HONG KONG SE): Marykoll Sister Joan Frances Delaney died peacefully on April 28 at the Eden Community facility in Maryknoll, New York, joined in prayer and song by many sisters and friends from the Hong Kong region.
Sister Delaney was born on 31 March 1930, in Yonkers, New York. After graduating from Albertus Magnus College in New Haven, Connecticut, with a degree in sociology and economics in 1952, she entered Maryknoll.
She professed her first vows in 1955 at the Maryknoll Sisters Centre, in New York, and her final vows in Hong Kong in 1961.
Her first assignment was to Hong Kong in 1955, where she served in education and research for 20 years. After teaching for eight years at Maryknoll Convent School, she took up a position in the sociology department and the graduate school of education the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
In 1974, she began teaching at the Hong Kong Holy Spirit Seminary and also agreed to do research for the Diocese of Hong Kong. During this time she earned a Diploma in Education from the University of Hong Kong and also a masters degree in Comparative Education from London University.
In 1976, Sister Delaney went to Rome as director of SEDOS, a mission documentation and study centre serving 45 Catholic missionary communities. She was a Vatican delegate to the World Council of Churches (WCC) Mission Conference in Melbourne, Australia.
In 1974, she began teaching at the Hong Kong Holy Spirit Seminary and also agreed to do research for the Diocese of Hong Kong. During this time she earned a Diploma in Education from the University of Hong Kong and also a masters degree in Comparative Education from London University.
In 1981 she undertook a six-month assignment to Poona, India in to set up the documentation department for Ishvani Kendra, a mission centre founded by the Missionaries of the Divine Word.
Between 1982 and 1983, she worked at the Centre for Applied Research in the Apostolate in Washington DC.
In 1983, the Vatican appointed her as the first Roman Catholic consultant on mission to the WCC. She became a staff member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, serving six years in this post in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 1983, she was a Vatican delegate to the General Assembly of the World Council of Churches held in Vancouver, Canada.
In l990, after attending the Global Forum on the Environment in Moscow, she returned to the Maryknoll Centre to work in the Department of Research and Planning. She continued her ecumenical work by giving talks and becoming a member of the Anglican–Roman Catholic Dialogue for the Archdiocese of New York.
During the 1990s Sister Delaney was a participant in the Catholic—Southern Baptist Conversations anad, in 1999, she attended the Missionary Congress for the Americas in Argentina.
In 1983, the Vatican appointed her as the first Roman Catholic consultant on mission to the WCC. She became a staff member of the Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, serving six years in this post in Geneva, Switzerland.
In 2001, she moved to Chicago, as administrator of the Global Centre for Ministries at Catholic Theological Union and was involved in discussions about a national organisation that would include both Catholics and Evangelicals. This resulted in the founding of Christian Churches Together in the United States and included, Orthodox, Historic Protestants, Catholics, Evangelical and Pentecostals, Black and Ethnic Churches.
In 2006, she was a Vatican delegate to the 40th Anniversary of the Joint working Group in Geneva.
She once said: “If you find people with whom you disagree, share a meal and good bottle of wine.” Her many contributions to mission were recognised internationally and deeply appreciated.
Throughout the years, Sister Delaney stayed in close contact with her family, her former students in Hong Kong, and other friends around the world. Admired and loved, easy laughter and storytelling skills were legendary. One said, “She was always living in the present and thinking about the future, never caught up in the past.”
After a recent hospitalisation, she moved to the Eden Community on March 1, where she was cared for with love, and supported in her last days.
May she rest in peace.
