Sharing the flame
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
21 July 2010
