ACTS OF THE 7th EUROPEAN ASSEMBLY OF LAY DOMINICAN FRATERNITIES

ANNEX Ic

NIKOLETT MURÁNYI’S ACTIVITY REPORT1

Dear members of the European Assembly of Lay Dominican Fraternities,

I would like to give you a report about the finances of the ECLDF and also about my
activity as a member of the ECLDF.

I will speak about the main following topics:

• History
• Present
• Figures
• Besides the specified offices
• Future

Copies will be available and at the end of my talk you will have an opportunity
to put forward questions.

HISTORY

First I would like to introduce myself. My name is Nikolett Murányi, treasurer of

the ECLDF. I come from Hungary. I am married, we have 2 daughters. My husband
and I are finally professed Lay Dominicans. We joined the Order in 1993 and we are
founder members of our fraternity. In the Hungarian Vicariate I am responsible for
Lay Dominican formation and I am also the deputy president. I keep the Hungarian
Lay Dominican website up to date. By the way, I have a full-time job as a manager
assistant at a huge oil and gas firm. I have a busy life.

Let me start with some experiences regarding my personal activity at the

ECLDF.

I was elected to the ECLDF during the Fognano European Assembly in 2001.
As you know, ECLDF members elect their officers themselves. I became formation
officer during my first term and I was also responsible for our website. I kept our
website regularly updated and I tried using the internet as a tool for formation. I
published reports, talks and photos there.
You may review it at: http://laici.op.org/europa

The main themes are:

• General information about the Lay Dominican Fraternities in Europe

1
For the sake of clarity, Nikolett Murányi’s activity report was split from her financial report (see Annex Ib).
 • Our history
• Our Statutes
• The Acts of the last two European Assemblies
• Letters written by the ECLDF
• Reports about ECLDF’s activities
• A collection of links to other Lay Dominican pages

With the goal of formation, I gave a presentation at the European Assembly

held in Walberberg in 2004 about how a person can pray in a Dominican way in the
21st century. I also presented a meditation on the Luminous mysteries of the Rosary.
I organized translations: these texts are available in six languages.

I was re-elected in Walberberg in 2004. From 2004 to 2005 my task was only
to keep our website updated. Then in the autumn of 2005 we re-elected our officers
within ECLDF and I became treasurer as well. After Robert Kopfmüller-Knabe
resigned and we invited Gabriel Silva to join the ECLDF, there was a 3rd election of
offices. I remained in my offices.

BESIDES THE SPECIFIED OFFICES – as you may know – we found that it is

very important that ECLDF members set up and keep connections with the members
of the provinces. For this reason we distributed provinces among ourselves to point
out top priorities when building connections. I have tried to make efforts in the
following countries.

In Bulgaria there are no friars, no sisters, there is no province, no vicariate,

but there is a living Lay Dominican fraternity and the Order there is not yet officially
established. In 2005 I visited this fraternity in Sofia, Bulgaria and helped them in their
official foundation. The Master of the Order approved their existence under the
Hungarian Vicariate in 2005. Our vicar also visited them and conducted a spiritual
retreat for them. Now this fraternity is officially recognized. We keep in touch.

In Ukraine there are some Hungarian Lay Dominicans living next to the
Hungarian border who asked for my help (in 2006) via the Hungarian Dominican
sisters who are there on mission. Some of my fraternity members visited them and
one of them from Ukraine visited us also. I helped them by sending Dominican
readings in Hungarian and we have had discussions. We keep in touch.

I was invited to Croatia in 2005 to participate in the Croatian Dominican

Family meeting. It was a generous invitation and a great honour for me. I was asked
to give a talk about why it is worthwhile and important to lead a Dominican life. I
would have loved to visit them, but unfortunately I fell ill with pneumonia and high
blood pressure and I was not able to travel to Croatia to meet the Dominicans there.
Instead I sent my talk and they translated it from English into Croatian and it was
read during the meeting.

In 2003 I had to visit the friars in Chieri, in the northern part of Italy, on behalf
of the Hungarian Vicar since an Italian friar – whom I met on the occasion of an
ECLDF meeting in Brussels – invited us to visit the convent where a Hungarian
Dominican friar lived during the communist times and died in 1985. This was the 1st
visit of the Hungarian Vicariate there. I also met there a Lay Dominican, Ruth
Henderson, who was a great help to me as a translator.

I consider it of high importance that at home, in Hungary, I have regularly

informed the friars, the sisters and the fraternities about the European Lay Dominican
activities. What is part of one’s own life is also news for the others. Information flow is
a basic element for building connections.

I did not miss any of the 11 ECLDF meetings that we held during the 7 years
of my service. I hosted 2 of these meetings in Hungary. Thanks be to God we never
had any serious troubles with each other within the ECLDF. We helped each other.
We experienced much. We were able to work together to prepare the assemblies.

When sending out e-mails regarding ECLDF webpage updates and when
trying to collect yearly contributions from the provinces, I was in touch with many of
you. Thank you for your prayers and for the financial support you provided. Until you
find someone else, I offer my support to the new Council as a person who can keep
the website regularly updated.

My term is over, and I would like to tell you that I have really enjoyed it.
Sometimes it was difficult to find the time to do the work late in the evenings, but I
loved it.

I would like to express how grateful I am to God who invited me to fulfil this
task. It has been very interesting during these years to get to know a lot of Dominican
people and several Dominican places. I have learnt much from the people I met and
we keep praying for each other. This is very valuable.

I would like to express my special thanks to Patricia Robinson, former ECLDF

president, who nominated me in 2001. Thank you for your confidence. I never
thought myself that I would be able to fulfil such a task on a council like this. I learnt
much from Patricia during our joint work.

Thank you Fr. Jerry and Fr. David, our promoters general, who have always
supported our work.
Thank you to every member of the ECLDF for working together:
Robert Kopfmüller-Knabe,
Gabriel Silva,
Chantal Soligny,
Tomas Machula,
And double thanks to Eva Kameniarova, together with whom I spent a
double term!
And thank you to Patricia Kelly, ICLDF.

FUTURE

I consider it to be of great importance that the next ECLDF does not need to
work out the working structure of the treasury but can continue the way that has been
built up. It is well-established. It does not make any sense to change banks
depending on where the treasurer lives. It happens very rarely that you need
something that cannot be done via fax or e-mail. This account is free of maintenance
fee at Pax Bank and moreover it produces some interest. Correspondence is
available in German and English.

If I may advise you:

• Search for a helping hand in your own province.

• Keep using the financial forms to have clear and simple data.
• Contact regularly the provincial presidents for sending the yearly
contribution in order to be able to maintain the existence of the ECLDF.
• Find organizations which can provide financial support to your work and
write applications in due time.
• Remind the members always to use cheap flights when travelling to
meetings for cost-saving reasons.
• Before nominating someone for the new ECLDF, make sure there are
tasks that the nominated person is able to fulfil.
• Do not forget that many times there are invisible donations, e.g. hosting a
meeting or covering one’s own travel expenses or taking vacation from
work to be able to participate in a meeting. Acknowledge them and say
thank you for all the donations received. Pray for the donators.
• And remember that we are followers of Saint Dominic who always led a
poor, simple life.

I wish all the best for the work of the new ECLDF!

Nikolett Murányi, May 2008

ECLDF Treasurer & Webmaster