The
new name for the magazine of the Jesuit Conference of Asia Pacific - flame - echoes a major image from
General Congregation 35.
The
magazine was formerly known as Jesuits in
East Asia and Oceania. However, with a new name for the Conference a new
identity was needed for the magazine.
Produced
by Jesuit Communications in Australia
on behalf of the conference, flame is
available to Jesuits and Companions throughout the region. It introduces people
and works in different provinces, and also highlights initiatives that cross
province boundaries, involving the conference as a whole.
The
change of name picks up the image of the single fire that has many sparks,
which recurs through the documents of General Congregation 35, and the
challenge that this image highlights for Jesuits: ‘The Society of Jesus has carried a flame for nearly
five hundred years through innumerable social and cultural circumstances that
have challenged it intensely to keep that flame alive and burning. Things are
no different today.'
Appropriately the first
edition of flame travels back 500 years to focus on Matteo Ricci, the fourth
centenary of whose death has been widely celebrated this year.
Fr Andrew Hamilton SJ