Journalist sisters: communicating the faith, even on social media
The Sisters of Notre Dame are getting ready to communicate on the web, an idea they owe to their superior, Sr Monika Ekowati, who is also a writer. For her, today "there is an urgent need to understand the logic of social media and, last but not least, acquire a personal experience in the use of modern tools."
Pekalongan (AsiaNews) – The Sisters of Notre Dame (SND) are turning to journalism training: media communication, video production, social media use and big data.
Sr Monika Ekowati, superior and writer who already has several publications to her name, is behind the idea of a media literacy campaign called Word2Share.
Some 20 members of the order attended the first seminar in Pekalongan, Java province, from 3 to 5 August.
Sr Monika made her talents available to her sisters. "It is part of our ongoing training,” she explained. “Each nun is invited to use her various skills and increase her capacity as a good communicator and active producer of good news in society."
Sister Monika Ekowati's passion for writing began as a child. "In my family I was encouraged to read a lot since I was a girl. My father asked me for a summary of the stories I was reading. He drove me to memorise and write the story based on what I could remember."
When she entered the order, her superiors did not look favourably to her passion for writing and forced her to burn her writings.
Only later did an elderly nun begin to push her to renew her passion because it could be a tool to spread the word of God. Since then Sr Monika has successfully published three books.
For her, today "there is an urgent need to understand the logic of social media and, last but not least, acquire a personal experience in the use of modern tools."
"This must be done to enable the sisters to pass on the good news for the sake of the Catholic Church, Indonesian society and their own religious congregation."
After two days of intensive training, all the participants were encouraged to produce video news focusing on the stories of some of the order’s older sisters.
Speaking at the end of the seminar, Sr Monika expressed her appreciation for the participation of the young sisters. "It is part of our ongoing training in which each nun is invited to use her skills and increase her capacity as a good communicator and active producer of good news in society."
Lastly, speaking about the video project proposed at the end of the meeting, Sr Monika said, "These videos represent the history of our sisters, the time when they built this religious congregation in Indonesia”.
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