Sisters of St Joseph Lochinvar
The Lochinvar Congregation is based in the Diocese of Maitland Newcastle in the beautiful Hunter Valley of New South Wales.
It was to the small rural township of Lochinvar, some thirty kilometres north west of Newcastle, that four very young Sisters came from Perthville in 1883. It was from there that small groups of Sisters went out to establish convents and schools throughout the Newcastle and Hunter regions, as well as the Manning and Hastings Valleys to the north and in Sydney to the south.
Today some 110 Sisters still live in these areas, no longer teaching in schools as they did in the past but serving in a wide range of educational and pastoral works, always seeking to respond to the needs and issues of our time and place.
In the spirit of Fr Julian Wood and Mary MacKillop we try never to see a need without responding to it. Our discipleship of Jesus is expressed by being outwards looking and outward reaching, generous and committed to living the Gospel and sharing his mission.
The spirit of the institute requires
That Sisters never see any evil without trying to remedy it:
And this will lead to many undertakings requiring great zeal
And a humble confidence in God.
(Julian Tenison Woods - Book of instructions for the Sisters 1870)
The same spirit shapes our apostolic communities today encouraging the Sisters to a creative response in the communities where they live and work. Sisters today are involved in a variety of ministries - community support, hospital visitation, counselling, adult education, prison chaplaincy, care of the aged, giving retreats, spiritual direction, pastoral care in schools, legal aid for the poor and marginalised, parish and diocesan ministries, advisory services in schools, consultancy and support services to others.
