 | 
THE SOCIETY OF THE HOLY CHILD JESUS (SHCJ)
CELEBRATES THE DIAMOND JUBILEE
OF ITS PRESENCE AND MINISTRY IN AFRICA
(1930-2005)
“Memories” By Claire Murphy, SHCJ
“The Holy Child Mission in West Africa dates from September 20th, 1930, on which day Reverend Mother General (Amadeus) and Reverend Mother Mary Genevieve landed at Calabar and made their way to St. Joseph’s Convent where they were warmly welcomed by Sister Magdalen Walker and her devoted band of native teachers and children.” Thus wrote Mother Mary Joachim in the Society’s centenary booklet of 1946.
The Society of the Holy Child Jesus, founded in England in 1846 by Cornelia Augusta Connelly, came to Nigeria in 1930 at the invitation of Bishop Shanahan of Eastern Nigeria. The first Holy Child sister to land on the African soil to prepare the ground was Mother Amadeus, the Superior General. The first three sisters to begin the foundation were Mother Laurentia Dalton (American), Mother Joachim Forster (European) and Mother Edith Rudwick (European) who arrived on the same boat as Fr. Moynagh, later bishop of Calabar.
The Society for the past seventy-five years, continues to carry out its mission through the unique philosophy of education in schools, pastoral, social and medical fields encapsulated in its mission statement “To help others to believe that God lives and works in them and in our world and to rejoice in his presence” (SHCJ Constitutions). Its motto: “Actions not Words,” helps it keep its feet on the ground and be realistic about its undertakings. In all its ministries, the Society strives to inculcate in those it works with the dictum of Cornelia Connelly, their Foundress: “Be yourself but make that self what God wants it to be.” It also works in close collaboration with its alumnae and associates in mission.
The following are the SHCJ community residences in the African Province from 1930 to 2005.
| 1930 | Calabar, Nigeria
|
| 1931-1933 | Anua, Uyo Nigeria
|
 | Cornelia Connelly College, Uyo (started in Calabar in 1931, moved to Uyo in 1949, closed 1977)
|
| 1937-1974 | Holy Child Training College, Ifuho, Ikot Ekpene Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria
|
| 1945-1968 | Holy Child Training College Afikpo, Nigeria
|
| 1945 | Holy Child College Lagos, Nigeria
|
| 1946 | Holy Child Secondary School – Cape Coast, Ghana
|
| 1952-1978 | Holy Child Secondary School Mount Carmel, Ogoja, Cross Rivers State, Nigeria
|
| 1955 | Holy Child Training College, Takoradi – Ghana
|
| 1961-1968 | Holy Child Secondary School, Sharon Abakaliki, Ebonyi State, Nigeria
|
| 1966-1968 | Ututu (near Arochukwu) Nigeria
|
| 1967-1996 | Holy Child Secondary School Ikom, Cross River State, Nigeria
|
| 1968-1970 | Pastoral Institute, Ibadan, Nigeria
|
| 1969/70-1988 | Women Training Centre, Ugep, Cross River State, Nigeria
|
| 1970 | Bolgatanga, Upper East Region, Ghana
|
| 1973 | Holy Child Novitiate, Jos, Nigeria
|
| 1973 | Ajegunle (Cardoso Project), Nigeria
|
| 1973-1979 | University of Lagos, campus flat, Nigeria
|
| 1974 | Navrongo (CEDEC), Upper East Region, Ghana
|
| 1977 | School and Pastoral Bauchi, Nigeria
|
| 1977-1979 | Pastoral Ebute Metta, Lagos, Nigeria
|
| 1980 | Centre for Renewal, Jos
|
| 1981 | Provincial House, Keffi Street, Lagos, Nigeria
|
| 1983-2004 | St. Kizito Girls’ Secondary School Duduguru (near Lafia), Nigeria
|
| 1984-1987 | Hermitage, Elmina, , Cape Coast, Ghana
|
| 1984 | Port Harcourt, C.I.W.A, Nigeria
|
| 1985 | Accra, Parakuo Estate, Ghana
|
| 1991 | Clinic Agwatashi Nasarawa State, Nigeria
|
| 1992 | Pastoral and Women Institute, N’djamena, Chad
|
| 1995-2001 | Brazil, South America
|
| 1995 | Ikeja Lagos, Nigeria
|
| 1996 | Loyola Jesuit College, Abuja, Nigeria
|
| 1998 | St. Charles Lwanga School of the Holy Child,
Walembele, Upper West Region, Ghana
|
| 2001 | St. Francis of Assisi Clinic, Amchillga, Cameroun
|
| 2003 | Holy Child Integrated Agricultural Project, Abeokuta, Nigeria
|
The Society also collaborated with other religious congregations in Nigeria and Ghana, including serving as the formators for some of them.
Today, the Society has a young but dynamic African Province whose members, though few, are engaged in all kinds of ministries spread out in Nigeria, Ghana, Chad and Cameroun, with students in Kenya. Its Provincial House is located in Keffi Street, South West Ikoyi, Lagos, Nigeria. The Society of the Holy Child Jesus’ candidacy is in Cape Coast, Ghana, and its novitiate in Jos, Plateau State, Nigeria. Currently, the Society works in a diversity of ministries in the four countries, in institutions ranging from Nursery Primary to Tertiary, social, pastoral and medical, where its maintains its excellent commitment to person building (e.g., Loyola Jesuit College, female section, Abuja; St. Anne’s Secondary School, Otukpo; Holy Child Model Nursery and Primary School, Otukpo; Centre for Renewal, Jos; Cardoso Catholic Community Project, Ajegunle; Holy Child College, Lagos; St. Charles Lwanga School of the Holy Child Jesus, Walembele, Upper West, Ghana; Cornelia Connelly Women Centre, N’djamena, Chad; St. Francis of Assisi Clinic, Amchillga, Cameroun). In some of these institutions, the Society works as a collaborator with its proprietors but does not own the institutions.
The Society wishes to use the Diamond Jubilee Year to give thanks to God for keeping the Society alive and growing in Africa and sustaining its mission over the past 75 years. It also wishes to use the occasion to reconnect its past history in Africa, make itself known and invite collaborators to share in its mission on an ongoing basis. Celebrations of the Jubilee have been happening at the local level, for maximum participation. But the climatic events will take place in October in Calabar where the first four sisters arrived.
Since most of the institutions of the Society established and operated in the past were taken over after the civil war, the Society needs to establish new projects where it can more effectively carry out its mission of building up people without too much hindrance from policy makers who may not fully understand or appreciate its sound educational philosophy applied in all its ministries; one that has produced solid characters, especially among the women of Nigeria and Ghana. It considers this as part of its contribution to people and nation building.
Chief among its Diamond Jubilee Projects are:
- Holy Child Integrated Agricultural Project, Abeokuta, Nigeria, already in progress
- Cornelia Connelly School of the Holy Child Jesus, Abuja, Nigeria
- Formation House for the Candidates, Cape Coast, Ghana
- The solid, all round formation of sisters who will serve its missions in these projects.
The Society uses the occasion of this Diamond Jubilee to invite generous people to commit themselves as life-long collaborators in its mission by supporting it through prayers, financially and in other ways. Such collaborators share in the graces and blessings of this mission to the greater honour and glory of God and the good of our people and nation. ACTIONS NOT WORDS!
First African Missionaries: standing: Mother M. Joachim, Mother M. Laurentia, Mother M. Edith; sitting: Rev. Mother M. Genevieve, Rev. Mother M. Amadeus, Sister Magdalen Walker
COME LET US CELEBRATE!
 |