January 2012 Vol. XXXII, No. 1
Holy Spirit Missionary Sisters
A Let us go forward to 2012 with courage and joy!
Moving Forward with Courage!
s a province we ended 2011 with a Ministry and Leadership Workshop involving all our Sisters living in small communities and those in Techny who are in full time ministry. This leads us into 2012 with a common understanding of how we want to live together as adult intercultural communities promoting participative leadership and the common good for ourselves in community and for our mission. After having listened to one another and receiving the sharing from the small groups, a special committee was formed to put together our common understanding of participative leadership: For us participative leadership is: Sharing responsibilities in the service of others with trust, respect and acceptance. Giving the sense of belonging by empowering others to use their talents for the common good. Listening, communication and discerning together for the common good. Challenges there are and we named several of them and how we can respond to them. The first challenge is open, honest communication. This is a special challenge because most of our Sisters living in small communities have English as their second language. This means there is a wide cultural diversity, an experience of different styles of initial formation and a variety of ages. (continued on page 2)