Sisters recovering from auto accident

Three members of the Community of the Sisters of the Church – an Anglican religious order – who were involved in a car collision in Chicago April 30 are slowly recovering from the traumatic incident, which left their van demolished. “We’re just grateful that we’re alive, ” said Sr. Marguerite Mae in a telephone interview. Although the nuns did not suffer from any serious injury, Sr. Marguerite, the sister provincial, or head, of the order in Canada, acknowledged that the accident left her and her colleagues, Sr. Heather and Sr. Linda (an Australian member of the order), shaken.  Sr. Marguerite said that the sisters, who had just attended a meeting of the Conference of the Anglican Religious Orders in the Americas (CAROA), were returning home when a transport truck hit their truck from behind. The crash caused the van’s airbags to deploy and the two front seats to push back. Sr. Marguerite said the Burlington, Ont.-based order is now worried about how to replace the convent van. The order will only receive $4,000 from its insurance since the van was already old. The sisters are not only hosting the installation of the new Sister Superior of the Order in Hamilton, Ont., on May 26, they are also planning to drive the CAROA display to Winnipeg for the meeting of General Synod, scheduled June 19-25. In 2005, the Canadian sisters sold St. Michael’s House, their residence and retreat house in Oakville, Ont., and moved to a smaller residence in Burlington, Ont. (Since 1986, the sisters have offered a “ministry of hospitality” to various groups, including staff and committees of the Anglican Church of Canada, for meetings and retreats. Their new residence houses five sisters and has two extra bedrooms for guests or new members; it does not host groups.) Membership in the order, which was established in Canada in 1890, has declined over the years. The Community of the Sisters of the Church, an international religious community for women, has houses in Canada, England, Australia and the Solomon Islands. It was founded in England in 1870.