Sr. Jeannine Gramick
In 1971, while engaged in study for her doctoral degree at the University of Pennsylvania, Sr. Jeannine Gramick was invited to attend a monthly dance hosted by the campus’s Episcopal church. The associate rector of the church had convinced her to come simply to sell soda and other concessions, but accepting the invitation would place Gramick’s life and ministry on a new trajectory. It was at that dance that Gramick first met Dominic Bash, a gay man.
A few weeks later, the two met again at an interfaith service and Gramick came to learn more about the pain her new acquaintance was carrying. Bash had been raised Catholic. He even entered the Franciscans with the intention of becoming ordained. Yet, he left the order early because he was concerned that being gay would prohibit him from being ordained a priest. In time, Bash became a hairdresser and joined the Episcopal Church.“[He] had been thrown out of the confessional one too many times,” Gramick says.
Learn more about and be inspired by Sister Jeannine Gramick’s advocacy for justice for the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) community and for reconciliation between the church and LGBT Catholics.
Resources Included in This Download:
- Educational resources: A Biography of Sister Jeannine Gramick with guide for discussion and reflection; In Her Own Words (Sister Jeannine Gramick discusses the violence of silence) with guide for discussion and reflection; Finding our way in the troubled church we love: lessons we can learn from the witness of Sr. JeannineGramick, by Bob Shine
- Be a Witness of Mercy: Resources for learning and doing
- Prayer Resources: Praying Psalm 139 by New Ways Ministry
- Original Art by Marcy Hall, commissioned by FutureChurch