Sister Agnes Christine Welscher of Maryknoll

Ossining, NY.  Sister Agnes Christine Welscher, a native of Brooklyn, NY, and educator in China and the United States, died April 12, 2014, at Maryknoll Sisters Home Care IV, Maryknoll, NY.  She was 79 years old and had been a Maryknoll Sister for 61 years. 

   Agnes Marion Welscher, born on July 16, 1934, in Brooklyn to Joseph and Margaret Naeder Welscher, entered Maryknoll at the Venard, Scranton, PA, from Our Lady of Good Counsel Parish, Brooklyn, on September 2, 1952. She received the religious name, Sister Agnes Christine, at her Reception in March 1953, made her First Vows on September 8, 1955 at the Maryknoll Motherhouse and her Final Vows on the same day in 1961, in Chicago, IL.

   A 1975 graduate of Loyola University, Chicago, with an MA in education, Sister Agnes Christine also earned a bachelor’s degree in education from Maryknoll Teachers College, Maryknoll, NY, in 1960 and a certificate from the East Asian Pastoral Institute, Quezon City, Philippines, in 1970.  She (also) was (also) a 1952 graduate of Bishop McDonnell Memorial High School, Brooklyn, NY.

   Sister Agnes Christine’s first assignment was teaching first grade students at St. Therese School in Chicago’s Chinatown from 1960-1965. She was then sent to China, where she served as assistant principal of Maryknoll Convent School, Primary Section in Kowloontong from 1965-1967 and principal of a primary school in Chai Wan, from 1967-1970.

   Sister Agnes Christine then returned to the United States, where she worked in the Promotion office at the Maryknoll Sisters Center, Maryknoll, NY, speaking about the work of the congregation to parishes and schools.  She was then called back to St. Therese’s School in Chicago’s Chinatown where she again taught first grade from 1972-1975.

   After another brief period working in promotion(s), Sister Agnes Christine was named religious education coordinator for St. Columbanus Parish, Peekskill, NY, a position she held from 1977-1984, when she was appointed to the same position, this time at St. Patrick’s Parish, Armonk, NY, from 1984-1990. She continued working in religious education in the Eastern U.S. Region from 1990-1993.

   In 1994, Sister Agnes Christine returned to the Maryknoll Sisters center, where she worked in supportive services from 1994-1995 and in outreach ministry, serving at local parishes and as a driver from 1995-2000, when she retired, dedicating herself to prayer for the congregation and its various works until her death. 

   Sister Agnes is survived by her sister, Rose Connelly of Forest Hills, NY.

   A Vesper service will be held for Sister Agnes on Tuesday, April 15, 2014 at 4:15 p.m., followed by a Mass of Christian Burial at 11 a.m. on Wednesday, April 16, 2014. Both will be held in the Annunciation Chapel at the Maryknoll Sisters Center.  Burial will be in the Maryknoll Sisters Cemetery at Maryknoll, NY. Dorsey Funeral Home is handling the arrangements.

Dorsey Funeral Home, Inc.

14 Emwilton Pl., Ossining

914-941-0167