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Hello FutureChurch friends,
Let me just say this first, I am so grateful for each and every one of you. I’ve been thinking lately about what a privilege it is to do this work alongside you and wanted to take this space to say THANK YOU!
I can’t believe it’s the end of June! There’s so much to celebrate!
This June, FutureChurch hosted its inaugural Pride Month series, hosting three wonderful speakers who each opened our minds to the importance of creativity, curiosity, and the nurturing of our inner lives. These speakers, Mary E. Hunt PhD, Barbara Anne Kozee, and Flora x. Tang traced historical perspectives of queer and feminist theories and theologies, nuanced our understanding of how authors like Karl Rahner offer helpful contemplative practices for queer identity formation, and invited us to consider who the queer saints living among us are.
If you missed these engaging and moving conversations visit our website: www.futurechurch.org/videos
Also, this weekend my FutureChurch teammate Martha and I will be attending the Marianist Social Justice Collaborative's Imago Dei Conference in Dayton, OH. We are looking forward to connecting with old and new friends, as well as spreading the word about what’s going on at FutureChurch. If you are attending, please come by and see us, we’d love to get to know and give you some FutureChurch swag to take home with you!
Join us next month on July 17th at 7 pm for a conversation between Julie Hanlon Rubio and Natalia Imperatori-Lee on their new books, and on July 22nd at 7 pm for our annual Mary Magdalene celebration. After that, we’ll see you in September for more events, and some of that wonderful holy chaos!
Happy Summer!
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| Join FutureChurch for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene |
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July 22, 2024 | 7:00 PM EST
Join FutureChurch on July 22nd at 7pm ET as we honor and remember the Apostle to the Apostles, and pray in gratitude for the ways in which we have all encountered the Risen Christ. We will be joined by three remarkable young women who will share their own witness to the Risen Christ with us.
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.
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Just Word
Today Ben Stegbauer and Tess GC invite us to explore today’s readings as they reflect on the mission of The Just Word Commentary, half-way through; engage the kind of love Catholicism embodies, with a reflection from Ben Stegbauer; and embody the liberative love of The Just Word with a letter to Palestine, and a message on building community.
"The Just Word and its authors have explored the crevices of the Church where there are communities of people moved by the story of Jesus, by the stories of some of the saints, and by other devotions to the Church that have been teaching this gospel of life and liberation. It is in these cracks that the Just Word finds its voices. Through the communities of liberation theology, of queer Catholics, of the violently oppressed and colonized, these communities bring the story of Jesus to 2024 and scream out its truth."
Ben Stegbauer and Tess GC met in divinity school. Ben is a native of Cincinnati, Ohio, the greatest city in the world. He now lives in New York City at the Catholic Worker. Tess was born and raised in western Montana on Salish land, in an Irish American family. She thinks a lot about land, place, belonging, and labor.
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Catholic Women Preach
Preaching for the Thirteenth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Sr. Abby Avelino, MM, offers a reflection on working together to end human trafficking:
"The Spirit of God which calls us together in the work to end human trafficking is the same Spirit that has been present since the beginning of time working to bring forth life and free God’s people."
Sister Abby Avelino, MM is International Coordinator of Talitha Kum (UISG), a global Sister-led network against human trafficking. Originally from the Philippines, Sr. Abby is a Catholic woman religious who belongs to the Maryknoll Sisters of Saint Dominic. Before entering missionary religious life, she worked as a mechanical/systems engineer.
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| Pentecost Project |
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"Pax Priory Imagines its Next 50 Years in the City"
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With the fire of Pentecost and emboldened by the Holy Spirit, we at FutureChurch are engaging in a new project to recognize and celebrate communities that are embodying the mission of Pentecost. Over the next several months, we will be highlighting communities that have been emboldened to live the Gospel in new and creative ways. Today we introduce you to Pax Priory.
Excerpt: During that first era of Pax Center, the community responded to needs that they encountered–beginning a soup kitchen in 1974 that continues as Emmaus Ministries and includes the soup kitchen, food pantry, and other services that provide a more sustainable response to the needs of the city than a doorbell ministry ever could. Pax members created movements for peace and justice that helped shape the thinking of the larger community. As the services and witness provided by Pax became more mainstream and as the community demographic shifted, so has the Pax community itself changed.
READ MORE...
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| FutureChurch Pride Month Series |
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As the latest Vatican declaration on human dignity and recent comments from Pope Francis demonstrate, women and the LGBTQ+ community remain among the most marginalized people in the Church. How can members of these two communities work together to secure their rightful place in our Church and communities? FutureChurch hosted three presentations in June 2024, meant to foster understanding and solidarity between these two communities.
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| Working Together: Feminist and Queer Theology in Conversation with Mary E. Hunt, Ph.D. |
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| Celebrating Queer Becoming with Barbara Anne Kozee |
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| Queer Saints and Ancestors: Spiritual Practices of Recovery and Imagination with Flora x. Tang |
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| Upcoming FutureChurch Events |
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July 2, 2024 | 7:00 PM EST
FutureChurch welcomes Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns who will host a listening session on Women in the Church to help her prepare for the October 2024 Assembly of the Synod on Synodality. Dr. Bailey Manns will offer opening remarks regarding the conversations and discernment thus far and then welcome your questions and input, which she will bring with her to Rome.
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. Dr. Bailey Manns is the Director of Adult Learning at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis. 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.
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July 9, 2024 | 7:00 PM EST
FutureChurch welcomes Dr. Cynthia Bailey Manns who will host a listening session on Lay Leadership to help her prepare for the October 2024 Assembly of the Synod on Synodality. Dr. Bailey Manns will offer opening remarks regarding the conversations and discernment thus far and then welcome your questions and input, which she will bring with her to Rome.
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. Dr. Bailey Manns is the Director of Adult Learning at Saint Joan of Arc Catholic Community in Minneapolis. 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.
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July 17, 2024 | 7:00 PM EST
Join FutureChurch for a conversation on feminism and the Catholic Church as we welcome Professors Julie Hanlon Rubio and Natalia Imperatori-Lee, who have both recently written critically acclaimed books on the topic.
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.
In Women and the Church: From Devil's Gateway to Discipleship Natalia 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.
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.
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.
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| Development Director, Pax Christi USA |
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Pax Christi USA is the national Catholic peace and justice movement that works for a more peaceful, just and sustainable world through prayer, study and action. The position is full-time and can be done from the home office in Washington, D.C. or remotely. The Development Director strategizes and oversees all aspects of Pax Christi USA fundraising and development in collaboration with the Executive Director.
Learn More/Apply Here.
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| Program Director, Mercy Center Burlingame |
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This role is responsible for the creation, development, and oversight of all program functions, and ensuring quality programming in the tradition of the Sisters of Mercy charism and Mercy Ministry Corporation values. The Program Director will further the mission of Mercy Center Burlingame through program design, implementation, and evaluation while collaborating with current staff to promote retreats and programs.
Learn More/Apply Here.
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| Teresa of Ávila and Peacemaking in a Nuclear Age: A Contemplative Conversation |
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July 15-18, 2024 |Saint Mary's College, Notre Dame, IN, 46556
Keynote Speakers Include: Mary Frohlich, RSCJ; Mary Ann Hinsdale, IHM; Maria Teresa Morgan; Margie Pfeil; and Lori Stanley. For more information about the event, contact Dan Horan at dhoran@saintmarys.edu.
Young Adult Scholarships Available!
Register Here.
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| Beyond Rights: The Theological Case for Women |
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July 22, 2024; 12PM-3PM ET | In-Person or Zoom; Simboli Hall, Boston College- Brighton Campus
Join the Boston College Clough School of Theology and Ministry for the 15th Annual St. Mary Magdalene Celebration!
Has speaking of rights and social justice in relation to women become ineffective in our polarized environment? Theologian Cecilia González-Andrieu situates us in la realidad (the reality of our present moment), to explore how the power of theological insights arising out of the Christian tradition and read in a Latina liberationist key may help reinvigorate the conversation. The longed-for goal is to promote and enact women’s full participation in the church and in the world as required by the Reign of God.
Register Here.
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| We seek changes that will provide all Roman Catholics the opportunity to participate fully in Church life and leadership. |
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FutureChurch is a national 501(c)(3) organization and your contribution is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by law.
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