The Chapter Call
The Chapter Call is a distillation of the Congregation’s participation and response to the presentations, discussions, prayer, and sharing through the various Chapter processes in 2020-2022. Unanimously affirmed at Chapter, the Chapter Call provides a guiding principle for the many decisions that will challenge the Congregation in coming years.
The Congregation received input and inspiration from Sister Pat Murray, IBVM, Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General; Sister Anita Baird, DHM, the first African American to serve as Chief of Staff to the Archbishop of Chicago and co-founding director of the Archdiocese of Chicago’s Office for Racial Justice; and Bana Gora, Chief Executive of Muslim Women’s Council.
Sister Pat stirred the hearts and spirits of sisters and associates at their June 2021 Congregation Assembly with her talk, “Follow the Lights within to the Edge of Tomorrow.”
“More and more we realize that we can only make the future by walking together, sharing the lights of the Holy Spirit as we move towards the edge of tomorrow.”
At the March 2022 Chapter of Affairs, the Congregation was inspired and challenged by their keynote speakers, Sister Anita Baird, DHM and Bana Gora.
“We can complain, or we can stand up and do something about it.” – Bana Gora
“To be on the edge of tomorrow requires that we examine and reassess our underlying attitudes and beliefs rooted in white privilege and access. We must reexamine and reassess our miseducation about power and dominance over everything and everyone, including Mother Earth.” – Sister Anita Baird, DHM
“It doesn’t matter how big a step you take, as long as you take a step.” – Bana Gora
The Chapter Call
“The year 2020 looms large as we embark on a new decade of life, and especially a new decade in the life of the Congregation. What will the new decade ask of us? How will it gift us? How will it surprise us? How will it break our hearts?”
– Sheila Lemieux, CSJP, January 2020 Letter Convoking the 23rd Congregation Chapter
NOW …
There has been plenty to break our hearts: the global pandemic, racism, war and violence, the mass migration of people, political polarization, and environmental destruction. But we have been gifted and surprised, too. Disturbed again and again by the Spirit – by, for example, the gift of Laudato Si’, the Black Lives Matter movement, our Church’s call to synodality, and the challenge of the global pandemic still with us for this concluding session of the 23rd Chapter – the reality of our interconnection and interdependence is undeniable. We are committed to respond to the challenge of Laudato Si’. We are truly one family of God and Earth is our common home.
Each Chapter faces new challenges and, in light of our charism, the objectives of former Chapters still remain relevant to us. Yet we find ourselves at a place we’ve never been, at the edge of tomorrow, the dawn of our reCreation. These new times demand a change of heart: to be, think, and act differently. Our spiritual lives require deep re-examination and transformation; our outward actions must confront privilege and power in ourselves and society.
Urged by a burning desire to speak and act boldly with open, loving and adventurous hearts, and in collaboration with others, we now commit to:
Cultivating and practicing peace through justice by the intentional living of interculturality, anti-racism, and inclusion
Addressing, healing, and being present to the wounds and broken relationships among ourselves and all of God’s Creation
Resisting every form of war and violence
Making a place for everyone at the table where all are welcomed and gifts are honored
It is time to be who we have always said we are. It is time to live our words. We embrace these promptings of the Spirit with courage, humility, hope and trust.
This article appeared in the Summer 2022 issue of Living Peace.
