FutureChurch’s 2024 celebration of Mary Magdalene uplifts the role that women play in bearing witness to the Risen One in our midst today. This year’s celebration was developed and co-led by Martha Ligas and Olivia Hastie of the FutureChurch staff. We welcomed three witnesses: Vickey McBride, Ariell Watson Simon, and Yunuen Trujillo who all shared their reflections from their own ministry and context. FutureChurch executive director, Russ Petrus, provided music.
About our witnesses:
Vickey McBride is Chair of the FutureChurch Board. She most recently served as Vice President for Mission at Saint Martin de Porres High School (Cristo Rey) in Cleveland, Ohio. In 2023, she received the Michael Pressley Award for Excellence in Catholic Education.
Yunuen Trujillo is a Catholic lay minister, a faith-based Community Organizer, and an Immigration Attorney. As a lay minister, she has served in Young Adult Ministry for more than 15 years and she is one of the leading figures for inclusive Catholic LGBTQ Ministry in the United States. Yunuen is a member of the FutureChurch Board.
Ariell Simon (she/her) is a healthcare chaplain living and ministering in central Missouri. Ariell has served as a healthcare chaplain in hospitals and nursing facilities in three states. Ariell also coordinates FutureChurch’s Sunday evening online Liturgy of the Word.
Mary Magdalene did not look away, did not flee. She stayed and she wept And she fixed her gaze on the cross, on the tomb. And because she did not look away, Jesus, who told stories, became her story, too. And because she did not look away, she heard him When he said that the story hadn’t ended, That despite a terribly tragic turn, The story was really only just beginning.
His story was her story, and her story is our story— A story of abiding, a story of prophetic witness, A story of love unfathomably deep. When we carry spices for anointing, When we carry wine for celebration, When we bear witness to love, May we lift our voices, as she lifted hers— Tell our story, tell her story, tell his story— May we say, too, “We have seen the Lord.”
FutureChurch welcomes Professors Julie Hanlon Rubio and Natalia Imperatori-Lee for a conversation on faith, feminism, and the Catholic Church. Both scholars have recently written critically acclaimed books on the topic.
In Women and the Church: From Devil’s Gateway to DiscipleshipNatalia Imperatori Lee examines the history of Christian feminism as a response to patriarchy, the ways in which women have been portrayed in scripture and women’s hermeneutical strategies, and the contributions of women to the subfields of systematic theology.
In Can You Be a Catholic and a Feminist?Julie Hanlon Rubio explores the enduring but newly urgent question, arguing that a Catholic feminist identity is only tenable if we frankly acknowledge tensions between Catholicism and feminism, bring forward shared concerns, and embrace the future with ambiguity and creativity.
Natalia Imperatori-Lee is professor of religious studies at Manhattan College in Riverdale, Bronx, New York. She teaches in the areas of Catholic ecclesiology, gender studies, and Latinx theologies. Imperatori-Lee holds degrees from Fordham University, the University of Chicago, and the University of Notre Dame.
Julie Hanlon Rubio is the Shea-Heusaman Professor of Christian Social Ethics and Associate Dean at Jesuit School of Theology of Santa Clara University in Berkeley, California. She previously taught in the department of theological studies at St. Louis University for nearly two decades. Her research focuses on family, feminism, sex, and politics.
On July 9, 2024 the Vatican released the Instrumentum Laboris – or working document – which will guide conversation and discernment at the October 2024 General Assembly of the Synod on Communion, Participation and Mission in Rome.
While FutureChurch sees much hope for progress in the document, we also cannot ignore the fact that true synodality cannot be realized if certain topics – such as the ordination of women to the diaconate – are excluded from conversation.
Entitled “How to be a missionary synodal church,” the document reflects Pope Francis’ desire for a cultural shift toward a Church that is more dialogical, open to a diversity of perspectives and experiences, and where discernment and decision-making is the common work of all the People of God – lay and ordained alike. And in compiling the interim reports from around the globe, the writers have put forward requests for further consideration that, if realized, will enable lay people – and particularly women – to take an important role in catalyzing such a culture change.
Recommendations made in paragraphs 16 and 18 such as lay preaching at Mass, the use of more inclusive language and imagery in preaching and Church teaching, a greater role for women in seminaries, wider access for women to take up decision making roles in dioceses, and an increase in the number of women serving as judges in canonical processes are all helpful and hopeful.
However, the working document fails to fully live out its own vision of synodality and proclamation that “by virtue of Baptism, [women] enjoy full equality, receive the same outpouring of gifts from the Spirit, and are called to the service of Christ’s mission” (13) by curtailing discussion of the ordination of women. Of the dozens of concrete proposals made by delegates in the synthesis report from October 2023, continued discussion of women deacons appears to be the only one explicitly taken off the synodal table (17) and instead entrusted to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith (see Group 5).
It must be said: true synodality will not be realized if certain topics remain off limits and there can be no real equality in the Church as long as women, whom “God chose…as the first witnesses and heralds of the Resurrection” (13), are denied access to the ordained ministries to which God calls them.
FutureChurch has been fully engaged in the synodal process – most recently submitting the synthesis of our own interim stage listening sessions to both the USCCB and the General Secretariat of the Synod in Rome and hosting two listening sessions with synod delegate, Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns, this month. And we will continue to press forward toward a Church that is alive with the wisdom, gifts, and vocations of all its members.
Our “Mary Magdalene Goes to the Synod” Project to Expand the Lectionary calls on the global Church to take up the necessary work of including more biblical women in the readings for Sunday Mass and increase awareness that women were – and still should be – ministers, leaders, and proclaimers of the Gospel.
FutureChurch will hold a virtual overview and discussion of the Working Document and Study Groups on Thursday, August 1, 2024 at 7pm ET. Details and registration.
Synod Delegate, Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns, joins FutureChurch to host a listening session in preparation for the October 2024 Assembly of the Synod on Communion, Participation, and Mission.
Dr. Bailey Manns joins in conversation with a number of listening session participants regarding details of the newly released working document that will guide the October 2024 Assembly. Of note, participants discuss the development that discussion of women deacons has now been “entrusted” to the Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith.
We apologize that, because of technical issues, the recording begins a few minutes into the conversation as Deborah Rose is sharing her thoughts about the news that discussion of women deacons was being taken up by the Dicastery for the Doctrine of faith.
Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns is one of four lay people from the United States who were appointed by Pope Francis as the first lay women and men voting delegates to participate at the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality this past October and again in October 2024. She is also one of the six St. Paul & Minneapolis Archdiocesan representatives in the Continental phase of the pre-Synod preparations and at Archbishop Hebda’s request, ably represented the Archdiocese on the team that worked with the World Council of Churches and the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity to draft the international materials for the 2023 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Dr. Bailey Manns is the Director of Adult Learning at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis—a community whose vision is to be a visible, progressive Catholic Community, compassionate and welcoming to all. She holds a Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Direction from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Florida and currently serves as Adjunct Faculty at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She is an experienced soul companion/spiritual director, supervisor, and retreat leader with emphasis on human development, spirituality, spiritual formation, soul care for lay and ordained leaders, and sacred activism. She lives with her family in Bloomington, Minnesota.
If you ever find yourself in Fairport Harbor, Ohio, it won’t be long before you encounter Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer. With two Masters degrees, a PhD, a DMin, and over 25 years of ministry experience under her belt, Rev. Shanon is a ministerial force in the community. For the past five years, Rev. Shanon has been living into the call of her vocation: founder and pastor of the Community of St. Hildegard, an independent Catholic community based in the holistic charism of Doctor of the Church Hildegard of Bingen.
Rev. Shanon never intended to start a church. But after twenty-two years of ministry at a parish in a local diocese, she continued to feel a nudge to participate in ordained ministry. “My heart was on fire,” recalls Rev. Shanon. “I knew I had a call to ministry, I was just trying to figure out how to function with integrity.” While Rev. Shanon was pursuing her Ph.D. it just so happened that the church building of a local Byzantine Catholic Church in her neighborhood went up on the market. With the vision of creating a retreat and community center in the charism of St. Hildegard, Rev. Shanon called her husband. “You could hear a pin drop,” she laughs. But they ended up putting a bid on the building. Rev. Shanon’s future ministry was falling into place right before her eyes– she just couldn’t see it yet.
After much discernment and prayer, and many more pushes from the Holy Spirit, Rev. Shanon made the big decision to pursue ordination in the Roman Catholic Women Priests. Knowing this meant some ties would be severed in her personal and professional life, this was not a decision that she made lightly. “You can run from the call. You can put all these other things in place. Justify it, say I’m going to do this good work. But if it’s where God’s calling you and it’s an authentic call, you’re going to end up in Nineveh preaching to the Ninevites,” laughs Rev. Shanon. “I mean that’s just how it goes.”
Though pursuing ordained ministry was in the cards for Rev. Shanon, it is clear to her that her calling has never been to leave the Roman Catholic Church. So when the Community of St. Hildegard began forming shortly after Rev. Shanon became ordained, it was important for it to remain rooted in Catholic tradition. “There was never an intention of ‘we want to break away.’ It was more just that the Spirit– opening ourselves up to what was unfolding more so than us directing it.”
Five years later, the Community of St. Hildegard is an in-person and online hybrid community that meets for Liturgy on Saturday evenings and Sunday mornings. With about 75 members online and 30 in-person, the community is spread out all over the country. But the online Liturgy has not been a barrier to community-building, Rev. Shanon reflects. “I remember being on zoom and engaging the social [after Liturgy] and talking to everybody, and when I signed off it was this overwhelming feeling that we had been in person. And in that moment I thought we formed as a community– this is the community of St. Hildegard.”
“the biggest grace is seeing the fruits of having created a space where people can be Catholic in a new way.”
Independent from the auspices of the diocese, the community relies on Catholic tradition, the wisdom of its members, and town hall discussions to ensure it is continuing to stay rooted in what is most important to the collective. “We’re trying to get back to more of a model of what the early church was like, combined with the fact that we’re living out our faith in much more of a model of the early church. It’s a tightrope walk in terms of how do we continue to introduce new ways of reading the Scriptures, new ways of praying, or new ways of worshiping and still not cross that Catholic line? We do that dance constantly.”
When reflecting more about that dance, Rev. Shanon adds, “we are still so deeply rooted in the traditions of the Church.” The Community follows the liturgical calendar, celebrates feast days, gathers for rosaries, and prays vespers. “What we’re really trying to do here at the Community of St. Hildegard is create a space for folks who are feeling disconnected from their parish contexts for whatever reason– maybe they haven’t been going, or they are still sitting in a pew somewhere but just haven’t been feeling that it resonates with them any longer, and yet don’t know where to go to worship. We’re trying to create that space where they can continue to live out that Catholic faith.”
When asked about the biggest grace of the Community, Rev. Shanon shares:
“the biggest grace is seeing the fruits of having created a space where people can be Catholic in a new way.”
Interested in learning more about the Community of St. Hildegard? For more information, check out their website: https://hildegardhaus.com/.
Focus Questions
The Community of St. Hildegard seeks to remain rooted in its Catholic tradition. What parts of the Catholic tradition are important to your community’s identity? How do you live and celebrate those aspects?
The Community of St. Hildegard relies on the wisdom of its members through town hall discussions to make sure it lives into what is most important to the community. How does your community foster collective responsibility and decision making?
Do you know of or belong to a community that you would like to see highlighted? Reach out to Martha at martha@futurechurch.org.
Synod Delegate, Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns, joins FutureChurch to host a listening session in preparation for the October 2024 Assembly of the Synod on Communion, Participation, and Mission. The listening session begins with Dr. Bailey Manns’s review of the Synod so far including developments since the October 2023 assembly and steps toward the October 2024 assembly. Dr. Bailey Manns then receives input and takes questions from those gathered.
Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns is one of four lay people from the United States who were appointed by Pope Francis as the first lay women and men voting delegates to participate at the first general assembly of the Synod of Bishops on Synodality this past October and again in October 2024. She is also one of the six St. Paul & Minneapolis Archdiocesan representatives in the Continental phase of the pre-Synod preparations and at Archbishop Hebda’s request, ably represented the Archdiocese on the team that worked with the World Council of Churches and the Dicastery for the Promotion of Christian Unity to draft the international materials for the 2023 Week of Prayer for Christian Unity.
Dr. Bailey Manns is the Director of Adult Learning at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis—a community whose vision is to be a visible, progressive Catholic Community, compassionate and welcoming to all. She holds a Doctor of Ministry in Spiritual Direction from the Graduate Theological Foundation in Florida and currently serves as Adjunct Faculty at United Theological Seminary of the Twin Cities. She is an experienced soul companion/spiritual director, supervisor, and retreat leader with emphasis on human development, spirituality, spiritual formation, soul care for lay and ordained leaders, and sacred activism. She lives with her family in Bloomington, Minnesota.
Throughout church history, Catholics and other Christians have turned to the saints as sources of hope, inspiration, friendship, and community. How have queer Catholics turned to a similar spirituality of saints and ancestors to sustain them in their faith and justice? How have stories of queer saints been a source of inspiration, but also a site of contestation? In her presentation, Flora Tang explores how queer Catholics have retrieved stories of queer saints and queer ancestors and guides us through a practice re-imagining the saints and their presence in our lives.
Flora x. Tang is a doctoral candidate in theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, where she writes and researches about post-traumatic theology, queer theology, and decolonial Asian theology. Flora has previously worked as a hospital chaplain, a campus ministry fellow, and a service-learning program coordinator for college students. Her theology and preaching draw from her complex faith journey to and within Catholicism: from becoming Catholic at age 19 after living and serving with Catholic sisters, to deconstructing her faith while living in Palestine, to discovering her own queer Catholic expressions of faith. Flora is committed to reimagining God’s love while standing on the margins of the Catholic faith.
A Queer Blessing – by Flora Tang (2024)
Blessed be God. Blessed be God’s many names and faces. Blessed be God in the whispering breeze and the blazing flame. Blessed be God the mother, who gave birth to the world, and who never fails to listen to the cries of her children. Blessed be God the father, who adorns himself in glory and radiance. Blessed be God beyond all genders: God the mother, father, and parent, whose name is simply “I am who I am.”
Blessed be our father Jacob, who wrestles with an angel all night for a blessing. Blessed be our mother Hagar, who sees God in the desert in times of desperation. Blessed be the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who swore to one another the oath of love, “as long as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.” Blessed be Mary and Martha, partners and sisters, who rested by one another, loving one another from death to resurrection. Blessed be Jesus in the poor, in the marginalized, and in the forgotten queer names and faces. Blessed be the queer spirits, the queer angels, the queer saints, and the queer ancestors, whose intercessions and blessings instill a love within us that transgresses all and consumes all.
Blessed are you: you who resist, you who love, you who desire, you who struggle.
And blessed am I, and blessed are we, children of God, now and forever, Amen.