respond to the needs out there? To say, ‘This is where
our spirituality and charism is needed today.’ Much
like how we started the Precious Blood Ministry of
Reconciliation. Or how we started our new ministries
in California. It’s not a matter of simply, as we used to
say, ‘filling slots.’ We should be inviting people to share
where their passion is, in a sense give witness to our
spirituality and our mission, always in a context of our
charism as well as community life.”
That’s a lot to ponder. And it’s going to take a
while, said the two provincial directors. “Really, we’re
just at the beginning of what will be a rather lengthy
process,” Fr. Nassal said. “There is no timetable at this
point. There’s a lot of work to be done.” He noted that
any action to combine, merge or create a new prov-
ince would have to be approved by the major superi-
ors of the c.pp.s.
“Basically, the decision of the group was to
empower the two provincial councils to figure out
a way to move forward,” Fr. Hemmelgarn added.
“At the November 7th meeting, we’ll be looking at
appointing a task force to move the process forward.
But we have not even begun to look at who might be
on that task force.”
He surmises
that the work
will also involve
subcommittees
that will take on
specific tasks. It
will require both
visionaries, who
dream big, and
detail people,
who can make sense of the process. And it will
require careful listening to people’s concerns and
questions. The Missionaries also will be talking with
other religious communities that have gone through
a similar evolution.
Frs. Clarence Williams and Ron Will
It’s going to require patience. Fr. Nassal, who
stressed that Companions will be an important part
of the new creation, compares it with the beginnings
of the Companions Movement. “Early in that process,
there were people who wanted to nail everything
down. Twenty-five years later, we’re still living our way
into it. It’s still evolving,” he said. “Obviously at some
point, we have to put a structure together—but we’re
not near that point yet.”
6 • The New Wine Press • November 2017
Companion Pat Large speaking during the gathering
Companion Pat Large, who chairs the
Companions council, appreciates the work and diplo-
macy and skill required in bringing together a group
of people from disparate backgrounds and melding
them into one body. It’s not that different from most
other church work, which involves the ongoing cre-
ation of the body of Christ.
Large and other Companions were at Techny,
which was “an honor,” she said. She felt privileged to
see it unfold. She appreciated the tone set by
Fr. Hemmelgarn and Fr. Nassal, who early in the day
on Tuesday spoke to the gathering together, conver-
sationally and without notes, setting a model of col-
laboration that everyone could see and soak in.
And, in the end, join in. There was a point on
Wednesday when the facilitator asked for a show
of hands of who was in favor of moving forward. It
must have seemed somewhat inconclusive to him,
because then he asked instead for all those in favor
to stand. “Within five seconds, everybody was stand-
ing up,” marveled Fr. Walter. Young and old, Kansas
City and Cincinnati, members and Companions: all
were standing together.
And beyond that, Pat Large noted, all were asked
to write a covenant, their own commitment to the
new creation. As a long-time Companion, she has
some experience with the writing of covenants.
“Since we had gotten all of our work done, we actual-
ly had time to do that, together in the meeting room,
without being rushed. And as I looked around the
room at people writing their covenants, you could
have heard a pin drop. I had the sense that we were
making our first covenants in the new creation. And
that was very special to me.”