wfn.org | Anglican Sisters head to Solomons to usher in new province

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

:

ACNS 2567 - CANADA - 7 August 2001

Sisters head to Solomons to usher in new province

Gathering will give thanks to nuns who helped during civil unrest

by Leanne Larmondin
Web site Manager

[Oakville, Ontario] Three members of the Canadian Sisters of the Church will
travel halfway across the world in September to help their fellow sisters
celebrate the inauguration of a new province in the religious order.

The Community of the Sisters of the Church (CSC), whose Canadian home is
west of Toronto in Oakville, Ont., has 82 members worldwide. Currently
divided among three provinces, Canada, England and Australia/Pacific, the
latter province is being divided in two - Australia and the Solomon
Islands - to accommodate growth in the Solomons.

The occasion will be marked by a Eucharist, celebration and dedication of a
newly built chapel on the grounds of the Solomon Island headquarters. The
gathering will also witness the blessing of Sr. Doreen, who was elected as
the provincial or head sister of the community; Veronica, a junior sister,
will also make her life profession at the gathering by taking her final
vows.

The sisters will also give thanks for Sr. Phyllis's contribution during the
months of civil unrest in the Solomon Islands. Phyllis, sister co-ordinator
of the Solomon Islands, led the sisters who dug graves and transported
victims of violence to the hospital and spoke with the militants on both
sides of the conflict. At one point, the sisters' truck was the only vehicle
travelling through the line of fighting.

The Canadian contingent will consist of three nuns: Sr Michael, Sr Heather,
and Sr Margaret. Srs Heather and Margaret will leave Canada on Sept. 13 for
Cairns, Australia, where they will attend the upcoming meeting of the
international Anglican indigenous network. Sr Michael will meet up with them
later in the month at Tetete ni Kolivuti, the CSC retreat and training
centre in the Solomon Islands, outside its capital Honiara.

Also scheduled to attend are five sisters from Australia and England,
including Sr Anita, who is Mother Superior of the order worldwide and
English Provincial (head of the Sisters in England).

Sr Anita, in an interview, laughed about the logistics of meeting in the hot
weather of the Solomon Islands. The worship service will start at 6:00a.m.
so that it and the celebration afterward will be finished before the day
becomes too hot.

"One of the remarkable things about their feast is it takes days to
prepare," said Sr Anita, adding that the men will roast pigs and prepare the
feast while the women lay out the table and the meal. "Then, in about a
quarter of an hour, it is over. It all happens very quickly."

Expected at the Eucharist and the chapel dedication, for which the sisters
will borrow a generator from the cathedral in Honiara, are Sir Ellison Pogo,
archbishop of the Church of Melanesia, and his predecessor, Bishop Norman
Palmer. Terry Brown, bishop of Malaita (part of the Church of Melanesia),
has also been invited. Bishop Brown is a former staff member of the Anglican
Church of Canada.

Founded in 1870, the Sisters of the Church vow to live under gospel values
of poverty, chastity and obedience.

_________________________
The ACNSlist is published by the Anglican Communion Office, London.

You can join or leave the ACNSlist via our ACNS web page -
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/