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A case study of the Ipswich Province as it models a process leading to a new governance structure
Abstract
The 1969 General Chapter of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur mandated that each Province (government unit) design a plan of governance peculiar to the Province. Although there were several attempts to fulfill this mandate, the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur of the Ipswich Province did not have a plan of governance as of 1985. In 1985, the Province Administration submitted a proposal to the Province Assembly (policy making body) that an Ad Hoc Committee be formed to write a plan of governance for the Province. When the Ad Hoc Committee was in place, it presented a schema quite different from that which was proposed. It entailed a three-year, on-going process in which 'process' was to be determined by the membership. An incentive to action was the challenge of the General Moderator of the Sisters of Notre Dame de Namur to renewal. The Ad Hoc Process, as the plan of action was known, was a grassroots endeavor which revitalized the Sisters of the Ipswich Province. It provided for maximum participation and exchange via small cluster meetings and total Province sharing. The process led the Sisters to develop a Focus Statement which became the basis for the Province Mission Statement. The Mission Statement gave rise to the Province setting goals for itself. These goals necessitated a re-searching of the style and the structure of leadership. These goals also became the criteria by which qualities for leadership were determined. The intent of the Ad Hoc Process was to model a process such that the plan of governance would emerge from the experience of the process as the issues of governance were resolved. The results of the Ad Hoc Process were new leadership selected by a discernment process and a new plan of governance written and accepted by the Sisters. The plan imaged the lived experience of the Sisters and projected into the future. The process enabled the Sisters to identify key questions and issues and to work these questions and issues to some resolution. The Ad Hoc Process gave the Sisters a sense of ownership of the Province and an understanding of authority, that each Sister authors her own life.
Subject Area
Clergy
Recommended Citation
Curran, Adrienne, "A case study of the Ipswich Province as it models a process leading to a new governance structure" (1990). Doctoral Dissertations Available from Proquest. AAI9022676.
https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations/AAI9022676