Rediscovering the Heart of Mission
OLA and SMA Rediscover the Heart of Their Mission Moving Beyond the Question of Collaboration The question often asked is whether the Sisters of Our Lady of Apostles (OLA) and the Society of African Missions (SMA) should collaborate. During this significant session of the Triple Jubilee celebrations on 2 June 2026, both Superior Generals proposed a different perspective. Rather than debating collaboration, they invited participants to reflect on the nature of mission itself. Their message was clear: if mission is properly understood, collaboration is not an optional strategy but an intrinsic dimension of missionary life. Mission as Participation in God’s Communion In her presentation, The Call to Collaboration as a Call to Mission, Sr. Mary T. Barron, Congregational leader of the OLA Sisters, grounded collaboration in the theology of the ‘Missio Dei‘. Mission begins with God and is God’s initiative before it is ours. Because God is Trinity—a communion of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit—mission is fundamentally relational. Sr. Mary emphasized that collaboration is not merely a practical arrangement but a visible expression of Gospel values. Drawing on contemporary missionary theology and Pope Francis’ vision of synodality, she described collaboration as a way of being Church: listening, discerning, and walking together. She encouraged moving beyond simple complementarity toward reciprocity, recognizing that OLA and SMA share the same missionary inspiration while expressing it through distinct histories, vocations, and ministries. She identified several attitudes necessary for authentic collaboration: co-responsibility in mission, mutual listening, intercultural competence, the sharing of leadership and authority, and [...]
