Sisters Úna Agnew, Patricia Lenihan, Aoife O’Brien, Rowena Galvin, Margaret Cartwrite, Marie Dunne, Kathryn Lennan, Thomasina Finn, with Sisters Suzanne Ryder and Anne Marie Whelan on screen

By Sister Suzanne Ryder, RSM

CWR Ireland celebrated its second birthday in January 2018. During these two years, we have been growing together as a group, aware of an emerging identity, with a yearning excitement to deepen our focus, so that we can proclaim the Good News more clearly. As is our practice now, two of the members joined the group by Zoom for our Jan. 4 meeting.

The meeting began with a check-in moment when we could listen and share some of our different realities during the festive season. Communication stretched from personal, family experiences without the presence of screens, to more public expressions of Christmas in parish liturgy and a new pro-active church approach to paedophilia. The poignant use of “Sea Prayer” (the story of the 3-year-old Syrian boy, Alan Kurdi, who drowned on a beach in Greece) for the liturgy in Maynooth was recounted. Experiences of media covered the usual suspects of Facebook, Messenger, Twitter and Instagram; as well as an interview done with national radio, where a Christian message was included. A new Mercy communication group for sisters under 60 was also shared.

The business part of the meeting began with prayer inspired by Hopi Elders. Following prayer, the discussion moved into four different categories: advancing the mission of Catholic Sisters, consciousness building community, identifying our contribution to society today and identifying our training needs. Concentration then moved to training needs in regard to social media, blogging, web site design, and data security.

We have sub-groups, who meet between meetings to further different areas. These were: the October meeting with CWR executive director Nick Schafer; Calendar and Resources group; how membership might be developed; the planning of our own meetings. It was good to hear from each group. Information was then shared about upcoming events and we finished by setting the date of our next meeting and the sharing of tasks for it.