Rural Life Days put focus on connectedness

Is anything good happening on Wisconsin's farms?

Most headlines answer that question with a resounding "no." But Srs. Georgia Acker and Geraldine Hoye, OP, say they will answer with a "yes" when they speak at the diocese's Rural Life Days on Tuesday and Wednesday, April 3 and 4.

The Sinsinawa Domican Sisters will addres the topic "Called to Stewardship, Summoned to Serve: Celebrate your giftedness that echoes the sacredness of the land, the blessings which are shared by many." According to Sr. Hoye, they will focus on two areas:

-- the sacramentality of creation as related to the land and how (the farmers') livelihood "is rooted in nature, and"

-- help farm families to "recognize their giftedness and how it influences their spirituality, how they are a gift to family, the church, the community. They are also a blessing to those whose lives they touch without even knowing them by the services they provide."

For the last several years, Srs. Acker and Hoye were based in Bowling Green, Ky., where they conducted spirituality and adult education programs for rural parishes in Kentucky and in Tennessee. However, Rural Life Days will bring the pair to the Green Bay Diocese permanently. They will now serve as the pastoral associates for the five parishes in Northern Door County and the mission of St. Michael's on Washington Island.

Both women said they hoped that, in addition to their new duties, they will also have opportunities to continue their rural ministry.

In that ministry, they have found that farm families are "the real vital domestic church in our country," said Sr. Hoye. "There is a different kind of unity within their families, within their neighbors, within their towns and, of course, within the ministries in the church."

She described this unity as "connectedness."

"Everybody knows everybody, Sr. Acker said. "People are used to doing things together. This is such an example for anyone who comes in and becomes part of them."

She added that farmers are concerned about how to "pass on the faith to the next generation." Through family catechesis workshops the Sisters have shown parents how to do that through involvement in religious education. "The role of the family is to sustain the faith and pass it on," Sr. Acker noted.

The women first teamed up when they worked in Tupelo, Miss., also among rural parishes, most of which saw a priest only once or twice a month. There they emphasized training parishioners in lay ministry. In Kentucky and Tennessee, they were involved in adult Christian, formation, parish council workshops, RCIA training, and Lenten and Advent evenings of reflection.

Srs. Hoye and Acker will speak at Rural Life Days at St. Francis Solanus Parish, Gresham, on April 3 and at St. Mary Parish in Chilton on April 4.