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Sister Mary Alice Girrens
appointed to new leadership position
Wichita, Kan—The
Congregation of St. Joseph has announced that Sister Mary Alice
Girrens of Wichita has been appointed administrator/coordinator
of Mount St. Joseph Convent in Wheeling, W.Va. Sister Mary Alice,
a native of Goddard, Kan., will have overall administrative responsibility
for the West Virginia center. She assumes her duties October 1.
Sister Mary Alice served on the leadership team of the Wichita center
before both Wichita and Wheeling joined five other Sisters of St.
Joseph congregations to found the Congregation of St. Joseph.
“I’m excited about going,” said Sister Mary Alice.
“It’s a great opportunity to get to know new people, to
see a new part of the country. I think it’s a way of contributing
to the life of the new congregation in this new capacity.”
Sister Mary Alice entered the Sisters of St. Joseph of Wichita in
1957. She began her service as an X-ray technologist and went on
to serve in hospital administration and mission services in Hayward,
Calif.; Ponca City, Okla.; Pratt, Kan.; and in Wichita. She served
two terms on the leadership team of the Wichita congregation, from
1984-1992 and another term from 2004-2007, when the Congregation
of St. Joseph was formed.
The Wheeling center comprises 77 sisters, about 40 of whom live
at the convent. “They’re structured very differently than
we are in Wichita,” she said. “I look forward to embracing
the new and different.” Sister Mary Alice has mixed feelings
about leaving Wichita. She has never worked in that part of the
country, where she will be building new relationships with sisters,
staff and the community.
“You always have mixed feelings about leaving a
place where you’ve been very comfortable, leaving friends and
family,” she said. “But you’re not really leaving
them. You go in not knowing what it’s all going to entail.
You walk that road with God and the people you’ll be working
with.”
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