Duaime Re-Elected Provincial at Spiritan General Assembly

Members of the Congregation of the Holy Spirit Province of the United States gathered on campus recently for their triennial general assembly during which they re-elected the Rev. Jeffrey T. Duaime, C.S.Sp., as provincial for another three-year term.

“It’s an opportunity to be of service to the congregation and to the members,” said Duaime, who was first elected provincial in 2012 after serving as provincial for what was then the East Province from 2004-2009. “For that to have happened (at the assembly) in the context of the prayer and discussions that we had and in the great spirit—I feel humbled and empowered to continue my work as provincial.”

According to Duaime, 67 of the 89 members of the Spiritans’ U.S. Province attended the general assembly in June. Some U.S. Province members working overseas traveled from as far as Vietnam, the Philippines, South Africa and Tanzania to participate in the event. Among the additional 18 visitors/observers were members of the congregation’s Lay Spiritan community.

During the weeklong session, a facilitator helped the Spiritans manage discussions that centered on two previously selected topics: International Community Life and Focusing Our Spiritan Mission in the United States.

“We spent one full day discussing our experience of international community living and its benefits, and the areas on which we need to work to further improve that and to strengthen our experience of who we are as Spiritans,” said Duaime.

The Spiritans broke into small groups to explore how the members see themselves as a group and how they identify their mission as Spiritans in the U.S. They split the discussion into four categories:

• Spiritan education
• Spiritan parishes—which are focused on serving minority and immigrant communities
• Mission animation/justice and peace, integrity of creation issues in our ministries
• The Spiritan mission outside of the United States.

“Those were the four areas that we focused on in terms of who the Spiritans are and what makes our ministry unique in our work,” explained Duaime. “This provided a good sense of where we want to see the Province go in the future.

In addition, “Mission Spots” were interspersed throughout the week, during which representative groups discussed their work or activities that are happening across the U.S. Province. Duaime described the five to seven minute Mission Spots as an important part of the general assembly.

“It provided the opportunity for people to share personal experiences and stories about what they are doing in different things that we as Spiritans are involved in—it was done through creative ways too,” said Duaime. “Some presented videos or PPT presentations while others gave powerful personal witness of their story.”

Overall, Duaime said the general assembly resulted in those who had attended leaving with a feeling of a strong commitment to each other and to the work that the Spiritans are doing. “There was a very good spirit in terms of everyone coming together. It was a very diverse group in terms of where people are from and diversity in terms of what kinds of work our people are doing, but there was also a great spirit of unity there amidst all of that diversity,” said Duaime.