She was elected at the sisters general chapter being held in Hua Hin, Thailand.

Sister Jo will replace Sister Maureen McBride who is also a New Zealander.

The the Mission Sisters came to New Zealand in 1864, three years after the foundation of the Congregation, by Euphrasie Barbier.

They now work in 23 countries in Europe, the Americas, Asia, Africa and the Pacific.

Their newest missionary insertions are South Sudan, Laos, Orissa in India, Thai-Myanmar borders, Kazakhstan and Taiwan. Our priorities in mission are among the poor and marginalised, especially women and children.
Source

• Sisters of Our Lady of the Mission
• RNDM Collections

What that moniker frequently amounts to is simply the blatant destruction of buildings which often possess heritage value, history and old world charm. Knock it down and put up something cheap and nasty in its place epitomises all that's mercenary, base and soulless in the New Zealand psyche.

One can speculate as to why so much architectural beauty and buildings of historical character in this country have simply been destroyed by the careless swipe of a swing-ball or bulldozer blade. Some have suggested it's to do with the fact that New Zealand is a young country. We're mere adolescents in historical terms and thus behave accordingly. Unlike other more established European nations, Pakeha culture adds up to a paltry 170 years. We are shallow in the soil, as New Zealand commentator Monte Holcroft once observed, the consequences of which are we haven't grown up, matured or developed a strong sense of time and place and its importance to us as a people. We're opportunists, incapable, like teenagers, of either looking forward too far or back.

Others, in an attempt to explain our cavalier attitude to heritage, point to our rough and gruff nature, the "she'll be right" attitude that goes with a certain careless stance or the more brutal, "put the boot in" call. Continue reading

Sources

• Peter Dornauf in The Waikato Times
• Image: Stuff / The Waikato Times

Peter Dornauf is a Hamilton artist, writer and teacher.

The celebrations started with a mass, followed by a lunch. A PowerPoint presentation of photos of the Nelson mission including historical photos up to the present day was also put together.

Ou Lady of the Missions province leader Sister Josephine Kane said Father Garin arrived in Nelson in 1850 and there was a presbytery and church at the Manuka St site when the sisters arrived.

Records show that when the sisters started teaching at the school in 1871 there were 117 pupils, four of whom were boarders. Only one of the sisters spoke English, she said.

Continue reading