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Kōrero: Communes and communities

Sisters of Mercy in the community

Sisters of Mercy in the community

Catholic nuns Helen Goggin (right), Teresa O'Connor (second from right) and Pauline O'Regan (third from right) of the Sisters of Mercy socialise in their garden with friends, in the 1970s. The three women left their convent in 1973, and set up a small community in a state house in the low-income Christchurch suburb of Aranui. They remained nuns, but dressed in ordinary clothes instead of traditional nuns' habits, and worked to support the Aranui community, particularly women. It was a time when some elements in the Catholic Church were changing, in response to the Second Vatican Council's call to become more relevant to the modern world.

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Me pēnei te tohu i te whārang

Caren Wilton, Communes and communities – Religious and spiritual communities, Te Ara – the Encyclopedia of New Zealand, https://teara.govt.nz/mi/photograph/28131/sisters-of-mercy-in-the-community (accessed 4 June 2026).

He kōrero nā Caren Wilton, i tāngia i te 31 March 2011.

Comments

Patrick O'Kane
03 April 2022
i am looking for information on Sr Mary Alban Savage, She entered the Convent of Mercy in New Zealand and was professed i May 1943. I am compiling the history of my parish, St. Mary's Cleator, Cumbria, England. She was I believe, born in our parish and baptised in St. Mary's Church. I would be most grateful for any help or advice.