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A Queer Blessing
By Flora x. Tang
Blessed be God.
Blessed be God’s many names and faces.
Blessed be God in the whispering breeze and the blazing flame.
Blessed be God the mother, who gave birth to the world, and who never fails to listen to the cries of her children.
Blessed be God the father, who adorns himself in glory and radiance.
Blessed be God beyond all genders: God the mother, father, and parent, whose name is simply “I am who I am.”
Blessed be our father Jacob, who wrestles with an angel all night for a blessing.
Blessed be our mother Hagar, who sees God in the desert in times of desperation.
Blessed be the prophets Elijah and Elisha, who swore to one another the oath of love, “as long as the Lord lives, and as you yourself live, I will not leave you.”
Blessed be Mary and Martha, partners and sisters, who rested by one another, loving one another from death to resurrection.
Blessed be Jesus in the poor, in the marginalized, and in the forgotten queer names and faces.
Blessed be the queer spirits, the queer angels, the queer saints, and the queer ancestors, whose intercessions and blessings instill a love within us that transgresses all and consumes all.
Blessed are you:
you who resist, you who love,
you who desire, you who struggle.
And blessed am I,
and blessed are we, children of God,
now and forever, Amen.
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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 Karen Ross, PhD invites us to explore the power of water in our readings, and the interconnection between exploitation of the earth and the exploitation of women and the oppressed; engage Pope Francis’s Laudato si’ on our wellbeing and that of the Earth; and embody these ideas with a ritual of libation and the artwork of Pacita Abad.
"This Sunday’s readings swirl around the theme of water – specifically, the power that water has to overcome and destroy, clean and refresh. We humans have a very intimate relationship to water: we are born from the waters in our mother’s womb, and over half of our bodies consist of water. Water has the sacramental ability to wash us clean (both spiritually and physically), but can also engulf us and plunge us into the depths, as the psalmist proclaims. Water has the power to give life and to take it away. What wonders in the deep!"
Karen Ross, PhD (she/her/ella) is a graduate program director, theology and ethics professor, and yoga and mindfulness instructor. She currently works as the director of the Pathways@CTU program at Catholic Theological Union, which seeks to engage and empower young people – especially those from marginalized communities – in co-creating the church of tomorrow. She received her PhD in theology and ethics from Loyola University Chicago, focusing on Catholic feminist theology and sexual ethics.
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Catholic Women Preach
Preaching for the Twelfth Sunday, Teresa Thompson offers a reflection on entering into chaos - particularly the chaos of combating climate change - confident in God's presence:
"Chaos gets a bad rap, and oftentimes when these large-scale proposals for climate changes solutions are made, they are dismissed as too messy, too disruptive, too difficult to implement, too extreme. What these dismissals fail to acknowledge is that we find God in chaos, and God accompanies us in it."
Teresa Thompson is a writer, therapist, and amateur theologian based in Brooklyn, NY. She is a board member of the Metro NY chapter of Call To Action and serves as part of the Catholic Lesbians ministry and Healing Prayer ministry at the Church of Saint Francis Xavier. Teresa’s writing has been published by Geez Magazine and Ignatian Solidarity Network and can also be read on her Substack, Liturgy of the Ours.
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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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Queer Saints and Ancestors: Spiritual Practices of Recovery and Imagination with Flora x. Tang
Throughout church history, Catholics and other Christians have turned to the saints as sources of hope, inspiration, friendship, and community. How have queer Catholics turned to a similar spirituality of saints and ancestors to sustain them in their faith and justice? How have stories of queer saints been a source of inspiration, but also a site of contestation? In her presentation, Flora Tang explores how queer Catholics have retrieved stories of queer saints and queer ancestors and guides us through a practice re-imagining the saints and their presence in our lives.
Flora x. Tang is a doctoral candidate in theology and peace studies at the University of Notre Dame, where she writes and researches about post-traumatic theology, queer theology, and decolonial Asian theology. Flora has previously worked as a hospital chaplain, a campus ministry fellow, and a service-learning program coordinator for college students. Her theology and preaching draw from her complex faith journey to and within Catholicism: from becoming Catholic at age 19 after living and serving with Catholic sisters, to deconstructing her faith while living in Palestine, to discovering her own queer Catholic expressions of faith. Flora is committed to reimagining God’s love while standing on the margins of the Catholic faith.
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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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