CSB hosts Women’s Spirituality Conference

03/11/2008

The second annual Women’s Spirituality Conference is March 27-28 at the College of Saint Benedict, St. Joseph.

The conference’s theme is, “Spirited Questions, Sacred Answers,” and celebrates the personal and professional experiences of women in ministry.

Although the conference is free, participants are asked to register online at the Journey Web site. 

The conference features a keynote speech from Sister Anne E. Patrick, SNJM, the William H. Laird Professor of Religion and the Liberal Arts at Carleton College, Northfield, Minn. Her speech, “Going After Life: The Myth and Mystery of Vocation,” is at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, March 27 in Room 204, Gorecki Dining and Conference Center.

Her speech follows registration at 5:30 p.m. and dinner at 6:30 p.m. at Alumnae Hall, Haehn Campus Center (shuttle buses will be available to transport participants from the HCC to the conference center).

Patrick is the guest of the Koch Chair in Catholic Thought and Culture lecture series at CSB.  Her scholarly focus has been on Christian feminist theology and ethics. Patrick has served as president of the Catholic Theology Society of America and as a founding vice-president of the International Network of Societies for Catholic Theology.

She is the author of numerous articles, reviews and the book, Liberating Conscience: Feminist Explorations in Catholic Moral Theology (1996). Patrick is currently writing another volume, Conscience in Context: Vocation, Virtue and History.

Barbara McAfee, a Twin Cities-based singer/songwriter, will offer a closing reflection at 9 p.m.

The conference resumes with a reception and continental breakfast at 8:30 a.m. Friday, March 28 at Gorecki Dining and Conference Center. McAfee offers a morning reflection at 9 a.m., followed by a conversation with McAfee and women in ministry at 9:15 a.m. The conversation is titled, “Prompting a Vocational Approach to Life and Ministry.”

The group includes Estela Villagran Mancanero, Hispanic ministry coordinator for the Archdiocese of Saint Paul and Minneapolis; the Rev. Yolanda Lehman, traveling evangelist for the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in St. Cloud; Kate Ritger, resident chaplain at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.; Jessica Guentzel, assistant director of Campus Ministry at CSB; Sister Mary Ann Hinsdale, professor of theology at Boston College; and McAfee.

A second conversation, “Living the Questions,” is at 10:45 a.m. at the conference center.

A complete conference schedule can be found on the Journey Web site.  

The conference is co-sponsored by Companions on a Journey.