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On July 22nd, FutureChurch was honored to host a celebration for the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene. With excerpts from writings by Nontando Hadebe, Christine Zuba, the National Black Sisters' Conference, Sr. Norma Pimentel, and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, as well as a powerful witness from Sr. Eilis McCulloh, the evening was both a celebration and a charge to use our voices to speak truth to power. If you missed the celebration, you can access the recording here. The text below is the Opening Prayer of the celebration, written by FutureChurch program association Olivia Hastie.
We give you thanks, O God,
that in every generation You have emboldened prophets and truth tellers who call our church and world to conversion and reconciliation.
As when Mary Magdalene first proclaimed the Resurrection, you have given their words power:
power to move us from despair to hope,
from grief to healing,
from fear to courage,
from death to new life.
And so we pause once more, this day,
to attune ourselves to these prophets and truth tellers –
these women who speak truth to power.
May their stories instruct and inspire us,
their cries for justice and inclusion call us to conversion,
and their dreams and visions give us hope for a world made new.
Amen.
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