Providence Pages Newsletter

The Providence Pages newsletter has concluded. Please read the story below for details or click on the button to skip down to the full newsletters available on the website, including the final issue distributed in December 2023.

Providence Pages – The beginning and the conclusion

December 15, 2023

The Providence Pages newsletter has shared many stories of the works and missions of the Sisters of Providence and their ministries over the past 35 years. The creation of this newsletter however was not the initial goal of the newly established Office of Communications in 1987.

Establishing The Communications Office

In 1985, the General Chapter mandated that the possibility of establishing an Office of Communications, staffed by persons with professional communications training, be explored. Sister Gayle Desarmia was tasked with researching the methods to establish a Communications Office. This research included subscribing to multiple newsletters, attending conferences, and visiting other congregations’ communications offices.

In May 1986 a Communications Advisory Committee was established to plan for a communications office, including preparing terms of reference, objectives, long-term goals for the, job descriptions and a budget. The committee saw the congregation’s communications needs as being primarily internal.

The first Director of Communications, Alayne Scanlon, began her new role in September 1987 and the Communications Advisory Committee shifted to supporting and assisting the Director of Communications.

Providence Pages beginnings

Part of the Director of Communications’ job description was to establish internal communications. To this end, the News from the Communications Office newsletter was created in October 1987 and was produced internally with the hope of having it printed externally in tabloid format. Over the first year the purpose of the newsletter, the purpose of the Courier (a newsletter published by the General Secretary for Sisters), and the desire to link the congregation’s various health care institutions, were discussed. The result was that the Courier and the News from the Communications Office ceased publication and were replaced by Providence Pages, an external facing newsletter, in September 1988.

Providence Pages – In closing

The Sisters missions in Peru, Guatemala and other locations have been featured over the years as have the works of the Providence Associates in Canada, Peru, and Guatemala. The Providence Associates are on their own road to autonomy and feature many of their works in their own internal newsletter.

With the congregation moving towards completion and with the advent of Providence Village a legacy of the Sisters, the Communications Advisory Committee, with approval from the Leadership Team, have decided that now is the time for change.

There have been many hands at work with the publication of this newsletter and I am proud to have been a part of this legacy.

The works of the Sisters continue and as always, the Sisters of Providence respond to the needs of the time. After 35 years in publication, the time for Providence Pages is over. Please look for future articles to appear on the Sisters of Providence website, www.providence.ca.

Michael Hammond
Communications Officer
Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul

Providence Pages showcases the mission of the Sisters of Providence of St. Vincent de Paul, a congregation of Catholic religious women based out of Kingston, Ontario. Click on the image to open the PDF copy.