During the last two years, together with the Office of the Treasurer General, the Office of Oblate Mission Sustainability (OOMS) has been developing a program to prepare Oblate fathers and brothers to meet the financial challenge raised by the Chapters. The workshop in Cedara was the fourth of a series that started with a pilot in the Province of Indonesia in 2016, and the second to include scholastics.
leaders, basic concepts of Sustainable Development, and Financial Sustainability. The workshop was active, with collective or in-group reflections and exercises, as well as many examples from South Africa and other Oblate Units, with particular references to experiences from the Scholasticate. The Scholasticate’s piggery was used to illustrate how to analyze the feasibility of and launch successful income-generating activities.Additional efforts to obtain financial self-sufficiency in the Scolasticate are a kitchen garden that provides fresh vegetables to feed the faculty and seminarians, as well as the installation of solar cells to harness the energy of the bright South African sun and reduce energy costs.
Participants received the PowerPoint presentations and exercises used during the workshop but also documents providing more detailed background about the topics developed during the workshop. Asked to evaluate the experience, they concurred that the workshop was productive and had effectively introduced them to topics that are likely to be very useful in their future lives as Oblates in mission, the main goal of this formation.
Each workshop is different because it is offered to a different audience. Even though pre-adapted to the needs of those targeted audiences, it is appropriate to adjust them as need is perceived. At the same time, all those adjustments are a learning experience for instructors and the OOMS.