THE MISSIONARY CENACLE FAMILY COUNCILOn April 22, 1995, four separate councils, the Missionary Cenacle Family Councils, made the decision that there would be one Council, the Missionary Cenacle Family Council.
This decision came out of a process that took place in this room from August 11-13, 1994 with Father Gerry Arbuckle, "Refounding the Missionary Cenacle Family" during which time, Geny Arbuckle acted as consultant and Brenda Hermann served as facilitator.
In this room, Helen, Philomena, Luz, Marie Boin and I were participants. None of the STs are still on the Council. (From the previous Council, they were Father Domingo and Father Jack Mc Spiritt) Since August 1994, three have died: Sister Marie Gaffney, Father Leon Buggy and Father Randy Woods.
The work was intense and we were challenged to think not as a Branch, but as a whole; to think in terms of being in leadership for the Missionary Cenacle Family, and not just our own branch; to think of qualities needed for leadership; to think how and in what way are we called to lead the Missionary Cenacle Family? We worked hard, prayed; shared faith and liturgies and meals.
Arbuckle asked: Do we come together for Mission? Do we have ownership for the mission? Are we compelled to move forward? We were reminded to be in touch with our Baptismal call and our common founding charism. These were common to all of us, and certainly foundational. At that time, Arbuckle asked what the MCF has to offer in service to the mission of the Church to the world. To a great degree, we are still in the process of responding to these questions. Soon we will gather for Jubilee/Jubileo 2000 to look together at our Mission of the Missionary Cenacle Family for our future. Back in 1994 we were urged to move away from viewing ourselves and others in the roles of Priests, brother, sister or laity. We needed to look at self and one another as member of the Missionary Cenacle Family. And beyond all this, we were challenged to consider the cost of our being a new entity, one MCF Council; the cost to ourselves, cost to our own branch and cost in time and money.
The challenge placed before us was: Can we be authentic in our own branch if we held back from a common MCF prophetic commitment? Is this a deeper call? Is this a call into a greater depth - the collaborative Missionary Cenacle Family effort?
Our being one Council would be a quantum leap. We would think in terms of the whole, notj'ust our own particular branch. This would be an organic structure in which collaboration was the way. One group who share the organizational structure as well as the Mission.
We made the quantum leap. We are one Missionary Cenacle Family Council. The need to have all members of the MCF understand the significance of the decision to be one Council was addressed in a letter by the General Custodians at that time to all the members.
We are still clarifying how we as a Council will implement our Mission; still clarifying our shared values and priorifies. We have looked at issues of power, control, and authority. We are aware that the decisions we make in Council have impact on many members. How do we communicate in a better, more comprehensive way to the membership? Communication is a serious concern. Collaboration is an ideal we aspire toward. . There has been concern about the gap between the members of the Missionary Cenacle Family Council and the members at large.
I suppose we may wonder what the great significance of being one counsel is. First it has meant that we no longer think in terms of only one branch. Each of us has had to learn that, and we are still learning that when any one Branch takes a step, goes to a new ministry in a new place, changes a direction, adds members, loses members, the entire Missionary Cenacle Family is affected by the action.
At the beginning, we knew it was too soon to settle on a structure, and we set up a Coordinating Committee, composed of a member from each Branch of the MCFC to manage arrangements for each Council meeting. Brenda was asked to be the facilitator and she has continued as facilitator until the present time.
A concern has been initial and ongoing formation into the Missionary Cenacle Family. Members of any branch would need to understand that membership in any Branch meant membership in the MCF. We think that the present Vocation/Forrnation Team Members are aware of this and consistent in applying the principle. Trinity Mission Center addresses this issue to some degree.
Places where we are interactive as MCF or where the MCF is already being imaged: Trinity Mission Center, Ordo Committee, Jubilee 2000; Missionary Cenacle Press; MCFC steering Committee; Millennium Retreats; MCV Orientation and Retreats; Trinita; Holy Trinity; Stirling; four General Custodians; Internet; Puerto Rico; Mexico
Our looking at Mission together this weekend should advance our way of being Missionary Cenacle Family Council and advance the way our members can grow as family in mission.
A reminder to us that in October 1998, we stated that the PURPOSE of the Missionary Family Council is to gather to call the "family" to faithfulnessto the founding charism (identity as family). We do this by holding the vision, planning for the future and calling the family into mission for the sake of the Church. The style of leadership is Council.
We have drafted an Identity Statement: We are a Community of laypersons (the Missionary Cenacle Apostolate); sisters, (the Missionary Servants of the Most Blessed Trinity); priests and brothers (the Missionary Servants of the Most Holy Trinity); and vowed laity (the Blessed Trinity Missionary Institute) called by God to be missionaries in the Church. Together we comprise the Missionary Cenacle Family.
[Presented by Sr. Barbara de Moranville, MSBT, General Custodian]
MCFC April 1 and 2, 2000