Sr Gabrielle, a uniting force behind the Cluny

Sister Gabrielle Mason speaks passionately of a love for drama and poetry, “actually anything to do with the arts,” says this Grenadian nun who was appointed Provincial Superior of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny in the English-speaking OECS (Dominica, St Lucia, St Vincent, Grenada) and Trinidad and Tobago on August 26, 2001. Gabrielle Mason had always wanted to be a lawyer — “from small, I was already checking the Inns in England,” when as a teenager in St Andrew’s, Grenada, she received the religious call and entered the convent as a novitiate in 1964. At the profession of vows in 1966, the young nun never gave any thought to one day being head of this august body, with a first mandate of four years.

As Provincial Superior, Gabrielle lives in the Provinciate at Pembroke Street, an extension of St Joseph’s Convent, but as Chairperson of the Central Cluny Board of Management in all Cluny schools, travels a lot through the schools in her province. Sr Gabrielle holds a Bachelor of Arts degree in History and English from the University of the West Indies, and a Masters in Education from Birmingham University. She has also been honoured on the Queen’s birthday list with the Order of the Commander of the British Empire. Her love of poetry has led to many published and unpublished poems, while she has given several talks on education and spirituality in Grenada and abroad. She has taught for many years in her homeland and in St Vincent.

Sr Gabrielle had always been very aware of the words of the foundress of her order, Blessed Anne Marie Javouhey, who had inspired women on every continent from Australia to North America to work for the integration and liberation of all peoples by offering quality education to people of every walk of life. “Our Foundress admonished her sisters to ‘read the signs of the times’ in order to be responsible to the ways in which the Spirit of God was leading them.” Words which have led Sr Gabrielle to the formation of a “Common Umbrella” in the islands to unite all Cluny Subsidiary Boards, all its schools and institutions of learning, together with schools that the sisters serve but do not own, to build up a sense of belonging, to forge a link that will unite them as a body working together to form a particular person, a particular people, well integrated and committed to serve in the building of a nation of true citizens.

In 1985, Sr Gabrielle, at that time principal of the Convent in St George’s, organised a four-day school exhibition, and invited all of the Cluny secondary schools in the region to participate. The response was very good, and it was from that time that this dedicated educator decided that the Cluny schools should know one another: “There should be some sort of sharing and communication among the schools that the Cluny sisters direct. Every five years we had that exhibition, but succeeded most of all in getting the Cluny schools together. When we celebrated Jubilee Year Grenada’s 125th anniversary in 2000, we had regional sports and schools came from all over. We had a big celebration. So you see this sort of bringing the schools together has been a dream in my heart. But then I was just principal of a school so could not really put Cluny schools together, I could have made the suggestion but did not have the power to do more.”

On appointment as chairperson of the Cluny Board of Management, Sr Gabrielle immediately spoke to the Central Board about her vision to bring all Clunys under a common umbrella, and how to launch it. “We sent members of the board to apprise subsidiary boards in other islands so they would get an idea of what we wanted to do. Elizabeth Crouch, principal of St Joseph’s Convent in Port-of-Spain, and Sr Phillip Geofroy, principal of the convent in St Joseph, were the emissaries to Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia. “The very first thing done was to put all constitutions of the subsidiary boards together without changing them, starting with the secondary schools. Later on we will extend to the primary and other schools or institutions where the Sisters exercise a measure of influence.

All the constitutions were examined and without in any way interfering with the originality of the board, and ensuring that it was clear, Christian philosophy and ethos, yet maintaining common policies, we put forward the first link to create a constitution of the Board of Management of the Cluny Secondary Schools of Trinidad and Tobago, Grenada, St Vincent and St Lucia.” Under this new umbrella, the Cluny Schools are now sharing many things, starting with a common fund to address the needs of their schools, such as, the refurbishment of school buildings, equipping the schools with modern facilities, scholarships and teachers.

“As family we can look into these things,” says the very placid Provincial Superior. “We have reached far, the furthest is in the launching of the Cluny Symposium on Educational Spirituality and National Development last year July 5 - 6 in Castries, St Lucia, in honour of the 150th anniversary of the Sisters of St Joseph of Cluny in that island where Sister Paula Andrew is Superior of the Cluny community. It was held under the aegis of the Honourable Mario Michel, Minister of Education, Human Resource Development, Youth and Sports.” And on May 6, 2005, the Clunys launched the booklet which has been documented from the St Lucia proceedings, at St Joseph’s Convent in Port-of-Spain.

Sr Gabrielle’s dreams may sound overwhelming, but she is firm: “We have to try, as if you do not try you do not know. And the responses so far have been very encouraging.” Plans for an exchange of students and staff throughout the region is one of  her dearest wishes, and together with Hazel Reis, Episcopal Delegate for Education and a past principal at St Joseph, and Liz Crouch, she met last Wednesday with the Ministry of Education about the “Umbrella’s” plans.  “Can you imagine an O’ Level child doing a subject and not being taught in her school, or the multi-media room teacher coming to experience teaching in the one at this Convent?” asks an excited Sr Gabrielle. “This is a school blazing trail and we are hoping for a rippling effect in the community, and that schools’ principals could work together to change society, and go against insularity and individualism that is permeating our societies.”

With proper philosophy and ethos, Sr Gabrielle Mason is sure that children would have a good sense of this, would know we are concerned about them, and would know there are regional people who are waiting there to help them. “Drugs, crime and all disorders in society have their root in poor education. There are  no love links. The child become full of rage and has to get his or her own back on society. Our hope is to change the dog-eat-dog situation to a collaborative effort. In other words, all that this Cluny Umbrella will achieve might not be achieved in our lifetime, but it is a process we want to start.  So in time, the Caribbean in this new federation would be a united body and not the one one islands. To bridge that gap, we have taken something larger than our own lives and trust that something would come out of it through our own personal linking together of all the islands that were represented at the symposium.”