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LIFE, Dindigul |
| Lay Animation |
Year of Foundation - 1996 |
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| Profile : |
 "In these last times, it seems that God wishes the laity to play a major role in the salvation of souls." This was the prophetic vision of St. Claret that involved so many lay persons to be integrated in his apostolic projects and gave this legacy to his congregation. He was also keen to found number of lay associations which bore so many fruits in the service of the Church. Following his footsteps, the Province of Chennai took Lay Animation as one of the missionary objectives from the first Provincial Chapter. Therefore, to promote leadership among the laity and to form them as evangelizers LIFE (L aity I nstitute for the F ormation of E vangelizers ) was founded in 1996. The Centre will offer courses on scripture, liturgy and evangelization for those who are interested to involve in the ministry of the Word.
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| Latest News and Activities in LIFE, Dindigul |
Jesus' Disciples – 3 rd Formative Training Meet
This is the short report of the 3 rd regular formative training programme for the second batch of Jesus' di sciples that took place at LIFE on 22 nd January 2006. The whole programme was animated by Bro. Philip, a renowned lay evangeliser from Kottar diocese. He enlightened the participants on the unconditional love of God and how human rejects it by sinning and breaking relations with God as well as his fellow beings. He explained his points vividly with so many life examples and practical inputs using different dynamics.
Unfortunately, the participation for the second group of the future lay evangelisers is not very satisfactory. Different steps have been taken to motivate the parish priests to encourage the interested lay people to becom e Jesus' disciples formed at our Institute. As a step in this direction, the community members participated in the monthly recollection of the diocese and Fr. M. Arul Jesu Robin used the opportunity to explain to the diocesan priests our sincere effort in forming the laity as evangelisers and requested their co-operation in our endeavour. It is heartening to note that the bishop too warmly appreciated our activities at LIFE and strictly commanded the parish priests to read the invitations and reports that we regularly send to all the parishes and participate fully in the programmes of LIFE. This bore fruit immediately as we had nearly 40 participants for the third training programme and some of them were from parishes which were not represented before.
Jesus' Friends – 5 th Formative Training Meet
The regular 5 th formative training programme for Jesus' Friends took place at LIFE on 29 th January 2006. There were altogether 56 Jesus' friends from seven parishes of Dindigul diocese.  The day's programme was animated by Bro. Packiam, Sacred Heart brother from Arulchantru Nilayam, Paramakudi. He enlightened the participants on true friendship drawing principles from the life of Jesus. He also instilled many values of the kingdom by different dynamics. In the afternoon session, the participants were divided into three groups and asked to spell out their manifestos for the development of India if they become politicians. Finally, the resource person explained how Jesus himself was a great “politician” but altogether different sets of values and life style from what we see today in our politicians. His only concern was people specially those marginalised and oppressed in the society. He wanted nothing for himself but gave himself fully for others. |
| Laity Animation Centre, Sahanagar |
In order to promote the objective of Lay animation in North India , the missionaries at Marsal Sadan in Sahanagar are taking efforts to establish a lay animation centre. Courses and trainings are being conduced for the children, youth, women, catechists and so on. Lay leadership workshops, Marriage instruction courses, Catechetical seminars are some of the regular program of this centre. It is remarkable that awareness programs are also organized in different parishes of the diocese.
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e emergence and consolidation of Anbiam in the parishes of Tamil Nadu has undoubtedly brought in fresh air in the Tamil Nadu Church. Many lay people have understood better their roles in the Church and the Church herself has become more participative. While the growth of Anbiam is enormous in the city and down parishes, in many villages, it continues to face resistance specially from traditional village leaders who exercise power for centuries as their right and prerogative. In many villages, they have not been incorporated with Anbiam and they function as parallel power structure causing undue tensions and problems to the parish priests and democratically elected leaders of Anbiam . One of the reasons for these types of tensions is misunderstanding and lack of proper knowledge of Anbiam , its objectives, mode of functioning, etc. 
Centre inaugurated the one-day seminar explaining the uniqueness and importance of the encounter. Fr. S. Anselmus , cmf, an expert in Anbiam animated the whole day. He dealt on the nature and objectives of Anbiam , participative nature of the Church, the role of village leaders in Anbiam , participating in the friendship of Christ and features of dominating and guiding leadership. It was also an occasion for the village leaders to get their doubts clarified; misunderstandings dispelled and presumed threats better understood. Fr. A. Morris, the Diocesan Anbiam co-ordinator actively participated and intervened whenever needed to answer questions raised by the participants. He also celebrated the Holy Mass for the village leaders.