Farewell Mass and Bonum Commune Award for Dr Sr Judith Coyle IHM

On July 22, St Augustine College of South Africa hosted a memorable event at Holy Trinity Church in Braamfontein when they bid farewell to Sr Judith Coyle and presented her with a Bonum Commune Award upon her retirement.

The event started with the celebration of the Eucharist led by Jesuit Father Bruce Botha SJ with Fathers Martin Badenhorst OP, Emmanuel Mosoeu OMI, David Dryden SJ, and Deacon Billy Davies. The celebration was attended by current and former staff of St Augustine, friends, and students that Dr Sr Coyle taught in Theology.

The big moment took place before the final blessing when Fr Martin Badenhorst (New Head of the Theology Department at St Augustine) called upon Mel Antonie (Chairman of the Board of Directors), Professor Terry Sacco (St Augustine President) and Dr Sr Judy Coyle, the recipient of the Bonum Commune Award.

St Augustine’s President read the citation starting with elucidating the meaning of the award to the congregants saying, St Augustine’s Bonum Commune Award honours individuals “who have made outstanding contributions to the common good or who have made significant and exceptional contributions to the academic endeavour …”.

The College bestowed the 2023 award on Dr Sr Judith Coyle: lecturer, speaker, and until recently, Head of Theology at St Augustine College. The citation noted that sometimes an “outstanding contribution” is made through a single spectacular achievement – a moment in history.  She quoted a few Nobel prize laureates (Peter Higgs, Watson and Crick) to substantiate factors used in decision-making. Sr Judy has not been selected for the Bonum Commune award because of a single spectacular achievement nor an “outstanding contribution” obsessively pursued, oblivious of the enabling groundwork provided by others (such as Rosaline Franklin in Watson & Crick’s work). Sr Judy’s academic career has been nothing like these instances. It is closer to Rosalind Franklin’s. Her “outstanding contribution” has been over many years of quiet unassuming labour, carried out in the background, whose cumulative effect has been to significantly contribute to Catholic Higher Education, and establishing a Catholic tertiary academic platform in South Africa.

Sr Judy joined the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary (IHM) at an early age. Three months later after getting an MA in Liturgical Studies from the University of Notre Dame in the USA, she was sent to South Africa as a missionary. She spent the first 19 years at St Joseph’s Theological Institute, Cedara, KZN. Since her MA focus was on liturgical studies, her teaching centred primarily on liturgy.

By 2004 Sr Judy had completed a DTh in Christian Spirituality at UNISA. Her thesis focused on St Therese of Lisieux’s spirituality as articulated in the saint’s well-known “little way” – a teaching that the least action done in love is of immense worth in God’s eyes. Based on her thesis, Sr Judy subsequently published “Therese of Lisieux: Heroine of Struggle”.

After spending a year lecturing on UNISA’s staff, Sr Judy took up a post at St Augustine’s College in 2006 and remained a key member until her recent retirement in June 2023. For more than 17 years she has taught various courses at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels and supervised research work of postgraduate students. She has presented numerous liturgical, catechetical, and religious workshops on topics related to theology, liturgy, catechetics, music and spirituality, religious life, and Vatican II. She frequently has been called upon to give public talks on such topics. She has represented St Augustine’s as an active member of various professional organisations such as the Catholic Theological Society of South Africa, the Liturgy Network at Notre Dame’s Centre for Liturgy, and the Spirituality Association of South Africa (SPIRASA).

In addition to these various academic activities, Sr Judy has been an immense but low-key source of strength and support at the “back end” of the tertiary Catholic institutions in which she worked. At various times while at Cedara, she held posts of registrar and dean of studies, and at St Augustine’s she was head of the Theology Department. We are inspired by the way in which she has role-modelled St Therese’s “little way”, carrying out so many tasks, both small and large, with love, diligence and thoroughness. It is wholly fitting that she should be honoured with the Bonum Commune award for her sustained and cumulatively exceptional contribution to the Catholic academic endeavour in South Africa.

After the citation, the Bonum Commune Award was handed to  Sr Coyle by the Chairman of the board of directors Mr Mel Antonie.

After receiving the Award, Professor Terry Sacco surprised Sr Judy by reading a letter sent by her sisters of Congregation of the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, (Monroe, Michigan) to congratulate Sr Judy Coyle for her dedication to serving St Augustine College in educational ministry during very challenging times.

The letter emphasised that Sr Judy was among the first four IHM sisters who were invited to co-minister with the Redemptorists in South Africa in 1985. “Sr Judy is a noted and sought-after speaker in Johannesburg. She is also a poet and musician, a deep thinker and a committed religious. She is a humble and caring support to others – quietly building community wherever she is. As Sr Judy will be the last member of our congregation to leave South Africa, we wish to thank the church, her colleagues and the people of your beautiful country for almost 38 years of hospitality. IHM Sisters will hold South Africa in prayer for years to come.”

Lastly, Prof Terry Sacco shared her academic and administrative life experience with Dr Sr Judy Coyle with the congregants. St Augustine College’s financial struggle created a vacuum in leadership and administrative positions since the start of the Covid 19 pandemic.  Sr Judy was committed to assisting with the transition from the Victory Park premises.

Prof Sacco expressed how Sr Judy has been a blessing to her and how she has been privileged working intimately with her by saying, “Yet, while we navigated St Augustine College’s transition from the old into the new, we experienced fun, laughter, and joy. Your humour was rain in our desert. We walked the path of not-knowing together, and with confidence that all will be well”. She ended her speech by wishing Sr Judy continued good health and well-being and hoped that she will be as appreciated as much as she is by those she leaves behind.

In her response, Sr Judy thanked those who were present at the celebration of the event for their contribution to her past 38 years spent in South Africa as a missionary and her 17 years of academic journey with St Augustine College.

Before the end of the event, Professor Celia Koure and the representative of St Augustine BTH Alumni gave a gift to Dr Sr Judy as a sign of appreciation for her contribution to building the new South Africa.

The congregants were invited after the celebration of the mass to the parish hall to share refreshments in honour of Dr Sr Judy Coyle.