From left to right: Fr. Yago Abeledo, Sisters Franceline Hien, Juliana Karomba, Selina Wavinya, Maria Carmen Ocón, Maamalifar Poreku, Carmen Sammut, Mapendo Masirika and Jocelyne Morin
From January 23 to 27, 2023, the Preparatory Commission for the General Chapter met in Rome with the objective of discerning important topics or points that concern the life and mission of the whole congregation.
The chapter theme: “The transforming love of the risen Christ calls us to walk together without fear, to deepen our charism in collaboration with others and to widen our tents to give birth to a new creation.”
The commission included Sisters Maamalifar Poreku, Jocelyne Morin, Franceline Hien, the General Council and the co-facilitators, Father Yago Abeledo, M.Afr. and Sister Selina Wavinya of the Sisters of Mercy from Kenya.
For the first three days we worked to identify the subjects to be treated from the reports of the pre-capitular chapters of the 5 Entities and those of the sisters of temporary vows.
A working model was presented to us by the co-facilitators. This model has been a great help to us in our work. It gave us the courage to concretely name what has been experienced in the past, what is happening today and, from there, to envisage the future without fear.
Once the points for the chapter had been identified, the commission worked alone but always in collaboration with the General Council and the co-facilitators to draft a working document to be proposed to the capitulants. It was a journey of openness and very deep sharing among us from the beginning to the end of the work. This experience has already immersed us in the spirit of the chapter.
It was for me an experience of faith, trust and renewed love for the Congregation. I am grateful to God and to my sisters who allowed me to live this preparation in a profound way. I pray that the capitulants may have the grace to allow themselves to be led by the strength of God and the spirit of Christ, to allow something new to be born for all the sisters of the congregation. And then, may each one appropriate it in her generational, cultural, religious, geographical context to give birth to a new world.
Sr. Franceline Hien, Algiers
The logo of the 2023 Chapitre reproduced on Manila paper.
