Theme: New Frontiers: Our Common Response.

Chennai, 13-15 October: The 18^th JESA (Jesuits in Social Action) Convention was held at the historical Dhyana Ashram, Chennai, a place where St. Francis Xavier and Robert De Nobili once spent their restful time. Coordinators for Social Action (CSA) with their team representing 20 Jesuits Social Centres in Nepal, Sri Lanka and India participated in this three-day gathering of the Jesuits and Collaborators. Total number of participants was 100.

In response to the challenges posed by GC 35, we reflected and shared our common concerns in our Provinces as well as at the Assistancy level in Jamshedpur in October 2010. The Assistancy statement at the SAC-MEC “Towards new frontiers together …” has given us 3 major areas of collective intervention on issues, namely a) Displacement and migration; b) Ecology and c) Communalism and fundamentalism for our assistancy. At the same time, Social Justice and Ecology Secretariat – Rome, with the approval of Fr. General and his team, has chosen 5 areas of advocacy action (Displacement and Migration, Governance of Natural and Mineral Resources, Education, Peace and Human Rights and Ecology) for the coming years at an international level. In the light of these challenges posed both by the Society of Jesus at assistancy as well as international levels, we shall have our JESA Convention – XVIII on the theme of “New Frontiers : Our Common Response” with the following objectives:

Objectives of JESA CONVENTION - XVIII:

a) To reaffirm the commitment made at SAC-MEC on the three frontier areas of our involvement and to evolve implementation mechanisms and accountability structures that will enable us to build common responses.

b) To understand and strengthen the 5 issue based Global Ignatian Advocacy Networks (GIAN) of the Society of Jesus at our Assistancy and to find ways and means of enabling local, national and global advocacy links.

c) To live, share, and cherish the hopes and aspirations, opportunities and threats of being a Jesuit Social Activist in South Asia.

Venue : Dhyan Ashram, Chennai

Dates : October 12 (pm) – 15 (pm)

Information and Requests in Preparation of our JESA Convention:

This is an important meeting for all of us as Jesuits involved in Social Action. In order to make this an effective, meaningful exercise, we as Province Coordinators of Social Apostolate will need to engage in certain preparation work in our Provinces and in our communities. Hence, as a preparation for our JESA Convention:

· I shall send the soft copy of the Assistancy statement approved by JCSA after SAC-MEC Meet “Towards new frontiers together…” and also a paper on GIAN for your reading, reflection, planning and reporting. I shall also send a few lead questions along with them for your sharing and reflection at Province Social Action Commission.

· As part of the GIAN, the core team members of the 5 issue based advocacy networks, namely a) Displacement and Migration; b) Ecology; c) Right to Education; d) Governance of Natural and Mineral Resourcs; and e) Human Rights and Peace; met at Loyola, Spain at the end of June 2011 to plan the future course of action. One of the main works that the participants decided is to prepare the global mapping of the internal (inside SJ) and external (outside SJ) resources that are available on these 5 issues. Resources such as: Which are the centres, institutions and individuals working directly or indirectly on each of these issues; other information of experiences and stories of involvement, struggle, movement etc. This will help in getting ourselves organized better and build alliances and networks for building effective advocacy links.

A few important Points for you to remember:

· The Convention will begin with the Eucharist on 13^th Oct. morning at 6.00 am. Hence, may I request you to reach the venue latest on October 12^th evening.

· The meeting will end on 15^th Oct. at around 4.00 pm. Hence kindly make your bookings accordingly.

· The Province Coordinators (CSAs) are requested to inform me the names and total number of participants from your Province/Region latest by 15^th August 2011.

· Kindly book your tickets as soon as you can to avoid holiday rush at that time.

Your suggestions for improvement will be deeply appreciated. Please feel free to inform me at any time.

In Solidarity,

Xavier Jeyaraj SJ

JESA Secretary