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ACTS OF THE 7th
EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES
ANNEX Ia
PRESIDENTS REPORT
THE ECDLF 2004-2008
The first meeting of the ECLDF after the Walberberg Assembly
took place inBratislava from 30 September to 3 October 2004. The
elections of officers were asfollows: President: Robert, Secretary:
Eva, Treasurer: Chantal, Formation assistant:Tomas, Additional
Office, Webpage designer: Nikolett. We also delegated
specialresponsibility for contact with the various regions among
council members.
We collected translations and presentations to prepare the
Walberberg Acts. Wedecided that Nikolett would continue to update
the ECDLF webpage. At financiallevel, the Council decided, after
receiving the audit report from John OBrien, to startfrom the very
beginning. A new bank account would be opened with 2
signatories.Internet banking would be used.
We also discussed the question of the venue for the next
European meeting. Weasked for more information from the provinces
regarding the potential places for theAssembly that were discussed
in Walberberg. These were Malta, the Netherlands,the Czech Republic
and Slovakia.
We heard from Jerry Stookey OP, promoter of the Dominican Laity,
that there existeda fraternity in Sofia, Bulgaria, but the country
did not belong to any province and wasnot yet officially founded.
We began writing e-mails to the Bulgarian Lay Dominicans.They
introduced themselves and we were very glad to hear that there was
a living,active group of people whose intention was to do apostolic
work in Sofia, a city that iscalled Wisdom.
They visited Fr. Jerry in Santa Sabina, Rome. They wished to
join the DominicanOrder officially, so they sent letters to the
Master of the Order. They had been waitingfor years for feedback
regarding their official foundation.
We had a second council meeting in Sopron, Hungary, on April
13/17th 2005. Nikolett
introduced the result of the audit, done with Mrs. Dr. Margit
Zillich Csutorane fromBudapest. According to it, all the figures
were correct. We weighed up once again theavailable information
about the venue of the next Assembly. Since the information wasnot
sufficient, we could not take the final decision. We shared
information about somecountries and we took some practical
decisions to improving relationships with isolatedEuropean
countries. Jerry would send a census form for Dominican laity
members toRobert who would transmit it with a letter to each
Province to be completed. Patricia,ICDLF member, informed the
council about their activities and plans.
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Germany to the office. So he and Patricia immediately started
working with the ECDLFat the Bratislava meeting. Patricia Kelly and
Fr. David officially took up their duties inBuenos Aires at the
International Congress in March 2007. In Bratislava, the
Councilheld an election for the office of President of ECDLF,
Gabriel Silva was elected. All theother members remained in their
current offices. After considering all the informationthat we
collected from the different Provinces which generously offered to
host the
Assembly, we decided that the European Assembly of Lay
DominicanFraternities would be held in Bratislava, Slovakia, from
29 May to 4 June 2008. Weworked on the agenda and preparations for
the Assembly.
In March 2007, we held our fifth meeting in Walberberg, Germany.
We prepared anapplication form for RENOVABIS. We wrote the letters
of invitation and we preparedthe budget, the questions about
fundraising and also finance issues during theAssembly. We
established the final timetable and the individual tasks for
ECLDFmembers and the local group. We made the necessary contacts
about interpreters.We also shared experiences about the
International Congress in Argentina, as someECDLF members took part
in this important event.
Shortly after the meeting, we were informed that the original
venue for the Assemblyin Bratislava was cancelled due to last
minute hassle. We tried to find anotherlocation very fast, with the
help of lay Dominicans from Slovakia and Eva andNikolett.
Fortunately, we found this place, and after negotiations, we were
in aposition to make a new budget and send the final invitation
letter to all the provinces.
In January 2008, we held the last ECDLF meeting in Dublin,
Ireland. Of course wetried to finish the final arrangements for the
Assembly, especially the little, but somany details. We finished
and approved the final programme, invitations, translators,liturgy
schedule and financial support to delegates from some provinces.
Weapproved the liturgy book and took note of our financial
situation.
During this mandate we published information on the ECDLF
website. We also madehundreds of contacts with lay persons, friars,
nuns and sisters around Europe,specially trying to find some
information about lay Dominican activities, and alsoprovided
information about ECLDF and the next Assembly. This kind of
connectionand network is probably the main job and nature of a
structure like the EuropeanCouncil of Lay Dominican
Fraternities.
