The relatively short life of our St. Patrick’s Province (less than four decades) is distinguished by some wonderful realities. We have sent numbers of our most able brothers in supportive educational outreach and brotherhood to the churches of Fiji, Tonga, Tanzania and Kenya. Four of our members have been judged suitable to lead our congregation as members of the international leadership team, one as leader and three as deputy leaders within this team. Our province has nurtured the birth and growth of the now international Edmund Rice Camps movement. We have many young people and teachers and lay supporters who are enthusiastically committed through service and material support to Edmund Rice ministry with us. We are facilitating immersion experiences and the opportunity for ministry in Tanzania and Kenya. Substantial financial support has been given to the emerging African region of the congregation. We have grown with honesty and compassion and generosity through the opprobrium of sexual abuse allegations. Our gatherings as brothers are remarkable for their buoyancy and warmth, trustful openness and mutual respect. At the congregation leadership level we are encouraged to embrace what appears to me to be foundational in contemporary spirituality … sharing story. I feel very grateful for the privilege of our brotherhood. And yet I am confronted by the paradoxical reality that we appear to be dying in the ‘first world’.

I recall a moment when I was standing on the veranda of one of the chronic illness wards of Larundel Psychiatric Hospital. I was with an aboriginal man who lived with schizophrenia. We were both looking northwards into a deep unbroken grey overcast. There was little conversation. I was startled to be asked excitedly if I could see the light. Peer as I might, I could not see anything that might be described as the light. I had learned to trust the insight of persons experiencing schizophrenia, and often wonder what light I failed to see. And I wonder now what light we might be failing to see as a province and congregation.

One reality that we are experiencing as a province is the growing body of women and men, young and old, who are enthusiastic about the spirit of Edmund Rice and eager to respond with us to the needy of our world. We brothers have struggled to categorize these associates, and currently refer to an Edmund Rice Network. We do not consider inviting our associates into congregation membership. Ours are times of dramatic theological and social and cultural change, but our province and congregation are home to some deep-seated theological and cultural attitudes. Membership is not open to women, to married persons, and to persons who are not Catholic. And membership is life-long. We hold jealously to a distinction between congregation and network membership. We brothers have a tested local and international congregation support structure, and appear to be dying out. The network has no structure, and is vibrant with new life. Are we failing to see the light?

In the late 1980’s I was visiting Chanjale in the Same Diocese in Tanzania, and was invited to a birthday party being celebrated in our community house. I found myself sitting in a circle next to a Bantu woman. She had completed her secondary education, and consequent obligatory military service. Her passionate life commitment was to redress the reality of sexual exploitation of women in the army. She was pursuing this goal with youthful energy and wisdom, but was doing it alone. She was at this gathering because she found personal support through our brothers in Chanjale. I wondered then why we would not welcome such a person into the community of our congregation. I know nothing of what has happened to her, but I struggle more and more to find a reason why we should not welcome and share congregational community with such a person.

Our current reason would be that she is a woman. Are we living in a gender warp, or is there some sound religious or spiritual reason governing us? I have lived with Len Francis for sixteen years in a community comprising women and men, young and old, married and unmarried, and of Buddhist, Hindu and various Christian religious backgrounds. A wonderful experience of the possibilities of gender inclusivity and the religious richness of ecumenical living. It has been a life-enhancing experience, free from gender and religious compromises and tensions. For me our community images a prophetic possibility for our congregation. Not that accepting women into the congregation would necessarily demand mixed gender living. My point is that I am not “spooked” by the idea!

My dominant memory of my mother, Ellie, is of a woman whose days were enlivened by a consuming commitment to her faith. My father, Peter, was a devoted provider and supporter of Ellie. I am indebted to Ellie for the initiation of my faith journey, and to Peter for his exemplary fidelity. A wonderful complementarity. In the families that I have encountered that are imbued with faith, it is the mother who is invariably the initiator in faith, and the father the supporter. I suspect that this complementarity is archetypical. During the first week of our most recent Congregation Chapter in Rome in 2002, numbers of women and men from the international Edmund Rice network were present. The women were outstanding for their enthusiastic commitment to ministry to the marginalized, and their capacity to articulate the inspiration they found in Edmund. I find it interesting to look at the resurrection narratives in the Gospel, and to find that it is the women who are the seekers and the first to deal with the reality of the empty tomb. The first responders in faith. Likewise in the infancy narrative. In the passion narrative we find women at the foot of the cross. I could not accept that women were not integral to the first community of disciples of Jesus. The Da Vinci fresco of the Last Supper in Milan presents us with an exclusively patriarchal image of the followers of Jesus, and does us a great disservice. During the 1980’s I was a leader of a youth ministry Stranger Team. It was our consistent experience that the young women were the first responders in faith. The young men were steadfast followers, but the young women were invariably the leaders in faith. I was present recently for a conversation amongst young people who are inspired by Edmund Rice. Amongst the passionate and committed voices, the strongest were those of the women. I can imagine the faith and spirituality and ministry enhancement if women were integral to the life of our congregation.

In our ”western world”, or “first world”, we are witnessing transformative cultural change. Women are recognized on an equal footing with men. Gender discrimination is not tolerated. Affirmative action is undertaken. Except apparently in religious institutions. Everything that we brothers have considered in terms of categorizing our Edmund Rice associates has been predicated on the exclusion of women from our congregation. Are we living with an indefensible prejudice? Are we in a cultural warp? A gender warp? Maintaining an exclusively male religious congregational membership is beginning to look anachronistic. We have a province committee dedicated to Seeking New Brothers, and potential candidates are there in the persons of young men fired with zeal for Edmund Rice ministry with refugees or through Edmund Rice camps or in Africa. But the young men are bemused by any thought of joining us. These young men are inspired and committed to work with us, but we categorize them into the ill-defined and unstructured Edmund Rice network. Are we failing to see the light? I fear the dictates of a blind conservative culture warp, and inevitable death.

But I dare to dream the dream that we brothers might step prophetically out of our congregation cultural warp, and embrace fully into our precious patrimony all who might wish to enter. I envision the possibility of a burgeoning congregation, plural in membership, further enriched with resources of faith and personnel, and empowered to undertake an expanding Edmund Rice ministry to the growing ranks of the marginalized of our world. I anticipate that Jesus of Nazareth and Edmund of Callan and Colm of Cahirciveen would be welcoming and enthusiastic.

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