Economy of Communion in Freedom

Person Centered Business: Hope for Today, Sustainability for Tomorrow
August 21-23, 2009

2009 marks the 18th anniversary of the EoC.  A return to our roots, a look at today’s accomplishments and tomorrow’s goals along with the emerging collaboration between the businesses and academia were featured at the annual meeting.

At Mariapolis Luminosa, 65 participants from across the United States and Canada gathered for the annual meeting of the  Economy of Communion (EoC). This year’s gathering had particular significance, given the current economic crisis and the response to that crisis contained in Benedict XIV’s latest encyclical, “Caritas in Veritate.” That timely document outlined how “In recent decades a broad intermediate area has emerged between … traditional companies … and the ‘economy of communion,’…. a broad new composite reality embracing the private and public spheres, one which does not exclude profit, but instead considers it a means for achieving human and social ends.”

The meeting included business owners, academics, and students. There were sixteen who had come for the first time either because they were interested in starting businesses, or because they had heard about EoC following the release of the encyclical. Two days of workshops, interactive round tables, and experiences shared by EoC managers gave participants a deeper understanding of the American business context and the opportunity to develop strategies for inculturating the Focolare’s spirituality of communion.

Plans are already underway for the 2010 meeting, to be held at Catholic University of America, Washington, DC.

A lifestyle of giving, of seeing each person as the pinnacle of our actions, brings to life a method of doing business that offers hope to our world especially in these troubled economic times. The EoC has been called a prophesy for a sustainable future. Come and join us as we share the latest developments in the EoC and explore this lifestyle of giving.

Excerpt from Chiara Lubich:

”...(W)ork is constitutive of the human person and in accordance with the intentions of God. It is such an important aspect of human life that if it were lacking, we would have to consider the human person as being less human.
“Human beings fulfill themselves especially through their work. Therefore, we should seek to carry out the economy of communion in the best possible way. Indeed, we should feel called to make of every hour devoted to it a masterpiece of precision, order and harmony.”

For more information, please visit www.edc-online.org