prayer life and the effects of one's
family of origin; interpersonal relationships; institutional
relationships, including one's religious congregation and the
Church; societal relationships; one's place in the
universe.
RFC believes that the process of
incorporation into a religious congregation within the Catholic
tradition requires the individual to enter into transformation
within these five relationships, which interact simultaneously in
the growth of the human person as well as in the receiving
community. Within this interaction, through the grace of God, an
environment for ongoing transformation is generated which motivates
the individual and whole communities toward the mission of Jesus,
making manifest the unconditional love of God for our world in our
world.
At different times, more intense education is needed
in one or more areas of these five relationships. Articulating a
social context helps an organization to focus on specific needs at a
particular time. RFC is engaged in such articulation in order to
focus its resources on specific needs at this moment. The following
describes the world in which religious formation takes place at this
time in history and offers RFC's response as a national organization
to the formative process.
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The
primary context for anyone seeking to live a vowed, communal life
within the Catholic tradition called religious life is God --
GOD AT THE CENTER OF ONE'S BEING;
GOD BEYOND THE
HORIZON OF ONE'S VISION. Because all creation lives and
moves and has its being in God, everything within the universe is
interactive. It is the work of those gifted with human consciousness
to labor to understand, honor, and reverence a universe reflective
of an inclusive God.
This work unfolds through specific myths
and understandings of relationships possible within God.
IN OUR CATHOLIC TRADITION, THE LOVE OF GOD MADE
MANIFEST THROUGH JESUS CHRIST AND THROUGH THE HOLY SPIRIT IS THE
GROUND OF OUR BEING. This revelation is further mediated
through:
- scriptures
- the Christian community that forms around Jesus and the
scriptures
- the Catholic Church and its traditions
- all of creation
- spirituality
- the history and lived traditions of religious life
- culture
- society and Catholic social teaching
- local participation in culture and society.
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Through the
dynamic interplay of all these treasures, ways emerge in which one
eventually finds oneself in communion with other people whose
context for God or for life is within the framework of totally
different understandings. We honor the mystery that often, through
distinct and diverse paths in the God-quest, all people can move
together in life, claiming our oneness.
We live in times of
extraordinary creativity and extraordinary chaos where traditional
expressions of relationship are shifting interiorly,
interpersonally, institutionally, socially, universally. In our
times, there is a particular urgency concerning social/cultural
relationships. The human rights movement and its effort to make
available to all human beings and human communities of Earth the
opportunity for a life of dignity, freedom, peace, and security from
oppression has helped focus the world community on an agenda that is
at the heart of the Church's mission and the mission of religious
life in the twenty-first century. Ecological movements call us to
our oneness with Earth itself, a call that cannot be ignored in the
light of right relationships and diminishing resources.
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The United States culture offers the world values
based on a democratic system of government that in its best
interpretation encourages active participation in social processes
and an egalitarian view based on:
-
respect for the individual
-
the
right to participate openly in public discourse,
-
the
dispersion of power and public accountability.
In
contrast to these values, North Americans sometimes live out of
myths that are destructive and deceptive: more is better; we are
Number One; winning is everything; we are a melting pot where
everyone can achieve the American dream. While these myths have no
real meaning in a world context of globalization, the consciousness
of many people in the Unites States has not shifted to face today's
and tomorrow's realities.
Religious congregations seeking to
live and work in a spirit of mutuality, collaboration, and in right
relationships interiorly, interpersonally, institutionally,
socially, universally are part of their culture and are struggling
to learn skills needed for the transformation of consciousness
necessary for the future of our planet.
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Everyone on Earth is called to learn the skills of
living simply, chastely, and obediently in relationship to the
human
community and to our planet;
Each of us is impelled
to learn skills of social analysis so that all people have access to
the power that is already theirs
to make decisions about their
own lives and the life of our planet;
Together we are invited
to learn to listen contemplatively and be influenced by the wisdom
of diverse cultures, as we assume our citizenship in a multicultural
world;
All must learn to honor the wisdom of Earth
and the richness of community if a world community is to
emerge.
The
shift of consciousness from a world-view of dominance to a vision of
a community of equals
within the embrace of God, all
contributing to the dynamism of the rich diversity of
culture,
creed, and code is a worthy work of our
time.
As its very name implies and as it has done throughout
its long history and tradition,
the Religious Life also
brings a lived wisdom to both society and Church with regard to
the
struggle for credibility and meaning in our time. We
recognize and accept this responsibility.
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The
Religious Formation Conference in the United States commits itself
to promote the development of skills oriented toward this vision of
a universal community.
The imperative of this vision combined
with a conviction that this is an area where religious
congregations, in collaboration with like-minded groups, can make a
significant contribution, compel the Religious Formation Conference
to focus deliberately on education for deepening relationships:
theological- communal- societal- cultural- ecological, and the
praxis related to them.
STATEMENT ACCEPTED BY THE BOARD OF
DIRECTORS
RELIGIOUS FORMATION CONFERENCE
MAY 7, 2000
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