Jakarta: 40 nuns in formation to bring apostolate to digital media

The event was held at the end of last month in the Indonesian capital. The participants were taught how to use the material of photos and stories collected to reach a wider audience with the Gospel.

Jakarta (AsiaNews) - ‘Thanks to this seminar I no longer feel alone in the media field’. So said Sister Susana Gunawan, of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters of Mary, after a workshop on the promotion of apostolic works held at the end of May at the Yayasan Karsa Cipta Asa Foundation (YKCA) in Jakarta, in collaboration with the Catholic Guidance Office.

Entitled ‘From Facts to News’, it was attended by 40 sisters from different congregations: the Ursulines, the Sisters of Notre Dame, the Sukabumi Franciscan Missionaries of Mary, the Sisters of St Paul of Chartres, and the Sisters of the Institute of Jesus, Mary and Joseph.

‘I collected hundreds of photos and travel stories, but I could not put these materials together to tell the story of my religious life and the apostolate of my congregation,’ commented Sister Stefani Rengkuan, who works for the Indonesian Bishops' Conference.

The same experience was shared by Sister Michaela, a young Franciscan nun from Sukabumi who works as a teacher. Originally from the Mentawai Islands, a long way from the main cities in the province of West Sumatra of which they are part, she said she was ‘encouraged’ by the workshop thanks to the ‘testimonies of sisters and lay people who have learnt how to produce online content’.

Several other sisters echoed the experience, convinced that digital tools are necessary to spread the Gospel to an ever-widening group of people. 

Anton Sinaga, from the Catholic Guidance Office in Jakarta, commented positively on the event: ‘We have always felt that the experience of consecrated men and women religious should be promoted. There is a need for capacity building, as these people are the foundation of the Church's various apostolates in education, health and pastoral services,’ said Sinaga, a former Carmelite seminarian.

Tiominar Silalahi - the only lay participant - also commented, saying that such an activity should be conducted more often with the aim of harnessing the media skills of religious. ‘I am very happy that YKCA and the Jakarta Catholic Guidance Office have successfully initiated this programme,’ she said.