A book by Sarah Gilbert, telling the story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia, was launched this month in Melbourne.
The book, entitled Unconventional Women, the story of the last Blessed Sacrament Sisters in Australia was launched on Friday July 12, at the Eymard Centre at St Francis’ church in Melbourne.
Author Sarah Gilbert and Sr Marian McClelland SSS at the book launch. PHOTO: Blessed Sacrament Sisters.
Sr Marian McClelland SSS said the project was begun in 2016 when she and Sr Vianney Hatton SSS saw the need to capture the story of the Sisters.
“We knew our numbers were diminishing rapidly and we felt that our story - the story of how we had changed so much, as a result of the documents coming out of the Second Vatican Council - belonged to the story of the greater Melbourne Archdiocese, and we wanted it written,” she said.
“Sarah Gilbert was asked to write it, and she has done a remarkable job.”
From left to right: ABC Radio National presenter of the Big Ideas program, Natasha Mitchell with actress and former member of the Blessed Sacrament Sisters Melissa Jaffer, author Sarah Gilbert, and Sr Marian McClelland SSS.
The book is an oral history, interviewing three Blessed Sacrament Sisters and three women who had left the Congregation between the late 1960s and 1997.
“Sarah has set our stories in the larger context of the Community, the Australian church and the wider Australian community. The personal stories are open and candid,” Sr Marian said.
The book was launched by Sr Marian and Sarah in “a happy and informal event”. The previous evening they had been interviewed for ABC Radio National’s ‘Big Ideas’ program, which will air in October.
“Some members of the audience told of their connection with members of the Community – including those who had died before the book was thought of,” Sr Marian said.
“Danny Gilbert, a long-time friend, and chairman of our small NFP company and Sarah’s father, told of our long connection with Redfern in Sydney and Father Ted Kennedy, going back to the early 1980s; and how Sarah had watched our Sisters there, quietly changing masculine language, at those chaotic but wonderful Sunday liturgies.
“Some questions were asked, and I was very happy to be able to speak about our enlarged understanding of Eucharist now, and how we are all that Presence ourselves, and that we are all ‘quantumly entangled with God!’
“As the last Blessed Sacrament Sister in Australia, I am delighted that this book, published by Melbourne University Press, will stand as our legacy.”