Summer 2000 Newsletter

 

FutureChurch organizes Forum on Church Justice

FutureChurch recently organized a forum in partnership with Call To Action (CTA) for representatives of various Catholic organizations who share our Church justice/societal justice concerns. Representatives from Pax Christi, Center of Concern, Interfaith Committee for Worker Justice (ICWJ), the Association for the Rights of Catholics in the Church (ARCC), Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR), NETWORK, staff from the Lay Ecclesial Ministry Subcommittee and the Women's Committee of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops met for two hours on March 21st in Washington, DC.

Women in Church Leadership (WICL) coordinator Sr. Chris Schenk reported on the widespread success of the WICL project and its efforts to advocate on behalf of women and lay ministers in the church. LCWR reported on progress of their "Benchmarks II" effort, which seeks data on the experience of women in church leadership positions right now. And NCCB staffers reported on their successful Jubilee Day for Women celebrations held in dioceses all around the country. The work of the new Lay Ministry Subcommittee will address an array of issues including the spiritual dimension of the formation of lay ministers, financial and human resource issues and ongoing development of the theology of lay ministry.

Organizational representatives discussed ways of networking, collaborating and educating about various projects at the local and national levels. They will meet again next year.

Among forum participants March 21 in Washington were (from left): Jim Coriden of ARCC, Barbara Pfarr of ICWJ, FutureChurch's Sr. Chris Schenk, Joe Nangle of Pax Christi, Mary Louise Hartmann of ARCC, Suzanne Delaney of LCWR, and Betsy Clark of NETWORK.