Letter from the Philippines

This letter from Sr. Christine is a response to our letter congratulating OLM on their recent award.

Hi from the Philippines!

Thanks very much for the congratulations. We have been receiving messages of support and the news of how last Sunday evening went from various friends. It certainly is nice to be reminded in such a clear way of how many people do know about us and keep us in their thoughts and prayers. It was only tonight that I realized that people had to pay to attend the function. It really took me by surprize that people would actually pay money to watch US get an award! Wow!

We've been having our own excitements here... you probably heard that the country spent one week under a "State of National Emergency." The President declared that it was necessary because of groups that were trying to destabilize and overthrow her government. It was a dangerous time for the country as rallies were banned, a couple of newspapers were shut down for printing seditious material, and warrant-less arrest were possible. Before the State of Emergency was declared we were planning to attend a Prayer Rally on the main street of town. Since rallies were banned, it was changed to a "Prayer Assembly." And, instead of being held in a public place, there were three meetings points, Xavier University, the Cathedral Grounds, or Cagayan Capitol University. Some of us when to Xavier and some of us went to the Cathedral. Both held very nice ecumenical and inter-faith prayers for peace, honesty, and justice for the nation.

Yesterday we had a good excitement here when 38 people met at our house to renew their commitment to inter-religious dialogue between Muslims and Christians. We had prayer and sharing stories before sitting down to lunch together. I'm mad at myself though because I had brought the camera down to take photos, and completely forgot to do so! Everyone had left when I remembered about it.... Hopefully the next time we have some kind of event, I'll remember to take some photos and send some to you again!

Bye for now then... Peace, Christine

Katherine Hawkin Award

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The Canadian Churches Forum for Global Ministries is honoured to announce the 2006 recipient of the Katherine Hockin Award, Our Lady's Missionaries.

This is the first time that the award has been offered to a community in mission. This Communities work is recently best known in Canada through their role in initiating the Out of The Cold program. However this program is only part of their work.

In Our Lady's Missionaries we see a sisterhood of Christians who sustain each other in a lifetime of breathtakingly generous response to the call of the Gospel. In ways that are practical, contemporary, profoundly respectful, courageous and full of compassion, they have hurried to the aid of people in need in Africa, Asia, South America and here at home. As their first priority they have cherished the invitation of Jesus to meet him already present in the poor, sick and hungry of the world. In faithfully living out that "option for the poor", they have consequently found new ways to obey the Lord's command to go, teach, and make disciples in every nation. More...