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Assembly Schedule
The Assembly Focus
Hope Unbroken: Journeying in God's Promise
This year’s LCWR assembly responds to the call of Pope Francis who wrote, “Today our world is experiencing a tragic ‘famine’ of hope. So much pain, emptiness, and inconsolable grief surrounds us! May we become messengers of the consolation bestowed by the Spirit. When we radiate hope, God opens new paths along our journey.” As religious life leaders, we are challenged to be bearers of this hope to all whom we encounter. The 2025 LCWR assembly will acknowledge the struggle of these times and explore the practices that can ground us in faith so that we can live “hope unbroken” for the sake of the world, the church, and our religious communities.
Aware of the many challenges in religious life today as we envision and plan for religious life in the future, assure the care of members, attend to changing governance structures, explore new partnerships, and more, this assembly aims to provide its participants with information and inspiration for living with deep, unwavering hope.
Assembly Highlights
Set in a context that will honor and highlight the presence of sacred mystery, the assembly will provide prayer and liturgy, input from presenters, opportunities for dialogue with others, and more. Participants will engage in processes designed to ground them in a hope that can sustain us through the challenges of today and into the future.
Main Speakers
James Martin, SJ, is a Jesuit priest, editor at large at America Media, consultor to the Vatican's Dicastery for Communication, and author of many books including, most recently, "Come Forth," on the raising of Lazarus.
Simona Brambilla, MC is a member of the Institute of Missionary Sisters of Consolata who, since January 2025, has been serving as the prefect of the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life, making her the first woman to head a department of the Roman curia. She has served in Mozambique, taught at the Institute of Psychology of the Pontifical Gregorian University, and later as the superior general of her institute. Pope Francis named her the first female secretary of the dicastery in 2023, and the following year named her one of his appointees to the 16th Ordinary Council of the General Secretariat of the Synod.
Accompanying Sr. Simona as a guest at the assembly will be Daniela Leggio who has been working at the Dicastery for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life since March 1999. In November 2012, she was appointed head of the Office for the Promotion and Formation of Consecrated Life.
She has a legal background, with a degree in civil law, recognized as a lawyer in Italy, and holds a doctorate in canon law. She also completed three years of studies at the Roman Rota.
She has held roles in the formation and governance of her secular institute. As an author of articles on consecrated life, she has spoken at national and international conferences of secular institutes, as well as at chapters and assemblies of Institutes of Consecrated Life.
Since 2010, she is a lecturer in the Dicastery course providing teaching on the Magisterium, canonical norms and practices relating to consecrated life. Since 2021, she is the coordinator of this course, now called e-Studium.
Kathy Brazda, CSJ will deliver the LCWR presidential address. She has been serving the Congregation of St. Joseph as its president and is now in her second term. Prior to elected leadership, she worked with the Renew My Church initiative as the pastoral accompaniment director and also founded and was executive director of Taller de José, a ministry that helps connect people to services they need and accompanies them on the journey. She has been a region vice-chair and served on the national LCWR board.
Panel Presentations
Hope Unbroken: Staying Grounded in Leadership
Three women religious leaders will speak to what has held them in the challenges of religious life leadership so that their hope remained unbroken. Drawing upon their own experiences, they will share what has kept them inspired and what have been their anchors as they faced the complex questions that are before our institutes today. Panelists: Barbara Beasley, RGS; Pat McDermott, RSM; and Sara Postlethwaite, VDMF.
Hope Unbroken: The Call to Work for the Healing of the World
Representatives from some of the renowned centers based in Atlanta working for human rights will join the assembly and present their reflections on these times in the country and the world.
Contemplative Processing
The 2025 gathering will incorporate contemplative processing so that participants may collectively listen carefully for the movement of God’s Spirit among them. Processing will be especially directed to assisting participants to be attentive to the presence of the Spirit in their lives and our call to contribute to the transformation of consciousness needed in our world today.
We are looking for participants willing to serve as facilitators at their tables. If you are open to serving in this way, please indicate this on your registration form. Table facilitators need to participate in a one-hour orientation on Tuesday, August 12 at 4:30 PM.
Assembly Guests
LCWR members are welcome to bring some of your executive leaders (e.g., chief operating officer, chief financial officer, etc.) and your communications and justice personnel. Each institute may bring up to four of these guests.
As religious institutes increasingly share the work of administration with others on their staffs, many are seeing the benefits of bringing these colleagues to LCWR assemblies so that these colleagues gain a larger view of the work of these times.
We see the presence of these co-workers at the assembly as a great asset for the conference and for their institutes. In addition to being present for all the main assembly events (speakers, panels, etc.), the executive leaders, communicators, and justice promoters will have two opportunities to meet in their respective role groups in breakout spaces on Thursday, August 14 and Friday, August 15.
The institute will need to pay the same registration fee as LCWR members pay ($500 per person) for the first two additional participants and half-price for a third or fourth ($250 per person).
LCWR Outstanding Leadership Award Presentation
At the closing banquet on Friday, August 15, LCWR will honor Mary Pat Garvin, RSM with its 2025 Outstanding Leadership Award.
Mary Pat, a Sister of Mercy of the Americas, serves as an educator, consultant, and facilitator for national and international institutes and conferences of religious. She has a particular interest in working with formators of religious, recognizing the need to prepare newer members for a religious life that is global and culturally diverse. Her ministries and service to religious life and other organizations has included: a member of the Sisters of Mercy of the Americas Institute leadership team (2011-2017), co-designer of and teacher in the UISG international program for the preparation of formators, interim co-executive director of the Religious Formation Program, and a faculty member of the Institute of Psychology at the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome.
In Service of the Assembly
Maria Elena Martinez, OSF will serve as the facilitator of this year’s assembly. Maria Elena is a Redwood City Franciscan. As an experienced facilitator, she has a gift for creating intercultural processes that nurture communal discernment. She is presently provincial minister of her province community in California.
Julie Tragon will serve as the coordinator of prayer and liturgy for the assembly. She has worked for the past 25 years as a full-time director of music and liturgy at parishes within the Tampa Bay area and in northeast Ohio. She is currently serving as the pastoral associate and parish catechetical leader at Church of the Resurrection in Solon, Ohio. She has also served as liturgist and musician for the Congregation of the Sisters of Bon Secours and the Congregation of the Blessed Sacrament – Province of St. Ann. She holds an undergraduate degree in music education and a graduate degree in theology and is a mother of three children.
Assembly Pricing
Register early to take advantage of discounted pricing.
Before June 21 $500
June 21-July 13 $510
July 14-July 31 $545
After July 31 $560
Registration Assistance
For assistance with your registration, please call Nix Conference & Meeting Management at 314-645-1455 or email registrar@nixmeetings.com.
