Mission Connect Keynoters

Sr. Janice McLaughlin, MM

Janice McLaughlin has worked on the African continent for more than 30 years in the fields of mass media, education and advocacy.  Her reports on the war in Rhodesia for the Catholic Commission for Justice and Peace led to her arrest and deportation in 1977.  Subsequently, she assisted Zimbabwean refugees in Mozambique, returning to independent Zimbabwe in 1980 where she helped to resettle refugees and to build eight schools that combined academic and technical education.  She served as Communications Coordinator of the Maryknoll Sisters and as liaison with Maryknoll Magazine from 1992 until 1997.  On her return to Zimbabwe, she became the Training Coordinator for Silveira House, a leadership training and development education center run by the Jesuits for poor and marginalized people.  She also chaired the African Forum for Catholic Social Teaching and the Counseling Services Unit that assists victims of violence.  Sister Janice is the author of several books and numerous articles in various publications concerned with the situation in Africa, the Catholic Church and religious life, including Ostriches, Dung Bettles and Other Spiritual Masters (Orbis Books 2009).  She was elected President of the Maryknoll Sisters in 2008.  She has been a Maryknoll Sister for 50 years.

Sr. Janice will share with us her African experience through which we will re-imagine mission for the future. A key question we will address is “How can we do mission better together, as mission grows from the domain of priests and sisters to lay people, immersion and parish mission efforst such as twining.”  At the end of this keynote, we will enjoy live West African music and dance, provided by Asilimi (www.asilimi.com), which will invite us out of the church into the hall for participative dance, singing…and good times!

Fr. Roger Schroeder, SVD

Fr. Roger Schroeder is a Divine Word Missionary priest (SVD) who worked in Papua New Guinea for six years.  He is now Professor of Intercultural Studies and Ministry and holder of the Bishop Francis X. Ford, MM, Chair of Catholic Missiology at Catholic Theological Union at Chicago.  He is author of What is the Mission of the Church? A Guide for Catholics (Orbis Books, 2008), and co-author with Stephen Bevans of Constants in Context: A Theology of Mission for Today (Orbis Books, 2004) and Prophetic Dialogue: Reflections on Christian Mission Today (Orbis Books, 2011)

Fr. Roger’s talk “What is the Mission of the Church” will be guided by his book of the same name. He will discuss with us what mission is today – far beyond the conversion it used to be. When we talk about mission in the modern world, we are talking about topics such as reconciliation, witness and inculturation. We approach mission with a respect that perhaps was not present in the past. We approach it with the knowledge that God is already in the people with whom we are engaging. Fr. Roger’s talk will set us up for the workshops offered that morning which are based on the 6 components of mission discribed in the book.