Last March, the sisters under the age of 80 of the Belgium-France-Netherlands Province met in Joigny (Burgundy).
We were 28 RSCJ in total, including eight from countries other than Belgium and France (Uganda, DRC, Egypt, Poland, Germany), led by Jean-Paul Kpatcha a Togolese priest from the African Missions.
We met to exchange on interculturality:
- What hinders and obstructs intercultural and/or intergenerational exchange?
- What does it mean for us to feel welcome?
- What can help our congregation better understand our “interculturality” and build international communities in the new provinces?
- What helps and encourages the welcoming of new sisters and the pastoral care of vocations?
These are the questions we asked ourselves over time alone, sharing and exchanging on our own experiences with interculturality, whether they were joyful or sometimes painful.
It was a very intense weekend: fraternal, simple, and profound in the joy of being together and in the desire to be transformed.
We left feeling very nourished by the whole weekend’s process, Jean Paul’s precise contributions and the powerful testimonies shared in a spirit of trust. We are now more aware of the challenges of interculturality and of the need to continue to learn more and become more flexible to overcome the inevitable misunderstandings. We hope that this meeting will lead to something more.
Excerpts written by Odile, Murielle, Isabelle, RSCJ