Atlantic Area Assembly 2019 - a success

​Regional Fraternity of Eastern Canada
Atlantic Area Fall Assembly
Saturday, September 21, 2019
  Theme: “Bridging the generation gap“

Greetings: The 2019 Fall Area Assembly was a success. This year’s topic was “bridging the generation gap, connecting with people beyond baby boomers where issues like social justice and care of creation are of greater concern….” 

Fraternities across our Region are suffering from declining membership. Membership across Canada has dropped by approximately 90% since 1992.  There are various reasons: the drop in Church attendance, aging members and health problems, church scandals and so on. At this assembly we will explore varying questions such as, how do we interest the younger folk in the way of St. Francis and the life as a secular Franciscan; are our fraternities really welcoming; are we too set in our ways to accommodate young adults with different ways of thinking; how do we become more visible; what does a visitor expect to experience when they come to a meeting, and many more questions?

This assembly proposes to use a panel format and with the help of the panellist explore ideas for reversing membership decline. Time will be allocated for open Q&A. The goal is to end the day with a toolbox of ideas from which fraternities can draw to help grow the call to the Franciscan way of living.