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Thirty years seem like yesterday. How well I recall living with Kathy McCluskey, CSJ, who was part of a group Anna Mary Kelly, CSJ organized. The group was asked to give two hours a month to help with a publication for our Sisters. Two hours quickly became a life of very late nights as the volunteer staff learned the art of print publication.
The group decided, “We should have a newspaper that would express our life and spirit and give future direction.” This newspaper, which was to become the principle source of communication within the Congregation, had no name, no paid staff, no office, and not even a computer. Yet the vision, desire to learn, and creative energy of the original volunteers, soon gave birth to Soundings.
This 30th Anniversary issue of Soundings honors the gift these women have given us and invites us to imagine Soundings’ evolution into the future. As we complete thirty years, the look of Soundings has changed; the reach has broadened to include Soundings Update as well as our Boston CSJ Website. The volunteer staff has become the Office of Communication, which networks nationally and internationally with other communicators, public relations professionals, and the media. Amid this unfolding, the original vision remains at the core of our mission. Soundings has told our story and continues to tell the story that impels us to live in union with God and others without distinction.

In thirty years Soundings has experienced several transformations. By 1989 Carol Ann Powers, CSJ, had become managing editor of Soundings, which now had an office with state-of-the art equipment. In 2001 the Soundings Office and Communication Office, which had been established in 1997, merged. Carol Ann designed an entirely new look for Soundings. Joanne Gallagher, CSJ, began the bi-monthly online publication called Soundings Update, and Helen Power, CSJ, integrated these publications into our Website. Within that year, Paula Finn, CSJ, joined the team as Office Assistant, to organize the countless day-to-day activities. Rapid advances in technology required on-the-job education for the Communication Team. By 2006, through her creativity and design skills, Carol Ann began publishing Soundings as a full-color newsletter. When Carol Ann retired from the office in 2007, Darlene Rogers joined the team. Faithful to the intent of the original staff, Soundings continues to be a publication that Sisters, Associates, and our ever-widening circle of recipients wants to “pick up and read.”

What of the next 30 years? “You cannot have innovation unless you are willing and able to move through the unknown and go from curiosity to wonder.” ¹ Soundings stands on the shoulders of innovators who consistently faced the unknown of rapidly expanding technologies. Blogs, Webinars, Second Life, Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, and Web 3.0 are only a few of the emerging forms of social networking where millions “meet” to socialize and collaborate in 2008. Most of us could never have imagined these in 1978.

As we begin the fourth decade, Soundings will continue to face unknown and unimagined technological advances emerging on the horizon of how we communicate. The corporate world describes itself as a newcomer to the language of connecting, partnering, and widening circles of community that have been part of our spirit and history for over 350 years.² It is with hope, imagination, and the desire to continue deepening relationships that connect God and neighbor without distinction, that we journey into this unknown yet exciting future.