Janet Nutakor OLA
Mission Sunday Supplement
Ireland has a great history of sending missionaries to different parts of the world, including Ghana, where I am from. Mission has been an integral part of the Irish church and the Irish people have always supported work on the missions through donations and prayer. In recent times, we see missionaries coming to Ireland from former mission territories, showing the changing face of mission right here. I am an obvious example of that, and I am sure that you have also witnessed this in your local parishes where there are often non-Irish priests ministering to the congregations.
Currently, there are four OLA sisters from different African countries on mission in Ireland, and engaged in several ministries alongside our Irish sisters. Although the numbers in Missionary congregations in Ireland today are diminished, our Sisters and Fathers continue to live their missionary identity in whatever capacity they can and to the best of their abilities. I am inspired by their lifestyle, commitment, and the many ways in which they give of themselves.
Being on mission simply means that we have been sent to proclaim God’s love and salvation to the nations. Pope Francis reminds us that “we are all invited as missionary disciples, each offering talents, creativity, wisdom and experience in order to bring God’s message of tenderness and compassion to the human family.”
While there is still a great need for missionaries to spread the faith in Africa, and indeed in all parts of the world, there are very few missionaries sent from Ireland today. The OLA Sisters recognise the need to engage in new forms of mission here in Ireland, and to augment the work of our ageing sisters. As OLA sisters, both Irish and African, we live our mission through many different works. We are engaged in various volunteering activities; we encourage and support young people to develop a personal encounter with God; some of our sisters teach English to migrants and refugees to foster their communication and integration into Irish society. We share the love of God with refugees and migrants who seek a new form of life in Ireland by being a presence and offering hope and support to the new Irish. We remain actively engaged and are committed to supporting African families in Ireland in whatever way we can, especially women and the youth.
Collaboration forms an integral part of our mission and so we work with organisations and charities, through volunteering in services to the poor, the homeless and families in need. We promote the building of basic Christian communities and family life through our own witness to international community living. Our elderly sisters in Ardfoyle engage in a special mission and ministry of prayer, constantly in touch with the mission world through prayer.
We make good use of technology, reaching out to as many people as possible through our social media channels and website. In order to be more effective in this area, we have employed the services of a professional communications officer who assists us with technology and keeps us up to date. We strive to be a stronger voice on issues of injustice, especially in the area of environmental crisis, human trafficking, and racism by working with a full time justice officer and collaborating with our SMA fathers, other religious and organisations.
If you have visited Ardfoyle Convent recently, you will have seen that we encourage and welcome different groups to use our property for various activities. Women, men, youth, families, as well as our African communities in Cork. These offer us the opportunity to reach out to people of different races and backgrounds in order to support them and allow them to experience the love of God.
A New Mission in Balbriggan
With the influx of African peoples and others into Ireland, the OLA Irish Province, over a period of deep reflection, made the decision to open a new international missionary community in Balbriggan, north of Dublin. The community opened in February, and witnesses to international and multicultural living in our contemporary society. I am a member of this new mission. There are four of us in this community, Sister Josephine Aboagje from Ivory Coast, Sister Joan Murray and Sister Philomena Mulligan from Ireland and myself from Ghana. Our hope is to work in collaboration with the local diocesan priest and SMA Father’s Tony Gill and Donal Toal, in the parish. Balbriggan’s population has grown from about 5,000 to nearly 40,000 in the last 20 years. It is a multicultural, growing community with many different nationalities, more than half of whom are people of African descent.
These are all new undertakings that point to the changing face of mission. The scope of participation as missionaries is as wide as you can imagine. Here in Balbriggan, I continue to bring Christ to the people I encounter each day through personal witness. My main ministry lies in outreach to and promotion of migrants and people of African descent. I am also involved with the members of the African Chaplaincy in Dublin, through their centres in Talaght, Swords, Balbriggan, Lucan and many more. The Chaplaincy creates opportunity for African people to come together to celebrate and share their faith from their own cultural perspective, and to get to know each other. The intention is to empower Africans living in Ireland and make them feel welcomed and valued and to assist them with integration into the church in Ireland. We are working to set up a similar Chaplaincy in Cork.
Wherever we go as missionaries, we seek ways to journey with the people to whom we are sent. Pope Francis sums it up beautifully when he says, “Every man and woman is a mission; that is the reason for our life on this earth. To be attracted and to be sent are two movements that our hearts, especially when we are young, feel as interior forces of love; they hold out promise for our future and they give direction to our lives.”
There are some challenges to living this mission and taking up these ministries and activities, and it is hard to measure the impact I make in my missionary work. Having a different cultural background, it is not always easy to reach out and meet people or to find my way into the Irish church community. It can be frustrating sometimes, and most spaces where young people meet are guarded and protected, as they should be. There are a fairly large number of single parents in the communities where I work, and it is sometimes difficult to reach out to them. Due to fear and the recent pandemic, people are still not ready to open their doors in welcome.
St Therese’s ardent desire was to plant the cross of Jesus Christ in every land, and to announce the gospel even to the end of time. Though she never went on mission outside her own country, she was passionate about the missions.
We are called to be missionaries, each and every one of us. We are called to be missionaries to our families, in our homes, parishes and workplaces. As baptized Christians, we are called to reach out to proclaim the good news, share God’s love and to make God known and loved. Let us strive to make our parishes communities of love, caring and sharing. As we journey together on the synodal path, let us be the St Therese of our time, sending roses of love, comfort and peace.
Without the support for mission of the Irish people all through the years, I would probably not be here in Ireland today. Thank you. I ask that you continue to support the missions and pray for us as I promise to pray for you. May St Therese, Patron of the Missions and missionaries, continue to intercede for you and your families. God bless you all.