PART 3 - GENERAL CHAPTER RESPONSE

Part 3 of the General Chapter Report is the response of the General Chapter members to the oral presentation of Part 2 made by the General Council. The Chapter members were asked to identify those questions and/or challenges to which they could relate. Their responses are grouped according to the four main areas treated in Part 2 of the General Council Report: community, formation, right relationships and the sharing of our human resources.

Reaction to Part 2 of the General Council Report

Community

Life giving relationships in community are necessary, as is significant leadership. Animation of local communities is a challenge. People can be so task oriented, finding ministry more fulfilling, that community becomes a burden rather than a pleasure. There can be tensions between time needed for community and for individual ministries, between community and the personal need for freedom and space.

The Life-Journey Process was an important step, but it was not used enough afterwards.

We need to grow in being community in the larger dimension as well as interacting in the group. We must continue to reaffirm our efforts to improve our living of community, so that we can create unity in a world that creates divisions.

RSHM Formation

Formation for internationality is very important, both as part of initial formation and ongoing formation. It is most effective when it happens earlier in life. The experiences of internationality have been extremely valuable; however, a longer time might be even more beneficial.

The letters from the General Council are a means to help nourish life, but are we using them to the best advantage.

Right Relationships

Is the witness of our living of RSHM values visible? We can give prophetic witness as a group, be a sign of contradiction, by the way we live our vows in solidarity with the poor. We need to deepen a "spirituality of sufficiency." We can grow in living the spirituality of limits, recognizing the attraction of the consumer world and its invasion in all areas of life. The challenge is to help ourselves and others deal with this invasion.

Another tension which affects us is that between the ecclesial value of Religious Life in the Church and the position of women in the Church.

Sharing our human resources

Sharing our human resources is linked to mobility and availability for mission. Both missioning and being missioned across frontiers are challenging. It is related to priorities: Institute, Province, and individual.

It is important to know why one is moving. Mobility is not a value in itself, it is for mission. There is also a value in stability, which is needed to develop community, both in local and the greater communities.

As we talk about Institute and Province priorities, there is a need for common planning between the General and Provincial Levels. The Provincial Chapter prepares for General Chapter, which will define priorities for the Institute. However, the Provincial Chapter also defines priorities based on needs and issues in the province or the countries in which the province is located.

When sisters are missioned to another place, there is a need to help them integrate, while recognizing the cultural differences that exist between the culture they come from and the culture they go to.

There are also ways a sister's gifts and talents can be shared from a distance, using modern means of communication.

Other comments

During the past five and a half years, a new province and a new region were formed. It is necessary to get to know each other as a new province or a new region before moving on.

There may be other structures, such as regional meetings, which will help us to carry out our mission

Questions for the General Chapter

The chapter members were asked to identified the questions/challenges that they hoped the Chapter might explore further.

Mobility for Mission

How do we resolve the tensions between the value of mobility for mission and the value of stability needed to develop community, both in local and the greater communities?

Priorities

How do we arrive at a balance the priorities of the Institute and provinces?

Internationality

How can we improve upon the efforts made to develop our internationality?

The world we live in

What do we need to do to live values which are identified in during the Chapter? What are the consequences and contradictions between expectations and limits, and how do we live with them?

Are there ways of better organizing collaboration between rich and poor? Are there alternative actions we can affirm in the context of globalization, ways to think globally and act locally.

June 28, 2001

General Chapter Members