This issue provides materials for further reflection on many of the significant events and movements in the lives of US women religious in recent years. These include the emphasis on intentional contemplation, greater awareness of the universe story, the apostolic visitation, the doctrinal assessment of LCWR, and all the dynamics that go with these events. How are women religious sensing a new consciousness of the significance of religious life in these times? How are religious sensing a shift in their own self-definition as religious and their understanding of what religious life can potentially be? The issue also provides a means for reflecting on the church’s "Year of Faith" and the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the Second Vatican Council. How is the fidelity of religious to the call of Vatican II fidelity to the invitation to evolutionary leadership in a living church?
Content includes articles and interviews on understanding conscience, contemporary interpretations of the vow of obedience, the skill of collaboration, deepening relationships with the laity, exploring the new texture of religious life, and leading in polarized times.
Contents
- Movement of Grace: Religious Life and the Evolution of Christ Consciousness
Gail Worcelo, SGM examines the evolutionary trajectory of the tradition of religious life - Religious Life Evolving
An interview with Kathleen Durkin, CSJ; Sheila Lemieux, CSJP; and Mary Jo Nelson, OLVM on how the shifts taking place within relgious life are shaping the life as it moves into the future - Leadership in a Unified, Participatory, and Changing World
Mary Pellegrino, CSJ probes the applications of a cosmological framework to relgious life and leadership - The Vow to Obedience
Gary Riebe-Estrella, SVD considers how obedience in religious life can lead to the restoration of human communion - Moving Forward Securely, Consciously, Decisively, Faithfully
Marlene Weisenbeck, FSPA opens up new understandings of conscience and the parameters of dissent - Leading in Polarized Times
An interview with conflict management strategist Andra Medea - LCWR and Catholic Sisters: A Promising Sign of Hope to American Catholics
Linda Plitt Donaldson, PhD reflects on the bond of solidarity being forged between Catholic sisters and Catholic Laity
