The General Council proposed this theme for the Council of Provinces, that is the role of authority in the promotion of the charism, so that the leaders of the Order together could reflect on how all of us can promote the knowledge and love of the charism or impede it. The charism is not a thing that we can take up or ignore at our whim; it is our vocation, our role in the Church and the world. The Instrumentum Laboris, as stated in n. 1 of that document, is not intended to be the basis for a new document but rather the stimulus for discussion here and throughout the Order. Therefore in the IL we have put down some basic principles on authority taken from Scripture, Church teaching and the Order’s own documents and self-reflection. The focus in this Council of Provinces is not on the nature of authority itself but on how it is used or not used in spreading knowledge and love of our charism within the Order.