The 2019 LCWR assembly, Imagining Leadership in a Global Community, opens on August 13. With the presence of keynoter Sister Pat Murray, IBVM, the assembly will explore important movements occurring within religious life globally and locally through the lens of leadership. Sister Pat, the executive director of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), will draw upon her vast experience at the heart of global religious life as she explores how leaders can learn to focus on what is emerging in religious life and find meaning in their ministry.
Leaders will be helped in this assembly to learn how they too can watch the trends occurring in society and within religious life and discern how their institutes may best respond. In the midst of the deep transformation occurring in religious life, how can leaders assist their members to claim their own critical part in birthing the new life that is aching to come forth?
An important part of this assembly will be the opportunity to examine what LCWR is learning through its emergent planning process. Not only is the conference looking at how it might reimagine itself as a relevant resource for religious life in this time of dramatic change, but it is also gaining a body of critical new insights into how religious life is emerging into something quite different from what it has been in the recent past. The assembly will provide opportunities for participants to engage in conversations about: How are these insights calling women religious to reshape the way they lead their own religious institutes? How is LCWR being called to re-envision how it can be as supportive as possible of religious life as it moves into the future?
A panel presentation will take place on the intersection of three major threats to the world and nation: racism, migration, and the climate crisis. The session will be followed with an invitation to all participants to use their phones and call, message, Tweet, or Facebook the President and members of Congress asking them to address these three interrelated crises.
This year LCWR is honoring with its 2019 Outstanding Leadership Award Sister Norma Pimentel, MJ, an acclaimed leader in serving and advocating for refugees crossing the US-Mexico border and awaiting asylum. She will receive her award and address the assembly at the closing banquet on August 16.
In addition to the more than 700 leaders who will attend the assembly will be a number of guests, including younger religious, religious from a variety of ethnicities, facilitators who work with religious communities, and representatives of many of the national organizations serving religious life. These guests will join with members in the conversations so as to expand the perspectives of all present.
The assembly prayer and ritual will also incorporate some of the culture and terrain of the unique and beautiful hotel setting in the midst of the mountains and desert of Arizona. During the course of the assembly the members will vote for a new president-elect, as well as members of its national board.
Portions of this assembly will be livestreamed and archived. Click here for the link to the livestream and for the schedule.
