provincial team Report to the Province

THE UNITED STATES - CANADA PROVINCIAL TEAM

Our province goal to open ourselves to the realities of our global world and respond where possible has marked this past year. This goal is lived in many places and many ways in the United States - Canada Province.

 

Here are some highlights:

✻ Our most significant international endeavor in the last year has been the many ways that we have worked together with our sisters in Canada to begin the process of becoming one province. We have already reported several times on the details of this work so will not repeat it here.

My reflection is that while we have technically become one province with one provincial and team (council) the work to become one province has just begun. It is our hope that being connected with our sisters in Canada will help each of us, Canadian and American, look at the way we are, the way we connect with each other, the way we want to move forward as RSCJ together with a new lens, an international lens.

✻ Local communities welcomed RSCJ from Korea, Peru, Chile, Japan, China, Kenya, Uganda, Australia and England to be part of their life. In August, the Team confirmed the province’s support for an international house of studies in Chicago and the finance office has worked with the Cornell community to ready this space for a larger international community. Several Network schools have expanded their student body to include young women from China as boarding students and in many places, RSCJ have assisted in welcoming these students.

My reflection is that sharing one’s life on a daily basis with someone from another culture opens our world horizon in a way that nothing else can do.One challenge is how to let “the other” change us and help us become a new person because of the encounter

✻ The Province has also sponsored several RSCJ to go to another country to participate in the life of another province some way or another. Anne Wachter offered to go to Canada to be head of our school in Halifax; Sheila Hammond provided a pastoral reflection process for the novices in Indonesia; Kim King and Joan Gannon responded to a call for summer service in Cuba; Mary Pat White, Lisa Buscher and Reyna Gonzalez participated in the Vocation Workshop in France;  Rosie Quilter and Imma De Stefanis participated in the Popular Education gathering in Mexico; Barb Quinn directed the province retreat in India; the team participated in the ANAM meeting in Mexico for 10 days.

My reflection is that another way of widening the space of our hearts is to respond to some short term needs in countries that ask for some assistance. Of course we will continue to support our sisters who are serving longer term in Uganda/Kenya, Japan, Italy and Indonesia. One way that these experiences can widen all of our hearts is to spend time with our sisters who come from other countries and to listen to their experience.

✻ During the last several months, Fran de la Chappelle, Marina Hernandez and the team have been working with several young RSCJ from developing countries to help them complete the application process for graduate school in the United States as well as secure the appropriate visas. This next year, the province will help sponsor four RSCJ from other countries to study in the United States and two RSCJ from other countries to participate in renewal programs in Canada and one to attend graduate school.

My reflection is that supporting the education of young RSCJ is a way to contribute to the future of the Society internationally and will also enrich the life of our province and contribute to our future, too.