Provincial delegate's report

My dear Carmelites, We have finally managed to publish our new Constitutions, Provincial Statutes, and our ritual in one book, OCDS Legislation for the Oklahoma Province, available for purchase on line at http://www.lulu.com/ The photo below shows Provincial councillor Amelia Wilken with the spiral bound volume laid out in front of her for the Jackson council’s preview. My caption: “Laying down the law!” What delayed this publication was a change in our Provincial Statutes. For that we had to wait on Our Fr. General’s approval which came in May of this year. The change concerns term limitations of our local Councillors in statute III which deals with Community elections. Under the 2nd section of that statute which deals with the election of your local president and councillors, we have added a new subsection d) which reads: “In order that leadership qualities be developed in our Communities, council members (President, Councilors and Director of Formation) shall not serve more than two consecutive terms. To serve for a third consecutive term requires postulation from the Provincial Council,” since this statute prohibits election to a third consecutive term in office. The statute that had been approved in 2004, limited the term of the president. This limitation is now extended to all local councillors. The reason we applied to Rome for this change was prompted by our notice that a few of our communities during the last triennial elections did nothing more than “re-arrange the furniture.” One councillor was elected president, then the outgoing president was elected councillor to fill the empty seat. In smaller communities this sort of thing is to be expected, and can still be done through the simple process of postulation. But when other candidates for leadship positions are available, their qualities need to be developed. So now our Provincial Statutes are complete. Sections I-XX were approved on 21-Dec 2004, Section XXI on 02-Jun-05, and the revision of III in May 2006. We thank you for your patience in waiting till we had this all together. Of course, as you well know, in this life we will never really get it all together. We do the best with what we got, and pray God does the rest.

Alabama
Fr. Thomas Perrin, SDS, Assistant to our group in Madison/Huntsville since their formation last year, is being transferred to California. We thank Father for his assistance, following his resignation on May 5th and wish him well in his new assignment. On 13-Jun-06, I appointed the new Spiritual Assistant, Fr. Jose Chacko, assistant pastor of the church where they meet, St John Baptist. Father responded, “I shall sincerely help this group. May God bless us.” President & founder Bobby Pearson’s faher died in Nashville at age 83 on 30-May-06. May he rest in peace.

Paul Schubert, president in Mobile, accepted the provincial council’s invitation to represent our province on the national council on 16-May-06. The next meeting of the nation council is scheduled for Holy Hill, Wisconsin from Nov 2-5.

Visitation of Mobile was conducted by Provincial Councillor Nancy Thompson on Saturday 24-Jun-06 in the dining room of the Visitation Monastery. What more appropriate place for a visitation to take place? President Paul Schubert, Formation Director Carol Busma Payne, and councillors Linda Savarese & Steve Orleans were joined by Assistant Father Coleman, five professed, three aspirants, and three guests. After praying Morning Prayer, Paul announced publication of the new OCDS legislation book. The council voted to purchase a copy for each professed member. Fr. Coleman gave his conference on John of the Cross’ Living Flame, inviting members to discuss practical applications of this poem to the life of an OCDS.

After a refreshment break, Paul turned the meeting over to the Visitator. Using a poster board to record responses, Nancy led the group in a discussion of “What is community?” We are called to become a living flame of love in the world both individually and as a community. “As a Carmelite, life will be turned inside out and upside down. The beatitudes are a plan of action for our life.” After stressing the importance of our formation as Carmelites, she advised all to read and study our legislation and ritual “to get to the bottom of the essentials.” In answer to a request for the return of the group’s canonical privileges, Nancy responded, “There is a possibility that you will soon be ready.” Thanks to Maureen Caine, Mobile’s secretary, for this visitation report.

Georgia
On 03-June-06, I appointed a new Assistant for our Lawrenceville group in the NE suburbs of Atlanta. Fr. Kevin Hargaden is a parochial vicar at St. Lawrence church on Grayson Highway. This group meets meets on the 1st Tuesday of the month at 6:30 pm at Marguerite D'Youville church in Lawrenceville. I sent Father Kevin a copy of our Rule and Constitutions. I would like to thank Msgr. Terry Young for his fine work as former Assistant to this group, as well as for his continued assistance to our group that meets in Atlanta. I have been exchanging concerns regarding formation material presented to both groups with Formation Director Mary Shusta.

Louisiana

On Saturday, May 20, 2006, I appointed Fr. Michael Champagne Assistant to our community in New Iberia. Fr. Michael has offered to take this office which has been ably filled by our dear Fr. Bill J. Melancon since the canonical establishment in 1995. Fr. Michael has offered to assist us for a year, and we pray he stays with us longer. I sent him the Rule and Constitutions.

Provincial Councillor Amelia Wilken made visitation of Covington on Sunday 25-June-06. I drove Amelia from Jackson to Covington and used the time to visit with our nuns there while Amelia conducted the visitation. Sister Fides had made her solemn profession the previous month, and it was nice to be able to wish her well in person since all the friars at Marylake were busy on the weekend she received the black veil. The visitation began the previous evening with a dinner and council meeting [photo right] at the home of President Rosalie Quigley. It is such a pleasure to visit Louisiana. These people really know how to eat and enjoy a good meal. I brought the leftovers to our nuns who feasted on these the next day while Amelia met with our Secular community.

A request was made to be canonically established. Amelia is working on her visitation report as I write this, but her preliminary impressions were quite favorable: “Covington is very ready for promotion to the canonical status! I am very impressed with them! Their leadership, community life, discussions at their formation and fraternal charity are all there!”

Photo: Amelia Wilken, Suzette McGoey, Rosalie Quigley pres, & Ethel Ganucheau.

Mississippi

Provincial councillor Amelia Wilken and I made visitation of Jackson Friday and Saturday 23-24 June. I drove from Marylake to our nuns in Jackson Thursday afternoon. Amelia flew in the next day. President Dorothy Ashley and secretary Sondra Powell drove me to Formation Director Peggy Hamilton’s home in Brandon where we began the visitation Friday afternoon with a two hour council meeting. I interviewed a couple of the councilors while Peggy prepared a delicious dinner for us.

On Saturday the community gathered at our Nuns for Morning Prayer, Mass and a community meeting. Photo top: Julius Adams [1st P], Betsy Carraway [asp] & Janice Powers [asp]. Mid: My Reverence [prov delg], Peggy Hamilton [form], Juanita A Butler [nov], Louise Fusillier [1st P] & guest Helen Maude Jones. Bottom: Sondra Powell [sec’ty], Amelia Wilken [visitator], Edna Miller [coun] & Dorothy Ashley [pres].

Amelia and I divided our time observing the three formation groups, and I had a private interview with a few of the candidates in formation, while Amelia conducted the visitation. At two O’Clock, Amelia and I left for Covington, driving down I-55, the main evacuation route for Hurricane Katrina. Few effects of this devastating hurricane were noticable now almost a year later. Our nuns in Jackson still have a partially repaired roof where a huge oak tree fell. When we arrived at our nuns in Covington, their chapel roof had been repaired, but president Rosalie Quigley’s front yard was devastated, front porch railings gone completely, and a hole can still be seen in the ceiling of the back porch. Her statue of Our Lady survived with only a bit of pine sap under the eye indicating her inundation beneath a mountain of fallen trees.

Texas

On Sunday, 07-May-06, I had the privilege of celebrating the 11 O’Clock Mass at our basilica to commemorate the 50th golden jubilee of our Secular Order in the city of San Antonio. I was assisted by the pastor, Fr. John Magdalene. The night before we attended a wonderfully creative play performed in our parish hall by the drama department of McArthur High School on the life of Edith Stein. Following the Sunday Mass, the local OCDS Community held a reception. Table decorations by councillor Sadie Garcia were outstanding. The council gathered at the head table for the cutting of the jubilee cake at the end of the reception. President Gloria Guajardo did the honors, assisted by councillor Betty Keller and Formation Director Susan King, [not pictured]. Councillor Lorraine Coleman sent invitations to this joyful event. Many Secular members came from Austin and Georgetown to celebrate the occasion, including the president of our provincial council, Elizabeth Korves.

Provincial Councillor, Gerald Alford made visitation of New Caney and Houston’s St Therese group on May 12-13. A photograph of the visitator with the councillors includes in front: Margaret Nunez (pres), Gerri Hvizdos (coun), Mary Ann Carroll (coun), Terry Espinoza (Hou3), Mary Velez (coun), Margarita Dufilho (form assnt Hou3) & Fr. Gary Rickes (pastor). Top: Gerald Alford (visitator), Georgina Torres (form) & Chris Wood (pres Hou3).

Mary Steele died aound the year 2000 in Amarillo. Her daughter Cathy who was helpful in founding this OCDS Group has joined a religious order. This information was provided by Betty Keller who moved from Amarillo to San Antonio a number of years ago. Betty was recently elected to the council of San Antonio to replace Susan King who was selected to replace Mary Giles as Director of Formation in San Antonio.

On Thursday afternoon 18-May-06, Elizabeth Korves began visitation of our Group in Amarillo. After the initial meeting, the Visitator was invited out to dinner, and on Friday morning she met with the full community for about three hours. “The Amarillo study group is small and as a result a very close group. They are devoted to the Carmelite charism and hope to grow in size. The study group has shown a determination to continue.” As there has been no one in initial formation for some years, the main concern of the group is how to attract new members. See photo in Council report below.

On Sunday 21-May-06, Elizabeth Korves began visitation of Lubbock. The Visitator met with the Council for about an hour prior to meeting the full community. She spoke about the Constitutions and Statutes, and what our Provincial Council has been doing. After the meeting there was a pot luck dinner. She met with the Assistant for lunch on Monday, and that evening closed the visitation with a three hour meeting with the Council. “The Lubbock Study Group is at the point in its development when it needs to make the transition from a more informal mode to the more formal mode of community life that is expected of canonical communities. It has a good sense of community and of Carmel.” The group has a few in initial formation, so a more organized formation program needs to be developed in conformity with the formation guidelines of our Provincial Statutes.

Provincial Councillor Nancy Thompson made visitation of Georgetown and Waco on the 1st and 2nd weekends of June. In Georgetown the problem arose of persons transferring into a community during their formative period. The process of moving, in itself, indicates a disruption of one’s formation. The various formators need to contact one another to determine what areas have been covered by the candidate. No council should expect a transfer to complete formation without some extension. Transfers from other provinces run into further complications due to different formation programs. Once the groups and communities in our own province have adjusted their formation programs to the guidelines outlined in our Statutes, transfers from within our province will be greatly facilitated with shorter extensions required for moving delays.

--Fr. John Michael Payne OCD, prov. delg.