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QUEBEC CITY - Though religious congregations are passing through a difficult time in Canada, “our vocation as religious is more important than ever before,” Dominican Father Timothy Radcliffe told leaders of Canadian religious congregations here.

The internationally renowned speaker and author spoke to 400 leaders of religious congregations from across Canada at the June 5-9 general assembly of the Canadian Religious Conference (CRC). The assembly also chose a new executive, with Dominican Father Yvon Pomerleau as president, Ursuline Sister Anne Lewans as vice-president and Marianhill Missionary Father Alain Rodrigue as secretary-treasurer.

The CRC leaders represent more than 21,000 religious women and men from across Canada. The theme of the assembly was “Remembering for the future!” It was held in Quebec City which is celebrating its 400th anniversary this year.

Radcliffe, a former master general of the Dominican Order, gave two presentations: one on the future of religious life and one on Christian leadership.

The vocation of religious is more important than ever before, he said, because “we are called to be signs of hope for humanity. We religious may be passing through a moment in which we have doubts about our own future, but the whole of humanity is facing a severe crisis of hope.”

He contrasted the optimism of the 1960s when society believed in “a wonderful future” to the crises society faces today: the ecological crisis, the spread of religious fundamentalism, terrorism, the epidemic of AIDS, a growing gap between the rich and the poor, states in Africa on the brink of collapse and a disastrous drop in the birth rate.

“People fear to bring children into a world without hope and without a future,” he said.

Radcliffe said a religious vocation is “an expression of a deeper truth — the truth that every human being is called by God. God calls us into existence and He calls us to find our happiness in Him.” Religious embody a fundamental and hopeful Christian conviction about the future of humanity. They are “an explicit sign of what it means to be a human being.”

Radcliffe noted that religious will be a sign of hope to a world in crisis only if they face their own crises and uncertain future “with joy and serenity . . . as moments of grace and new life.” He cited the example of Jesus at the Last Supper when He embraced that crisis and made it fruitful instead of running away.

Religious embrace diversity in community, he said. Society searches for community with like-minded people. This is not a sign of the Kingdom of God. Religious communities, he said, “should be like a good casserole, in which it is the different tastes that give the savour.”

Speaking on the role of religious leadership, Radcliffe said Jesus provided the world with a new model of leadership.

“We tend to think of leadership in terms of management and administration. The business world dominates our imagination,” Radcliffe said. “If we look to the Gospels, then the model that Jesus offers us is that of service. My theory is that Christian leadership is the service of God’s grace. We serve people by serving the happening of God’s grace.”

Radcliffe used the parable of the Prodigal Son to explore the “happening of grace” in people’s lives. It is not only the father in the parable who is a model for leaders, he said, but also the two sons.

“The parable is about the loss and restoration of unity of family,” Radcliffe said. Unity is the fruit of grace and the primary task of leadership — unity within their community and with the universal church.

Diversity within community often leads to drama, he said. “But if we are servants of God’s grace, then the great drama has already happened. Christ has died, Christ is risen, Christ will come again.” In the parable of the Prodigal Son, “there are no hints that the father treats (the departure of his younger son) as a dramatic event. . . . Life carries on.”

The father resists “the culture of control.” He lets things happen, even though he does not know what this will lead to. Leadership means being unafraid, however much chaos threatens.

This will mean letting things die. Leadership is in part “the art of dying so that the future may break in,” he said. It is creating the space for the young to do what we cannot imagine or anticipate, loosing the grip of the present, stirring in a bit of unpredictability.”

The younger son models leadership by stepping out in faith and vulnerability. “Christian leadership is fundamentally about stepping out in front, going ahead, as the prodigal son steps out to go and seek his father, and his father steps out to go and greet his son,” Radcliffe said.

The parable ends with a family celebration. “Christian leaders are the Masters of Revels,” Radcliffe said. “We are to be those who rejoice in human beings, in whatever mess they might be. Christian leaders have to assure people that “God delights in their being.”

The elder son models the jealousy religious leaders may feel. They can be jealous of those who have given in to their “wildest fantasies and still come home and get the best robe,” Radcliffe said.

Leaders who serve “the happening of grace” need “tremendous flexibility and refuse to be stuck in predetermined roles,” Radcliffe said.

(Novecosky is abbot at St. Peter's Abbey in Muenster, Sask.)

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