FSE "Companions" with Cameroon and U.S. Franciscans

October 9, 2000. Meriden, Connecticut.

The Franciscan Sisters of the Eucharist continue their "companioning" relationship with the Tertiary Sisters of St. Francis of Cameroon, together with the Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration, La Crosse, Wisconsin, and the Sisters of St. Francis of Assisi, St. Francis, Wisconsin. The leadership teams of the four communities recently met in Meriden to discuss the next phases of their mutual efforts.

The three United States orders are engaging in this companion relationship with the Cameroon Sisters as an outgrowth of their celebration of 150 years of common founding in 1999, during which time the three communities committed to a "common ministry venture." In this relationship, the goal is twofold:

• To companion the Tertiary Sisters as they seek to give voice to their African sense of the sacred, and

• To provide the U.S. congregations with a new consciousness, one that challenges them to understand their vocation as Franciscan Catholic women religious in today's intercultural world.

Pictured above at a recent meeting are (left to right) Sister Eileen, TSSF; Mother Rosemae Pender, FSE; Sister Alphonsa Kiven, TSSF; Sister Marla Lang, FSPA; Sister Marcia Lunz, OSF.