Many Charisms, One Spirit, One Call
LCWR will be hosting a gathering of 1200-1500 religious from across the Americas for input, prayer, reflection, and, most importantly, contemplative conversations on the significance of religious life for today and for the future. The gathering is a way for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious to mark the 70th anniversary of its establishment by hosting an event that supports the deepening of religious life into the future.
A gathering of this number of religious from Canada, the United States, and Latin America would be an historic first that would provide a venue where we can come to understand, appreciate, and support those of us who are living this lifeform through a diversity of expressions. The gathering is being designed as an experience that has the potential to be transformative – for each participant individually and for the collective body of religious in the Americas.
While the gathering will include some brief input from speakers, the main focus of the entire event will be on the small group conversations that we envision as personal, experience-based, and profound. Brief input on how religious life may continue to respond to the critical needs of the world and church will be offered to spark the conversations. In these exchanges, participants will name the experiences, hopes, and dreams that hold meaning for them and provide some insight into what may be on the horizon for religious life and its continued service to the world. The sharing will be conducted in the style of the church’s Synod on Synodality.
LCWR will make every effort to fundraise so that costs will not be prohibitive for religious who wish to attend but whose institutes do not have the means to make this possible.
