Being a Stakeholder

The best way to remain young today isn’t the Ponds 7-Day Beauty Plan, it’s to stick around in the Society of Mary. Despite the fact that I’m heading towards the middle of my fifties – being in the Society of Mary that venerable age puts me in the younger bracket.

Father General in his recent letter to us, “To embrace wholeheartedly our Marist Identity”, points out that by the year 2017 almost half of Marists (he calculates that the total number will be 780 of us) will be over the age of 80. While I’ll still make it under that bar and still will be in the “younger half”, we certainly are greying, hopefully gracefully.

On 25-27 June this year there will be a weekend meeting for members of the province under 60 – by my calculation about 30 of us.

The gathering begins with dinner on the Evening of Friday, 25 June at Tatum Park just north of Otaki.

Last night after celebrating the Feast of St Peter Chanel in some style I was part of a fairly lively Marist discussion of where the Church was headed, where we had come from and what might be our course of action going forward.

One young member of the province – not mentioning any names – thought that a whole lot more of the province should be working in Schools. He was there with four of us who had done between us the best part of a hundred years of it already. Somehow it seemed to him that what we had done and were doing now didn’t seem to be half as worthy as what he was about to do. I’m not sure he would have said I was wasting my time here at Cerdon but simple answers late at night seem the most appealing.

Most Marists I meet are fervently convinced that what they are doing is not only worthy but essential and utterly Marist. Whether that be editing the Messenger, Spirituality Ministry, Parish or Pastoral work, City Ministry, Administration, the Internet or Teaching. No that’s not meant to be an exhaustive list! Others lament that we are no longer associated with the institutions that gave us identity – the schools, retreat houses, large parishes and corporate works we once had.

But we cannot deceive ourselves thinking we are what we’ve always been – a large phalanx of men marching forward unimpeded by age, diminishment or infirmity.

So what is our future as Marists in this part of the world?

Undoubtedly there will be some more seconded to other Marist Missions in other parts of the world. We have a long history of men leaving home and family to serve abroad. Sure a few will return home in the next few years too. Most of those will have, as the cliché goes, borne the heat of the day.

I was fascinated a few years ago when studying in the United States to learn words that I’d never really consciously used. Yet these words were on the lips of my teachers and classmates and two of them are apposite here.

Stakeholders and Leverage! The group of under 60s meeting in June are not the only stakeholders in the Marist enterprise, but they are certainly a significant group of stakeholders. Leverage refers to the ability of an individual or group to use the resources, skills and, in our case, the Charism they have in such a way as to make a significant impact upon those with whom they work.

I’m hoping that at Tatum Park we’ll make headway in our discussion of how these stakeholders intend to leverage this creative future together.

- Tim Duckworth

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