Netherlands: Mill Hill Missionary Regional Assembly
On the last day of February the members of the Dutch Region of the Mill Hill Missionaries were gathered at Sint Jozefhuis, Oosterbeek, for the first Regional Assembly under the leadership of Ben Engelbertink MHM and his council.
The day’s menu featured two principal courses:
- In the morning a talk by Jan Luursema, member of CoRa – an advisory body to the regional council-, on the subject of aging gracefully or ‘how to be alive when you die’. Unsurprisingly exercise (plenty of it), healthy food (in moderate doses) and clear purpose (like the poet Patrick Kavanagh’s insistent plea: ‘O God give us purpose’) were flagged up as key components of a lifestyle conducive to reaching the age of ‘the strong’.
- In the afternoon the main topic of discussion was the future governance of the region. In view of the rapid decline in numbers and the inexorably advancing age profile of the membership of the region the appointment of a lay director/administrator/group leader is envisaged in the not too distant future. The feasibility/desirability of such an appointment and various requirements received a first airing at the meeting.
Now that Corona has been relegated to the level of a middle-of-the-road viral infection it was a real pleasure and a tonic to be able to meet again without undue hindrance and catch up with the news and experiences of members living and working elsewhere in the region.
And the food, supplied by a local Chinese caterer, was out-of-this-world!
Fons Eppink MHM
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