Malacca Johore Campus District Meeting
25th of November 2017 will be an important date in the history of Malacca-Johore Catholics on Campus (MJCC). More than a year ago, Bishop Bernard Paul encouraged the diocese to focus more on the vicariate level and we agreed seeing that it would be easier to coordinate fewer universities availability for meeting. Thus MJCC held their very first Campus Vicariate meetings simultaneously in the three Vicariates of South Johor, North Johor and Melaka. This meeting was facilitated by the student leaders and Campus Ministry Team members headed by Deacon Adrian Ng in Skudai Catholic Centre, Sr Shanti FdCC in St Andrew’s Muar and Daryl Tan in St Francis Xavier’s Church, Melaka. In total almost 40 student leaders and representatives from 12 campuses under the Melaka-Johor Diocese participated.
The main agenda for this very first vicariate meeting was to introduce the new SOAR analysis reporting format that was to replace the SWOT analysis. SOAR, which stands for Strength, Opportunities, Aspiration and Result and will be used by the student representatives to analyse what their leaders should focus on to build their CSS/CF and how to implement their plans. This analysis will help the campus ministry to better identify the needs and progress of each CSS/CF group in the Malacca-Johore Diocese. The importance of the Pastoral Thrust of the Diocese: Encounter, Enlighten, Empower and Evangelise was also reinforced in this SOAR analysis. One of the student representatives from UiTM Pasir Gudang, Adeline Jawai said, ‘this SOAR analysis will help more people understand the situation better as information is presented clearly. Plans can be carried out successfully as it will be organised step-by-step. Plus, this analysis were revisable for whatever might have been left out unintentionally. Indeed, during the presentations from other campuses, we were able to learn new ideas and offer suggestions.’
During this meeting, the student leaders and representatives were also informed about the various programmes planned by MJCC till 2019. The programmes were: the annual Leaders in Training (LiT) Camp for all student leaders on 4th -7th Sept 2018; Graduates Commissioning Event tentatively set on 28th April 2018; and World Youth Day Panama 2019, which was the most highlighted event. We also discussed the new procedure for election of the new MJCC Committee.
Every vicariate reported that the meetings were fruitful as most of the student representatives were able to share their CSS/CF aspirations in this meeting. Derrick Patrick, the current President of MJCC concluded, ‘When meetings were held on the diocesan level, it was more difficult to reach out to the smaller groups such as in UiTM Lendu, Manipal, KYM, etc. Through these vicariate level meetings, MJCC was able to reach them, educate them on what MJCC is and share with them the 4Es so as to be aligned with the direction of the diocese. I feel that MJCC’s network has somehow expanded by going into this vicariate-level meeting structure and this will be good to keep in touch with our fellow Catholic students and assist them in whatever way possible for the good of their faith”. Many expressed their hope that there will be more meetings like this and are looking forward to the next one in March 2018.
Eva Glenn Robert, MJCC Secretary 2017-18.