FutureChurch

🍂 FutureChurch’s Annual Fall Event is just a few weeks away! 🍂

We’re excited to introduce you to each night of this year’s program. First up: Night One — Thursday, October 22 at 7pm ET.

✨ What Is Ours To Do? ✨

We’re bringing together Daryl Grigsby, Gabriel Lara, Angela Howard McParland, and Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv. for a keynote panel exploring a question that feels especially urgent right now:

In a time of deep division, injustice, and violence, what is ours to do?

Grounded in the Gospel and Catholic Social Teaching, our panel will explore what it means for the People of God—with all our different gifts, roles, and commitments—to respond to the signs of our times with courage, conviction, and care for the common good.

And this is just Night One! 👀 Meet the panelists below, and buy your tickets now!

https://futurechurch.org/fall-event/

📅 October 22 & 27 | 7pm ET | Online via Zoom

🏳️‍🌈 **40 years later, we’re still talking about the “Halloween Letter.”**

On October 30, 1986, the Vatican released its *Letter on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons* — a document that profoundly shaped the lives of LGBTQ+ Catholics and the history of the Church.

This fall, DignityUSA is hosting a four-part conversation series exploring the immediate and ongoing impact of the letter, including its impact on Dignity and its chapters.

FutureChurch is proud to cosponsor this important series alongside DignityUSA and other LGBTQ+ Catholic and theological organizations.

📅 Sept. 29 — The Immediate Impact
📅 Oct. 13 — Impact on Dignity & Chapters, Part 1
📅 Oct. 27 — Impact on Dignity & Chapters, Part 2
📅 Nov. 10— The Ongoing Impact

All sessions: 8 PM ET / 5 PM PT

Come listen, learn, remember, and reflect on 40 years of Q***r Catholic history. 🏳️‍🌈

Register through DignityUSA and join for as many sessions as you can!

https://dignityusa.app.neoncrm.com/event-detail?event=218

Yesterday at St. Joseph Spiritual Ministries, we gathered for our Boston Preaching Slam—and what an amazing afternoon it was! 💛

It was a gift to hear four perspectives on one reading: the story of Martha and Mary. Each homily offered a unique insight, yet a beautiful unifying message emerged: God sees us.

Thank you to Crista, Lynn, Kelly, and Calista for sharing your wisdom and preaching so beautifully; to Julia for presiding with such care; and to everyone who joined us and helped make the gathering so meaningful.

Here’s to more women at the pulpit and more afternoons like this one! ✨ Happy 10 years, Catholic Women Preach

✨ What is ours to do?

In a time of deep division, injustice, and violence, this question feels more urgent than ever.

Join FutureChurch for our 36th Annual Fall Event: Catholics for the Common Good on October 22 & 27 at 7pm ET on Zoom. We’ll gather with Catholic leaders, organizers, and young voices to reflect on how our faith calls us to respond—with courage, conviction, and care for one another and our common home.

Plus, we’ll celebrate the incredible leaders receiving this year’s Louis J. Trivison Award and Christine Schenk Award for Young Catholic Leaders. 💙

Two nights. One big question: What is ours to do?

🎟️ Register here: https://futurechurch.org/fall-event/

🌿 Happy Feast of St. Hildegard of Bingen! 🌿

A visionary, mystic, theologian, composer, preacher, and Doctor of the Church, Hildegard reminds us that the Holy Spirit is always inviting us to imagine new ways of being Church.

That spirit is alive today in the Community of St. Hildegard in Fairport Harbor, Ohio—an independent Catholic community founded by Rev. Dr. Shanon Sterringer and rooted in the holistic charism of Hildegard of Bingen.

As part of FutureChurch’s Pentecost Project, Martha highlighted how this community is creating space for people to remain deeply rooted in Catholic tradition while exploring new ways of praying, worshiping, learning, and building community. With both in-person and online gatherings, the Community of St. Hildegard is showing that new forms of community can still be profoundly Catholic.

As Rev. Shanon puts it, their greatest grace is “seeing the fruits of having created a space where people can be Catholic in a new way.”

On Hildegard’s feast day, we celebrate communities willing to trust the Spirit, and who minister inspired by her witness. 💚 Artwork by Nancy Marek Cote (https://www.mareksaints.com/)

We have learned learned today that Ludmila Javorová has died.

She was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in 1970 by Bishop Felix Davídek to serve the underground church in then Czechoslovakia through decades when Communist rule made that ministry a quiet act of courage.

In 2021, with Women's Ordination Conference, we were honored to co-host a conversation with Sr. Miriam Therese Winter, who shared Ludmila's story as Pope Francis traveled to Slovakia.

You can revisit "Pope Francis: Meet Your Priest, Ludmila Javorová" at https://futurechurch.org/women-in-church-leadership/pope-francis-meet-your-priest-ludmilla-javarova-with-miriam-therese-winter/

Ludmila's priesthood was real, even when the institution tried to deny it. Her witness endures. Rest in peace, Ludmila. Thank you for your witness and your ministry.

✨ This weekend! We’re gathering in Boston to celebrate 10 years of Catholic Women Preach with an afternoon of prayer, community, and powerful preaching on the story of Martha and Mary.

We are officially FULL! 🎉 But we’re creating a waitlist in case spots open up. If you’d still like to join us, please send us a DM or email [email protected] 💜

See you Sunday! 🙌

SAVE THE DATE ✨ What is ours to do?

In a season of deep division, injustice, and violence, people of faith are being asked a powerful question: What is ours to do?

Join FutureChurch for our 36th Annual Fall Event, happening virtually this October! Over two nights, we’ll gather with Catholic leaders and communities to explore how our faith calls us to courage, justice, solidarity, and the common good.

📅 Thursday, October 22 | 7 PM ET
Keynote Panel: Catholics for the Common Good: What Is Ours to Do?
Featuring Daryl Grigsby, Gabriel Lara, Angela Howard McParland, and Bishop John Stowe, OFM Conv.

📅 Thursday, October 23 | 7 PM ET
🏆 Louis J. Trivison Award: Joanna Arellano-Gonzalez
🌟 Christine Schenk Award for Young Catholic Leaders: Mollie Clark, AnnaMarie Pacione, and Lauryn Sweeney

Come hear stories of faith in action, celebrate leaders building a more just Church and world, and reflect on what we are being called to do in this moment.

💻 Join us online via Zoom!
🎟️ Tickets are available now: https://futurechurch.org/fall-event/

What if the biggest barrier to women’s ordination as deacons isn’t theology—but culture?

A new review in the National Catholic Reporter takes a closer look at Phyllis Zagano’s latest book, The Vatican and Women Deacons, which traces more than 50 years of Vatican conversations about women and the diaconate.

Zagano’s research points to a frustrating pattern: commissions are formed, studies are undertaken, questions are revisited—and yet the conversation continues to be deferred. Her argument is provocative: the question may no longer be whether women can be ordained as deacons, but whether the Church is willing to say yes.

And perhaps most importantly, Zagano offers a way forward rooted in subsidiarity, the gifts of women, and trust in the Holy Spirit.

As the review reminds us, the question of women deacons isn’t going away. And neither are the women called to serve.

Read the full review from National Catholic Reporter and learn more about The Vatican and Women Deacons.

New book illuminates true barrier to women's diaconate In The Vatican and Women Deacons, Phyllis Zagano makes the case that the primary barrier to ordaining women deacons today is not theological, but cultural.

A while back, Martha Ligas highlighted God Space, a Cincinnati-based space of welcome and belonging for seekers of all kinds, run by the Sisters of Divine Providence. Part of that community is the Providence Podcast, a welcoming space where faith meets real life.

Each week, women bring their voices and perspectives to scripture, exploring how ancient stories speak to the questions, joys, struggles, and hopes of our lives today. Rooted in the Catholic tradition and open to seekers of all kinds, the podcast offers thoughtful reflection, honest conversation, and a fresh look at faith, spirituality, justice, belonging, and the places where God meets us in ordinary life.

You don’t have to have all the answers. Come as you are. There is room for your story. Check out The Providence Podcast and more from Godspace here: https://www.godspacecommunity.com/providencepodcast