Sisters Work for World Unity at Family Reunion

It is an international family reunion for sisters only.

The Thousand Oaks province of the Sisters of Notre Dame, building unity among their 3,000 members, is hosting about 30 nuns from the United States, Brazil, India, Indonesia, Korea, Germany and beyond at the Notre Dame Center in Thousand Oaks.

The general conference, as the meeting is called, is a “time for bonding, mutual understanding, answering questions and addressing problems . . . so we can be more effective in our mission for the church,” explained Sister Mary Joell Overmann, the superior general who called the sisterhood’s first international meeting in half a dozen years.

What the leaders of the sisterhood shared were their experiences, their devotion to the church and a kinship and friendship that span miles.

As it has been since the sisterhood’s inception in 1850 in Germany, the sisters’ mission is to educate youth, particularly poor youngsters. But, the sisters realize, education takes on different meanings in different regions.

In Brazil, according to Sister Maria Alcidia Guareschi, the extremes of wealth and poverty are such that the nuns in her province spend much time teaching basic health care and helping the poor find enough to eat.

“We try to help them have what they need for life--a piece of land, a house, schools for the children,” she said. After a tour of the sisterhood’s western province, to which Thousand Oaks and Los Angeles belong, Guareschi said she realized that a first-world country could also have poverty.

For Sister Mary Sharan Hendricks of Patna, India, the trip to California was eye-opening for a different reason.

“I’m taken with the natural beauty and the people,” she said. “I find them generous and hospitable. It’s delightful.”

Although the sisters addressed serious issues during the two-week conference, they have also had fun.

They visited the Ventura and Santa Barbara missions and Olvera Street in Los Angeles. To present a slice of California life, the Ventura County hosts also taught their guests to make s’mores on the beach. By week’s end, the sisters will visit Disneyland and learn to country line-dance.

Already, Sister Maria Sylvia van der Aa of Tegelen, Holland, knows she will be saddened to leave.

“When I meet sisters from other countries, I like that,” she said. “We are a big family, and you are always happy to see your family.”