BC/Yukon Delegate for AOA

Mike Rebstein:

Hello everyone, I'm the delagate for the BC/Yukon Region and look forward to the sharing of ideas and participating in the upcoming Orientation Assembly. I am a relative newcomer to D&P, having become involved only in the last five years.

I was born and lived in South Africa for half of my life before my wife and I, voted with our feet' and came to Canada during the apartheid era. At the time we did not see any hope of a change in government.

I was educated at a Jesuit school in South Africa and then at University in Capetown. I remember the police drawing a line across the road to prevent a student protest proceeding, and threatening to shoot anyone who crossed it. They would not have used rubber bullets so I 'get it' when D&P tries to address justice issues and not just charity. For example, we have some migrant labour problems in Canada while in Africa, mining is built on a system of migrant labour with the terrible AIDS problem partly caused by that.

In Canada I retired after spending most of my working life with a very large multinational (IBM - whose founder was a Quaker). This gave me a strong background in planning, which may be helpful to D&P.

I then made a life changing decision, and went to Regis College, the Jesuit-run college at U of Toronto, where I obtained a Diploma in Theological Studies. I just can't escape those Jesuits.
Through the influence of the Jesuits and my Parish Priest, I became very conscious of social justice issues in Canada and started a homeless shelter and a social justice group in my Parish in Markham. Regis College was across the street from the D&P office in Toronto, and that was my first contact with D&P.

When we moved to Vancouver, I became directly involved with D&P and have come to admire the work done throughout the Global South. I hope and pray that we can work together at the OA to set a path that will enable D&P to continue and to expand on that work.
God bless....
Mike Rebstein

BC/Yukon Regional Assembly Recap

Hi all! We are writing from the BC/Yukon Regional Meeting currently taking place in Sorrento, BC. It’s a beautiful space and it is good to be together again!

We have already been together for two and a half days and have spoken much about the Alternative Orientation Assembly (AOA). We are blessed to be joined by Siobhan Rowan (Education Department) and Jess Agustin (Program Officer for Asia). They have been wonderful resource people for us and we have already had time to share many stories.

Friday began with business and then quickly moved into a presentation from the Regional Team who traveled to Timor Leste in February – hopefully you followed the blog that was put together on the exposure tour. If you haven’t, I would encourage you to take a look! (www.timorleste2010.blogspot.com)

Today we spent the morning on the usual regional business and then sat back to hear from Jess regarding International Programs and the challenges of the world we are trying to work in. He shared with us some of the discussions that our International Programs Department is having and helped to set the stage for our work on the AOA.

Once we began our work, things became much more serious. It is challenging to put our thoughts into a few sound bytes. After much discussion and little debate we are hopeful for Development and Peace as we move into the next 5 years. We see this time as an opportunity. We are committed to continuing the work of growing – one of the groups stated that if we are not growing, we are dying. The image was that of a plant growing, not growth as defined by the corporate world. One of our youth stated, “When picking an issue, pick it so that it benefits who we want it to benefit/who needs it, not so that we acquire more members”. We recognize that we, as Development and Peace, offer something unique to our Catholic Church in Canada and we celebrate that.

We feel very strongly that the thread of ecological justice that has been present in our work, both in the work of our partners as well as our work in Canada, needs to continue. We look forward to the opportunity for our movement to be able to re-claim and remind Catholics that we have a beautiful Biblical language regarding the earth and creation. We recognize that it is difficult to pull out one thread amongst many interconnected themes, but we feel that again Development and Peace has something unique to offer. We bring a Southern perspective through our partners and their experiences, and we can challenge ourselves, our neighbours and our government to change our approach and be part of the solution.

This Regional Assembly understands that walking in solidarity with our brothers and sisters around the world includes speaking out about things that need to change here in Canada. We feel strongly that we cannot shy away from advocacy work and that we need to persist in being a prophetic voice if we are to truly live our mission as Development and Peace.

Despite the challenges ahead we are hopeful that we will continue to grow and that the Spirit who inspires us will also direct us. We pray for Development and Peace across Canada as we continue planning and moving forward into the next 5 years.

BC/Yukon Regional Assembly

BC-Yukon Regional Meeting - April 16-18

Hello from Sorrento, British Columbia. We have gathered here this weekend at our BC/Yukon Regional Meeting and spent much of today discussing the Alternative Orientation Assembly. We are gathered with 27 members from across our entire region with representation from each of our 6 Dioceses!! This has been a great weekend with our youth having a great impact to the discussions. It’s after 9 o'clock and for the second night in a row we are still continuing our discussions past the schedule as there is so much to talk about.


The social will come later tonight, and there’s another day to go! Wow!