Lisa Gilead is the International Coordinator of the FCJ Companions in Mission. She reports on the October international gathering of Companions in Mission
In October 2021, Lisa Gilead, CiM International Co-ordinator, and Sue Cawley, CiM invited Companions in Mission from around the world and FCJ Sisters who are Coordinators in the different Areas of the FCJ Society to a gathering via Zoom. The primary purpose of the Gathering was the opportunity for Companions in Mission and Sisters to meet each other. The gathering was held over two days to accommodate our worldwide membership. The first was on October 15/16th, for the Southern Hemisphere, and the second, on October 20/21, for the Northern Hemisphere. All participants were invited to join on either day and over the two days, approximately 80 CiM and FCJ joined in.
Our theme was “CiM: Looking into the Future – how can CiM play a role in expanding the future of Companions in Mission globally”.
Each participant was invited to share something of themselves by identifying their individual gifts, skills, or talents and this, very often, included things that other people had identified in them! The images show a collage of the gifts named respectively in the Northern Hemisphere and Southern Hemisphere instances of the gathering. You can click on the images to explore them more.
In the smaller discussion groups that followed, participants pondered on ‘being called to discipleship’ in much the same way as Marie Madeleine, FCJ foundress, and Jesus’ disciples in the Gospels. We were able to reflect on questions about ‘ministry and mission’ based on quotes from Sr. Christine Anderson’s book Discerning the Gold in Human Experience.
The opportunity to gather, meet and share with each other, was greatly appreciated by many who participated, and the hope is that this will become a regular event.
