Reports - Regional

After spending much of the week collectively discerning ways to demonstrate Ignatian leadership in their communities and jobs, regional groups offered preliminary action proposals at the final session of the week. The following are examples of the ideas that were generated:

A. Baltimore

1. Sponsor area meetings for network building, continuing education and formation, liturgical celebrations, and shared meals. Invite others and develop our resource database further.

2. Listen to young people. Let their proposals be given a voice. Create dialogue between/amongst divided groups. Promote existing programs and encourage participation, but don’t need to reinvent the wheel. Invite in new voices and populations, for example the families of St. Ignatius Academy students.

B. Washington, DC

1. Use the Georgetown Center for Liturgy as a resource for high schools and colleges. Integrate the Ignatian leadership model into high school classes.

2. Network across generations, so that younger Jesuits are known by older Jesuits and lay people. Make liturgy more alive.

3. Network by connecting one-on-one and neighbor by neighbor. Develop mentoring programs. Collaborate across institutional lines to form new energies.

4. Facilitate regional meetings to lay the groundwork for meaningful interaction. Find common causes to rally behind. Examples could be religious literacy, housing-advocacy for the poor, and/or Hispanic outreach.

C. Wheeling

1. Communicate the Ignatian vision to new students and new parishioners. Attempt to reach non-Catholics through the Challenger Learning Center at Wheeling Jesuit University.

2. Involve males more. Keep the Spirit moving through the Board. Reach parishioners through programs such as retreats, days of recollection, and using students as ambassadors. Reach high schools outside of the Wheeling area.

3. Commit to a sustained effort to lead the Wheeling Jesuit University community, especially faculty, but including students, to an experience of the Exercises. This doesn’t need that much material support, but needs a great deal of attention to communication among university faculty and administrators.

D. Scranton

1. Build personal relationships through modeling, mentoring, and sharing experiences. Connect students to parishes as lectors, servers, presenters/facilitators of children’s liturgy of the Word. Connect service to faith/spirituality.

2. Gather faculty/staff from both the University of Scranton and Scranton Prep in a variety of settings. Refashion current gatherings already established at each individual institution and develop new opportunities, such as evenings of reflection or family picnics.

3. Presidents and rectors should encourage and challenge all deans, administrators, faculty, staff, clerics and clerical staff to practice “Our Way of Proceeding.”

E. North Carolina

1. Continue to focus on the Exercises. Pick up on the two COMP programs of last summer.