By Sr Jessica OSB of Mucknell Abbey
A group of Religious sisters and brothers, all involved in social media in different ways, met together for a day conference in early May, to share insights and discuss in depth how we, as Religious, share ourselves, our lives and our faith online. All together, there were 20 attendees, 12 in person at the Sisters of Mercy Convent in Bermondsey and a further 8 online. There were 13 different congregations and communities represented, both apostolic and monastic, Roman Catholic and Anglican.
The conference was organised by a group of Religious who have been meeting monthly on Zoom for the last two years. These meetings have given opportunities to share good practice and resources in our online work, and have also become a source of friendship and support. They originally started because of a cancelled ‘in person’ conference at the start of the pandemic; meeting together in this hybrid format gave a sense of coming full circle.
In the morning, we had some time for introductions and then Sr. Jessica spoke about her journey with using twitter, both as a primary school teacher and latterly as a Religious. She talked about the reflection she had undertaken on what constituted a monastic and Benedictine use of twitter, and then shared some of the questions she was now asking herself about the ongoing purpose of her use of twitter.
After lunch, we reconvened to hear from Sr. Judith and Sr. Silvana, both of whom reflected on how the particular charism of their communities (Turvey Abbey and Society of the Sacred Heart respectively), informed their writing and sharing online. Sr. Judith spoke about her ongoing use of Facebook, and how she looked for inspiration in the daily liturgy when writing her posts. She shared her aim to encourage love, kindness, prayer and peace in her posts and in her responses, drawing on the Vita et Pax foundation made by Dom. Constantine.
Sr. Silvana then shared her journey with blogging, again reflecting on the way in which her engagement online flows out of her life as a religious sister. She quoted from her first blog post, saying, “This [being a religious sister] is who, what and how I am, and what I want to share with others. So in this blog I hope to bring together my different loves - of words, photography, creativity - and place them at the service of my central love, the Love that will not let me go.”.
The day was full of rich conversation, reflective and at times challenging discussion, and plenty of laughter. At its conclusion, we affirmed the support we continue to provide to one another, and were unanimous in our desire to meet again next year
If anyone is involved in digital communication for their congregation and would be interested in joining the group please email Cathy Edge RSM: cathy.edge@iolmercy.org.uk