Conversations at the Well: Crossing-over to Meet the Other and Oneself
Preserving Patrimony on the Journey
(What do we take? What do we leave behind? What if we haven’t time/opportunity to choose?)
This day will consist of prayer, input, reflection time, and sharing … all in the context of an assumption that those who have gathered are on a communal journey in which many borders have been and will be crossed. Who/what constitutes these borders, with what intent, and from what experience is critical to decisions to move forward or to stay back. Input sessions will explore crossing over in congregational life by engaging current realities through the lens of
Definitional borders: how we might understand ourselves as members of a particular religious congregation; Structural/Cultural Borders: how we organize our understanding of ourselves and how we create formal and informal norms for our common life; Theological Borders: the foundations of meaning which support our religious understanding, the religious meaning supporting structures/cultures, the religious grounding for our choices.
September 23-24, 2016; Renton (Seattle), WA.
Helen Marie Burns, RSM
Helen Marie Burns, RSM, has served her religious community, the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, in elected leadership both on the congregational and provincial levels. In 1988, she was elected to the presidency of LCWR for a three year term. Helen Marie’s doctorate is in the History of Religion and Religious Thought; her dissertation studied Active Women Religious in the Iowa Frontier: A Study in Continuity and Disontinuity.