FutureChurch welcomes internationally renowned biblical scholar, Mary Coloe, PBVM, Ph.D. who offers our 2025 Mary Magdalene Presentation.
In her presentation, Mary considers several verses from from the Resurrection narrative in the Gospel of John and illuminates their meaning, especially in light of connections to the Hebrew Scriptures. After her presentation, Mary fields questions from the FutureChurch community.
Dr. Mary L. Coloe, is member of the Presentation Sisters of Victoria and a distinguished biblical scholar, known internationally for her expertise in the Gospel of John and the Johannine Community. She is professor of New Testament at Yarra Theological Union, a college of the University of Divinity in Melbourne. Her scholarship weaves rigorous academic analysis together with spiritual and pastoral insights, making her work highly valuable both in academic circles and among those engaged in pastoral ministry.
To conclude our 2025 Pride Month Series, FutureChurch welcomed a panel of guests to reflect and share on their experiences of faith, love, and joy as queer Catholics.
About Our Panel
Nick Fagnant, MEd, MATM (he/him) is a queer theologian, Ignatian educator, and public scholar committed to justice, relationality, and belonging in Catholic education. A PhD student in Theology and Education at Boston College’s Clough School of Theology and Ministry, his research integrates Ignatian spirituality, LGBTQ+ perspectives, and critical pedagogy to advance theological education rooted in solidarity and human flourishing. Nick will moderate the panel.
Ariell Watson Simon is a healthcare chaplain living in central Missouri. She entered the Catholic Church in 2011 as an undergraduate student at Loyola University Maryland, and later received a Master of Divinity from Boston College School of Theology and Ministry. Ariell has served as a healthcare chaplain in hospitals and nursing facilities in three states. She regularly contributes to New Ways Ministry’s blog and coordinates FutureChurch’s Sunday evening online liturgy and faith sharing. Ariell enjoys offering spiritual direction, writing, and fostering a theological imagination for an inclusive Church.
Rachelle Simon is the Executive Director of United Way of Pettis County in her hometown of Sedalia, Missouri. She was formed by Catholic Higher education, receiving her Bachelor’s degree from Rockhurst College, master’s in counseling from Villanova University, and Masters of Divinity from Boston College. She has a professional background in counseling, higher education, non-profit work, and Catholic campus ministry. Rachelle is a member of the board of Bethlehem Farm, a Catholic community in West Virginia.
M. Hakes (they/them or ze/zir), is a queer, trans nonbinary person and practicing Catholic. In both their paid and volunteer work, they are active at the intersection of faith and queerness and engaged in justice and liberation work. They also enjoy knitting/crocheting, gardening, and getting outside to enjoy creation.
Andy Buechel-Rieger, PhD, is Associate Professor of Religious Studies in the Liberal Arts department at Mount St. Joseph University in Cincinnati. His work focusing on the Catholic dogmatic tradition and how LGBTQ experience and thought can bring new insights. He and his husband, Stephen, live with their son, dog, and canary in Ohio.
Ed Buechel has served on the Board of Fortunate Families for over 10 years and is currently its President. He also facilitates Catholics Embracing ALL God’s Children, a support group for LGBTQ+ individuals and allies in Northern Kentucky. Ed and his wife, Kathy, live in Edgewood, KY, and love and are very proud of all of their children, grandchildren, and in-laws.
Written for FutureChurch’s 2025 Pride Series by Martha Ligas
God of many names and many pronouns, it is through you that we are each beautifully and wonderfully made. You formed us out of love and knew of our goodness before we even took our first breath. You know us, and you love us. May we show ourselves the same love.
When we are learning who we are- may we love ourselves as you love us. When we’ve been pushed to the margins- may we love ourselves as you love us. When we discover new things about ourselves- may we love ourselves as you love us.
And when others are learning who they are- May we love them as you love them. When they’ve been pushed to the margins- May we love them as you love them. When they discover new things about themselves- May we love them as you love them.
This Pride month, may we be rooted in the vastness of your love, Feeling the embrace of arms that stretch to hold all sexes, all genders, all people.
And we ask all this through your holy names. Amen.
FutureChurch continues its 2025 Pride series and commemorates Juneteenth with this presentation from Teresa Thompson. In her presentation, Thompson explores what it means to shift away from asking for inclusion or representation and instead move toward claiming space within our faith tradition and our Church. Drawing from her own personal experiences in a Catholic Lesbians ministry and from the work of Black writers influenced by Catholic thought—creators whose work is theologically powerful even if they’re not labeled “theologians”—Thompson offers reflections on how the Spirit moves in and through overlooked places and people.
Teresa Thompson is a Catholic writer based in Brooklyn, NY. Her work has been published by Geez Magazine, FutureChurch, Catholic Women Preach, and Ignatian Solidarity Network and can additionally be read on her Substack, Liturgy of the Ours. Teresa is also a Bernardin Scholar at Catholic Theological Union and a board member of the Metro NY chapter of Call To Action, and serves as part of the Catholic Lesbians ministry at the Church of Saint Francis Xavier. Originally hailing from the Caribbean and Ireland, Teresa worked in New York City’s public mental health system for seven years before founding her private practice, where she specializes in providing psychotherapy for complex trauma and religious trauma. She loves being a friend, sister, daughter, wife, and mother.
During the darkest days of the global pandemic many church-goers took to the Internet to meet their liturgical needs. As stay-at-home bans lifted and folks started returning to the pews, staff at St. Cecilia Parish in Boston noticed their number of online viewers wasn’t decreasing. In fact, even after church pews were filled to capacity, the parish was still receiving a few thousand live streamers every week. As the online participation remained strong, a remote attendee suggested starting an “online coffee hour” for other remote Mass attendees to share fellowship and conversation. The staff responded by placing a notice in the weekly bulletin. Would anyone be interested in a monthly online coffee hour? If so, would anyone be willing to facilitate such a group? The response was overwhelmingly positive. A small group of volunteers offered to facilitate monthly meetings via Zoom, with groups ranging from fifty to one hundred participants. Over the past four years the online monthly coffee hours have continued to foster community and conversation, connecting parishioners across the miles.
In addition to online liturgy and the monthly coffee hour, the leadership team meets every week for faith sharing of their own as well as to plan upcoming events. From these leadership meetings the Spirit has inspired the group to extend its ministry to include faith-sharing groups, book clubs, and even a yearly parish retreat. The first Far-Flung Flock retreat took place in person in 2023, and over 100 members of the Flock traveled to Boston for the event. This year, as a reminder that the Far-Flung Flock is not a subgroup of the parish but an active and included ministry, the retreat will integrate both local and long-distance parishioners.
Members of the Far-Flung Flock are busy preparing for their annual retreat.
When asked about the benefit of belonging to the Far-Flung Flock, representatives of the leadership team could not have expressed more gratitude for what the group has given them. One benefit of the ministry that was echoed by all is that it includes so many people who have been hurt, disappointed, or have completely given up on the Church. According to leadership team member Annette Smith, joining all the way from the UK, the challenge isn’t the desire to attend Mass, but to find an inclusive church community. “There is a whole pool of people who want to go to church,” she shared. “The Church isn’t dying. The Church is alive–but people don’t know where to find it.”
With ministry groups created specifically for LGBTQ+ persons, as well as climate justice ministries, youth faith formation, and older adult ministries, a ministry for adults who leave prison, and more, St. Cecilia boasts being an open and inclusive parish community. And the Far-Flung Flock extends the reach of St. Cecilia’s value of inclusivity across the country and around the world. For many, this access is priceless.
In online spaces organized by the leadership team and other volunteers, members of the Far-Flung Flock share the importance of an inclusive Catholic space. They share burdens and setbacks, and through their sharing they realize they aren’t alone. Though they admit that an online and global faith community is an unconventional one, there is a strong and vital sense of community nevertheless.
“It’s a gift,” shared leadership team member Ann Van Damm, “to receive the Eucharist from Fr. John and from the community.” Fellow leadership team member Betty Anne Asaro nodded along, sharing that being a member of the Far-Flung Flock has not only helped her want to deepen her spirituality, but even became a catalyst to relocate from New York to Massachusetts so she could live closer to St. Cecilia.
So what’s next for this virtual community? The leadership team couldn’t say for sure, but demonstrated a clear trust that the Spirit that led them here will continue to show them what to do next. And when She does, they’ll continue to be ready to say yes.
Do you know of or belong to a community that you would like to see highlighted? Reach out to Martha at martha@futurechurch.org.
FutureChurch continues its 2025 Pride Month Series with a presentation from Sr. Marian Durkin, CSA. In her talk, Sr. Marian shares the story of her 35 year ministry to and with the LGBTQ+ community in Cleveland, OH – from opening a support center for persons with AIDS, to co-founding a retreat for LGBTQ+ Catholics, to her current spiritual accompaniment with the trans community.
Sr. Marian Durkin is a Sister of Charity of Saint Augustine. Since leaving her role on the leadership Council for her congregation, Sr. Marian Durkin has been involved in a number of volunteer activities. She participates monthly in a prayer group at Edna House, a house for women in recovery based in Ignatian Spirituality. She co-facilitates an annual retreat for the LGBTQ+ community, which celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2024. She remains active in her opposition of the death penalty and in her support of the trans community.
FutureChurch begins its 2025 Pride Month Series with this presentation on Synodality and Queer Theology from Dr. Ish Ruiz. In his presentation, Dr. Ruiz names some key “ingredients” for a synodal church, discusses the posture and goals of contemporary queer theology, and explores ways in which queer theology can inform synodality.
Dr. Ish Ruiz is an assistant professor of Latinx and Queer Decolonial Theology at Pacific School of Religion and holds a PhD in Theology and Ethics from the Graduate Theological Union. He is also the coordinator of the Latinx Roundtable of the Center for LGBTQ+ and Gender Studies in Religion housed at PSR. A native from Puerto Rico and a queer Catholic theologian, Ish’s research interests explore the intersection between Catholic moral theology, queer theology, Latinx theology, ecclesiology, sexual ethics, liberation, human rights, and Catholic education. He is the author of LGBTQ+ Educators in Catholic Schools: Embracing Synodality, Inclusivity, and Justice (Rowman & Littlefield, 2024) and a co-editor of Cornerstones: Sacred Stories of LGBTQ+ Employees in Catholic Institutions (New Ways Ministry, 2024). He has published several academic and public theology articles in the field of Catholic theological ethics and has ministered in Catholic schools and parishes on matters of LGBTQ+ and Latinx inclusion throughout the nation.
On May 27, 2025, FutureChurch hosted its first “Modeling Synodality from the Margins” panel with a focus on liturgy. We were delighted to welcome and hear from four communities who practice synodality in their liturgical life in prophetic ways.
About the Communities:
The Community of St. Hildegard– a community who celebrates both in-person and Zoom liturgies and is intentional about nurturing and honoring full and active virtual participation of its Zoom community
Washington Home Inclusive Monthly Mass (WHIMM) – a community of friends and neighbors who host inclusive Masses, led by a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, and fellowship in their homes once a month
Community of St. Peter – a community that formed and incorporated after their beloved parish was closed
The Living Beatitudes Community – a community that combined a Dignity chapter with Catholics whose parishes were being closed or merged, whose liturgies are co-presided by a wide variety of people, lay and ordained
