Continuing the vision of the foundress
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Please visit the website of Mary Aikenhead Ministries to understand the scope of the mission now carried out by MAM in the name of the foundress.
This is a major change in governance and follows the incorporation of the major ministries under Boards of Directors in the 1990s.
The Congregational Leader at that time, Sr Annette Cunliffe noted: “This is an exciting time for all of us. While there will be little change to the daily management of our facilities, this change in governance will enable us to ensure that the work begun by the Sisters will continue, grow and flourish in the future through gifted and dedicated lay leadership.
“As you are well aware, our Congregation’s spirit and our inheritance is the gospel privilege of serving others, especially the poor. Our story is one of innovation, courage and conviction. It is our hope that this will continue through Mary Aikenhead Ministries and the spirit of service will evolve in new and radical ways, always alive to the needs of the times,” said Sr Annette.
A formal and very moving commissioning ritual was held in Brisbane, Sydney, and Melbourne, to celebrate this transfer of the Sisters of Charity ministries to the new Public Juridic Person, coinciding with the symbolically significant day, the 151st anniversary of Mary Aikenhead’s death.
One of the major objectives of Mary Aikenhead Ministries is to continue to build on the charism and traditions of the Sisters of Charity of Australia to ensure that each of the works for which it is responsible operates in conformity with the teaching, discipline, and law of the Roman Catholic Church.
At the same time, Sisters continue in ministry within those ministries that have a new governance arrangement and in other ministries.
As you read each of the ministry accounts, you are encouraged to do so in this context of our religious commitment. We hope that this will help to make it clearer why Mary Aikenhead Ministries is constantly seeking to meet new challenges, to read the changing signs of the times, and to make ourselves more “extensively useful.”