By Mary McCormick, SC
A General Assembly is the major event occurring every four years in the life of our Congregation. It is here that elected delegates call on the Holy Spirit to open our minds and hearts to discern our future and elect the sisters who will serve in leadership for the next four years.
Our next Assembly, scheduled for April 10–16, 2023, will be shared jointly with the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station, N.J. Details of the what and the how of it are being addressed by the Leadership teams and Steering Committees of both groups with input from the members.
Two pre-Assembly meetings have already been held, on October 16, 2021 in New Jersey, and December 11, 2021 in New York. The theme for both meetings, Living Heritage, Our Common Roots, tapped into the founding stories that have energized our relationship from earliest times.
In the first meeting we listened to a conversation between Mothers Elizabeth Boyle and Xavier Mehegan, and in the second, we plumbed the depths of our community virtues: humility, simplicity, and charity. At the December 11 celebration of Eucharist, sisters renewed their vows and associates renewed their commitments.
A joint meeting held February 12–13, 2022 at Convent Station, the New Jersey Sisters of Charity motherhouse involved the two leadership teams, the Steering Committees, and the facilitators of both groups, Sisters Sherryl White, CSJ, and Rosemary Jeffries, RSM. The agenda for Assembly 2023 will be fleshed out at future meetings.
A General Assembly is always a grace-filled event in the life of a congregation. Both communities look forward to the surprising, challenging ways that our God will lead us into the grace of a new time of Charity.