The fresh first week of Melanesian Institute’s first-born child- the Cultural Orientation Course - brought in a flush of participants arriving at the Melanesian Institute campus a few days earlier than the start date.

Week 1 of the COC was all about the mission and contextualization and the 5 days in that week was solely dedicated to that. With a great mixture of Europeans, Asians, Africans and Papua New Guineans, coming in from all over the country, the three weeks of the COC was set to be a great cross-cultural experience of learning and sharing. And true enough that was the outcome when the first week kicked off on Tuesday January 5 last week.

The first day of the week started with the Melanesian Institute’s profile, history and trajectory shared to the participants by the none other than MI’s Executive Director Br Martin Tnines. This was then followed by the course rationale, overview and the clan formation processes of the Kapul, Kumul, Pukpuk and Muruk clans by Deputy Director and Head of Research and Education department Fr. Joel Bernardo.

The missionaries came from a wide range of Catholic religious congregations such as Society of Divine Word Missionaries (SVD), Missionary Congregation Servants of the Holy Spirit (SSpS), Order of Friars Capuchins (OFM), Salesian Missionaries of Mary Immaculate (SMMI), Missionaries of Charity (MC), Salesians of Don Bosco (SDB) and Good Shepard Seminarian(GSS) including two lay female vocational educators from Mary Help of Christians. The Melanesian values, traditions and practices are by far some of the most complex in the world and it is most important to understand in order to be of good services in terms of religion and vocation.

It was a nearlyall-malepresenter’s bench for week 1 of the COC if it was not for the only female presenter Sr. Maryanne Kolkia of the Sisters of Mercy who presented on mission and mercy and the context of miss. The male presenters included Fathers Geovanne Bustos (SVD)-former Executive Director of MI-, Joel Bernardo-who is also the key facilitator of the COC and Victor Roche (SVD) who recently has been appointed as the National Director of the Pontifical Mission Societies (PMS), in Papua New Guinea and the Solomon Islands.

The two other male presenters were Br Martin Tnines (SVD) and University of Goroka’s Accounting Professor Luis Alamil. The 4 days were filled with all of the context of Melanesian lifestyle in terms of accompanying the mission life. In staying true to the theme of the week, the missionaries were first introduced to traditional Melanesian world views, religiosity and rituals. From the inculturation of Christianity and contemporary challenges to localization and indigenization of the Mission, everyone were well aware of the role of Mission whilst integrating key Melanesian Values.

It was not all a tedious daily dose of lectures all day but there were four films that were aired each night and to spice things up a bit, every one took part in a cross-cultural meal and social night to really loosen up their reservations and put everyone at peace. This paves way for week 2 to be a smoother transition in the course of the week.

Amanda Kundil
Melanesian Institute