Our CODALC mission statement points to this. “Preaching is at the heart of our Dominican vocation... the injustices that our peoples suffer urge us to preach prophetically in sensitivity to the poor and excluded.”

CLAR (Latin American Conference of Religious) is inviting us also towards a new way of being church which involves
·    a change of relationship,
·    a mystical- prophetic life at the service of and caring for life,
·    a greater consciousness of not being able to go it alone,
·    and of building comunión in diversity and in ecumenical dialogue with other religions, with political, social, cultural and other aspects of society.

We have seen the seeds of this new way of being church in the different meetings, seminars and service given by areas of CODALC now being promoted, as well as in the visits we made to communities during the past three   years.
 
In the cooperation with DSI in organizing the Native Congregation leadership courses, we saw and felt the most significant experience of new ecclesial expressions.  There we experienced communion in diversity, the re-creation of links from within, sincere dialogue and a way of doing feminine theology.  A feminine approach to doing theology, of understanding God, that starts from daily life and is in dialogue with the distress provoked by human suffering.
 
The formators met at the invitation of both CODALC and CIDALC and once again the new expresión of church emerges as we worked together from both masculine and feminine viewpoints and searched for a holistic approach.
 
When we met as North and South,-  from Canada to Argentina-we really created an area of comunión in diversity and in sincere dialogue. On one hand, those who worked in the midst of oppressed people seeking liberation, on the other hand those who live in first world dominant countries, but all of us were looking for the same Truth.

 At the Justice and Peace seminars, we saw ourselves as a prophetic family and renewed our commitment on behalf of the poor of the continent.
 
In the workshops held on Preaching the whole Dominican Family took part and grew in the sense of being a family of preachers.
 
We ARE inspired as Dominican sisters by the desire to renew the FIRE of the Dominican charism, that was lit some 800 years ago but which is still alive in our hearts, as we PRAISE, BLESS AND PREACH.  We commit ourselves to proclaim the word that another world is possible, with justice, solidarity and peace.

by Noemi Zambrano
Promoter of Justice and Peace for CODALC