2007-2008: a year of rural formation to “live better in the countryside”: that’s the project launched by the Church’s rural pastoral service in the Province of Auvergne. Its aim, explains a statement of the diocese of Clermont, is to devote “a Christian view to rural territories”. The year of rural formation, say its promoters, “does not claim to be the only presence of the Church in these territories. Nonetheless it may help to foster reflection on the presence of the Church in the countryside and may perhaps encourage new and original initiatives”. “Synonymous for some with country holidays and leisure time pursuits – continues the statement -, the rural environment has undergone many developments: socio-economic, cultural and religious. In a context of demographic mobility, rural territories are rapidly changing. In this environment the Church too is strongly challenged: the transmission of the faith, the organization of the life of the Christian community on the territory, respect for the ethical convictions within political, economic and environmental realities… How does the Church feel itself urged to serve the values of the Gospel in this environment? How can it respond to the questions about meaning and coherence between faith and practice, posed by the inhabitants of rural areas?”. “The year of rural formation – explain its promoters – is aimed at those who work to support and promote rural life, those who recognize the values of the Gospel, those who perform ecclesiastical services in rural parishes and also those who are not yet involved in the life of the Church rooted in their territory”.
