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Deborah Rose Accepts 2024 Fr. Louis Trivison Award

Written on . Posted in Fall Event.

FutureChurch is honored to present the 2024 Louis J. Trivison Award to Deborah Rose in gratitude for her decade of joyful and prophetic leadership at FutureChurch and in celebration of her innumerable contributions to the cause of Church reform and renewal.

The Fr. Louis Trivison award is given to a Roman Catholic who exhibits outstanding leadership in advancing FutureChurch’s Vatican II mission or vision in one or more areas of: teaching, administration, research, publication, advocacy, and pastoral care.

Kayla August Accepts 2024 Sr. Christine Schenk Award

Written on . Posted in Fall Event.

FutureChurch is honored to present the 2024 Christine Schenk Award to Kayla August in celebration and recognition of her powerful living witness to the importance of women’s preaching and for her efforts to uplift the voice of the laity and marginalized in every area of Church life, leadership, and ministry.

The Sr. Christine Schenk Award for Young Catholic Leaders is given to a young Roman Catholic whose research, writing, advocacy, or ministry exhibits outstanding leadership in promoting justice in the church and whose efforts will inspire and foster a new generation of reformers and activists

Activists frustrated yet hopeful after synod punts on women deacons

Written on . Posted in In the News.

Excerpt: 

The final document did stress the importance of including the stories of biblical women in the lectionary — which made the church reform group FutureChurch happy.

Their “Mary Magdalene Goes to the Synod” project called for the including at Easter the full account of the Resurrection in John’s Gospel, which includes Christ’s appearance to Mary Magdalene and the commissioning of her to proclaim the good news to the other disciples.

Yet executive director Russ Petrus senses frustration among FutureChurch folks about how the issue of women deacons was handled.

“People are rightly upset about the ways that Pope Francis and the curia tried to pre-emptively take it off the synodal table,” Petrus told NCR in an email interview. “That it made it into the final document reflects the faithful persistence of delegates — particularly lay and women delegates — in representing the voices of the faithful who brought it up at every step in the synod process, refusing to let it be erased.”

That the final document’s paragraph on women got the most “no” votes is a “disappointment but not surprising,” he said. “It’s a sign of the clerical resistance women continue to face, even in this time of ‘synodality.’ “

2024 Fall Event Night One

Written on . Posted in Fall Event.

The full presentation of night one (Nov. 7, 2024) of FutureChurch’s 34th Annual Fall Event, “Courage in the Spirit: Translating Synodal Talk into Action.”

FutureChurch is honored to welcome our keynote presenter, Bishop of Lexington, KY, Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv. Bishop Stowe’s leadership and ministry is a bright light for justice and equality in both the church and society.

And we’re excited to hear from a panel of students who wrote a courageous open letter to Pope Francis and Dicastery for the Doctrine of Faith Prefect, Cardinal Fernandez, in response to Dignitas Infinita. Representing a larger coalition are: Sarah Hansman, Alyssa Duffner, Virginia Schilder, Sarah Morris, and Isabel Thurston.

2024 Fall Event Graduate Student Panel

Written on . Posted in Fall Event.

FutureChurch welcomes a panel of five theology and ministry graduate students to present on their open letter to Pope Francis and Cardinal Fernandez in response to “Dignitas Infinita” – the Vatican declaration on human dignity.

Sarah Hansman, Alyssa Duffner, Virginia Schilder, Sarah Morris, and Isabel Thurston represent a larger coalition of theology students, young ministers, educators, LGBTQ+ folks and allies who came together in the spring to speak up for the dignity of trans and gender non-conforming people.

Reflection of stained glass on the ceiling of cathedral

2024 Fall Event Prayers

Written on . Posted in Fall Event.

Night One – November 7, 2024

Prayer for the Synod – Adsumus Sancte Spiritus
Rendered in Expansive Language by Mary Jean Ferry, BVM

You are with us, Holy Spirit,
as we gather together in Your name.
As You guide us,
Make Yourself at home in our hearts.
Teach us the way to go and how to follow Your guidance.
We are attentive and ready. Help us to promote hope and peace.
Holy Wisdom, lead us in a love that influences our actions.
Let us find in You our unity
as we journey together in light.
All this we ask of You,
who are at work in every place and time.
Glory to You, Source of All Being, Eternal Word, and Holy Spirit. Amen

A Non-Traditional Blessing
By Ruth Fox, OSB

May God bless you with discontent with easy answers, half-truths, superficial relationships, so that you will live from deep within your heart.

May God bless you with anger at injustice, oppression, abuse, and exploitation of people, so that you will work for justice, equality, and peace. 

May God bless you with tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you will reach out your hand to comfort them and to change their pain to joy.

May God bless you with the foolishness to think you can make a difference in this world, so that you will do the things which others tell you cannot be done.

If you have the courage to accept these blessings, then God will also bless you with:

happiness—because you will know that you have made life better for others
inner peace—because you will have worked to secure an outer peace for others
laughter—because your heart will be light
faithful friends—because they will recognize your worth as a person.

These blessings are yours—not for the asking, but for the giving—from One who wants to be your companion, our God, who lives and reigns, forever and ever. Amen.

Night Two – November 14, 2024

For Prophets and Truth Tellers
By Russ Petrus

We give you thanks, O God,
that in every generation,
You raise up prophets and truth tellers.

Their voices call us as Church and society
to conversation and conversion
to reconciliation and restoration.

You have given their words power:

power to move us from ignorance to awareness,
from hard-heartedness to compassion,
from exclusion to inclusion,
from despair to hope,
from fear to courage,
…from death to new life.

And so we pray:

Make us attentive to the challenges they pose, the dreams they share;
Help us to discern the possibilities and obstacles in our midst;
And open our hearts and our imaginations
to love a new Church, a new world into being.

From Pope Francis’ Address Opening the Synod on Synodality
By Pope Francis

Come, Holy Spirit!
You inspire new tongues and place words of life on our lips:
keep us from becoming a “museum Church”,
beautiful but mute, with much past and little future.
Come among us,
so that in this synodal experience we will not lose our enthusiasm,
dilute the power of prophecy,
or descend into useless and unproductive discussions.
Come, Spirit of love, open our hearts to your voice!
Come, Holy Spirit of holiness, renew the holy and faithful People of God!
Come, Creator Spirit, renew the face of the earth!  

The quiet revolution in women’s roles in the Church

Written on . Posted in In the News.

Excerpt: 

Whilst Pope Francis’ summation is hopeful, and puts to bed the false reports that the issue of women deacons is a dead one, still, the apparent blocking and deferring that has been done by Rome on this issue, is disheartening and disappointing for many. Also, we already know that there were deacons in the early Church, and that up until the early middle-ages there were women deacons who were also ordained by bishops.

Director of American progressive Catholic organisation FutureChurch, Russ Petrus has observed:

‘By taking women’s ordination off the Synodal table and relegating discussion to secretive working groups or commissions and promising more information ‘when the time is right,’ Pope Francis has thwarted the promise and potential of Synodality… women who simply want to serve God’s people continue to be the ones bearing the pain caused by these obstructions.’

 

Olivia Hastie, Program Associate for FutureChurch also noted:

‘Vatican officials keep insisting that they don’t want to ‘clericalise’ women …But.. by ignoring their vocations, the Church is disregarding their lived experience of faith and effectively undermining the work of the Holy Spirit, who is supposed to be the protagonist of the Synod.’