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I’ve recently returned from a visit to Kiribati.
For those who don’t know, the Republic of Kiribati is a remote island nation straddling the equator in the Pacific Ocean.
It’s also where a small group of Good Samaritan Sisters have been ministering since 1991. I was there to witness the perpetual profession of Kakare Biita as a Sister of the Good Samaritan. She is the second I-Kiribati woman to do so.
Kakare’s profession ceremony was held in Abaokoro, a village in North Tarawa where one of our Good Samaritan communities is based.
The other is in Temaiku, South Tarawa, a more densely populated area. Getting to Abaokoro isn’t a straightforward journey.
After crossing the Tarawa lagoon by boat, in the equatorial heat we walked up the 200-metre gravel pathway to the sisters’ community house.
As I walked up that pathway, lined with over 2,000 small stones packed closely together, I was struck by the importance and power of storytelling.
Patricia Comerford, one of our Australian sisters who lived in Kiribati, slowly and painstakingly, in the hot, humid conditions of Kiribati, built this pathway, lining it with local stones and plants.
The story of her patience and fidelity to the community she loves, as well as her love of the earth, continues to be told and retold among the I-Kiribati sisters, who now live out their own story at Abaokoro. Continue reading.
Clare Condon, the Congregational Leader of the Sisters of the Good Samaritan of the Order of St Benedict, is the recipient of the 2013 Human Rights Medal.
Source: The Good Oil
Image: Sisters of the Good Samaritan
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