June 1, 2002 – Currently the Daughters of Charity in the Province of Australia are meeting in Sydney for their Provincial Assembly.
Two pre-Assembly days provided opportunities to speak, listen and learn about the cry of the poor, how co-workers perceive the Daughters, and the Works of the Province, as well as enabling all to receive input on Mission, Spirituality and Discernment. The theme of the Assembly (in fact of all these days) is “Review – Renew – Revitalise” and there has been special emphasis on their Constitutions and on looking to the future (considering their present situation re personnel, resources, etc) in the preparation for this Assembly. Co-workers were invited to attend the two Pre-Assembly days. Contrary to the what was implied in a recent article in The Catholic Weekly, this was not the first time this has occurred. The Daughters of Charity in a number of their works have many lay people working with them – and also situations where the Daughters themselves are the co-workers with lay people. It was again seen to be important for these lay people to assist the Sisters as they look at their life and mission today.
To assist in this task, there were three main speakers or presenters – Tom Rouse (Columban) who dealt with Mission on Day 1, David Ranson (a priest of Broken Bay diocese) and Kate Engelbrecht (member of Catholic Education Office Spirituality Team ) who dealt with Spirituality for Mission and Discernment respectively on Day 2. Since then the Sisters have moved in to their Provincial Assembly.
A Daughter of Charity from the US, Sr Mary Fran Hildenberger from the Emmitsburg Province, is acting as facilitator for the Assembly,
This story originally appeared at
http://www.vincentians.org.au/vinnews.htm and will be available there for a period of time.
