Workshop for Formators Held

BHOPAL, Madhya Pradesh, July 30, 2010, 11:15 Hrs (CBCI News):

A national workshop on communication for pastoral leadership (CPL) was held at Pastoral Centre, Bhopal, July 22-25. The chairman of CBCI Commission for Social Communications Bishop Chacko Thottumarickal SVD of Indore inaugurated the workshop. He underlined the need for serious and systematic formation in social communication as essential for an effective and fruitful pastoral ministry. Later he also conducted a session on media technologies, ethical issues in communication and pastoral priorities.

The workshop organised by the CBCI Commission has prepared a 3-volume books and resources titled ‘Communication for Pastoral Leadership’. Commission’s Executive Secretary and coordinator of the project Fr. George Plathottam presented an overview of the programme, directives of the church on formation in social communication, and how the programme can be implemented in the various stages of formation. A few major superiors and formation community heads attended the opening session. The workshop was animated by a team of resource persons consisting of Fr. George Plathottam sdb, Fr. KJ Louis sdb, national delegate for Don Bosco Communication, Fr. Jomon James svd, MP Region Secretary for Social Communications, Holy Spirit Sisters Nisha Koyikal, Pushpanjali Paul and Fr. Hans MST.

The workshop sessions included study of the course materials as contained in the first two books, guidelines on incorporating in a systematic way social communication in the various stages of priestly and religious formation, hands on experiences like use of various instruments of communication, imparting of communication skills, teaching and evaluation methods etc. The participants were made to present lesson plans and conduct sessions which were evaluated by the resource persons.

During the workshop, Bishop Chacko launched the new website created by CBCI Commission has for the benefit of those in formation and those who are responsible for providing formation.(www.communicationformation.com). The site has many useful features and provides access to church documents on social communications, resources, students’ corner, interactive sections etc. At the end of the worship, the participants were conferred certificates. The participants hailing from M.P and Chattisgarh region made a few specific plans to organise periodically joint training programmes in social communication for the benefit of those in formation.