Touristic ministry' : a spiritual response to tourism and visitor impacts

The social impacts of tourism on members of a host community may be minimised in those destinations in which hosts perceive intrinsic purposes in providing hospitality to their guests. Such is the case among those Sisters of the Congregation of St Joseph who comprise the host community at the rapidly developing pilgrimage site at Mary MacKillop Place, North Sydney which includes the Memorial Chapel in which rest the remains of Blessed Mary MacKillop, co-founder of the Order, and Beatified in 1995 as Australia’s first Saint. While this location has undergone significant change, the wider changes impacting on religious Orders in the 21st Century have encouraged members of the Congregation to seek new ways of extending their ministries. It is in this context that the grounded theory of ‘touristic ministry’ was constructed on the basis of qualitative research undertaken to gather the stories of the Sisters and their experiences of visitor impacts.