Find More MIA News
Browse All

News from MIA

February 01, 2010

Updates from MIA

In the concluding edition of E-News, 2009, we promised that the first edition of 2010 would carry more information on MIA programmes and plans. Because of the catastrophic events in Haiti, this year’s first edition suspended all regular items in order to focus solely on the Mercy outreach to Haiti. From the messages we received, we know that people across the Mercy world are reaching out in both prayerful and practical support.

Programmes

A schedule of programmes to be offered during the coming months at Mercy International Centre is now available. This can be accessed in the following ways:

Volunteers

Volunteers have played a vital role in the MIA structure from its very beginnings. Currently we are re-imagining the Volunteer system and consider it an effective way of enabling Mercy resources to be put at the service of global needs.

We intend to set up a register of volunteers who would be prepared to offer a personal gift or talent or expertise to promote the Vision and Ministry of MIA. If, for example, you are interested in offering a programme at Mercy International Centre at some time in the future or working with us in developing some on-line resources  in the areas of spirituality, justice, charism or helping us with heritage display or library set-up, we would like to hear from you.  If you are an artist, a musician, a singer, perhaps you might consider offering a piece of work for use on the web, or for sale in our shop. Good quality craft products from around the world help to foster a cultural appreciation of our multi cultural reality as well as highlighting particular realities and generating income for outreach to global poverty. Some with a particular talent in photography or computer skills might consider creating greeting cards, etc.

It is envisaged that most volunteer work would be short-term or occasional. Some would necessitate being at MIC but other volunteer work could be done in one’s own location.

If you are interested in being on our register please email us at: volunteers@mercyinternational.ie indicating your area of expertise and providing a short resume of any other relevant information

Committees, Commissions, Focus Groups, Forums

At present we are identifying the Committees, Commissions, Focus Groups and Forums needed for the drawing together of Mercy wisdom and expertise in support of the MIA mission. Some of these groups will be ongoing; others task focused for a specified time. The focus groups and forums will be theme based and may operate on an ongoing, temporary or once off basis. In order to facilitate the widest spread of representation and participation, we intend to conduct the activities of these groups mainly through web-based technology.  We will set up the facility for this on the new Mercy World web platform which will be launched in mid-March and at that stage we will communicate further information regarding the nature and function of these groups.

Mercy Renewal Programme

We are planning to run a month long Mercy Renewal Programme in July 2011 at Mercy International Centre. Participants will be encouraged to engage a preparatory stage of reading and reflection and they may also wish to avail of follow up theological reflection processes which will be offered on web Connect rooms. The Renewal programme will include input, reflection, sharing, prayer and ritual and will be resourced by a range of presenters and facilitators. This programme is being flagged well in advance so that those considering the programme can make long-term plans. The details of the programme will be published in the 2011 schedule of programmes, which will issue in mid-summer 2010.

World Youth Day 2011

The World Youth Day 2011 event will be held over seven days from August 15 – 21, 2011 in Madrid, Spain. This event is held every 3 years and was last held in Sydney, Australia in 2008. Because of the worldwide involvement of Mercy with youth, it is likely that many young people, associated with Mercy from around the world will travel to Spain for the event. Because of Dublin’s relative proximity to Madrid, (2 ½ hour flight) we are exploring the idea of hosting a Mercy Youth Pilgrimage experience to Baggot Street either before or after the Madrid event. At this point, we are gauging the interest there might be in such a pilgrimage and would welcome feedback from any group organizers who are planning on coming to Spain and who would be interested in extending their  travels to Dublin.

Please let us know if you are interested at youth@mercyinternational.ie