August 2011

Last week at Giving Voice in Chicago, Jessi Beck, PBVM reminded those of us gathered that "ours is the task of allowing the questions stirring in our soul to be given a voice. And then in our deep listening and wrestling with the answers together perhaps the energy of communitas will ignite among us." Here are some of the ways Giving Voice is opening space for those stirring questions:

The Giving Voice National Conference in Chicago last week was an amazing gathering of 150 women religious from 50 different communities. You can hear some of the wisdom shared throughout our days and read some of the rich harvests from our conversations at the Giving Voice website, podcasts and blog.

Sisters in your 20s and 30s, mark your calendars for the annual Giving Voice gathering of Sisters in their 20s and 30s: January 13-15, 2012. The gathering will once again be in sunny, warm Phoenix at Guadalupe Monastery. Check the Giving Voice website in the coming months for more details.

We are excited to welcome four new members to the Giving Voice Core Team this coming year: Susan Francois, CSJP; Jeannie Humphries, OSU; Leslie Keener, CDP; and Sarah Kohles, OSF. The present core team members (Lisa Buscher, RSCJ; Maria Cimperman, OSU; Kristin Matthes, SNDdeN; and Mary Stanco, HM) will be transitioning off the team over the next two years. We hope to bring on a couple more new members during the next two years so the core team will be a total of six.

• Sisters of St. Francis of Dubuque, Iowa
• Entered in 2003
• Currently living in Chicago, Illinois
• Studying Biblical Studies at Catholic Theological Union

 Experience of Giving Voice

“I didn't start attending Giving Voice until after the novitiate, but I loved it as soon as I started coming.  For me Giving Voice has been a source of peers and support. I greatly appreciate having the opportunity to wrestle with the hard questions of religious life with peers, which I do not have in my own community.”

• Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace
• Entered in 2005
• Currently living in Chicago, Ilinois
• Studying Ethics at Catholic Theological Union

 Experience of Giving Voice

“My Giving Voice connections give me a peer group in religious life, sustain and energize me, and fill me with hope for the future of religious life.  When I was first discerning religious life, the mere existence of Giving Voice helped me to take the leap, knowing there were other younger women who believe in the future of religious life.”

• Ursuline Sisters of the Roman Union
• Entered in 1996
• Currently living in Eastchster, New York
• Ministry:  Writing a dissertation for a PhD in Language, Literacy, and Learning-Fordham University; Instructional Supervisor of Teachers of Students with Special Needs at the Cooke Center for Learning and Development; Adjunct Instructor, Fordham University-Children’s Literature in Multicultural Classrooms

 Experience of Giving Voice

•  Congregation of Divine Providence
•  Entered in 2000
•  Currently living in Covington, KY
•  Ministry:  Campus Minister at the University of Cincinnati through a Parish Newman Center

 Experience of Giving Voice