West European Province
In simple terms the Province has two branches:
- The Saint John of God Hospitaller Services Group is a Ministerial Juridic Person (MJP) which is a separate legal entity with responsibility for all the ministries in Ireland and the UK.
- The Hospitaller Order of Saint John of God which functions like all the other Provinces, except that all the Ministries in Ireland and the UK are no longer the responsibility of the Brothers except for the ministries in Malawi.
THE SAINT JOHN OF GOD HOSPITALLER SERVICES GROUP (MP)
This branch of the Province has utilised already established groups as sensing groups to facilitate sensing in preparation for the Province’s input to the Order’s General Chapter 2024.
Sensing groups
- Board Directors (7 Boards)
- Group Chief Executive Management Team
- Executive Group – Executive teams for each of the Services
- Chaplains – 9 across the Province led by the new Director, Director of Organisational Culture
- Client Advisory Council UK
- Assistive Technology Group (initially established during Covid to assist clients maintain contact with each other and services).
- Regional Teams
- Saint John of God Hospital
- Saint John of God Research Foundation
- Saint John of God Community Services
- Saint John of God Services UK
- Saint John of God Housing
- Saint John of God Services Malawi (6 companies covering the 3 regions of the Ministries enable input from all services)
The sensing groups are covering the following topics and questions:
- General: What are the issues around us that we are aware of as a Saint John of God organisation and how they impact the fulfilling of our duty of care in our society.
- Finance: While the country Ireland / England is generally prospering, the health sector in both countries is in financial crisis. This is a constant battle due to government underfunding health services nationally (Ireland largely dependent on government funding) and the concerns and challenges are in meeting the needs of the clients in our Services with insufficient financial resources. Whilst funding for UK services is less of a challenge, the risk here is of unstable government and withdrawal from the EU which has the potential to affect funding avenues.
- St. John of God: With the establishment of the (MJP) Saint John of God Hospitaller Services Group – how do we maintain and keep alive our SJOG spirituality and charism into the future when there are no Brothers present?
- Health / Careers: These topics will be touched on in light of the question “What in your life makes life worth living” – covering relationships, purposeful activity and good health. There are also challenges arising from the increasing use of AI (Artificial Intelligence) and the impact it may have on certain jobs and occupations, and the evolving use of information technology.
- Climate change: The effect of climate change and sustainability of the environment into the future. The growing anxiety effect on the younger generation, the effect on productivity and agricultural productivity and food insecurity.
THE HOSPITALLER ORDER OF SAINT JOHN OF GOD
Within the European Region of the West European Province of Saint John of God the majority of our Brothers are in their late 70’s and 80’s and retired from active ministry in the Services (mean age 75 years). Also as the Services have been established in a Ministerial Juridic Person (MJP), the Saint John of God Hospitaller Services Group, responsible for the Services in our Hospitaller Ministry are doing the sensing under their own banner.
Sensing groups
- Stillorgan (Dublin I Community)
14 Brothers (4 unable to participate) Mean age 82 years. - Rathgar (Dublin II Community)
5 Brothers - Darlington (UK Community)
4 Brothers (1 unable to participate) - Wolverhampton (UK Community)
4 Brothers - London (UK Community)
2 Brothers - Combined Brothers Assembly including MZUZU Community
Convened January 30th and May 2024.
The Brothers’ Sensing Group worked on two key areas identified by the WEONA Regional Group in Toronto in July 2023:
"Walking each other home"
In acknowledging the reality of the situation of the age profile and declining numbers and responsibilities of the Brothers living in Ireland and the UK, the challenge of our times is in meeting the needs of ageing communities; the concept of supporting Community members in their frailty and creating environments of care, support and purposeful activity in a Hospitaller and compassionate way.
Walking Each Other Home – The Challenges
- Meaningful prayer / reflection / discussion about our different reality today
- Availability retaining and building links with others and the services
- How we live Community, how we interact in our present reality
- Providing positive leadership in a changing world
- New ministry – needs collaboration with other agencies
- Decline in vocations among Brothers
- Lack of collaboration between Brothers and Co-workers
- Lack of effective communication between Brothers and Co-workers
- Decline in financial support
- Financial sustainability
- Increased health care needs of aging Brothers
- Lack of expertise in mission for Brothers – concern at the diminishing number of older Brothers for younger Brothers to glean from.
- The challenge of secularism and materialism
- The new definition of Community and mission be intertwined?
- Aging – coping with failing health
- Aging needs and its impact on our group
- Aging – physical and mental challenges
- Community – defining and the effects of secularism
- Challenges of being led by the Holy Spirit
- Aging – support and evaluating – freedom and supporting different needs of individuals
- Our values – not only for the people we care for but for the way we care each other
"Cry of the earth – cry of the poor"
The WEONA Region identified the environmental crises as the second fundamental challenge to our Mission of Hospitality as we plan for 2024-2030. The challenges affect the whole planet and it is not possible to have a healthy peoples without a healthy planet. The West European Province has responsibility for ministries and Communities in Malawi. Whilst Europe and Malawi together face environmental challenges, the challenges for Malawi will be somewhat different to those experienced in Europe.
Cry of the earth – cry of the poor – The Challenges
- Natural disasters and their effects
- Depletion of natural resources
- Food insecurity
- Pollution
- Climate change – weather patterns
- Chronic disease
- How do we reduce the carbon footprint within our own communities and services?
- Wars due to competition for resources
- Prolonged dry spells (drought) and extreme cold
- Taking responsibility for our own health
- ‘There is enough for every ones need but not for every ones greed’ – what is our response to this? And Does our lifestyle give witness to this?
- Challenge of our immigration population, do we as Religious defend them?
- Unwillingness of politicians to make unpopular taxes to tackle climate change.
- Reduce gap between rich and poor
- Is vaccine refusal the cause of rise of diseases that were under control?
- Inclusive of people animals and pets
- The disposable society
- Change of lifestyles to benefit the poor and poorer nations
- What are our individual and communal responsibilities?
