LCWR ASSEMBLY 2019
“Imagining Leadership in a Global Community"
August 13-16 in Scottsdale, Arizona
Summaries, highlights, and videos of the Assembly:
- Assembly intro and overview from LCWR
- 4-minute video of Assembly highlights from LCWR
- For the first time, public sessions were live-streamed.
- View or purchase recordings of sessions:
- Purchase audio and video recordings of the assembly or
- Watch free with links below (Tuesday - Assembly opening; Wednesday morning - keynote address; Wednesday afternoon - emergent planning process; Thursday - presidential address; Friday - Outstanding Leadership Award ceremony and address)
- Media coverage:
- Reflection in Global Sisters Report by a Solidarity with Sisters member on what the LCWR way of "Assembling" can mean to the People of God
- Overall conference plans and context: “LCWR to examine: What does it mean to be a leader at this point in time?" by Dan Stockman at Global Sisters Report
Tuesday, 8/13/19 evening: Assembly Opening
- Video: Gorgeous opening at 6:00-23:00 (Let's re-use this!). Speakers begin at 23:00.
- Main speakers: LCWR presidents Sisters Sharlet Wagner, Jayne Helmlinger, andTeresa Maya, Assembly facilitator Sister Catherine Bertrand, Emergent Religious Life facilitator Donna Fyffe
- Media coverage: It's included in the longer report, "UISG director to LCWR Assembly: No need to fear doing the 'small things'" by Dan Stockman in Global Sisters Report.
Wednesday, 8/14/19 morning – Keynote Address by Sister Pat Murray, head of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG), followed by small-group dialogue
- Full text: "Imagining Leadership in a Global Community" - video (opening song 18:30, address 20:40)
- The poem TRASNA (Crossing) by Sister Raphael Considine that is part of Sister Pat Murray's address
- Media coverage: "UISG director to LCWR Assembly: No need to fear doing the 'small things'" by Dan Stockman in Global Sisters Report
LCWR Assembly letter to President Trump
- LCWR letter - full text: More than 600 LCWR members call on President Trump to "Stop all divisive and polarizing rhetoric."
- Media coverage:
- "LCWR calls on Trump to stop 'divisive and polarizing rhetoric'" by Catholic News Service
- "US religious sisters urge president to stop divisive rhetoric," by Independent Catholic News (ICN)
- Follow-up: Letter to the Editor by the Sisters of Providence of St. Mary of the Woods, Indiana, in the Terre Haute Tribune Star
Wednesday, 8/14/19 afternoon - LCWR Emergent Planning Session
Thursday, 8/15/19 morning – Presidential address by Sister Sharlet Wagner
- Full text: "Divinest Sense at the Heart of Religious Life" - video: opening ritual 11:30 ("Si yo no tengo amor, yo nada soy, Senor" means "If I do not have love, I am nothing, Lord."), address 19:40
- Media coverage:
- "Face facts, says LCWR president: Sisters have been part of Catholic Church sexual abuse scandal" by Dan Stockman at Global Sisters Report
- "Sr. Sharlet Wagner speaks to LCWR assembly about call 'to model hope' amid despair" by Dan Stockman at Global Sisters Report
Thursday, 8/15/19 afternoon - continued reflection on Emergent Religious LIfe
Session on actively fighting capital punishment, led by Catholic Mobilizing Network Executive Director Krisanne Vaillancourt Murphy
- Media coverage: "Ending capital punishment is important work for sisters" by Dan Stockman in Global Sisters Report
Friday morning, 8/16/19 - continued reflection on emergent religious life
Friday afternoon, 8/16/19 – "Creating communion at the intersection of racism, migration, and the climate crisis"
- Panel video (begins at 1:43): Sr. Patricia Chappelle, Sr. Joan Brown, and Maria Elena Perales, moderated by Sr Susan Francois (powerful summary starting about 40:00 to end)
- Background: Summer 2019 LCWR Resolution to Action: "US Policy at the Intersection of Immigration and Racism"
- LCWR 2019 Assembly Resolution and Statement of Commitment
- Media coverage: "LCWR commits to combat racism, serve immigrants, and address climate change" by Dan Stockman of Global Sisters Report
Friday, 8/16/19 -- Blessing of new LCWR officers 2019-20
- LCWR Officers: In the three-person presidency, Sister Sharlet Ann Wagner, CSC is now past president (older interview: “Incoming LCWR president Sharlet Wagner sees herself as a ‘citizen of the world’”), Sister Jayne Helmlinger is now president (new interview, older interview, and youtube), and Sr. Elise García was elected as president-elect. (Sister Teresa Maya now is a former LCWR president.)
- Media coverage: "LCWR commits to combat racism, serve immigrants, and address climate change" by Dan Stockman of Global Sisters Report (bottom of report)
Friday, 8/16/19 evening -- LCWR Outstanding Leadership Award: Tribute to recipient Sister Norma Pimentel, for her tireless, creative, pastoral, and systemic work with and for migrants in the Rio Grande Valley
- Text of acceptance address by Sr. Norma Pimentel
- About Sister Norma Pimentel's work
- Media coverage:
- "Sr. Norma Pimentel, LCWR award recipient, embraces 'holy chaos' of her ministry to migrants" by Soli Salgado and Dan Stockman of Global Sisters Report
- 2015 Q&A with Sr. Norma after her live-TV encounter with Pope Francis connecting the Vatican and the Rio Grande Valley, followed by a private meeting with him at the UN, by Nuri Ballbona of Global Sisters Report
Other LCWR Assemblies: 2018 - 2017 - 2016 - Assembly addresses 2012 to 2019