About Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus
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Mission Statement
Faithful to Gospel values, the Charism of our Foundress and attentive to the signs of the times, we the Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus, commit ourselves to the transformation of lives through our prophetic witness of vowed life, community living, participatory leadership and apostolic ministry with a special option for the poor, women and children.
History of the North American Mission (USA & Canada)
The foundation of mission in North America in 1992 was in keeping with the missionary impulse of the Congregation. Our Foundress, Mother Mary Charles Magdalene Walker had dreamt of having a convent of Native Sisters all over African and beyond. To witness to God’s love through sharing our charism with all of God’s people is the motivation in undertaking missionary work. Thus, encouraged by this inspiration, the sisters voted to establish mission in North America and in Europe at the Sixth General Chapter, held in Eriam, Ikot Ekpene, in 1989.
The idea to found this mission had been around some six years before the 1989 Chapter. Father Edward Ferral, a priest of the diocese of Detroit, had in 1982 invited the HHCJ to his parish. During one of his retreat missions in Ireland, Father Ferrell encountered some Handmaids of the Holy Child Jesus then studying in Cork, Ireland. The Sisters left a deep impression on him. Returning to the United States, he requested the then Superior General, Mother Marie Therese Akwe, and HHCJ of happy memory for Sisters to work with him in his Parish in the Archdiocese of Detroit. That initiate did not materialize. The discussion however, continued until the next General Chapter.
