EUPHRASIE BARBIER. A Woman With a Heart for the World!

Transcription

1 EUPHRASIE BARBIER A Woman With a Heart for the World!

2 RNDM WOMEN TODAY Approximately 1,000 RNDM Sisters from many diverse cultures working in 22 countries in Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, North America, the Pacific

3 MINISTRIES TODAY Almel, South India Empowerment of women and girls Formal education (esp. India, Bangladesh) Tribal and indigenous peoples Social Work Literacy Refugees Interfaith Dialogue

4 Tribal children, South India Women and children health and literacy programme Senegal Young sex workers, Ho Chi Minh RNDM High School, Haflong,North East India

5 MINISTRIES cont d Primary health care Youth Work Pre-schools Chaplaincy in prisons and hospitals Pastoral Ministry Retreat Work, spiritual direction Psychotherapy Care of the earth Women s sewing group, Kenya Women s reflection group, New Zealand

6 Creative Design Students, Broome, Australia Sr Felisitas RNDM teaching at slum school in Kibera, Kenya Organic Farming ANZ Pastoral Ministry, PNG

7 MISSION CHALLENGES Living joyfully our passion for God and passion for Humanity: Through the witness of our lives Through a profound belief in the culture of hope Through being communities of reconciliation and peace Through welcoming and offering formative experiences to our sisters from Asia. Sharing expertise with Sisters in other parts of the Congregation Responding to new missionary challenges Shelly Barlow and Lorna Brown, Australia

8 ASIAN PROVINCES Many young women in formation Lack of educational opportunities Few trained personnel for formation, leadership, finance Life, vitality, energy Educational Institutions (India, Bangladesh) Inter-faith Dialogue Situations of violence Profession Ceremony in Bangladesh

9 Bangladesh Postulants Second Year Novices, Vietnam Myanmar Postulants Indian Novices

10 CARING FOR AGING SISTERS IN ASIAN PROVINCES The needs of elderly and sick sisters in Asia is a challenge Provinces are meeting Rest Homes for elderly sisters in Myanmar, India and Vietnam.

11 MISSIONARY CHALLENGES IN ASIA Preparing young sisters for leadership, formation and international mission. Diversification of ministries Work in Interfaith Dialogue Embracing the international missionary reality of the Congregation and the willingness to send sisters on mission beyond! Novices and Postulants, Myanmar

12 NEWER MISSIONS International communities New life local vocations Living in situations of violence, fundamentalism Fragility of personnel Transitions in leadership and formation to local sisters Financial uncertainty Latin America

13 Samoa Kenya Philippines Peru The New Missions of the Congregation Papua New Guinea Senegal

14 MISSIONARY CHALLENGES IN THE REGIONS A small and simple presence no large institutions Living in isolated places Working with the culture Language skills Finding creative ways to contributing to the Common Purse Receiving and sending missions Living the Gift of Internationality Philippine Region

15 HOPE FOR THE FUTURE 27% of the Congregation is under the age of Young sisters in Temporary Vows 54 Novices in Bangladesh, India, Kenya, Myanmar, Peru, Philippines, Vietnam 48 Postulants Indian Novices 2006

16 Central India Tailoring Class Missioning of Kenyan Sisters to Philippines, Senegal & Peru A CONGREGATION BLESSED WITH MANY YOUNG WOMEN Myanmar Novices Postulants, India

17 A major challenge for the Congregation today is the religious formation and professional education of our young Sisters in order to enable them to take up ministries anywhere in the world they may be sent. Look after one another and help our Young Sisters to acquire a genuine religious spirit. Their turn to take the lead will come before twenty years have passed. (E.B. to MM St Gabriel, Christchurch)

18 Aspiramts, Central India Young Sisters from Peru, Canada, Kenya, Bangladesh, Philippines, India, Myanmar Kenyan Temporary Professed Sisters Missioned to Senegal from Vietnam, Philippines and Kenya

19 Myanmar Novices Travelling to the mountains, Philippines With handicapped, Kenya Health clinic, Kalyanpur English Class, Vietnam

20 Truly I think that this new foundation to which everyone has contributed with such wholehearted generosity, will have an excellent effect on the entire Congregation, drawing more closely on the bonds of holy charity in all our houses and giving the young sisters the right idea of what constitutes a true religious family in which there is only one heart and one soul and one purse! Extract from letter of Euphrasie Barbier to Mother Prioress, Napier, 15 June, 1884

21 NEW MISSION INSERTIONS CHINA Three Vietnamese Sisters are learning English in New Zealand in preparation for a new mission in China. Mai Trinh and M. Andre at Tianamen Square, Beijing, China

22 MISSION IN SOUTHERN SUDAN In 2004 we were requested by Bishop Joseph Gasi of Yambio-Tambura Diocese to respond to the desperate needs of the people in his Diocese. Anything we could offer in the line of health, education, faith formation, trauma counselling, spiritual support would be a wonderful contribution.

23 Public Market, Rimenze

24 Rimenze Township Late 2008, following a period of preparation, four RNDM Sisters, two teachers, a social worker and a health worker, will be missioned to Rimenze, Southern Sudan. RNDM Sisters will oversee a Teacher Training Outpost, offer trauma counselling, and basic health services to the local community.

25 Convent building

26 Former Girls School, Rimenze

27 Rimenze Church Interior

28 2% Children complete primary education

29