October 18, 2026 marks 100 years of World Mission Sunday and the theme chosen by Pope Leo XIV is ‘One in Christ, united in mission’. Across continents, communities come together to celebrate a shared calling that transcends borders, languages, and cultures.

At the Sisters of Charity Heritage Centre we are marking this special time with a new exhibition, Celebrating Overseas Mission. This exhibition will explore the extensive overseas missionary work of the Sisters of Charity, which is largely unknown beyond the Congregation itself.

Celebrating Overseas Mission will run from 3 September - 29 November.

*L to R: Sr M. Peter Fennessy, Sr M. Florence Bailey, Sr M. Mark Lehmann boarding the RMS Orion from Jones Bay Wharf, Pyrmont, NSW, 1957* (*Courtesy of the Congregational Archives)*

Founded to serve the Irish poor, Mary Aikenhead nevertheless responded to Bishop Polding’s request to send five sisters to Australia in 1838. This was to be the start of the Australian Sisters of Charity.

In 1957, the Sisters of Charity of Australia established their first overseas mission at St Teresa’s Novitiate, Cawaci, Fiji. They had been invited by the Vicar Apostolic of Fiji, Bishop Foley to teach English and other secondary school subjects to the Sisters of Our Lady of Nazareth, an indigenous congregation established in 1952. Superior General, Sr M. St Agnes Skewes, like Mary Aikenhead before her, called on volunteers. She received an enthusiastic respons and of the 60 volunteers only three were selected, Sr M. Mark Lehmann, Sr M. Florence Bailey and Sr M. Peter Fennessy. The Sisters were instructed to “not to try to Europeanise the indigenous Sisters, they were to work within their culture; and they were to work without expecting thanks”.[1]

This humble beginning, saw the growth of the Sisters of Charity working in various places around the world. Celebrating Overseas Mission will explore some of their stories through the exhibition, online and events.

“Some have been teachers and some nurses. A few studied missiology; others did not. Their work has often been so unsung that it is almost forgotten even in their own Congregation. They did not look for reward. Their principal gift to the people of another nation was their joy in being with them and receiving as much love as they gave. Their focus was primarily humanitarian because God is revealed as much through compassion as through preaching.”[2]

[1] Moira O'Sullivan rsc, "Only If We're Asked, Sisters of Charity Missions from Australia," in This Gospel Shall Be Preached: Essays on the Australian Contribution to World Mission, ed. Mark Hutchinson and Geoffrey R. Treloar (Sydney: Centre for the Study of Australian Christianity, 1998), 244.

[2] ibid, 252. ‍

“Let missionaries be outstanding in charity, patience and humility,

so that by their example they may draw many to Christ.”

Rerum Ecclesiae, Pope Pius XI, 1926

Celebrating Overseas Mission

The beauty of stained-glass