Beth Liebert, SNJM
Panel on Vowed Membership
Province Chapter, July 8, 2013
Why the topic of New Vowed Membership is important to me:
1. The charism left us by Marie Rose Durocher and our other foundresses is as needed today as in the time of Marie Rose. Despite the advances in education, and in the condition of women in many parts of the world, there is still tremendous need for women committed to the full development of human persons, with particular concern for the poor and disadvantaged, to education, particularly to education in faith.
Of course, associates and others can (and do) carry on this charism. We’ve heard testimony to how this charism is carried on by associates and colleagues in ministry at several junctures in this chapter already. But the core of the charism is held in trust and furthered most particularly and by permanent commitment by the vowed members. That trust falls on the vowed members in a particular way. Of course, too, the circumstances in which that charism is manifested have changed considerably, and how it is lived out varries considerably from place to place as well. While we don’t live out that charism in exactly the same particular ways in our various regions and provinces, there is a strong family bond tying us together across both geography and time.
“Not a very specific charism; other can do that,” you say? True, but there is a particular kind of hospitality, passion for justice and care of the least coupled with professionalism, attention to detail, and follow through that sets apart our manner of actualizing these passions and commitments–our charism.
Education, in Marie Rose’s time and ours, is a primary means of evangelization. But our extraordinary times, with the radical shifts in understanding of the Holy and our relation to the Holy, of science and the scientific method, of creation and the place of human beings in creation, means that we must use all available means of evangelization. I personally have not warmed up to the term “new evangelization,” partly because of who is using the term and what I think they might mean by it. But when we return to the root—sharing the Gospel—then evangelization is what we are about by our Baptism, and in a particular way by living our charism as vowed members of the SNJM congregation. This kairos moment, in which the path to the future is more open that probably any time in the past 400 years, is a mission field like no other, with plenty of room for new expressions of our charism.
2. Which leads me to my second point: Every charism, not just ours, needs new blood if it is not to stagnate. So the second reason why I am passionately interested in new vowed members is for the ongoing renewal and refreshment of the charism. How we are to live it out given the rapidly changing circumstances in culture and church needs the input of as many fresh perspectives as we can bring to it. This moment is not the end of religious life; it is the end of the particular cultural expression that we have become so used to. But what is the new form? What is our new form? Our new ministries? We have to discover these in the doing. And fresh perspectives will help us see things we don’t see, learn things we need to know, and learn how to listen to and read the signs of these times. We come to this challenge as learners, as travelers with fellow travelers. It’s an exciting journey, and not one to try to make alone.
Do these new voices need to be young persons intent on vowed ministry? While such persons are most welcome (and we have to make ourselves known to them), I am committed to ongoing conversations with associates and those who work with us, as well as older women who might seek vowed membership. These women should be much more diverse in race and ethnicity and culture than has been characteristic of us in the past. In this new day, who has the wisdom we need? It may not lie where we expect it. Put negatively, we can’t afford to arbitrarily close off any group of persons from this conversation, put positively, the charism of the future will be built on just such diversity.
3. The third reason I am vitally interested in the issue of new vowed membership is that I am convinced that people are still being called. It is very hard to discern the call in this culture of secularism and non-institutional expressions of spirituality. Can we provide a home for these women’s discernment? To my mind, it is completely appropriate to welcome a woman into our community as part of her discernment, and then, as the discernment becomes clear, support her as she moves toward it—even if it not be to our congregation. In this sense, vocation ministry is a ministry to the Church, not just to our particular congregation. But in serving this larger ministry, if we do it with authenticity and skill, we will also be welcoming those whom God is calling to our congregation.
4. The Church needs thoughtful, articulate women religious as part of its ongoing life. And who are we, if not that? The Church needs this charism, our charism, as it, too, must learn to be the Church of the future. All of our varied voices are necessary to that discovery.
5. A word about something I am observing from my ministry perspective. As many of you know, I have worked for more than a quarter century at a Presbyterian Seminary. It is theologically liberal, matching quite closely the theological orientation of most of us. In the past 30 years, the trajectory of membership in the Presbyterian Church (USA) has been strikingly like the trajectory of membership in our congregation. The drops have been nothing short of precipitous in the past half dozen years. The pastorates are fewer and farther between, and it is very difficult now to count on making a living doing ordained ministry. You can imagine what this situation has done to the numbers of students coming to the seminary to prepare for ministry. But what I have observed is that there are still people coming to seminary. They know the situation in their church. They know the situation with ministerial positions is nothing short of grim. But a small group of them come anyhow. They sense they are called to do something very new and creative, though they seldom know what it is when they come. Can we do any less than welcome into our ranks those women, probably fewer in numbers yet called and creative, be they associates, lay consecrated, vowed or in some new form of membership that has yet to be dreamed up? They will be fewer, but they will be creative!
6. Finally, I’d like companions! It’s much more fun, and challenging, to walk this walk with others!