by Jose Kavi

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Christians in India seem to be jittery these days. They feel helpless amid unprecedented attacks they have been facing for some time now. In India, where rape is the fourth most common crime against women — after domestic violence, assaults with intent “to outrage the modesty of a woman” and abduction — it should come as no surprise that Catholic nuns are among the victims. Some have called the attacks “deliberate attempts” to intimidate the Christian community. Others, however, say the violence is a reaction because women religious appear to the public as independent women living with property, money and status.

Agnes Wamuyu Ngure is an Elizabethan Sister currently serving as the executive secretary of the Association of Sisterhoods of Kenya (AOSK). Previously she has worked at an informal school in Nairobi; in the slums of Soweto and Kamae; and for 14 years in Kahawa, around the Kamiti prison area. She pioneered the Vendramini Education Centre. She spent four years in Khartoum, Sudan, where she learned Arabic, working with refugees in camps, before coming to ASOK.

This story appears in the Notes from the Field feature series. View the full series.

by Angela Mahoney

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Notes from the Field - This is my first experience of the registration process for the sister’s kindergarten. In a bucket there are 40 pieces of paper with a stamp on it, and the rest are blank. In the sister’s compound children are crowding in to draw to see if they can attend the sister’s kindergarten.

by Mary Aquin O’Neill

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The lesson here concerns the power of true dialog, which has the potential for transforming each of the partners as they come to deeper and deeper understandings of the other. Women of the church ought, then, seek and accept opportunities for dialog related to important ecclesial issues.

Sr. Cini George has only one mission — to incense the world with positive energy. The 38-year-old sister is a member of the Congregation of Missionary Sisters Servants of the Holy Spirit. George was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis at age 27. Later it dawned on her that cosmic energy can transform and retransform all that is in it. This realization convinced her about the need to spread positive energy throughout the world. Confined to bed since April 2013, the ever-smiling nun is working on three books, including two novels.