Sisters of St Joseph Whanganui
Sisters Hyacinth, Joseph, Clare and Teresa left Perthville New South Wales in 1880 to begin a New Zealand branch in Whanganui, in the central North Island. The first schools, a primary school and a secondary school for boarders were opened that year. From then on the teaching mission of the Sisters had them move into many of the rural areas and towns of the North Island.
From the 1980’s there has been increasing growth in diversity of ministries as Sisters responded to the needs of society with their own individual talents. Numbers have continued to drop substantially and the median age has risen. Despite this, Sisters’ involvement with the people we live and work among has increased.
Today the Sisters of St Joseph are involved in counselling, psychotherapy, chaplaincy to prisons and retirement homes, spiritual direction, education at various levels, retreats, social justice and human rights advocacy, community and parish involvement.
Today we have a wider understanding of the unique gift that our spirituality is to each of us individually. Our present spiritualities are influenced by other experiences which are creation-centred, wholistic, liberating, and recognising the Maori peoples’ relationship with the land.
In all things we seek:
“Ki Tonu Te Ao Me Te Orokohanga Te Tangata
Fullness of Life for the Earth and its Peoples”
