NGO Highlights - 1996-2006

1996 –2006

A Good Shepherd NGO office retrospective -

This booklet contains a grateful glimpse back at the work of the NGO office since November 1996. It is not a complete compendium but rather an overview of activities, movement and initiatives of the NGO office.

 We thank all in the congregation who have supported this work, from both near and far.

 We pray that the GS NGO work will be a resource for all Good Shepherds throughout the world as we seek to be life bearers, living in compassion and reconciliation, contributing to a world of justice and peace.

  Dedication:

This 10-year NGO office retrospective

is dedicated in memory of

 Sr. Barbara Davis, RGS 1939- 2001.

Barbara gave the first impetus and applied significant work to the establishment of Good Shepherd as an NGO in Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC of the United Nations. Her vision, leadership, and guiding spirit were the foundation stones of the Good Shepherd NGO office.

During the early months of our NGO development, prior or Barbara’s final illness, Barbara was a guiding force and enthusiastic supporter in the direction of the work. There is no doubt that Barbara continues to befriend the projects and spirit of the NGO office. May it ever be so!

 “God’s word is always an address to life

in the present moment…

my present horizon of understanding

should always be provoked, challenged, transformed.[1]”

I pray that Barbara’s spirit will always stimulate us to take risks, even at cost, and to push us to create new pathways. Until we join Barbara in the eternal communion of compassion, may we recall: “a bird that wings itself with resolute love can travel anywhere.[2]”

 Spiritual patron:

 Lygia Constanine de Silva, RGS     1923 - 2003

Lygia came to visit NY in 2000 when a filmmaker was doing a project on Lygia’s grassroots work in Amazonia…..

It was a blessing to the NGO office to have contact with Lygia’s joyous, generous, encouraging, and dedicated spirit.

 I pray that she has left with us her own spirit and the spirit of those peoples of the Amazonia who struggle daily for justice and human rights, who struggle to find the most profound and radical messages embedded in our scriptures and spiritual sources.

Lygia said:  

 “The bible is a source of inspiration to us…

The Word of God has power…

                       But the Bible can be used to blind people…

            If the word of God is not used in a way that

illuminates the people,

it can cause greater alienation…”

I pray that Lygia will always be a reminder to the NGO office of the need for social analysis and careful thinking about systems and structures.
Spiritual patron:

 Christine Tan, RGS 1930 - 2003

 Christine Tan was an early visitor to the GS NGO office. In year 2000 she had been invited to speak to the World Parliament of Religious Leaders at the UN on the Occasion of the Millennium Summit.

 Having heard of Christine’s activism in the Philippines it was thrilling, if a bit intimidating, to meet her. I encountered a warm and simple woman who, while she shunned, even scorned, the high protocols of diplomacy, was more than joyful in her contentment while sharing a communal supper, good conversation, and real-life laughter with her GS sisters in New York. I will always know her as a woman of prayer and a woman with the poor. Christine said:

 “It was with the poor that I felt comfortable…

it was here that God was at ease.”

 I pray that the Good Shepherd Congregation’s closeness to those in conditions of poverty always ensures that the voices of the marginalized and excluded are included in all the initiatives and projects of the NGO office.

Leadership for Mission:

 The process of attaining NGO status and the 10 years of affiliation has spanned three General Leadership Teams:

 1991:

Barbara Davis, Gonzaga Fernando, Liliane Tauvette, Magdalena Franciscus, Delia Rodriguez, Ingrid Schimansky, Ana Maria Gomez

  1997:

Magdalena Franciscus, Delia Rodriguez, Gabriela Botelho, Guadalupe Bautista, Liliane Tauvette, - Evelyn Fergus, Elaine Basinger (from May 2000), Barbara Davis  (until 2000, not shown)

 2003:

Elaine Basinger,

Armelle Dehennault,

Brigid Lawlor,

Cecilia Patiño,

Evelyn Fergus,

Eliene Barros,

Sabina Pathrose

Special thanks to the New York province, hosting and supporting the NGO work in many ways.

Gratitude is Memory of the Heart - Thank You!