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Daily Summary
| July 23, 2008 |
submitted by Sister Kathleen Kunze
MILWAUKEE, WI – The final session of the 8th U.S. Provincial Assembly opened at 1:00 p.m. at Alverno College with a welcome to all present and a special welcome to the International Team.
In the opening prayer we pledged ourselves to mutual listening, dialoging, praying and playing during these days of the Assembly. The voting delegates, voice delegates and the voice participants were each called by name. After each grouping we sang the mantra, "Gather us O God, Body, Spirit, Soul and Mind - Gather us, O God. One in union now with you." General Assembly delegate nominees, Area Coordinators, the International Team, prayerful support members, the sisters in our central houses, and the sisters and associates in the U.S. and in other provinces were all acknowledged.
An overview of the Assembly was presented. Delegates were encouraged to talk with the General Assembly delegate nominees as much as possible and the process that will be used, later during the Assembly, to ask questions of the delegates was explained. Sister Barbara Kraemer, Provincial Coordinator, introduced the presenter of the Leadership Workshop – Jean Alvarez. One of the goals of the workshop is to help us, as a community, find a common vocabulary to use in what we are looking for in leadership in the General Assembly delegates, and in International and Provincial leadership.
Jean’s time with the Assembly participants on Wednesday was a balance of presentation and participation. She presented three styles of leadership – direct, relational and instrumental, as described by Jean Lipman-Blumen in The Connective Edge: Leading in an Interdependent World (Josey-Bass, 1996). Directive leadership is clear about their goals and how to take the community there. Relational leadership is clear about hearing the goals of the community and tries to help the community get there. Instrumental leadership knows their goals, listens to the goals of others, and makes connections where the goals overlap. The delegates shared how they see recent or current leadership exercise their leadership superbly, and how we see ourselves personally being leaders.
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