FAITH BRIEFS
Nuns to celebrate merger of orders

Advertiser Staff

The largest community of nuns in Hawai'i is undergoing a change.

Sisters of the Third Franciscan Order, Syracuse (N.Y.), about 50 of whom reside in Honolulu, will be among those celebrating the union of three women's religious orders into the newly created Sisters of St. Francis religious community for nuns.

In a general assembly Monday in Syracuse, about 250 nuns will gather to chart the future of the newly created order. It will unite nuns from Hawai'i, Kenya, East Africa, Peru and other locales who work in education, healthcare, pastoral ministries, missions and retreat centers in 27 dioceses and archdioceses.

In Hawai'i, the nuns serve at Our Lady of Perpetual Help School; St. Francis School; St. Theresa School; St. Francis Hospice; St. Michael School; St. Joseph Junior High; St. Francis Medical Center; Franciscan Adult Day Care Center; Kukui Gardens Community Center; Chaminade University; and Kalaupapa, Moloka'i, among others.

The union of the three different orders — the Syracuse group, the Sisters of St. Francis Third Order Regular of Buffalo and the Sisters of St. Francis of the Mission of the Immaculate Virgin of Hastings-on-Hudson — isn't a far cry from their beginnings. All grew out of the same Philadelphia order that three nuns founded in 1855.

In Hawai'i, the nuns are expected to celebrate the merger possibly with an event in autumn.

Prayer seminar set for July 17

A prayer event is planned for this month.

The United in Prayer daylong seminar will be from 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. July 17 at Hope Chapel Kane'ohe Bay, 45-815 Po'okela St.

The $25 fee includes lunch ($10 for students).

Information: Jeff, 235-5814.