FEBRUARY 2005
VOLUME IX, NUMBER 3
URSULINE ASSOCIATE DIRECTORS MEET IN PAOLA by Sister Marietta Wethington, OSU
In December 2004, the Co-directors of Ursuline Partnerships of the Ursuline Sisters of Mount Saint Joseph gathered in Paola, Kansas, with associate directors from four other communities for the first meeting of associate directors of the Ursuline Society. The Ursuline Society, made up of the nine autonomous Ursuline congregations in the United States, has been meeting regularly since spring 1992. In spring 2002 — ten years after their initial meeting — the leaders of the Ursuline Society came together in Frontenac, Minnesota, and approved a Statement of Purpose to move “beyond collaboration toward integration.” The members of those nine congregations have met in their own communities to talk about what that might mean as we continue to move forward. In their September 2004 meeting, the Ursuline Society leadership decided it was time to begin engaging associates in the conversation as well. Sister Kathleen Condry, president of the Paola, Kansas, community, offered to host and convene the first gathering of the associate directors. On December 1315 a group of seven directors together with Sister Kathleen and Sister Margaret Ann Hagan, coordinator of the Ursuline Society and facilitator of this meeting, met at the motherhouse in Paola. The directors attending were Sister Marie William Blyth, Paola; Chuck Murawa and Sally O’Connell, Toledo; Sister Dorothy Helbling, Belleville; Sister Maureen Grady, Cleveland; Marian Bennett and Sister Marietta Wethington, Maple Mount.
Gathered at the first meeting of associate directors of Ursuline Society communities are, from left, Sister Marietta Wethington, Sister Kathleen Condrey, Sister Maureen Grady, Sister Margaret Ann Hagan, Sister Marie William Blyth, Marian Bennett, Chuck Murawa, Sally O’Connell, Sister Dorothy Helbling.The meeting took place at the Ursuline Motherhouse, Paola, Kansas, December 13-15, 2004.
After Sister Margaret Ann Hagan gave us an overview of the Ursuline Society, we spent time sharing about our particular community’s associate program and reflecting on how associates might participate in this new frontier being forged by the Ursuline Society. We were invited to share our unique giftedness, our mutual values, and our Ursuline traditions. At the end of our time, we agreed to meet again in fall 2005. That meeting will be held at Maple Mount, October 24-26. We will finalize a brochure explaining the Ursuline Society, which will be used with all associate groups. As associate directors, we will contine the effort to include associates in the ongoing collaboration of the Ursuline Society. We left knowing that the long trip to Paola, Kansas, in midDecember was well worth our time and effort. It was a blessing for all of us.