What´s a EGC?
The acronym EGC stands for Expanded General Council. They are meetings held between two General Chapters, which are held every 6 years.
This form of meeting was established in General Chapter No. 20, in 1975. The Chapter Sisters, motivated by the desire for greater participation in the government of the Congregation at all levels, created the EGC. The objective proposed at that time was to evaluate the implementation of the congregational project, to know the situation of the entire Institute and to promote the unity of the Congregation. Three key verbs that still have meaning and value to this day. The periodicity that was established is surprising: the EGC would meet, totally or partially, at least once a year!
The nice thing is knowing that, before this important decision, these annual meetings were already being held between the General Government Team and the Provincial Sisters. This gives us reason to say that the decision to expand participation in the congregational government was anchored in the experience lived, in tests that the group was doing of a decentralized and collegiate government.
As life is a teacher and is giving us the right measure of reality, a few years later our same congregational group legislates something new about the periodicity of these meetings: the EGC will be held three years after each General Chapter (Dir. 127) . And the theme will be related to the last chapter document: its content and priorities.
Within this modality, the first three EGC were carried out in Spain: two in the city of Valladolid and one in Vic, Catalonia. In 1990 we find a phrase that is incredibly topical:
“Our religious life will only have meaning if we walk in hopeful tension towards our utopias. The words of Joaquina de Vedruna take on new relevance for us: "Let us put our spirit in God who can do everything and we will undertake whatever he wants." (Ep. 80). Yesterday and today we continue with this same hope.
An important milestone in this historical journey occurred in the 4th EGC. We are in the year 1997, but the place of celebration of this inter-chapter meeting knows an itinerancy: it leaves the geographical axis of Europe and moves to other continents where the Vedruna Charism is present.
The first continent to experience this experience was Latin America, in the city of Lima (Peru). There was born the Circular Letter Spirituality Vedruna spring of life.
Already in 2003, with a jump, we went to Asia. The first country on this continent to welcome sisters from all over the world was India, with the exciting theme “In intercultural dialogue, drinking from the same source”. We remember from that EGC the beautiful music of Ain Karen that illuminates us and moves us to this day, Raise the stones, which has as a backdrop the episode of an experience lived in the hard journey of Joaquina with her companions in exile in France .
From Asia we went to Africa. The city of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, received us, to dialogue and delve into the provocative topic “There are no borders when the Kingdom is at stake”. Also here we had a beautiful song by Ain Karem “There is no border” and an enlightening phrase: “We want this party table to be wide and open, so that we can all fit. A table where you can celebrate life and experience joy ”.
And we come to the year 2015. The EGC returns to Lima, a catalyst city for all the reality of the American continent. In the light of the last General Chapter that created the document Announce and defend life, the illuminating theme of the EGC was “Communion in diversity”. From what has been lived in this experience, the sound of a heart beating in a vital rhythm and the phrase that whispers in our ears still resonates: “The Lord has gathered us from every race, language and nation. By his call we are sisters in the mission of announcing, caring for and defending life. Stay together, live in communion! "
And today, here we are, with the doors of our Casa Vedruna wide open, to weave and weave, together and together, another look at the reality of life. A look with the eyes of a woman, contributing our granite in the burning issue of the participation of women in the Church. From the dream that moves us to be a Church in constant dialogue with reality, a synodal, prophetic and outgoing Church. Here we are!
This form of meeting was established in General Chapter No. 20, in 1975. The Chapter Sisters, motivated by the desire for greater participation in the government of the Congregation at all levels, created the EGC. The objective proposed at that time was to evaluate the implementation of the congregational project, to know the situation of the entire Institute and to promote the unity of the Congregation. Three key verbs that still have meaning and value to this day. The periodicity that was established is surprising: the EGC would meet, totally or partially, at least once a year!
The nice thing is knowing that, before this important decision, these annual meetings were already being held between the General Government Team and the Provincial Sisters. This gives us reason to say that the decision to expand participation in the congregational government was anchored in the experience lived, in tests that the group was doing of a decentralized and collegiate government.
As life is a teacher and is giving us the right measure of reality, a few years later our same congregational group legislates something new about the periodicity of these meetings: the EGC will be held three years after each General Chapter (Dir. 127) . And the theme will be related to the last chapter document: its content and priorities.
Within this modality, the first three EGC were carried out in Spain: two in the city of Valladolid and one in Vic, Catalonia. In 1990 we find a phrase that is incredibly topical:
“Our religious life will only have meaning if we walk in hopeful tension towards our utopias. The words of Joaquina de Vedruna take on new relevance for us: "Let us put our spirit in God who can do everything and we will undertake whatever he wants." (Ep. 80). Yesterday and today we continue with this same hope.
An important milestone in this historical journey occurred in the 4th EGC. We are in the year 1997, but the place of celebration of this inter-chapter meeting knows an itinerancy: it leaves the geographical axis of Europe and moves to other continents where the Vedruna Charism is present.
The first continent to experience this experience was Latin America, in the city of Lima (Peru). There was born the Circular Letter Spirituality Vedruna spring of life.
Already in 2003, with a jump, we went to Asia. The first country on this continent to welcome sisters from all over the world was India, with the exciting theme “In intercultural dialogue, drinking from the same source”. We remember from that EGC the beautiful music of Ain Karen that illuminates us and moves us to this day, Raise the stones, which has as a backdrop the episode of an experience lived in the hard journey of Joaquina with her companions in exile in France .
From Asia we went to Africa. The city of Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, received us, to dialogue and delve into the provocative topic “There are no borders when the Kingdom is at stake”. Also here we had a beautiful song by Ain Karem “There is no border” and an enlightening phrase: “We want this party table to be wide and open, so that we can all fit. A table where you can celebrate life and experience joy ”.
And we come to the year 2015. The EGC returns to Lima, a catalyst city for all the reality of the American continent. In the light of the last General Chapter that created the document Announce and defend life, the illuminating theme of the EGC was “Communion in diversity”. From what has been lived in this experience, the sound of a heart beating in a vital rhythm and the phrase that whispers in our ears still resonates: “The Lord has gathered us from every race, language and nation. By his call we are sisters in the mission of announcing, caring for and defending life. Stay together, live in communion! "
And today, here we are, with the doors of our Casa Vedruna wide open, to weave and weave, together and together, another look at the reality of life. A look with the eyes of a woman, contributing our granite in the burning issue of the participation of women in the Church. From the dream that moves us to be a Church in constant dialogue with reality, a synodal, prophetic and outgoing Church. Here we are!
