In the spirit of harvesting our insights along the path of walking toward kinship in our covenantal community, we offer glimpses into community member experiences. In these brief excerpts, Sarah and Nahum share what they are learning about our community experiment and how they are choosing to be in this societal moment of collapse and renewal.
“Whether we are in a maze of reactions in Jerusalem or the harrowing journey of Exodus, the truth is, we can’t come to liberation alone.”
Press About Nuns & Nones
Soli Salgado of Global Sisters Report interviewed several Nuns & Nones network sisters and seekers, and shared their wisdom, reading lists, and ground for hope in this time.
Emily McFarlan Miller from Religion News Service visited the Grand Rapids Sisters & Seekers group and wrote about the gathering she experienced.
Mark Hicks of The Detroit News covers local and national aspects of the growing Nuns & Nones movement.
Katie Gordon, national organizer with Nuns & Nones, was interviewed on the millennial Catholic podcast Jesuitical.
In Part 3 of the Global Sisters Report series highlights the six-month pilot residency at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA.
Nellie Bowles from the NYTimes visited the pilot residency at the Mercy Center in Burlingame, CA.
Gail DeGeorge in Global Sisters Report summarizes a Nuns & Nones-sponsored screening of Radical Grace during National Catholic Sisters Week in Washington DC.
Tom Roberts, editor at large for National Catholic Reporter, writes on where he finds hope in the Nuns & Nones movement.
Sarah McKinney Gibson of Encore.org, which created the Generation to Generation (Gen2Gen) campaign, wrote this article for the Christian Science Monitor.
In Part 2 of this series, Global Sisters Report explores the parallels between the unlikely community of women religious and millennial "nones" and their potential for a meaningful collaboration. While the decline in numbers at institutional congregations may be a discouraging trend to some, the union of these two groups may answer who could inherit the charisms that animate religious life today.
In Part 1 of this series, Global Sisters Report focuses on the coming together of experienced Catholic sisters and young people identifying as "nones" — shorthand for the box they check next to religion. Women religious and millennials seeking meaning have become partners through a shared passion for social justice issues, community life, and their devotion to a greater purpose. These two groups have found that they are "more alike than not."
Soli Salgado, staff writer for Global Sisters Report, in conversation with Sr. Judy Carle, RSM, and Sr. Gloria Marie Jones, OP, on National Catholic Reporter’s podcast.
Nuns & Nones was a finalist for the Encore Org’s Gen2Gen Prize - read more about it here.
By Claire Zulkey in US Catholic Magazine, Nov 2018 print issue.
On America This Week, writer Kaya Oakes discusses her America Magazine feature article.
Writer Kaya Oakes tells the story of Nuns & Nones in this national feature article.
Written by Jerry Ruff, Senior Writer and Editor for Saint Mary’s Press Research, in conversation with Sr. Barbara Hansen, OP, from the Grand Rapids Dominicans and GR-based Sisters & Seekers
Written by Jerry Ruff, Senior Editor and Writer at Saint Mary’s Press Research
Writing From Nuns & Nones Participants
In the Harvard Divinity Bulletin, national organizer Katie Gordon writes about the pull that some so-called “Nones” feel toward contemplative, social action and how it has led to this collaboration with Catholic Sisters.
There’s no one-size-fits-all model for Nuns & Nones, nor is there a “checklist” that signals success: In Minneapolis, success has looked like steady, consistent gatherings. In Philadelphia, a standalone gathering in 2017 sparked a lifelong relationship between a queer, Jewish organizer and the Sisters of Mercy. Anneke Kat, Stina Kielsmeier-Cook, and Sr. Stephanie Spandle, SSND share their stories.
Just a week after the launch of the DC Nuns & Nones group, many sisters were involved in a national Catholic Day of Action, at which 70 Catholics were arrested during a direct action in protest of the US government’s cruel treatment of immigrants at the border. Sr. Joan Mumaw, IHM and Brittany Koteles were both involved. Here’s what they shared about their experience.
As with any dialogue across difference, there are bound to be bumpy moments. At one point, it felt like the “honeymoon phase” of the Grand Rapids group was over. But rather than view this shift as a loss, the group took an intentional “pause” in order to collectively discern how to continue to deepen in community. Ellie Hutchison Cervantes and Sr. Justine Kane, OP share their reflections.
You’ve found the spiritual renegades in your community. How do you actually plan a first encounter between these people? Yi Zhang, Adam Horowitz, and Sr. Joan Marie O’Donnell, RSM shared a few of the highlights, how-tos, and secret ingredients that allowed the Bay Area Nuns & Nones group to continue thriving, 2 ½ years after its launch.
Halfway through her summer with the Erie Benedictines, Nuns & Nones teammate Katie Gordon shares reflections about the future of monastic life. “How we can we all continue to expand our sense of community? In religious life, in spiritual communities, and even in civic spaces – how can a sense of expansion help stretch our hearts and our traditions even deeper?”
"What does the earth ask of us?" Nuns & Nones organizers Rachel Plattus and Diana Marin on right relationship, listening to the land, the evolution of religious life, and courageous living in tumultuous times.
It turns out, seriously exploring this way of life is a threat to the life one already has…which, of course, is the whole point."
Sarah Jane Bradley was one of the residents of the Nuns & Nones pilot residency. Her reflections are the inaugural blog post of our #surpriseweresoulmates storytelling campaign, highlighting the many instances of alchemy when our communities combine.
Read the Viva Mercy (May-June 2019) issue and the feature on pages 4-8, which summarizes the Mercy Residency in Burlingame, CA.
From Adam Horowitz, Nuns & Nones organizer: “A long-form personal essay that chronicles the beginnings of Nuns & Nones, the unlikely path that led me to live at a convent in California, and some of the insights and future possibilities emerging along the way. Whether you’ve never met a nun or are one, I hope that there’s something in this story that speaks to you!”
Related News/Stories
In Global Sisters Report, Soli Salgado covered the 2018 LCWR conference, where out-going president Sr. Teresa Maya challenged leaders to listen to next generation, to Nones, pointing to Nuns & Nones as an example.
Written by John M. Vitek, president and chief executive officer of Saint Mary's Press and the Saint Mary's Press Research Group, is the coauthor of Going, Going, Gone: The Dynamics of Disaffiliation in Young Catholics (Saint Mary's Press, 2018).
Interview from US Catholic Magazine with Sister Teresa Maya, president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
By Duke Kwon, in the Washington Post.
Catherine Mueller in Global Sisters Report on the Loretto Community's acceptance of the noncanonical vows of two longtime co-members
A piece by Margaret Gonsalves in Global Sisters Report on the future of religious life.
A piece in Religion News Service from Emily McFarlan Miller on the movie “Lady Bird”
By Rebecca Parrish, for PBS.
By Linda Romey, in Global Sisters Report