Alberta/MacKenzie-Fort Smith Regional Annual Meeting

Hello Development and Peace members across Canada!

The membership of Alberta/MacKenzie-Fort Smith is holding our Regional Meeting in Calgary, Alberta from April 9 to 11, 2010. We have been discussing a great number of issues regarding the future of Development and Peace and all the members are very excited and very engaged in the process. We started on Friday evening doing a quick recap of the past 4 decades of Development and Peace work in Canada and the Global South, which helped us set the framework of our analysis for Saturday.

As we face a number of challenges in our near future the Alberta/MacKenzie-Fort Smith members are hopeful of the road we must walk together with our partners. We have discussed in great detail the role of Development and Peace in the Church and in Canada and are excited about the opportunities to forge new ground with our endeavours.

We strongly affirm our desire to continue working and strengthening our advocacy efforts. We can not avoid our responsibility to defend Catholic Social Teaching and the Churches preferential option for the poor. These fundamentals define the authenticity of our relationships with others, be they with partners, clergy, or the Government of Canada.

We have appreciated the participation and words of encouragement of Bishop Frederick Henry of Calgary. We have also had the opportunity to share in great detail with Gilio Brunelli, the Director of the International Programs Department of Development and Peace.

We 25 members meeting in Calgary this weekend are streaming our hopes and positive energy to all of you across Canada and wish you the very best with your Regional Meetings.

Peace!