14th November 2024
We enjoyed a fascinating evening, hearing what it was like to be Outside, when the faithful are calling so strongly for us to be Inside the Synod :
​
​
"This is a complex issue with so many facets: you always manage to accommodate so many voices with great car, respect and efficiency"
"We need to challenge the voice given to the unaccountable clerical caste. Work for the removal of obstacles to serving marginalised"
"The church is appearing to change, in order to stay the same! "​​​​​​​​​​
​
Our panel of dedicated reformers
​
Dr Susan Roll Canadian Catholic Network for Women's Equality (CNWE)
Colm Holmes, Chair of We Are Church International
Miriam Duignan Trustee of Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research: WOW
Rhiannon Parry Thompson Root & Branch
Alicja Baranowska Co-ordinator, Kongres Katoliczek; WOW and Tekla Association
Kate McElwee Womens Ordination Conference, Women's Ordination Worldwide
Geoffrey Brome Thompson Northern Irish Presbyterian and R&B
Rosemary Ganley Canadian Catholic Network for Women's Equality, and Member of the Order of Canada.
Click below for recording
THANKS TO SO MANY FOR COMING to our Taster session
THE FLOURISHING COMMUNITY
on 1st August 2024,
with Nicholas Postlethwaite CP, Rev'd Lisa Loveridge and Anthony Cassidy CSsR
Doris Reisinger - 7 Points to Spiritual Abuse
12th June 2024
Doris Reisinger (Wagner) is a survivor of spiritual and sexual abuse. She holds a Masters degree in Theology and a PhD in Philosophy. She is an expert on clergy sexual abuse and spiritual abuse, and a well-known author and activist.
She currently researches spirituality and power at the department for Catholic Theology at Goethe University, Frankfurt am Maine, with a focus on the spiritual constitution of power, as well as gender aspects of sexual abuse in religious contexts, and women's experiences of violence in the Roman Catholic Church.
In her acceptance speech for the Sr. Christine Schenk Award for Young Catholic Leaders in 2020, she said, “That is one of the worst aspects of abuse; that it comes to you as a complete shock, and remains incomprehensible for a long time.” “I had never heard of spiritual abuse in the Catholic Church, let alone of priests who sexually abuse and rape nuns. Nor had my fellow sisters, nor my parents, nor anybody I knew. That such a thing was even possible, had never come to my mind. So when it happened to me, I could not decode it at first, and when I began to understand what had happened, my brain stopped."
​
​
To hear Doris's extremely powerful talk - Click here
To view Doris's slides - Click here
Thursday 20th June 2024, 8pm London time. Why do we feel as we do? How that might affect our thinking and behaviour? And what does it have to do with our relationship with the Church? Especially, what stops us moving forward and just being the church we want to see? The Church has spent centuries telling us what to think. But our feelings arise naturally. We cannot be told what to feel. In our relationship with the Church, we can have positive emotions such as joy, peace and meaning. But also many negative ones such as anger, betrayal, frustration or resentment at control. To explore these paradoxes in some depth, Penny and Kevin were in gentle conversation with a special emphasis on the emotional cost of being Catholic. Bring your questions with you, or find them rising in your heart as we listen. We held a lively, open and personal discussion led by these two professionals, both of whom work in mental health. And it will give us all a taster of Penny’s much-anticipated session, EMPOWERING OURSELVES - Flourish & Thrive, 30th Aug - 1st Sept, both online and live in-person at Hinsley Hall. So please listen to the recording. Much of what you hear may resonate with what’s going on inside you.
Kathleen McLaughlin - 23rd February 2023
Effecting Change from Within
​
Denis Jackson - 1st February 2023 - Broken and Blessed
​
Archbishop Charles Scicluna - 19th January 2023
Tom O'Loughlin - 7th December 2022 - Eating Together - Becoming One
Antonia Sobocki - 16th November - LOUDFence
Fr Hans Zollner SJ - 2nd November - Reclaiming Stolen Lives
Martha & Gert Heizer - 5th October 2022- Spirituality and Disobedience
​