They didn’t have synods, back then. But even if they did, she wouldn’t have been there anyway. I bet she would have wanted to– To speak truth to power, To proclaim the resurrection, To be the church, Like she was all those years ago.
But she wouldn’t have been there. A woman’s place wasn’t in the meeting rooms, or in the places where decisions were made. It was in the kitchen. Or at the water well. Or in the yard, hanging the laundry.
Some things have changed since then. There are women in the room now– 54 of them, actually. They are speaking truth to power Proclaiming daily resurrections Taking up the space that they have never before been given.
But much, sadly, remains the same. Most of the women will not be in the room. We will be outside– praying for more space at the table. Shouting for more voices at the pulpit. Singing for more women in the room.
I don’t know if they do a roll call on the Synod floor. But out on the streets of Rome, we’ll be doing our own. Because this year, at this synod, the excluded woman will not be forgotten.
Last October, thanks to the faith-filled advocacy and persistent activism of justice seekers like you, 54 women made history – participating as full voting members of the Synod on Synodality.
This year, FutureChurch is making sure that Mary Magdalene and other women omitted from our Sunday Lectionary have a seat at the table as we work include their stories.
FutureChurch and our Mary Magdalene Advocates have been hard at work personally reaching out to more than 170 Synod delegates, advisors, and officials as well as members of the Dicastery for Divine Worship and bishops around the globe urging them to recognize that women have always been at the heart of our faith story. Their stories must be told when we gather to pray, especially on Sundays.
This October, FutureChurch will bring Mary Magdalene with us to Rome as we continue our advocacy:
Delivering our open letter asking that all of John 20:1-18 be proclaimed on Easter Sunday to the Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops
Hosting a Mary Magdalene celebration in honor of all women hidden by the lectionary
Bringing the art of Mary Magdalene of scripture to Synod delegates and the people of Rome through prayer cards, postcards, banners
Engage in direct service with vulnerable women and members of the LGBTQ+ community
Collaborate with friends and partners in the church reform movement
In addition to Mary Magdalene, we’ll also uplift other women ancestors – Phoebe the deacon, Huldah the prophet, and Junia the apostle, and Puah and Shiphra the midwives.
Donations in honor of Kathrene Blish Houlihan and Sister Theresa Kane, RSM will double your donation until Oct. 5, 2024 (up to $10,000 for a total of $20,000) to fund our vital work to expand the lectionary. Please donate in honor of the ancestors you want to send to Rome in spirit! We will lift them up in prayer during our Mary Magdalene celebration and throughout our travels around Rome (unless directed to keep your honoree anonymous).
On Wednesday, September 4, 2024, members of the church reform and renewal community gathered in virtual community to show our love, respect, admiration, and gratitude for Sister Theresa Kane, RSM.
When Karen Gargamelli-McCreight discerned that vowed religious life wasn’t her calling, she set out to find another way to form a sacred community through which she could live out her ideals as an integrated Catholic person of faith. In the heart of New York City, Karen and her friends knocked on door after door in search of an unused rectory or convent that could become a home. Finally, in 2015, they were given permission to rent an unoccupied 17-room convent that they eventually converted into a living community and a house of hospitality. Through a season of renovation and determination, and with the help of the New York Catholic Worker and the Dominican Sisters of Amityville, Karen, her now husband Sean, and their friend James Hannigan became the co-founders of the Benincasa Community.
Benincasa is named after St. Catherine (Benincasa) of Siena, and in the spirit of St. Catherine the Benincasa Community is dedicated to the works of mercy and justice in our world. “We’re a lay intentional community of people who are attempting to represent some of the values and practices of religious life in the Catholic tradition,” shared co-founder Sean in a recent conversation. For five years in that first community home, long-term residential members shared space and built community with a wide range of short-term guests. From people seeking asylum to survivors of domestic violence, from LGBTQ youth seeking shelter to interfaith groups to spoken word poets, hospitality was a lived charism since the inception of Benincasa. Residents and guests sought to live up to the community’s namesake and their four pillars of prayer, study, service, and community.
A colorful mural displays the pillars of Benincasa Community: prayer, study, service, and community.
Though Benincasa has been through two moves and various evolutions since then, its dedication to those founding commitments has remained steadfast. “What keeps us grounded are our four pillars, but how we interpret them is ever-changing and ever-unfolding. We’re not bound by the rigidity that maybe some orders or groups in the big tent of Catholicism are bound by.” No longer housed in a former convent in New York City, now the Benincasa Community can be found on a former campground in Guilford, CT, and the land on which it sits has become a vital component of its ministry. Through its relationship with the land and the hospitality that is fostered on the property, the community continues to honor its four pillars, as well as its founding roots.
“Benincasa,” shared Sean, “is the fruit of three different roots. One of those roots being women religious– so orders like the Dominican Sisters of Amityville who had a decades long connection to some of the members of our community, and also the Manhattan Jesuit community, which was Dan Berrigan’s community, and then the Catholic Worker Movement.” The fruit of each of these roots can be found in daily life on the property. Sean, Karen, their children, and other community members live their lives in a monastic rhythm learned from women religious. For Sean, this rhythm “offers some direction and accountability,” and helps him stay rooted in both prayer and right relationship with others. In the Peter Maurin Garden, named after the co-founder of the Catholic Worker Movement, folks have the opportunity to work with the land, and all that is grown is shared with local food pantries and soup kitchens. And in the Dan Berrigan Center for Art and Activism, guests can foster the same spirit of solidarity as the beloved Jesuit, activist, pacifist, and author. Though the vast acreage of its current home looks very different than an Upper West Side convent, Benincasa remains committed to the values from which it first took root, while also fostering a receptivity to what the future may hold.
Members of Benincasa Community share a meal together around a wooden table outdoors
So what do the next ten years look like for the Benincasa community? “Well,” admitted Sean, “it’s sometimes hard to think about the future, to be honest, when there’s so much happening in the present.” But after a thoughtful pause, Sean continued:
“You know, at Benincasa part of our Eucharistic Prayer in our Liturgy is may we become better peacemakers, wholemakers, truth tellers, and good allies in solidarity with all creation. And so that’s a guiding light.” As their story continues to unfold, Benincasa will no doubt continue to blossom from its roots, and continue leaning-in to its sacred mission in our world.
Benincasa has blossomed from the roots of women religious, the Catholic Worker, and Fr. Dan Berrigan’s Jesuit Community. From what roots have you or has your community blossomed?
Do you know of or belong to a community that you would like to see highlighted? Reach out to Martha at martha@futurechurch.org.
What’s Russ’ favorite church hymn? Olivia’s most-used expression? Martha’s favorite book? Ann Marie’s favorite recipe? Learn the answers to these questions and more through this “meet-and-greet” with the FutureChurch team!
Our meet and greet was an informal opportunity for FutureChurch community members to get to know the staff, learn what led them to FutureChurch, and hear some of their hopes and dreams for the season ahead.
We are deeply saddened to share that a dear friend of FutureChurch, Sister of Mercy Theresa Kane, died on Thursday, August 22, 2024 at the age of 87.
Today, we honor and give thanks for Sister Theresa Kane’s passionate life and witness as she courageously, joyfully, and tirelessly pursued a vision of equality and justice for women in the church and in society.
In October of 1979, serving as head of the Sisters of Mercy in the United States and as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, Kane stood before thousands of her fellow sisters in the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception in Washington, D.C. and greeted Pope John Paul II during a visit to the United States. In that moment, she offered televised and widely-publicized prophetic words that would galvanize the women’s movement within the Catholic Church:
“As women we have heard the powerful messages of our church addressing the dignity and reverence for all persons. As women we have pondered upon these words. Our contemplation leads us to state that the church in its struggle to be faithful to its call for reverence and dignity for all persons must respond by providing the possibility of women as persons being included in all ministries of our church. I urge you, Your Holiness, to be open to and respond to the voices coming from the women of this country who are desirous of serving in and through the church as fully participating members.”
A Sister of Mercy for 69 years, she served 7 as President of the Sisters of Mercy of the Union. During her tenure, she led her community’s efforts to implement their prophetic 1977 Chapter directives addressing women’s equality, political advocacy, and moral-decision-making. The Sisters’ innovative efforts were strongly resisted by conservative Vatican prelates, including Pope John Paul II. Nevertheless, Kane persisted and deftly negotiated numerous conflicts with the Vatican.
Sr. Christine Schenk and Sr. Theresa Kane at FutureChurch’s Fall Event in November 2015
“A great tree has fallen” is an African proverb that commemorates the death of a powerful leader. Sister Theresa Kane’s death marks the passing of such a leader. She was a great tree in our feminist forest. Her life is marked by a relentless pursuit of justice—for poor people, for women, for the LGBTQ community, for anyone marginalized by oppressive –usually patriarchal – systems. For me personally, she was a huge mentor in the work to reform the Catholic Church. When FutureChurch was just beginning, she telephoned more than once to cheer me on, to listen, to offer sage advice, but mostly to assure us that we were headed in the right direction. Aside from being a shrewd analyst of Catholic politics, Theresa was unfailingly kind, cheerful, funny, and optimistic that yes, we will eventually succeed in our challenge to include women in all the ministries of the church. This came from her deep and abiding faith in the God who accompanied her whose desire for justice ran even deeper than her own. I will miss her greatly. But mostly, I am so very grateful to have known her and to have been given access to her inner sanctum while writing her biography. It is an experience I will never forget. Rest in power, dear Theresa.
Stay close to us, Sister Theresa Kane, and pray with us, as – inspired and strengthened by your life and witness – we walk the trail you have blazed for us, pursuing the vision of equality and justice you dared to dream with us.
When asked about her motivation to begin a program for Catholic women to explore their calls to preach, Rhonda Miska began reflecting on her six years in discernment with the Dominican Sisters of Sinsinawa. Though Rhonda’s discernment led her away from vowed religious life, the Order of Preachers left their mark on her heart. “You know,” reflected Rhonda, “I’ve been given the gift of being in a community with women who claim the preaching charism and practice it and affirm it in one another, and I’m so aware that most women outside of religious communities don’t have that.” And thus, Rhonda began the process of starting the Catholic Women’s Preaching Circle.
While uncertain as to whether or not the invitation would garner interest, extending the invitation felt important to Rhonda. “Women often don’t see women preach,” she considered. “Therefore, women don’t think of themselves as preachers. And so then, if a woman is given the opportunity, maybe she says no, or if she says yes, she doesn’t feel confident and has imposter syndrome. And so I think it’s about breaking the cycle of invisibility where women can try out preaching and gain some experience, gain some confidence, and be in a space of care and support.”
Rhonda Miska
It is clear that women have been longing for just such a space. In just a few weeks time, a cohort of Catholic women will begin meeting virtually to explore their gifts and skills in the ministry of preaching. This will be the seventh cohort of the Catholic Women’s Preaching Circle (CWPC), and add to the 30 women who have participated in the program since its inception in the Spring of 2021.
“Preaching is part of my identity,” shared Kelly Adamson, now one of four co-conveners of the Catholic Women’s Preaching Circle. “But for so long, I just haven’t known what to do with that as a woman in the Catholic Church. [And yet,] whether I get the opportunities to preach from a pulpit, whether anybody hears me preach or not, there’s something about my salvation that is bound up in me pursuing this call, whether it lands for anyone or not.”
“Whether I get the opportunities to preach from a pulpit, whether anybody hears me preach or not, there’s something about my salvation that is bound up in me pursuing this call, whether it lands for anyone or not.” – Kelly Adamson
Now, as a co-convener (along with Rhonda, Christy Hicks Aydt, and BJ Brown), Kelly has the opportunity to help foster confidence and companionship with other women who feel a similar call. Each cohort of women includes between four and six participants, and agrees to a collective agreement around how the group hopes to relate to one another. This helps ensure that comments are affirming and constructive as each woman in the group practices preaching. Kelly shared that having an agreement between the group helps ensure that it will be a safe space to be vulnerable– a reality that isn’t always a given in a classroom setting. As opposed to a Catholic Preaching course that is generally populated by male seminarians, in the CWPC “there’s a sense that we’re all testing this out and saying, ‘we can have this identity, yes.’ And so that creates a different sort of vulnerability and tenderness with the feedback.” She continued, “And so this is the only space really that I show up in where it is normalized that women preach. And I’m not wondering what my identity is in this space and whether my preaching is going to communicate something about whether all women should be able to preach.”
Even in our brief conversation, I felt the respect, care, and gratitude shared by the participants of CWPC. When sharing about her experience in the circle, alumna Terese Weir shared, “I have the deepest gratitude to Rhonda for following the Holy Spirit and heeding her call as she continues to invite all of us into that sacred, bold space with her.” Terese is a board certified Catholic Chaplain who credits CWPC for giving her more confidence as a preacher. “My experience of CWPC was as a Master of Divinity graduate of Austin Presbyterian Theological Seminary where I was the only Catholic student. I received an excellent education and training in preaching there but did not see a space to carry that forward within my faith tradition. CWPC provided the space and community which gave me foundational confidence as a Catholic woman preacher.” In addition to growing her confidence as a preacher, Terese credits CWPC for creating a community of women to grow together spiritually. She shared that the “safe container” of the circle helped to make her participation in the circle a transformative experience. In addition to chaplaincy, Terese engages in the embodied preaching of liturgical dance ministry at Holy Cross Catholic Church in Austin, Texas.
Jane Egan, member of St. Mary Parish in Pompton Lakes, NJ, and a participant in their Saturday morning Liturgy of the Word with Communion, agreed with Terese’s sentiment, adding that she “found the experience of meeting regularly with a group wherein we’ve established the parameters of understanding why we’re here, but also a circle of trust and mutual respect, could help each other grow in both our preaching and our listening skills. We could give constructive criticism, and yet support each other in our continuing discernment as preachers and how we pray and that experience was very, very enriching.” Jane not only participated in a cohort, but together with Terese also routinely joins CWPC’s “all-calls,” or monthly opportunities for current cohort members and alumnae to continue building community and honing their gifts.
While barriers to preaching opportunities continue to exist for Catholic women, that is not stopping women from honoring their gifts and continuing to improve their preaching skills. Despite the barriers, Kelly shared, “I’m called to preach. I know it in my bones. If I am to grow in Holiness, I have to be who God created me to be.” The Spirit continues to call women to the pulpit, and they continue to answer the call.
Interested in joining the Catholic Women’s Preaching Circle? Applications for the Fall 2024 cohort are currently open! The group will meet on Tuesday evenings, beginning September 17th. The application deadline is August 29th. For more information, visit the Catholic Women’s Preaching Circle website.
Focus Question
Where is the Spirit inviting you to be courageous?
Do you know of or belong to a community that you would like to see highlighted? Reach out to Martha at martha@futurechurch.org.
If you’re in the greater Cincinnati-area and seeking a faith-sharing community, you don’t have to look very far. While through her work as a campus minister Sr. Leslie knew faith-sharing opportunities were available for students at the Newman Center at the University of Cincinnati, she realized that after students graduated many of them experienced a longing for the spiritual community they once knew. Seeing this need, Sr. Leslie worked with her order, the Sisters of Divine Providence, to form a community of belonging called God Space. “It really is a community of people coming together to talk about God,” shares Sr. Leslie. “That’s pretty much what we do. It’s kind of like a seeker space, and a questioner space. We are seeking together to grow in our spirituality and to connect with each other as we grow.” And now, God Space has expanded beyond the Cincinnati area to include virtual small groups, too!
Like many Spirit-driven initiatives, when Sr. Leslie began formulating the idea of God Space she wasn’t quite sure what it could become– she just knew that there was a need for greater community, both in her own heart and in the folks she encountered in her neighborhood. When thinking about those first days back in 2017, she reflects, “we had a dinner and we weren’t sure if anybody would come. But we actually had a house full of people– we had to bring out more chairs, which was awesome! And I thought I might cry a little bit because I was so happy.” And since then, God Space has grown much beyond dinner gatherings. From faith-sharing groups to social activities, from newsletters to podcasts, God Space is spreading its wings in Cincinnati and beyond. Sr. Leslie is consistently awed by the way the Spirit has been working through her ministry. When asked about the blessing of GodSpace in her life, she shares:
“The spirituality of my community is about trusting God– surrendering to God’s Providence. I’m not super good at it…but starting this ministry and inviting people and trying to grow it, I’m learning. I guess what I’m learning is that God always shows up. And God takes things in a direction I might not know, or that we might not predict. But God keeps working and I see that I really can trust. It’s helping me to really trust in deeper ways what the Spirit is doing in this very uncertain time in our church.”
God Space is not a church, but Sr. Leslie shares that many of the members belong to a parish. Others would identify as more spiritual than religious. There is no requirement that one must be “churched” to be part of the God Space community, only that you be open to search for God and respect one another along their respective journeys. Sr. Leslie shares that in the Cincinnati area, merging parishes has resulted in an exodus of many folks from traditional parish life. When thinking about this exodus, Sr. Leslie shares thoughtfully, “it’s hard, and we’re losing people. And so if a side effect is that other little communities are springing up as a response to people’s needs and desires and calls, I think that’s a good side effect.” And though Sr. Leslie herself belongs to a parish and is member of the Sisters of Divine Providence, she adds, “God Space is a loosely affiliated ministry, [which means] we can kind of color outside the lines in a way that is a little bit freeing.” This freedom, says Sr. Leslie, can really help attract folks who may otherwise feel like they don’t have a safe space to dive deeper into their spirituality. She shares, “I feel like there are people who are searching who are struggling with loneliness and disconnection, who might have questions about God or want to seek God but don’t know where to go with that, and I want to be able to help them to find us. I would like us to be a landing space for people who maybe don’t feel welcome in other ‘churchy’ spaces.” As Sr. Leslie dreams about the future of God Space, she hopes it continues to be a soft, non-judgmental landing place for seekers to encounter one another on their quest for God– and is open to the creative ways that the Spirit will lead it there.
If you are interested in learning more about God Space, you can check out their website or tune into The Providence Podcast.
Focus Questions
Sr. Leslie shared that God Space is a “seeker space” and a “questioner space.” How does your community leave space for unanswered questions?
While some God Space participants belong to parishes, others do not. Where do you find places of encounter and spiritual growth outside of the walls of a church building?
Do you know of or belong to a community that you would like to see highlighted? Reach out to Martha at martha@futurechurch.org.
