On 31 October, the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI) announced its new Executive Council. Father Joe McGee MSC has been elected President, and Sister Barbara Murphy IBVM will serve as Vice-President (pictured above).
AMRI represents and promotes active collaboration between Religious Institutes, Societies of Apostolic Life and Lay Missionary Organisations. It seeks to respond to existing and emerging realities both in Ireland and overseas by supporting and energising the life and ministries of its members and of the wider Church with a renewed sense of hope and relevance.
Father McGee and Sister Murphy both paid tribute to the outgoing Executive Council under the leadership of Father Tim Lehane SVD and Sister Mary Hanrahan PBVM.
Father McGee, a Donegal native, was elected for the second time as Provincial of the Missionaries of the Sacred Heart in 2023. He was professed in 1985 and ordained in 1986. Father McGee has exercised his pastoral ministry mostly in England serving as parish priest and school chaplain. He also served his community as formator for several years. He is well known as a member of the Team of the RFMP course in Loreto House where he spent five years, an experience he appreciates very much.
Welcoming his appointment, Father McGee said, “I look forward to working closely with AMRI and with the support of the Executive Council I will endeavour to serve the wider membership to the best of my ability.”
Sister Murphy, who hails from Wexford, is Provincial of Loreto Sisters in Ireland and made her first profession in 1977. Sister Murphy served in a number of ministries and leadership positions.
The other members of the new Executive Council are: Sister Breege O’Neill RSM, Father Brendan O’Rourke CSsR, Sister Irene Balzan MMM, Sister Anozie Ndidi Eucharia MSHR, Father Jim Noonan OCD, Father Michael O’Sullivan Mafr, and, Denise Flack of Viatores Christi.
For information on the work of the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland, please see amri.ie.
ENDS