The launch of a book portraying the heart and the spirit of the Missionary Sisters of Service was a great celebration of religious life, writes Tasmania's Vicar for Religious, SUE McGUINNESS SSJ ...
The setting was profound in its simplicity: a simple "kitchen table" on which was the Word was strategically placed between two candles.
This was the focus from which began the launch of the recently completed story of the Missionary Sisters of Service.
In the context of prayer, which had been thoughtfully, meaningfully crafted to speak loudly to the occasion, Sister Bernadette Wallis MSS, Congregational Leader, welcomed the large audience which gathered at the Joyce Performing Centre at St Virgil's College, Hobart, on Thursday, February 21.
This day marked the 60th anniversary of the congregation's first full-scale mission. On February 21, 1948 - almost four years after the congregation was founded - two of the founding Sisters, Monica and Chanel, left Launceston to begin a six-week mission in the Derby Parish, north east Tasmania. Their first home-away-from-home was the sacristy of the Branxholme church.
Bernadette expressed heartfelt thanks for the many people whose lives had helped to weave the story of the congregation from its relatively recent beginnings in 1944 to the present day. She paid special tribute to the founder of the congregation, Father John Wallis (who died only in 2001) and to the original group of faith-filled women who formed the first community - Gwen (Sister Teresa) Morse, from Burnie, Alice (Sister Monica) Carroll, from Hobart, Kathleen (Sister Vianney) Moore, from Hobart and Joyce (Sister Chanel) O'Brien, from Tunnack, north of Hobart.
On behalf of the present members of the congregation, Bernadette also expressed gratitude to the Sisters who followed this pioneer group into the "highways and byways" across Australia and beyond; to the thousands of students who had received instruction in their faith from the correspondence school; to the families who had welcomed and warmed to the "caravan Sisters" and to the Sisters' "Partners in Mission" and their many friends who continue to support and sustain them wherever they minister today.
Penny Edman, author of Around the Kitchen Table with the Missionary Sisters of Service, resisted the temptation to present a strict chronological history of this unique congregation.
Instead, using story,Penny probed the heart of the community.
There she discovered the real spirit of the Missionary Sisters of Service. They are "ordinary women relating to ordinary people in their ordinary lives".
The book is a warm, easily-read account of the love and generosity with which these Sisters have done just that for over 60 years.
There are tales from every walk of life. They are stories of huge commitment, of humour and of lives lived in unconditional love. And there is mutuality there.
The Sisters acknowledge at every point the gifts they have received in turn from the many people they have ministered to and worked with over the years.
Margaret Morse, niece-by-marriage of pioneer Sister Teresa Morse, officially launched the book. Margaret gave a warm, first hand account of a group of Sisters whose spirit she could confirm was faithfully reflected in the pages of Around the Kitchen Table.
In a most poignant, yet simple gesture, Margaret removed from a well-worn briefcase which had belonged to Father Wallis, the first "public" copy of the book.
She handed it to Sister Bernadette who received the book to loud and long acclamation from the 200 people in the audience before Around the Kitchen Table and the continuing work of the Sisters was blessed by the Archbishop of Hobart, the Most Rev. Adrian Doyle.
On Saturday, February 23, a spirited, happy band of 50 pilgrims honoured the adventurous spirit of the Sisters.
From Hobart (and from Beaconsfield, in the north), the pilgrims journeyed to Longford, Launceston, Derby and Scottsdale before returning home.
They visited significant sites such as 1 Frederick Street in Launceston, where the first Rosary House (owned by the Sisters of Charity) had been; mission houses from which the Sisters embarked on mission, or from which they prepared lessons and conducted the correspondence school.
The pilgrims enjoyed the gracious, generous hospitality of parishioners at Longford and Scottsdale, many of whom remembered the work of the Sisters in their parishes over many years. The lunch stop was at one of Tasmania's best-known vineyards, Pipers Brook.
At Derby, the group gathered at the outdoor community centre and prayed for those who had been part of the story in the past, are now, in the present and who will be in the years ahead. The Mission Song was sung, proclaiming a bold statement of purpose and of hope in the future.
Books like Around the Kitchen Table need to be written. The stories need to be shouted from the rooftops!
In a world which so often has scant regard for the unobtrusive, the unspectacular and the truly authentic, it is timely that this story of spirit-filled generosity, of contemporary religious life and of sheer courage and selflessness is now being told.
For other religious especially, it is an inspiring story which gives us heart, makes us proud and underlines again for us all that our life-form is perennially relevant to our world.
above: Tasmanian-bred Missionary Sisters of Service (from left) Sisters Paul Coad (Claremont, Tas.), Corrie van den Bosch (Melbourne, Vic.), Frances McShane (Beaconsfield, Tas.), Carmel Hall (Claremont), Pat Brain (Melbourne) and Lorraine Groves (St Marys, Tas.).
top: The three women who participated in the launch (from left) Congregational Leader Sr Bernadette Wallis (Melbourne), author Penny Edman (Hobart, Tas.)and Margaret Morse (Hobart) who launched Around the Kitchen Table.
Around the Kitchen Table with the Missionary Sisters of Service, a soft-covered book of almost 300 pages, is selling for $30 incl. GST + postage for 1-5 books of $10. The book is currently available from the Missionary Sisters of Service, 32A Cadbury Road, Claremont, Tasmania, 7011; or telephone 03 6249 8241 or email
msrstas@bigpond.com
disclaimer: the author of Around the Kitchen Table, Penny Edman, is also the editor of pathways.
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