Arnoldians’ Meet 2017 of the Divine Word Missionaries in India, Mumbai (INM) was held at Divine Word Seminary, Pune from 20th to 22nd of April 2017, which was organised by the province Justice and Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC) committee. The Meet was inaugurated by Fr. Tony Menezes SVD, Director, Ishwani Kendra, on 20th April in Britto hall at 9.30 am. This year too, the theme of the Arnoldians’ Meet was ‘Celebrating Plurality’. There were thirty nine children from four schools and three social centres/missions of SVD INM province who participated in the meet apart from teachers/staff.
The purpose of the Meet was to bring together children from different cultural, social, and religious backgrounds to make them aware of the richness of our cultural and religious diversities and to provide a platform to the rich as well as poor children to live together and dialogue with each other. The session on the main theme was conducted by Fr. Naveen Rebellow SVD, who helped the children to understand the richness of diversity and the importance of respecting the diversity of the people of our nation. The children were given an over view about St. Arnold Janssen, society of the Divine Word, India Mumbai Province and our various apostolates and activities. Fr. Babu Kakkaniyil, Fr. Richard Quadros, Fr. Mathew Korattiyil, Mrs. Sunita Minj, Mr. Hrishikesh Khogare, Mrs. Pushplata conducted lessons on non violence, unity, sharing, hard work, team work, food wastage etc. with the help of activities, games, audio visuals and group discussions. Fraters from Divine Word Seminary conducted various group games and arranged all the logistics required with the help of the staff. The Meet was concluded with a study tour to Shaniwar Wada Fort, Synagogue, Aga Khan Palace and Yerwada Jail.
All the children and the accompanying staff/teachers expressed that they enjoyed every bit of the Meet and the perfect ambiance of Divine Word Seminary. The organizers also feel that the outcome of the exercise was very encouraging.
Matthew, SVD/INM
