Gather Together<br/><br/>

The Worldwide Overseas Chinese Pastoral and Evangelization Convention II was successfully held in Los Angeles, U.S. September 2nd to 5th. I participated in the event with 17 brothers and sisters from our parish, and together we represented one seventh of the total number of participants. Attendees came from more than 30 Chinese Catholic communities around the globe, and coincidently, participating Religious persons also made up one seventh of the total number of participants!<br/><br/>

This Convention was originally scheduled to be held in Toronto in July. However, due to the SARS outbreak, the venue was changed to Los Angeles. I would like to thank Rev Joseph Cheng SDB for stepping up to the challenge and carried out the difficult preparatory tasks in an extremely short period of time. The overall coordinator of this Convention was Rev Paul Pang OFM, who is familiar to us all.<br/><br/>

The theme of this year's convention was "Confucianism - Prelude to Gospel". The principle speakers were Rev Thomas Sung CSJB, who is expert in both Eastern and Western culture, and Sr Maria Ko FMA.<br/><br/>

Long before the annunciation of Jesus Christ, the Holy Spirit has already been sowing the seeds of Gospel in different communities and cultures. Thus, Confucianism and the Gospel should really be complementary to each other.