By Marie Mulvenna

An RSVP, quite properly, merits a quick reply. But there’s a new RSVP on the horizon that will not only get replies; it’s a sure thing to get rave reviews.

The RSVP in this case is a sparkling new team of four Medical Mission Sisters about to begin a nation-wide tour presenting music, contemporary trends in worship, the implications of liturgical renewal, new forms of prayer and the relationship of liturgy to life. Their bright brochure invites: “Join us in liberating the Word.”

Meeting in Atlanta last week, the sisters explained, with understandable excitement, that their forthcoming team ministry will respond to the need so often expressed: “teach us how to pray.” Two members of the “team” are familiar faces to Atlanta, one being Sister Jane Pellowski, former personnel director of Holy Family Hospital, and the other Sister Lucy Whalen, who successfully helped initiate a contemporary folk Mass at the cathedral.

Joined by Sister Miriam Therese Winter, a noted composer, and Sister Mary Elizabeth Johnson, bringing 16 years of inter-cultural experience in Pakistan and Bangladesh, the RSVP team is ready to begin “an 18-month, full-time go at saying to whoever will listen: RSVP…certainly not to use but to the numberless nuances of the Word of God and its healing potential in your life.”

The sisters are bursting with enthusiasm and a refreshing eagerness to help all people of all ages and all faiths find a more meaningful way to meet God in themselves and in the people they live and work with.

Music is not a new thing for the Medical Mission Sisters. They have recorded nine hit records, beginning with “Joy Is Like the Rain” in 1966. They have appeared at Carnegie Hall, Philadelphia’s’ Civic Center, the general synod of the Anglican Church of Canada and Union Theological Seminary in New York. The credits read like an ecclesial version of Playbill, but they are authentic and encompass many major concert halls, colleges and churches in the United States and Canada.

Seven years after “Come to Me Over the Water, Peter,” they realized, perhaps more deeply than ever before, that there remained a very real and consistent response to their music, coupled with a growing hunger for new forms of prayer and worship.

Voila! RSVP was born, named after one of their top records. Their thrust is definitely educational, teaching and showing the grassroots the what, why and how of liturgical renewal. They long for good liturgy and wish to share it with scores of others.

As one of the sisters said, “I have looked forward to turning this particular earth, to creating these furrows for seeding for a long time.”

With little advance publicity, but a well-planned program, they have bookings throughout the country through June 1973. Their first appearance will be in Oakland, Calif. Next month at a conference of Methodist ministers. Their other bookings will take them to concerts, lectures, workshops and worship services around the country. They will explore developing prayer-forms, celebrate contemporary worship services and encourage the development of local liturgy committees.

The nucleus of the newly formed group is Sister Miriam Therese Winter, composer of the text and music the sisters sing. Since 1968 she has been named to the annual Popular Awards List of ASCAP (American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers), and already has nine recordings published under the Avant Garde label, with more in the offing.

Why the tour? Sister Miriam reflects a moment and says “This seems to be the moment when I can choose to live, explore, share this special kind of ministry more fully. My very deep love for God’s word, the realization of what it can and does mean in my life and in the lives of others…if I could put all this satisfactorily into a sentence, I probably wouldn’t have written all those songs.”

Sister Jane Pellowski first arrived in Atlanta from Philadelphia, headquarters of the Medical Mission Sisters, and began a long affiliation with Holy Family Hospital. She served as director of nursing services and as personnel director for four year and last year began work on her master’s degree in counseling at Georgia Sate, an effort she expects to resume on completion of the tour. She, like the others, is ecstatic about their new ministry and sees it bulging with possibilities: “My own experience affirms that there is a part of me that was made for song, and that my greatest healing moments have emerged from song, prayer and worship. I move on that strength and conviction and on a feeling of ‘rightness’ for me, for us, for now.”

Sister Lucy Whalen, a whiz with the guitar, left Atlanta a year ago in pursuit of her master’s in religious education at Fordham University in New York. She, like the others, is a picture of enthusiasm and hope, eagerly anticipating the tour and the good it can create.