Podcasts about women religious

Gayle Somers is the author of “Whispers of Mary” by Ascension Press. David Shellenberger promotes the upcoming Day of Prayer for the Health & Wellness of Clergy & Men & Women Religious. Gail Buckley Barringer has our Bible verse of the week.

Gayle Somers is the author of “Whispers of Mary” by Ascension Press. David Shellenberger promotes the upcoming Day of Prayer for the Health & Wellness of Clergy & Men & Women Religious. Gail Buckley Barringer has our Bible verse of the week.

In this segment from the Son Rise Morning Show on Sacred Heart Radio, Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. discusses Women Religious with a focus on Apostolic and Contemplative Religious communities.Apostolic communities are characterized by their work of charity in the world. They are sent out to care for those who are suffering and witness Christ. The contemplative communities emphasize the need to pray for the world and growing in a deeper relationship with God through their prayer.Apostolic religious life is a form of consecrated life within the Church wherein the members profess vows of chastity, poverty, and obedience within a congregation or community approved by the Church. Shared community life is an integral part of this form of consecrated life. In professing vows and living within community, the members individually and as a whole witness to a life of communion with Christ, the Church, and one another.The mystery of the contemplative life is woven tightly with the mystery of the Incarnation. This mystery finds an especially vivid expression in the life of a cloistered nun, when a woman chooses to spend her whole life within the walls of a monastery, hidden from the world for the sake of intimacy with God. The cloister is a shocking thing, and sometimes non-Christians (and Christians!) are scandalized by it. But even more shocking is the idea that an infinite God chose to take on a finite human nature, to confine Himself within the limits of the created world, which, to Him, must have seemed far, far smaller than the bounds of a cloistered monastery! Notes:Learn more about Apostolic Religious Life here.Explore Contemplative Communities here.Leadership Conference of Women Religious.Click to view Living as Missionary Discipleship ResourcesVocational Discernment ResourcesRead Ad Infinitum blog posts on Accompaniment and Mentorship  Follow us:The Catholic Apostolate CenterThe Center's podcast websiteInstagramFacebookApple PodcastsSpotify Fr. Frank Donio, S.A.C. also appears on the podcast, On Mission, which is produced by the Catholic Apostolate Center and you can also listen to his weekly Sunday Gospel reflections. Follow the Center on Facebook, Instagram, X (Twitter), and YouTube to remain up-to-date on the latest Center resources.

In this episode of THE MENTORS RADIO, Host Dan Hesse talks with Sister Donna Markham, PhD., an Adrian Dominican Sister and immediate past-president and CEO of Catholic Charities USA.  During her ministry there, she led the implementation of national initiatives directed at alleviating the suffering of vulnerable people in the United States.  Donna has dedicated the majority of her life as a licensed and board-certified clinical psychologist to the ministry of personal and global healing.  A writer, speaker and faith-driven leader, she is actively engaged in global peace initiatives and processes of reconciliation that have taken her across the world. Sister Donna received a doctorate in clinical psychology from the University of Detroit.  She is also the recipient of ten (10) honorary doctorates and has been named each year for the past eight years, as one of the Top 50 nonprofit leaders in the U.S. by The NonProfit Times.  Most recently, Sister Donna was honored by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for her extraordinary leadership on behalf of humanity.  In August 2023, she received the Outstanding Leadership Award from the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. And perhaps most impressive of all, Sister Markham was the answer to a question on Jeopardy! Listen to the show broadcast on Salem Radio in San Francisco, via live-streaming on iHeart Radio worldwide or anytime, on ANY podcast platform, including Apple Podcast, Spotify, iTunes, TuneIN, Stitcher, Google Play and all the others. Sign up for the podcast here. SHOW NOTES: SISTER DONNA MARKHAM, OP, PhD: BIO: BIO: Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD WEBSITE: Catholic Charities USA ARTICLES: LCWR honors Sr. Donna Markham a 'transformational leader' who took on 'unsolvable problems' — Global Sisters Report CCUSA president and CEO, Sister Donna Markham, to retire — Catholic Charities USA Adrian Dominican Sister Donna Markham, OP, PhD, Receives Outstanding Leadership Award — Dominican Life USA VIDEO CLIPS: Award Presentation: Tribute to and Response from Donna Markham, OP (especially powerful--truly inspiring, lead-by-example leadership and first-hand stories, is Sister Donna's response, which starts at the 19:54 marker )

Genealogist Sunny Morton didn't even know someone was missing from her family tree until a single mention in an obituary led her to a Nun.Sister Mary Bertilla.  This single name sparked a long search that culminated in the discovery of a remarkable, yet nearly forgotten, woman who dedicated herself to faith and service.  Her story, encapsulated in a touching obituary, highlights the silent sacrifices she made.Across the U.S. there are records in forgotten archives for more than 350,000 Women Religious - sisters and nuns - whose quiet contributions have deeply shaped our nation.  These women, often overlooked in family histories because they have no descendants, have stories that deserve to be told._______________________________________________Please rate and review this podcast and then share it with your family and friends.For ideas on how to connect more deeply with your family through family stories, follow Crista on Instagram @CristaCowan.

The more that I, and we, live and grow into the fullness of being to which God calls us, the more we belong to God and ourselves. When we belong like that, we'll find belonging wherever we go. You can hear Brené Brown's Unlocking Us Podcast Episode Strong Backs, Soft Fronts, and Wild Hearts at https://brenebrown.com/podcast/brene-on-strong-backs-soft-fronts-and-wild-hearts/ There's a song that I've been listening to on repeat, one that just speaks to so much of this, so I'll share it with you too. It's a lovely rock ballad by Shinedown called “A Symptom of Being Human.” Hope you love it too. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmMOMK5c4EY P.P.S And if you'd like to pray more about this, here's a lovely prayer service offered by the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. https://www.lcwr.org/files/attachments/02.11.24.pdf You can read the reflection and sign up to receive our weekly newsletter at www.GodSpaceCommunity.com. Subscribe to the Providence Podcast wherever you get your podcasts! At God Space, you can come as you are. You belong here.  God Space is a ministry of the Sisters of Divine Providence of Kentucky.   Do you want to learn more about the Sisters of Divine Providence? Check out our website here: www.CDPKentucky.org. --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/leslie-keener-cdp/message

Where exactly do women religious fall in to the church hierarchy? The Nuns discuss! Read the transcript here: https://anunslife.org/podcasts/random-nun-clips/RNC-as193-whos-the-boss Listen to the full episode of Ask Sister podcast here: https://anunslife.org/podcasts/ask-sister/as193 Don't forget to call us and leave a message. Tell us what you like, ask a question, or just say hi. Call 913-214-6087. Let us know your thoughts about the podcast by taking this short survey! Your input helps us shape the future of the In Good Faith podcast!

Preaching for the Solemnity of Christ the King, Carol Zinn, SSJ invites us to reflect on the end of the liturgical year and commit to new beginnings: "Perhaps situating this feast in its context of origin can provide a lens to situate ourselves as we end this liturgical year and ready ourselves for beginning again. How have we lived? How have we treated others? All living beings? How is it that we are still at war—within ourselves, between one another and among nations? How do we not hear the voice of the shepherd pointing the way to life? How can we continue to turn a blind eye to the needs of our sisters and brothers, near and far?  How do we drift so far away from living as sheep who know they are loved and as followers of a king whose heart bursts for each one of us?" Dr. Carol Zinn, a Sister of St. Joseph from Chestnut Hill, Philadelphia, PA has ministered in the formal and non-formal education profession.  She has taught on all levels (pre-K through post-graduate) and has worked in the areas of educational leadership, religious education, sacramental coordinator, and music minister. Currently Carol serves as the Executive Director of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/11262023 to learn more about Carol, to read her preaching text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

On this episode of Catholic Forum, after a news update from The Dialog, we speak with David Shellenberger, President and CEO of the Saint John Vianney Center which has served the mind, body and spirit of Catholic clergy and men and women religious since 1946. We learn about the “Day of Prayer for the Health and Wellness of Clergy and Men and Women Religious,” hosted by Saint John Vianney Center (SJVC). It will be held on Friday, October 20, 2023. The event will be live streamed from Our Lady of Hope Chapel on the campus of SJVC. We will also preview David's upcoming presentation on October 19th at the Saint Thomas More Oratory near the campus of the University of Delaware in Newark. Catholic Forum, a production of the Diocese of Wilmington's Office of Communications, airs on Saturday afternoons at 1:30 on Relevant Radio 640 and is available on Apple, Spotify, Amazon Music and iHeartRadio podcasts. Select interviews are available on the Diocese of Wilmington's YouTube channel - @dioceseofwilm. Please like, share and subscribe.

Published: January 17, 2023 The Saint John Vianney Center (SJVC) brings 76 years of service to Catholic Clergy, Consecrated Men and Women Religious, and Clergy of other Christian denominations worldwide. David Shellenberger, President, and CEO, joins Jim Friend to discuss how SJVC helps to identify and navigate the areas of stress and anxiety, emotional and addiction concerns, spiritual struggles, and health and medical needs of their clients. SJVC has created programs that provide the accompaniment and tools to inspire, heal, renew and restore a person's physical, behavioral, and spiritual well-being to live a healthy lifestyle and an effective ministry. Jim Friend also explains in this episode that he has joined the team at SJVC as their new Director of Mission Advancement. This episode launches a new year and a new era for our podcast, and we hope you will join us on this journey. On our next show: The Four Ways Forward: Becoming an Apostolic Parish in a Post-Christian World with the author, Susan Windley-Daoust This episode is sponsored by: Changing Our World About David ShellenbergerDavid Shellenberger, RN, BSN, serves as the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Saint John Vianney Center. In this role, he works to increase awareness of SJVC's prevention and educational services, as well as its assessment and behavioral health treatment programs. David served as Chief Operating Officer at SJVC since 2014 and has worked at the center since 2008. Previously, he was the Chief Nursing Officer responsible for all clinical practice and medical care performed by the nursing department. Past positions also included Infection Control and Patient Safety Officer and Director of the Complex Extended Stay Program. David helped develop the weight management and wellness program at the Saint John Vianney Center which assists residents with weight loss and healthy living through diet, education, treatment, and emotional and spiritual support. David also provides workshops for SJVC as part of our outreach services. Topics include Stress Management, Health, Wellness and Weight Management. He has over 15 years of administrative experience in various healthcare settings, including Beaumont at Bryn Mawr in Bryn Mawr, PA, and HCR Manor Care in Pottstown, PA. David received his BSN from York College of Pennsylvania and maintains his RN license through the State of Pennsylvania. Watch the video presentation of this discussion. https://youtu.be/NUtQ6Q1BuX8 Recorded: Friday, January 13, 2023 Don't miss Changing Our World's FORGING FORWARDDon't miss the webinar series FORGING FORWARD, a virtual philanthropic conference designed to bring you nonprofit experts from around the country who are leading through the COVID-19 crisis. Daily Spiritual Reflection and Prayers on “Kristin's Crosses” Join Jim and Kristin Friend and their family on Kristin's Crosses YouTube Channel for “Today's Catholic Prayers.” Jim and Kristin offer the daily Gospel and Reflection along with the Rosary and Catholic Prayers of the day. Click here to visit the YouTube Page and subscribe. If you would like to join the Kristin's Crosses prayer group on Facebook, click here to request to join.

Episode 59 of Messy Jesus Business podcast, with Sister Julia Walsh. Podcast: Play in new window | Download Subscribe: Google Podcasts | Stitcher | Email | RSS | More "One needs to be looking for Christ in the world, not for the mistakes the world makes about Christ.” - Phyllis Zagano IN THIS EPISODE In this episode of Messy Jesus Business podcast, Sister Julia Walsh talks with scholar, author and lecturer Dr. Phyllis Zagano about her faith journey and the role of women in the Catholic Church. They discuss synodality in the Catholic Church and women in the diaconate. Plus they get into the mess of power, advocating for change and living a life of faith, joy and prayer. Zagano noted, “My bishop asked me not long ago, ‘do you get up at 5 in the morning to write?' And I said ‘no, I get up at 5 in the morning to pray.'” ABOUT THE GUEST Phyllis Zagano is an internationally acclaimed Catholic scholar and lecturer on contemporary spirituality and women's issues in the church. Her award-winning books include Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church (First Place, 2001 Catholic Press Association and 2002 College Theology Society), Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority (Second Place, 2012 Catholic Press Association), Women Deacons? Essays with Answers (First Place, 2017 Catholic Press Association), Women: Icons of Christ (Second Place, 2021 Catholic Media Association) and Women Religious, Women Deacons: Questions and Answers (Paulist Press, 2022).  Her newest books are: Elizabeth Visits the Abbey (Clear Faith Publishing, 2022), a novel for young people about a twelve-year-old girl whose aunt, the abbess of a large abbey in Ireland, tells her about the history of women in the Church; and Just Church (Paulist Press, 2023), which reviews Catholic social teaching and modern synods in relation to current and prospective ministry by women. Her writing is widely translated — her best-selling On Prayer: A Letter for My Godchild is in Indonesian, Spanish and Italian as well as English — and she edited the Liturgical Press' "Spirituality in History" series. Zagano belonged to the 2016-2018 Papal Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. Winner of two Fulbright awards, her biographical listings include Marquis Who's Who. Her professional papers are held by the Women in Leadership Archives, Loyola University, Chicago. She holds a research appointment at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York. Phyllis's personal webpage at Hofstra University: https://sites.hofstra.edu/phyllis-zagano/ Her author page at Paulist Press: https://www.paulistpress.com/Author/Default.aspx?AuthorId=162911 Phyllis's monthly column for Religion News Service: https://religionnews.com/category/just-catholic/ Phyllis's guest columns in National Catholic Reporter: https://www.ncronline.org/authors/phyllis-zagano MESSY JESUS BUSINESS is hosted by Sister Julia Walsh.  Produced and edited by Colin Wambsgans. Email us at messyjesusbusiness@gmail.com BE SOCIAL:https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/MessyJesusBusiness Twitter: @messyjesusbiz Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/messyjesusbusiness SUPPORT US: https://www.patreon.com/messyjesusbusiness LISTEN HERE:

Are women religious just nice to have around or are they essential to the Church and to the world? Mike and Dave are joined by special guest Fr. John Burns to discuss the status of women's vocations to the consecrated life and why it is a major crisis. They offer reasons for why it is so important to have women religious and how we can introduce more people to their way of life. Snippet from the Show The consecrated woman reminds the Church what it means to be espoused to Christ. We want to hear from you! Email us at eksb@ascensionpress.com with your questions/comments Don't forget to text “EKSB” to 33-777 to get the shownotes right to your inbox! You can also find the full shownotes at www.ascensionpress.com/EveryKneeShallBow

Join Franciscan Sister Callista Robinson as she breaks open her experience as an African American woman of faith, rooted in her own culture. A life-long learner and teacher, her hospitality and compassion serve to build bridges of relationships across cultures.    For a video version of this episode, see: https://youtu.be/x9N0uDm-A_E     From Sister Callista's interview: “Franciscan values  of compassion, serving the very poor and underserved,  have really influenced me as a Franciscan Sister.  And peacemaking and social justice, those are Franciscan values. It seems to me you cannot talk to a Franciscan without hearing that person say something about social justice and how we have to go out to those who are not served. … Another Franciscan value that we have is we're very hospitable.”   Wisdom to share: “Have a conversation with God, which we call prayer, an open and honest conversation where you let God do the talking and you do the listening. And from there each person will receive the wisdom that they need, whether that is to be more trustful, to be more compassionate, to be more accepting of others from a different culture, whatever that might be. Listening and talking with God – but more listening rather than talking.”   For a full transcript, please include episode number and email: fslfpodcast@fslf.org.   References: Sr. Callista Robinson, OSF – 35th Annual Black Excellence Awards Honoree: https://milwaukeetimesnews.com/35th-annual-black-excellence-awards/honorees/sr-callista-robinson-osf   School Sisters of Saint Francis: https://www.sssf.org/   Loretto Academy, Chicago, an integrated high school for girls: https://www.preservationchicago.org/loretto-academy-institute-of-the-blessed-virgin/   Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, founded by Saint Katharine Drexel; their mission was to evangelize and educate African Americans and Native Americans:https://www.katharinedrexel.org/st_katharine_drexel_overview/founding-of-the-sisters-of-the-blessed-sacrament/   Saint Anselm Catholic School, Chicago: https://stanselmchicago.com/?page_id=7   Franciscan Sisters of Little Falls, Minnesota, history: https://www.fslf.org/aboutus; Sister Thomasine Schmolke: https://thecentralminnesotacatholic.org/little-falls-franciscan-sister-writes-new-history-of-her-community     Vatican Council II: a five-minute video about the Council by Franciscan friar Casey Cole: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jyVq1hnxAqg .To hear other podcast guests references as well as to see show note links (click on ‘Read More'), type ‘Vatican' into the search bar of this website, and several options will come up to explore.   National Black Sisters Conference (NBSC), founded to support each other as African Americans: https://www.nbsc68.com/   LCWR (Leadership Conference of Women Religious): https://lcwr.org/   Center for Consecrated Religious, at CTU (Chicago Theological Union): https://ctu.edu/cscl/   Network: https://networklobby.org/about/catholicsocialjustice/   Saint Francis of Assisi Parish, Milwaukee: https://www.stfrancismil.org/   Brother Booker Ashe Lay Ministry Program, Milwaukee: https://blackandindianmission.org/news/congrats-brother-booker-ash-lay-ministry-graduates     Adult Learning Center, Milwaukee: https://www.alcmke.org/   Black History Month: https://asalh.org/about-us/origins-of-black-history-month  - also see: https://blackhistorymonth.gov/   Saint Francis de Sales Seminary, Archdiocese of Milwaukee: https://www.sfs.edu/SFSHome   Dr. Antoinette Mensah, MD, Director of Archdiocesan Office for World Mission and the Society for the Propagation of the Faith, Archdiocese of Milwaukee: https://cx.uwp.edu/antoinette-mensah.html     Sister Callista with students from Harambee Community School in Milwaukee    

GET TRANSCRIPT AND FULL SHOWNOTES: melanieavalon.com/fastinghistory 2:15 - IF Biohackers: Intermittent Fasting + Real Foods + Life: Join Melanie's Facebook Group At Facebook.com/groups/paleoOMAD For A Weekly Episode GIVEAWAY, And To Discuss And Learn About All Things Biohacking! All Conversations Welcome! 2:30 - Follow Melanie On Instagram To See The Latest Moments, Products, And #AllTheThings! @MelanieAvalon 3:00 - AVALONX SUPPLEMENTS: AvalonX Supplements Are Free Of Toxic Fillers And Common Allergens (Including Wheat, Rice, Gluten, Dairy, Shellfish, Nuts, Soy, Eggs, And Yeast), Tested To Be Free Of Heavy Metals And Mold, And Triple Tested For Purity And Potency. Get On The Email List To Stay Up To Date With All The Special Offers And News About Melanie's New Supplements At avalonx.us/emaillist! Get 10% Off Serrapeptase 125, Magnesium 8 AND Berberine 500 At avalonx.us And mdlogichealth.com With The Code MelanieAvalon!   Text AVALONX To 877-861-8318 For A One Time 20% Off Code for avalonx.us! 5:35 - FOOD SENSE GUIDE: Get Melanie's App At Melanieavalon.com/foodsenseguide To Tackle Your Food Sensitivities! Food Sense Includes A Searchable Catalogue Of 300+ Foods, Revealing Their Gluten, FODMAP, Lectin, Histamine, Amine, Glutamate, Oxalate, Salicylate, Sulfite, And Thiol Status. Food Sense Also Includes Compound Overviews, Reactions To Look For, Lists Of Foods High And Low In Them, The Ability To Create Your Own Personal Lists, And More! 6:15 - BEAUTYCOUNTER: Non-Toxic Beauty Products Tested For Heavy Metals, Which Support Skin Health And Look Amazing! Shop At beautycounter.com/melanieavalon For Something Magical! For Exclusive Offers And Discounts, And More On The Science Of Skincare, Get On Melanie's Private Beautycounter Email List At Melanieavalon.Com/Cleanbeauty Or Text BEAUTYCOUNTER To 877-861-8318! Find Your Perfect Beautycounter Products With Melanie's Quiz: melanieavalon.com/beautycounterquiz 10:35 - The Research That Went Into The Book 13:30 - Steve's Personal Story 18:30 - Dr. Henry Tanner, The Father Of Fasting 26:25 - Why Don't Doctors Believe In The Power Of Fasting? 28:45 - HOLDON BAGS: Reduce Single-Use Plastic! HoldOn Makes Heavy Duty, Plant-Based, Nontoxic And 100% Home Compostable Trash, Bags, Sandwich Bags, And Gallon Bags To Help Combat Our Toxic Plastic Environment! Sustainability Has Never Been More Simple! Visit Holdonbags.Com/MELANIEAVALON And Enter Code MELANIEAVALON At Checkout To Save 20% Off Your Order! 31:50 - Heroic Medicine 35:45 - Historical Theories About Endogenous Energy Sources During Fasting 38:00 - Why Didn't People Notice It Was Fat That Was Being Burnt For Energy? 40:00 - Fasting In Greek History 46:35 - How Do We Know These Famous Quotes Aren't Real? 49:00 - Fasting In Religion 52:45 - Women Taking On The Role Of Fasting  59:50 - The Oppression Of Women Through Diet Control 1:02:40 - LOMI: Turn Your Kitchen Scraps Into Dirt, To Reduce Waste, Add Carbon Back To The Soil, And Support Sustainability! Get $50 Off Lomi At lomi.com/melanieavalon With The Code MELANIEAVALON! 1:05:35 - Jainism 1:09:20 - Dying Of Starvation 1:11:15 - The Loss Of Fasting In Christianity And The Creation Of Lent 1:20:00 - Bernarr Macfadden 1:26:30 - Upton Sinclair 1:33:40 - The Dismissal Of Fasting In Modern Medicine 1:36:00 - LMNT: For Fasting Or Low-Carb Diets Electrolytes Are Key For Relieving Hunger, Cramps, Headaches, Tiredness, And Dizziness. With No Sugar, Artificial Ingredients, Coloring, And Only 2 Grams Of Carbs Per Packet, Try LMNT For Complete And Total Hydration. For A Limited Time Go To drinklmnt.com/melanieavalon To Get A Sample Pack With Any Purchase! 1:39:05 - "Tricking" People Into Fasting 1:40:50 - Valter Longo And Fasting Mimicking Diet 1:47:30 - Fasting Clinics 1:50:30 - Alan Goldhamer's Data On Blood Pressure  1:54:30 - Steve's Experience At The Clinic 1:57:45 - The Future Of Fasting 2:01:05 - Steve's Fasting Practices

GET TRANSCRIPT AND FULL SHOWNOTES: melanieavalon.com/fastinghistory 2:15 - IF Biohackers: Intermittent Fasting + Real Foods + Life: Join Melanie's Facebook Group At Facebook.com/groups/paleoOMAD For A Weekly Episode GIVEAWAY, And To Discuss And Learn About All Things Biohacking! All Conversations Welcome! 2:30 - Follow Melanie On Instagram To See The Latest Moments, Products, And #AllTheThings! @MelanieAvalon 3:00 - AVALONX SUPPLEMENTS: AvalonX Supplements Are Free Of Toxic Fillers And Common Allergens (Including Wheat, Rice, Gluten, Dairy, Shellfish, Nuts, Soy, Eggs, And Yeast), Tested To Be Free Of Heavy Metals And Mold, And Triple Tested For Purity And Potency. Get On The Email List To Stay Up To Date With All The Special Offers And News About Melanie's New Supplements At avalonx.us/emaillist! Get 10% Off Serrapeptase 125, Magnesium 8 AND Berberine 500 At avalonx.us And mdlogichealth.com With The Code MelanieAvalon!   Text AVALONX To 877-861-8318 For A One Time 20% Off Code for avalonx.us! 5:35 - FOOD SENSE GUIDE: Get Melanie's App At Melanieavalon.com/foodsenseguide To Tackle Your Food Sensitivities! Food Sense Includes A Searchable Catalogue Of 300+ Foods, Revealing Their Gluten, FODMAP, Lectin, Histamine, Amine, Glutamate, Oxalate, Salicylate, Sulfite, And Thiol Status. Food Sense Also Includes Compound Overviews, Reactions To Look For, Lists Of Foods High And Low In Them, The Ability To Create Your Own Personal Lists, And More! 6:15 - BEAUTYCOUNTER: Non-Toxic Beauty Products Tested For Heavy Metals, Which Support Skin Health And Look Amazing! Shop At beautycounter.com/melanieavalon For Something Magical! For Exclusive Offers And Discounts, And More On The Science Of Skincare, Get On Melanie's Private Beautycounter Email List At Melanieavalon.Com/Cleanbeauty Or Text BEAUTYCOUNTER To 877-861-8318! Find Your Perfect Beautycounter Products With Melanie's Quiz: melanieavalon.com/beautycounterquiz 10:35 - The Research That Went Into The Book 13:30 - Steve's Personal Story 18:30 - Dr. Henry Tanner, The Father Of Fasting 26:25 - Why Don't Doctors Believe In The Power Of Fasting? 28:45 - HOLDON BAGS: Reduce Single-Use Plastic! HoldOn Makes Heavy Duty, Plant-Based, Nontoxic And 100% Home Compostable Trash, Bags, Sandwich Bags, And Gallon Bags To Help Combat Our Toxic Plastic Environment! Sustainability Has Never Been More Simple! Visit Holdonbags.Com/MELANIEAVALON And Enter Code MELANIEAVALON At Checkout To Save 20% Off Your Order! 31:50 - Heroic Medicine 35:45 - Historical Theories About Endogenous Energy Sources During Fasting 38:00 - Why Didn't People Notice It Was Fat That Was Being Burnt For Energy? 40:00 - Fasting In Greek History 46:35 - How Do We Know These Famous Quotes Aren't Real? 49:00 - Fasting In Religion 52:45 - Women Taking On The Role Of Fasting  59:50 - The Oppression Of Women Through Diet Control 1:02:40 - LOMI: Turn Your Kitchen Scraps Into Dirt, To Reduce Waste, Add Carbon Back To The Soil, And Support Sustainability! Get $50 Off Lomi At lomi.com/melanieavalon With The Code MELANIEAVALON! 1:05:35 - Jainism 1:09:20 - Dying Of Starvation 1:11:15 - The Loss Of Fasting In Christianity And The Creation Of Lent 1:20:00 - Bernarr Macfadden 1:26:30 - Upton Sinclair 1:33:40 - The Dismissal Of Fasting In Modern Medicine 1:36:00 - LMNT: For Fasting Or Low-Carb Diets Electrolytes Are Key For Relieving Hunger, Cramps, Headaches, Tiredness, And Dizziness. With No Sugar, Artificial Ingredients, Coloring, And Only 2 Grams Of Carbs Per Packet, Try LMNT For Complete And Total Hydration. For A Limited Time Go To drinklmnt.com/melanieavalon To Get A Sample Pack With Any Purchase! 1:39:05 - "Tricking" People Into Fasting 1:40:50 - Valter Longo And Fasting Mimicking Diet 1:47:30 - Fasting Clinics 1:50:30 - Alan Goldhamer's Data On Blood Pressure  1:54:30 - Steve's Experience At The Clinic 1:57:45 - The Future Of Fasting 2:01:05 - Steve's Fasting Practices  

The Saint John Vianney Center (SJVC) brings 76 years of service to Catholic Clergy, Consecrated Men and Women Religious, and The post 129. Saint John Vianney Center appeared first on Advancing Our Church .

For this episode of our guest series, we're honored and humbled to sit down with Rabbi Denise L. Eger. Rabbi […] The post Trailblazing for Queer Women Religious Leaders with Rabbi Denise Eger appeared first on Queer Theology.

Preaching for the Twenty-ninth Sunday in Ordinary Time, Jessica Kerber, aci, offers a reflection on resistant hope: "It is interesting, then, in our Gospel reading, that when Jesus speaks about the need to be persistent in prayer, he does not pull out the example of Moses, but rather, he turns to the widow: a poor widow who has not actually seen manna falling from heaven, a poor widow who has not witnessed water being poured forth from a rock, and a poor widow who is not watching the Israelite forces defeat the great forces of Amalek's army. She is a poor widow, rather, who desires that justice be done for her…in her daily life, in the smallness of the life. This is the example that Jesus pulls out. Here too we experience - in the daily, in something that relates much more to us and to the people that we know and love – Jesus speaking of this need of continued persistence and resistant hope. For this poor widow must resist three things..." Sister Jessica Kerber is a Handmaid of the Sacred Heart of Jesus, an international congregation of Women Religious with Ignatian Spirituality and a charism of Eucharistic Reparation. As a sister, she completed her philosophy and theology studies at the Jesuit Pontifical University in Madrid, where she also studied about the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius and spiritual direction. Sr. Jessica currently coordinates the Ignatian Service Minor at St. Louis University and teaches a course within this program. Her primary role, however, is as formator for her sisters, offering opportunities and accompaniment for the sisters of temporary vows to continue to explore, deepen, and discern their vocation as Handmaids. Visit www.catholicwomenpreach.org/preaching/10162022 to learn more about Sr. Jessica, to read her text, and for more preaching from Catholic women.

Dr. Elizabeth Lehfeldt teaches history at Cleveland State University. Her scholarly work focuses on the lives of nuns in late medieval and early modern Spain. In this episode of More Human, she talks with Dean Jordan about the kind of work her research requires and shares some surprising insights about the lives of the women she studies

Host: Joyce Duriga. Sr. Donna Liette, C.PP.S. discusses her ministry and how women religious are now holding monthly vigils to pray for homicide victims.

The Catholic Church is the largest Christian denomination in the world. And it has almost no women in leadership roles. From the smallest parish to the Vatican, Catholicism is dominated almost exclusively by men.  Church leaders and apologists will hasten to explain that this does not mean that the Catholic Church is misogynistic. The church, they say, has always defended and protected women's rights. St. Pope John Paul II wrote in his 1995 Letter to Women that “the Church desires for her part to contribute to upholding the dignity, role and rights of women.” Many will point to the church's veneration of Mary of Nazareth as evidence of a pro-woman ethos. But Catholic tradition is not exclusively patriarchal. Other threads of tradition wind back through church history to its very beginning, traditions in which women did hold positions of leadership and responsibility. The early church had women deacons. Women religious often held positions of influence. And today, under Pope Francis, doors may be opening to women to reclaim some of these positions. In today's episode of Field Hospital, Jeannie and Mike discuss the role of women in the church with internationally acclaimed scholar Phyllis Zagano, who has written extensively about women in church history, especially women deacons. Zagano has also advocated tirelessly for the restoration of the woman's diaconate—often in the face of harsh criticism.  Some of Zagano's books on the topic of women in the church include Holy Saturday: An Argument for the Restoration of the Female Diaconate in the Catholic Church (2000), Women & Catholicism: Gender, Communion, and Authority (2012), Women in Ministry: Emerging Questions about the Diaconate (2012), Women Deacons? Essays with Answers (2016), Women: Icons of Christ (2021), and Women Religious, Women Deacons: Questions and Answers (2022). Zagano has won numerous academic awards, and has taught at Fordham, Boston, and Hofstra Universities and at the Yale Divinity School.  In 2016, Pope Francis appointed her to the initial Papal Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. She was nominated by the International Union of Superiors General. She continues her research at Hofstra University in Hempstead, New York. LINKS: “Women and authority in the church” By Phyllis Zagano https://uscatholic.org/articles/201210/women-and-authority-in-the-church/  “What's the problem with women deacons?” By Phyllis Zagano https://uscatholic.org/articles/201802/whats-the-problem-with-women-deacons/  "Is the Catholic Church ready for women cardinals?" By Phyllis Zagano  https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2022/04/21/lay-female-cardinals-242874  “A Tale of Two Deacons” By Phyllis Zagano https://sites.hofstra.edu/phyllis-zagano/wp-content/uploads/sites/12/2021/09/2021-A-Tale-of-Two-Deacons-The-Tablet-9-4-21.pdf  “Are women involved in a toxic relationship with the church?” By Phyllis Zagano https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/just-catholic/are-women-involved-toxic-relationship-church  “Women Deacons 101: Final Exam” By Phyllis Zagano https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/just-catholic/women-deacons-101-final-exam  “Look up at the altar, where are all the women?” By Phyllis Zagano https://www.ncronline.org/news/opinion/just-catholic/look-altar-where-are-women  “New Vatican constitution will create more space at the table” A U.S. Catholic interview https://uscatholic.org/articles/202205/new-vatican-constitution-will-create-more-space-at-the-table/  "Interview with Dr. Phyllis Zagano on Women in the Church" Where Peter Is podcast with Mike Lewis and Dan Amiri https://wherepeteris.com/interview-with-dr-phyllis-zagano-on-women-in-the-church/  "Spiritus Domini: Development in Continuity" By Rachel Amiri  https://wherepeteris.com/spiritus-domini-development-in-continuity/  "Pope Francis takes concrete steps for women in the Church" By Mike Lewis  https://wherepeteris.com/pope-francis-takes-concrete-steps-for-women-in-the-church/  This episode of Field Hospital is supported by Catholic Theological Union. https://ctu.edu/ 

Sister Mary Pellegrino, Senior Vice President of Plante Moran consulting firm, and her consultant team work to ensure that religious institutes realize their potential and meet the challenges of the day, through the lens of their mission and charism. By changing the way the story of religious life is currently told, from one of scarcity and diminishment to one of abundance and social capital, Sister Mary sees exciting possibilities for religious institutes to collaborate in creating a more just and equitable world. Prior to working with Plante Moran, Sister Mary served as congregational moderator of her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, Pennsylvania, and served in the presidency of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the US. Mary has also served in vocation formation ministries for her congregation, as well as parish and campus ministries.  (2:30)  Who's Zooming who? (4:51)  Chapter (5:45)  Serving the Sisters who serve others (11:16)  The abundance perspective (18:58)  Sister Power (23:53)  The baking of the bread (32:28)  Sisters are critical yeast (40:58)  Growing up (44:10)  A vocation begins (48:43)  Entering the community (51:31)  Living in community (54:50)  Combining vocation and Vocation (55:14)  “DRE” in name only? (1:00:20)  Vocation Ministry (1:02:33)  A difference in vocation and Vocation  Links for this podcast: Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden Plante Moran Sisters of St. Joseph US Federation   Read the transcript here. Subscribe to our newsletter: https://siste.rs/3isP2CZ Check out lots more podcasts: https://siste.rs/2SfnoyS Let us know your thoughts about the podcast! Please take this short survey—your input helps us shape the future In Good Faith podcasts. Click HERE to take the survey. Thank you!

Leadership can be painful and filled with great blessing. Sister Mary Pellegrino reflects on her time in leadership for her community, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Baden, and for the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Host: Sister Rejane Cytacki. Hear the full In Good Faith episode here. Read the transcript here. Don't forget to call us and leave a message. Tell us what you like, ask a question, or just say hi. Call 913-214-6087. Let us know your thoughts about the podcast by taking this short survey! Your input helps us shape the future of the In Good Faith podcast! Click HERE to take the survey. Thank you!

“Who is journeying with me on this path?” Sister Michelle Garlinski, SNJM and Sister Sarah Rudolph, IBVM are bringing younger and new religious together to answer that question. In this episode, they share their experience connecting across congregations to create a "community of communities" and reflect on the evolution of religious life.

We're back!  Welcome to Dating In The City, Season 6!  The sisters start 2022 off with breaking down all of the latest celebrity relationship related stories and relating them back to you, IRL.  Did Megan Fox and Machine Gun Kelly really drink each others' blood after they got engaged?  Was Mary Cosby from Real Housewives of Salt Lake City religiously coerced into marrying her step-grandfather?  Is 'religious luring' a thing? The Matchmakers also answer a listener's Sisterly Advice: Manswers question about the 6 types of women and break down this week's Sex and The City episode. The sisters debate these hot topics and more on today's podcast!  For more, be sure to follow the sisters on social! @matchmakeralessandraconti @matchmakercristinapineda @datinginthecityshow To be matched by our team of Matchmakers, visit www.matchmakersinthecity.com.

On this week's 51%, we wrap our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis discusses her work at the Jannah Institute, an Islamic school for women. Uzma Popal, director of the Capital Region's Muslim Soup Kitchen Project, shares how charity is a pillar of her faith. And Stanford University's Dr. Amina Darwish challenges the perception of Muslim women in the U.S. (more…)

On this week's 51%, we wrap our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis discusses her work at the Jannah Institute, an Islamic school for women. Uzma Popal, director of the Capital Region's Muslim Soup Kitchen Project, shares how charity is a pillar of her faith. And Stanford University's Dr. Amina Darwish challenges the perception of Muslim women in the U.S. Guests: Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis, founder of the Jannah Institute; Uzma Popal, director of the Muslim Soup Kitchen Project; Dr. Amina Darwish, Associate Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life at Stanford University 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King, our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. This week, we're wrapping our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. By now, at part four, we've spoken to women from various backgrounds about their beliefs. My hope in doing this, as someone who doesn't know much about religion, was to hear directly from women about how they worship, why they do it, and what they see as the greatest challenges in their faiths - because while a lot of today's mainstream religions are traditionally male-led, women are increasingly stepping up to the plate. Today, we're wrapping the series by speaking with three well-versed Muslim women. Our first guest is Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis, the founder and chairman of the Jannah Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. Haifaa Younis is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with roots in Iraq, and she says she started the Jannah Institute in 2013 to offer an Islamic education for women, by women. Haifaa Younis always wanted to dive deeper into her faith, and before starting the Institute, she went on her own journey in search of knowledge — a mission that proved somewhat difficult in the U.S. at the time. After trying various remote learning methods, she packed up her life and moved to Saudi Arabia, where she graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies. "There, actually, is where I met the woman scholars. Before that I have not – maybe I've read about them before, but there I definitely met [them]. I learned 90% from woman scholars, with really deep knowledge," says Younis. "And the beauty when you learn from a woman – and this is not because of gender – is just because, as a woman, you know she goes through what you are going through. It's closer. So it doesn't mean the man doesn't do it, but it's just something a little bit [closer]. I didn't know this ‘till I felt it, ‘till I tried it. What kinds of classes are you teaching at the Jannah Institute? At the Jannah Institute, what we offer, there is a broad spectrum, because there's so many things you can learn about Islam. So we divided it into the main two things: the holy book itself, and then what we call Islamic study. So the holy book [courses are] if people want to learn how to read. Remember, the holy book, the Quran, is in Arabic, and the majority of the women that live in the west don't speak Arabic, and they don't know how to read. So we offer them courses from the basics, from literally the alphabet, to becoming an expert in reading. Then, if someone knows how to read, but they want to memorize – it's a huge virtue to memorize – we offer that too. Then we offer, if you want to read but you want to read perfect – how you study academically. How do you read it? It's a whole subject. That's one. And then the other, which is much more needed, is basically, “What does Islam say? What does Islam teach? How can I practice my religion living in the west, in 2022, as a professional woman, as a mother, as both?” And this is what we offer. We started in 2017, giving six-to-eight week courses, once a week or twice a week. And then last year in March, we call this “The Year of Knowledge: What Every Muslim Woman Should Learn About Islam.” And we designed it in a way that it is the traditional books and the traditional sciences, but in a practical way, and that the ordinary woman – the goal is not to graduate scholars, I told the woman from day one – the goal is you learn your religion, and how you apply it in your daily life. So what are some of the ways that students are taking those lessons into their daily lives? Whenever we are learning, the first question comes in how to apply it. So when we finished our first semester, we had the final exam. And at the end, there was a question, and I told the students, “This is not going to be marked.” And the question was, “What did this subject change in your life? And how did you apply it in your daily life?” So for example, when we were teaching the woman about prayers, how you pray – not supplication, how you perform, we call it “Sana” in Islam. And then we taught them all of it, the connection to God and everything. So what they wrote was amazing. Like, “I always used to look at it as a duty, I have to do it. I never thought of it as it is a connection with my creator. And now I take my time to do it.” The science of the Quran, which is very academic, and it's not easy – they said, “Although it is challenging, and a lot of new information, it's changed the way I look to the book itself. Like, ‘How am I, as a woman living in this day and age, how do I apply it? How do I learn it? And how do I teach it to my children and apply it in my home?'” So basically, it's a practical theory, but we bring it to practice always. And you went to school to memorize the Quran, correct? Yes. Yes, definitely. Was that like? How do you break up such a large text to put it down to memory? The younger you are the better, because your brain is not busy yet. So usually, either you do it yourself – a lot of people do it, but it takes much longer. Or you do it with a teacher one-to-one. Or the best way, where everyone will advise you, is you go to school. And usually there are small classes, eight or nine in the class. And you all memorize the same. The teacher is usually very expert. Usually, the way they do it, to make it easy: it's 30 parts. So they usually divided over three years, and every year you memorize 10 parts. The irony, if you want to use the word, and the challenge, is that you can forget it very easily. So when you memorize, you have to keep reviewing. So you build up…and you get tested and tested and tested. So you sit in front of the teacher, and you don't have the book, she opens it to any page, and then she says, “Read from the following.” What does worship look like to you? To me, and I have seen it also as we are teaching, what has the most impact is when you start learning about your creator. Because whatever we say, and we say, “Yeah, I know, I know, I know.” But when you start studying in detail – so we believe in a creed, that he is the only creator and the Prophet, peace be upon him, is the messenger. And then when you look at who is he, like we spend 13 weeks studying “Who is he?” This really had an impact on me before the students. One of the sayings says, “He created us, and he doesn't need us.” And he gives to us constantly and never runs out, if you want to use this word, of continuous giving. I always tell the students: take a break. Just think about this, close your eyes and see, “Who is he?” So when you want something, why do you ask from people? Why don't you go and ask from the source? And the source will make me subcontractors, if you only use the word, do it. So the most important to me personally, as a woman, is this connection, this personal connection. Anywhere I want to go – I don't need anybody, I just sit and I talk to him. And if you know his words, the holy book, it's even better, because now you're talking to him with his own words and spirit. Islam is a very spiritual religion, and many people don't know that, unfortunately. Even Muslims don't know that. There's a lot of spirituality and personal connection. And you don't get the peace that we are supposed to get from religion, unless you have this. One thing I've been asking my guests is, do you see any opportunities or obstacles in your religion? I would call them both. Because the obstacle is, I will call it one of the most misunderstood religions – because of many reasons, you probably know, working in the media. But this obstacle is the opportunity. This is how I look at it. For example, I cover my hair, right? So people will ask me about this. Well, this is an opportunity. I can look at it as an obstacle – “Well, they have labeled me” – but no, I look at it as an opportunity to explain to people what is my religion. Since I am doing it – I am convinced that I didn't do it for any other reason than to please Him, God – then this is the opportunity. I've been a professional lay woman for years, studied all in the western world. I have always had people, when they asked me, the first thing I say to myself is, “They don't know, there is no other reason they are asking. And this is the opportunity.” And this is what I teach, also, at the Jannah Institute. I always tell the women, “When you are in that grocery shop, this is your opportunity to practice what you are learning.” One of the teachings of the Prophet is to not get upset, don't get angry. So you go to the grocery shop, and the cashier is busy or made a mistake. Because we are so much used to everything going our way, we get upset. But remember what you learned and apply it, especially as a Muslim woman. And that's the opportunity. Do you have either a favorite religious message, or story, or person from the Quran that you'd like to share? Oh, I have lots of stories. My friends know that. But one story is not about me, but I was there. And I'm talking to you about the connection because I saw the connection on the spot. This is in the holy month of Ramadan. The last 10 days of Ramadan is a very highly spiritual time, when many go for exclusion. We call it the “Aitikaf,” when you go alone, and it's really highly recommended to do it in the mosque. So here I am. This is years ago, with another woman who I don't know. And we were in the mosque, in the holy mosque in Makkah, which is so crowded. Jesse, you're talking about millions, not one or two. And then you are up all night praying, and in between they give you a break, but if you want to leave the mosque, go out and eat and come back, you will miss the prayers. So whatever food you have [you eat], usually it's a cheese sandwich, maybe a piece of food. And this is for 10 days. So at the end, this woman, young woman at that time, in her 20s – you know that giving, generous person? Anybody wants anything, I was watching her, for 10 days, she gives it. So she came to me at 3 a.m. We were sitting together, exhausted. And she looked at me and she said, in her own slang language, “I am dying for a piece of meat.” And I looked at her and I was like, “Where are we going to get meat? We are in the mosque with this millions.” Not even five minutes [later], a woman comes in, sits in front of us with a container. She opens the container, and guess what's in the container? Meat, cooked meat in tomato sauce. We looked at her, we don't know this woman. She said, “By God, this was cooked at home, and you all are going to eat.” And I looked at her like, “What connection you have, that you only wanted food, and he gave it to you within five minutes.” Amazing, amazing. But to have the connection, you have to sacrifice, you have to work for him, and give for him, and do what he wants from you. And it's amazing what you get back. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. That's all the questions that I had for you off the top my head. But is there anything that I'm missing that you'd like me to know? Or that you'd like our listeners to know? Thank you so much, and thanks for everyone who's listening to me. I would ask everybody who's listening to us: don't judge people. Learn, ask, and ask with a smile. And believe me, everybody will be more than happy [to help]. But don't judge anybody just because they look different. Especially women, just because they look different or maybe they have an accent. Believe me, this is what we believe in Islam: we all were created from dust, and we all got to go back to dust. One thing we've seen over the course of these episodes is how many people worship through service, and our next guest, Uzma Popal, is no exception. Popal has long been a member of the Al-Hidaya Center in Latham, New York, and since 2017, she's been the director of the center's Muslim Soup Kitchen Project. The charity, which helps families across the Capital Region, says it's served roughly 42,000 meals since 2014 - and the projects keep coming. I sat down with Popal to learn more. How did you get involved with the organization? So I actually grew up here, I came to America when I was nine years old. I had heard about the Muslim Soup Kitchen Project a while ago, and at that time, I was mother of two: my kids were around 10, 11. And I really wanted them to learn to give to the needy, and to help others. Because we have a lot that He has blessed us with, but I wanted my children to be able to be grateful and to give back. In our faith, charity is one of our pillars. We can't even really call ourselves Muslims if we don't give in charity. And when this, MSTP, came into my lap, I knew that this is something I really wanted to do. Tell me a little bit about what the project does. How often do you hold soup kitchens, and where do you operate? So MSKP, Muslim Soup Kitchen Project, has many programs underneath its umbrella. We serve monthly soup kitchens, monthly meals to local shelters in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy. We serve about 300 to 500 meals. On top of that, once a year we do the National Soup Kitchen Day, in which we serve over 1,200 meals just locally, and we extend to multiple shelters in Albany. There's also monthly drives that we do. So maybe in winter we do coats and socks and hats and stuff like that. When school starts around August, we do school supplies, and then we do fresh vegetables and fruit, things like that. So we do that every month. We have a donation center that we collect those things, and then we distribute it to local refugees, local families in need. In our holidays, we have either Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. So one of the holidays is where we sacrifice meat, and we actually donated over 1,500 pounds of meat to local families in need. These are just a few of the things that MSKP does, along with, you know, visiting the sick and the elderly. That's another thing in our religion, is that we look out for our elders. Just the idea of putting your parents or somebody into the nursing home, it's like a foreign thought for us. I know it can't be helped sometimes, because people have to work. We understand that, you know, just because you put your parent in a nursing home doesn't mean you don't love them. Of course, everybody loves their parents. But in our culture, it's more, “They took care of us, now we have to take care of them.” So in the community, if there's somebody that doesn't have a family member, or they're alone, it's a community's job. It's their right upon us that we have to check on them. As you're helping people with these projects, what are the things that you often see them struggling with? What are some of the things that you're seeing out there in the community? Especially with COVID right now, you know, some people have temporarily lost their jobs. And everything is so expensive – even food, everything is rising. So even people that may have lived normally, without feeling the pain of all this, they are starting to feel that. And we also have the refugee group that has come, and we work closely with USCRI. When the refugees come, they contact us and we try to help them get resettled as much as possible. So for the Muslim refugees that come, some of the things that we provide for them, like welcome packages, may have their prayer rugs, as well as the Quran. Not only that, but before they can find permanent housing or apartments – USCRI finds it for them – so in that meantime, they are in a hotel, and they have no money, they don't have food stamps or anything like that. In order to help them with that, we actually provide lunches. You mentioned that there are different things you guys are looking for different times of the year. What are some ways that people can help out with the soup kitchen project right now? One thing that we're always in need of obviously, is volunteers. And people can go to our website, they can email mskp@al-hidaya.org. So they can even email us and say, “Hey, we want to volunteer,” and we can get them started. I like to see what the volunteers are into, what they like to do, and then we try to find the right spot for them. Another way people can donate is they can donate toiletries, or cleaning supplies, because these are the types of things that food stamps doesn't cover – but they're expensive. What was it that made you want to get more involved with your faith? Or has this always been a part of your life? Oh, yeah, definitely. The main reason I'm doing this and being part of this is because of my faith. We have the Quran, the holy book, and after that, we have Hadith. The Hadith is all the Sunnah, which is the sayings of the Prophet and the things he did. So it'll say, “Give charity,” but then the Hadith will tell us how to give charity, and who to give to charity. And one thing that always stands out to me is, it says, “One cannot be a Muslim, unless they want for their brothers what they have for themselves.” So when you think about that, how can I eat food, and be OK with that, knowing that my neighbor, or somebody I know, is starving and going hungry? And then another thing that I really like is, when it comes to charity, it says charity begins at home. So I can't go and help the community when my own children are starving, you know? That just doesn't make sense. So I see it as a circle that grows. It's all about intentions. So if we do something, it depends what your intention is. For example, if I said, “I like your shirt” in a cynical or wrong way, where it hurts your feelings – like, yeah, I said, “I like your shirt,” but am I going to get a good deed or a bad deed? You know, obviously, it's a bad deed, because what was the intention? So if I say, “I like your shirt” [and mean it] – which I do, by the way – I get a good deed for that. If I sit down and I watch a movie with my family, and I did it with the intention that, you know, I want to spend time with my family, that's good, I get a good deed for it. And I don't know too much about too many other faiths and everything, but in one day, every action, everything that I could do, I could get a reward for it. National Muslim Soup Kitchen Day is scheduled for May 28th with participating soup kitchens across the U.S. For additional info on donations and more about the charity, check them out at al-hidaya.org. Our last guest today has actually already been mentioned on this program before. Dr. Amina Darwish is a close friend of last week's guest, Sangeetha Kowsik, and she does quite a lot of work as a spiritual advisor and the Associate Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life at Stanford University. She originally got her doctorate in chemical engineering before switching career paths and choosing to pursue Islamic scholarship. What made you want to steer your life toward studying Islam? I don't know if I should call them spiritual crises, because they ended up being spiritual awakenings. But when I was 16, I decided like, “You know, this whole praying five times a day thing is a lot of work. I'm either going to do it for me, or I'm not going to do it at all.” And I started reading the Quran mostly to like, argue with my mom. If I was gonna be like, “Oh, I'm not gonna pray anymore,” then I could rebut what she was saying based on this text. And I remember reading it for the first time, and by the end of it, I was like, “Shoot, I think I'm still Muslim. I have to keep praying. I think I should do this now.” And I remember once going to a conference, and it was a discussion on spirituality, and Imam Ghazali is like one of the most renowned Muslim mystics in Islamic history. And I remember hearing his book, it's called The Alchemy of Happiness – and I was like, “Where has this been my whole life?” I still have my notes about like the spirit and the ego, and how your spirit existed before your body, and it still remembers the presence of God, and it's always yearning for and it's always yearning for this, like, timeless existence. That was actually the beginning of me trying to learn and study Islam more seriously. Unfortunately, there are a lot of idiots on the internet. And when you research things online about Islam, the junk that they say about women is ridiculous. I grew up in a Muslim family, I lived in Kuwait for a long time, I've lived in Muslim societies, and I knew what they were saying was just not true to the lived reality. And I also knew deep in my heart, like, I know God's not a misogynist. And there were so many women in the life of Prophet Muhammad, that anytime someone's like, “Oh, women can't do this,” I'm like, “Let me tell you about a woman in the life of Prophet Muhammad who did.” There's a woman that goes to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and she asks him, she's like, “Why in this verse are men mentioned more than women?” And my response every time I present this – this woman was later widowed, Prophet Muhammad marries her later in her life – and I'm like, if people ask who wants to marry the crazy feminist woman that's like, “What about this thing?” The answer's Prophet Muhammad, and people who are actually following his footsteps. So I like this woman. And I'm so grateful for all of those examples of women in the life of Prophet Muhammad. And I feel like very few people know about them. Are there any other things that you feel people misunderstand about your faith? That seems to be the biggest one. I've lived in different parts of the country, so I lived in Ohio, and I remember showing up to spaces where I'm the Muslim representative, and someone's like, “Islam oppresses women.” And I'm like, “My dude, they sent me. What are you talking about?” I'm just so confused. And it's odd, because I feel like, especially as women, we struggle claiming [our] space and claiming [our] expertise – and I'm standing in this space, and I'm like, “No, I'm the expert in this room about Islam. And you're not going to tell me what it is.” We had a guest speaker, it's actually the first event I did at Stanford. Dr. Donna Austin is a professor at Rutgers University, and she had a discussion on the women in Malcolm X's life. His sister, Ella Collins, was the one that got him transferred, and advocated for him to get transferred to the prison that had the library. And that's how he learned how to read. He memorized a dictionary. And without his sister, he wouldn't have been there. And she talked about his sister, she talked about his mother, she talked about Dr. Betty Shabazz – like, we celebrate him, and we forget to mention the women that made him who he is. He couldn't have been that person without her, and this unspoken emotional labor that a lot of the times women do. And she was talking about [how] loving someone that society has deemed unlovable is an act of resistance. And it's an act of beauty. And that really resonated with me. Because even in the story of Moses, and I think this is true in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures, a lot of the women in history are unnamed. And it talks about his sister, it talks about his mother, it talks about his adoptive mother, and you see all of these women that healed him, carried him through his trauma, and protected him, and gave him the opportunity to become who he was. So then he can walk into the court of Pharaoh be like, “Let me tell you about God. Even though you're trying to kill me.” It's such a badass moment, but he couldn't have been there without the love these women gave him. I've been teaching the life of Prophet Muhammad for a number of years now, and a lot of the times the feedback I got from people was like, “This is the first time I've heard these particular stories.” I'm named after Prophet Muhammad's mom, so of course, I'm gonna talk about his mom. I'm talking about his mom a lot. Other times, you're like, ‘OK, this is where he was born.” [I start the story at] “No, this is everything that was happening in his society when he was born.” His father passed away when his mom was still pregnant, this pregnant widow is carrying all of this. And that's the beginning of his life. Tell me a little bit more about Muhammad's mother. Sadly, she passed away when he was six years old. He had so much trauma as a child. And even the Quran later addresses it and says, “You were an orphan and we sent people to love you.” Because if you look at a tribal society, the most vulnerable person is the orphan. And there's so much celebrating that child and protecting that child. And not just protecting that child with like, here we give, we donate. No, people loved him, people took him in. And it's fascinating that like, that was part of God helping him through his trauma. When he was much, much later in his life – he's in his 60s, he's achieved this success of his message spreading everywhere, people are recognizing him for the leader that he is. And he stops by the place where his mother is buried, and he's just gone for a long time. And then they send someone to go find him, and they just find him standing right next to where his mother was buried, just crying, just missing her. She clearly gave him so much love, and believed in him so much, that he was able to carry through the rest of his life knowing he was loved. That love is healing, it gives people resilience. I was talking to a student earlier today that's telling me about her fiancée. She's like, “It's getting really exciting, I think I'm gonna marry him.” And one of the conversations we had reflected on the story of Moses, and like, “If you marry him, do you think in 10 years that your prayers will be better? That they'll be deeper, they'll be more meaningful?” And she's like, “Yeah, I think so.” Then he is your spiritual partner. That's awesome. For those who don't know, let's just go over some of the basic beliefs in Islam and the ways that you worship. Most basic belief is just the oneness of God. There's one God, he sends prophets to tell us about – I want to say himself, just because English doesn't have a genderless, singular [pronoun]. Arabic does, which I'm grateful for. Even just putting God, when you say “he,” it becomes so limiting. God by design is one, and only God can be one, because only God is perfect and unique in their oneness. All the rest of us need other people. What daily practice looks like? I mentioned the five daily prayers, they're based on the position of the sun. They're at different times, just spread out throughout your day. They're very small circuits. It's also a physical prayer, so you're in different physical positions – there's a point where your head is above your heart and you're standing, there's a point where you're bowing and your heart and head are level, there's a point where your face is on the ground, and your heart is above your head. And there's different things that you're saying in each of those positions. And it's very personal, [but] you can do it in a group. It looks like people standing in rows doing yoga together, which I think is hilarious. In the same way that Muslims are talked about a lot, unfortunately, in the news, in very negative light, very rarely is everyday Muslim life actually discussed. The most consistent thing that is said in the prayer is “Allahu Akbar,” “God is greater.” This is, by design, not a complete sentence because you can, in your own mind, like “God is greater than whatever I was worried about before I started the prayer.” “God is greater” than this. I can personalize it, I can make it my own experience. And unfortunately, a lot of Americans will hear the words “Allahu Akbar,” and they're like, “Oh, no, this is something bad.” And that makes me sad. Like, I say it a lot. Any practicing Muslim says that a lot. And it feels so insulting, that someone can commit an evil act, say it once, and somehow their once becomes more valuable than my 100 times a day. Me and every other practicing Muslim. Overall, do you have any religious stories or messages that you'd like to share? So Prophet Muhammad's wife narrates the greatest number of narrations from him. He passed away, and she, for the rest of her life, carried on his message. Up to a third of Islam came to us from this woman, and such detailed things of like, “This is the procedure he followed in his shower.” Who would be able to tell us that besides his wife? And any time there's someone that is insulting to Muslim women, I'm like – first of all, go talk to one. I promise we're a force to be reckoned with. And two, a third of Islam came to us through a woman. We wouldn't know so much of our religion without her, and it's not like the other two thirds was all men. The other two thirds included both men and women. Muslim women have always been at the forefront of our faith: the first martyr was a woman, the first believer was a woman. There's so many firsts in Islam. One of my favorites, the oldest running degree-granting university in the world is the one in Fez in Morocco. It was opened by a woman by the name of Fatima al-Fihri. There was a moment where the [former] president of Harvard, at some point, was like, “Women are just not as good at math.” And then he got himself fired and replaced by a woman, which was perfect poetic justice. Thank you, whoever did that. But I remember when he said that, and we were having a discussion at the mosque, and I was like, “No, no. This university was credited of introducing the Arabic numerals that we now use to Europe. So we all wouldn't do math the way that we do without this particular woman, let alone every woman that has been.” I mean, like, women were at the beginning of computer science, and now our image of a computer scientist is a man. And it just it's not giving credit where credit is due. You've been listening to 51%. A big thanks, again to Dr. Amina Darwish, Uzma Popal, and Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis for participating in this week's episode — and thanks to you for joining us in this special series. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram at @51percentradio. Until next week, I'm Jesse King for 51%.

On this week's 51%, we wrap our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis discusses her work at the Jannah Institute, an Islamic school for women. Uzma Popal, director of the Capital Region's Muslim Soup Kitchen Project, shares how charity is a pillar of her faith. And Stanford University's Dr. Amina Darwish challenges the perception of Muslim women in the U.S. Guests: Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis, founder of the Jannah Institute; Uzma Popal, director of the Muslim Soup Kitchen Project; Dr. Amina Darwish, Associate Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life at Stanford University 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King, our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. This week, we're wrapping our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. By now, at part four, we've spoken to women from various backgrounds about their beliefs. My hope in doing this, as someone who doesn't know much about religion, was to hear directly from women about how they worship, why they do it, and what they see as the greatest challenges in their faiths - because while a lot of today's mainstream religions are traditionally male-led, women are increasingly stepping up to the plate. Today, we're wrapping the series by speaking with three well-versed Muslim women. Our first guest is Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis, the founder and chairman of the Jannah Institute in St. Louis, Missouri. Haifaa Younis is a board-certified obstetrician and gynecologist with roots in Iraq, and she says she started the Jannah Institute in 2013 to offer an Islamic education for women, by women. Haifaa Younis always wanted to dive deeper into her faith, and before starting the Institute, she went on her own journey in search of knowledge — a mission that proved somewhat difficult in the U.S. at the time. After trying various remote learning methods, she packed up her life and moved to Saudi Arabia, where she graduated from the Mecca Institute of Islamic Studies. "There, actually, is where I met the woman scholars. Before that I have not – maybe I've read about them before, but there I definitely met [them]. I learned 90% from woman scholars, with really deep knowledge," says Younis. "And the beauty when you learn from a woman – and this is not because of gender – is just because, as a woman, you know she goes through what you are going through. It's closer. So it doesn't mean the man doesn't do it, but it's just something a little bit [closer]. I didn't know this ‘till I felt it, ‘till I tried it. What kinds of classes are you teaching at the Jannah Institute? At the Jannah Institute, what we offer, there is a broad spectrum, because there's so many things you can learn about Islam. So we divided it into the main two things: the holy book itself, and then what we call Islamic study. So the holy book [courses are] if people want to learn how to read. Remember, the holy book, the Quran, is in Arabic, and the majority of the women that live in the west don't speak Arabic, and they don't know how to read. So we offer them courses from the basics, from literally the alphabet, to becoming an expert in reading. Then, if someone knows how to read, but they want to memorize – it's a huge virtue to memorize – we offer that too. Then we offer, if you want to read but you want to read perfect – how you study academically. How do you read it? It's a whole subject. That's one. And then the other, which is much more needed, is basically, “What does Islam say? What does Islam teach? How can I practice my religion living in the west, in 2022, as a professional woman, as a mother, as both?” And this is what we offer. We started in 2017, giving six-to-eight week courses, once a week or twice a week. And then last year in March, we call this “The Year of Knowledge: What Every Muslim Woman Should Learn About Islam.” And we designed it in a way that it is the traditional books and the traditional sciences, but in a practical way, and that the ordinary woman – the goal is not to graduate scholars, I told the woman from day one – the goal is you learn your religion, and how you apply it in your daily life. So what are some of the ways that students are taking those lessons into their daily lives? Whenever we are learning, the first question comes in how to apply it. So when we finished our first semester, we had the final exam. And at the end, there was a question, and I told the students, “This is not going to be marked.” And the question was, “What did this subject change in your life? And how did you apply it in your daily life?” So for example, when we were teaching the woman about prayers, how you pray – not supplication, how you perform, we call it “Sana” in Islam. And then we taught them all of it, the connection to God and everything. So what they wrote was amazing. Like, “I always used to look at it as a duty, I have to do it. I never thought of it as it is a connection with my creator. And now I take my time to do it.” The science of the Quran, which is very academic, and it's not easy – they said, “Although it is challenging, and a lot of new information, it's changed the way I look to the book itself. Like, ‘How am I, as a woman living in this day and age, how do I apply it? How do I learn it? And how do I teach it to my children and apply it in my home?'” So basically, it's a practical theory, but we bring it to practice always. And you went to school to memorize the Quran, correct? Yes. Yes, definitely. Was that like? How do you break up such a large text to put it down to memory? The younger you are the better, because your brain is not busy yet. So usually, either you do it yourself – a lot of people do it, but it takes much longer. Or you do it with a teacher one-to-one. Or the best way, where everyone will advise you, is you go to school. And usually there are small classes, eight or nine in the class. And you all memorize the same. The teacher is usually very expert. Usually, the way they do it, to make it easy: it's 30 parts. So they usually divided over three years, and every year you memorize 10 parts. The irony, if you want to use the word, and the challenge, is that you can forget it very easily. So when you memorize, you have to keep reviewing. So you build up…and you get tested and tested and tested. So you sit in front of the teacher, and you don't have the book, she opens it to any page, and then she says, “Read from the following.” What does worship look like to you? To me, and I have seen it also as we are teaching, what has the most impact is when you start learning about your creator. Because whatever we say, and we say, “Yeah, I know, I know, I know.” But when you start studying in detail – so we believe in a creed, that he is the only creator and the Prophet, peace be upon him, is the messenger. And then when you look at who is he, like we spend 13 weeks studying “Who is he?” This really had an impact on me before the students. One of the sayings says, “He created us, and he doesn't need us.” And he gives to us constantly and never runs out, if you want to use this word, of continuous giving. I always tell the students: take a break. Just think about this, close your eyes and see, “Who is he?” So when you want something, why do you ask from people? Why don't you go and ask from the source? And the source will make me subcontractors, if you only use the word, do it. So the most important to me personally, as a woman, is this connection, this personal connection. Anywhere I want to go – I don't need anybody, I just sit and I talk to him. And if you know his words, the holy book, it's even better, because now you're talking to him with his own words and spirit. Islam is a very spiritual religion, and many people don't know that, unfortunately. Even Muslims don't know that. There's a lot of spirituality and personal connection. And you don't get the peace that we are supposed to get from religion, unless you have this. One thing I've been asking my guests is, do you see any opportunities or obstacles in your religion? I would call them both. Because the obstacle is, I will call it one of the most misunderstood religions – because of many reasons, you probably know, working in the media. But this obstacle is the opportunity. This is how I look at it. For example, I cover my hair, right? So people will ask me about this. Well, this is an opportunity. I can look at it as an obstacle – “Well, they have labeled me” – but no, I look at it as an opportunity to explain to people what is my religion. Since I am doing it – I am convinced that I didn't do it for any other reason than to please Him, God – then this is the opportunity. I've been a professional lay woman for years, studied all in the western world. I have always had people, when they asked me, the first thing I say to myself is, “They don't know, there is no other reason they are asking. And this is the opportunity.” And this is what I teach, also, at the Jannah Institute. I always tell the women, “When you are in that grocery shop, this is your opportunity to practice what you are learning.” One of the teachings of the Prophet is to not get upset, don't get angry. So you go to the grocery shop, and the cashier is busy or made a mistake. Because we are so much used to everything going our way, we get upset. But remember what you learned and apply it, especially as a Muslim woman. And that's the opportunity. Do you have either a favorite religious message, or story, or person from the Quran that you'd like to share? Oh, I have lots of stories. My friends know that. But one story is not about me, but I was there. And I'm talking to you about the connection because I saw the connection on the spot. This is in the holy month of Ramadan. The last 10 days of Ramadan is a very highly spiritual time, when many go for exclusion. We call it the “Aitikaf,” when you go alone, and it's really highly recommended to do it in the mosque. So here I am. This is years ago, with another woman who I don't know. And we were in the mosque, in the holy mosque in Makkah, which is so crowded. Jesse, you're talking about millions, not one or two. And then you are up all night praying, and in between they give you a break, but if you want to leave the mosque, go out and eat and come back, you will miss the prayers. So whatever food you have [you eat], usually it's a cheese sandwich, maybe a piece of food. And this is for 10 days. So at the end, this woman, young woman at that time, in her 20s – you know that giving, generous person? Anybody wants anything, I was watching her, for 10 days, she gives it. So she came to me at 3 a.m. We were sitting together, exhausted. And she looked at me and she said, in her own slang language, “I am dying for a piece of meat.” And I looked at her and I was like, “Where are we going to get meat? We are in the mosque with this millions.” Not even five minutes [later], a woman comes in, sits in front of us with a container. She opens the container, and guess what's in the container? Meat, cooked meat in tomato sauce. We looked at her, we don't know this woman. She said, “By God, this was cooked at home, and you all are going to eat.” And I looked at her like, “What connection you have, that you only wanted food, and he gave it to you within five minutes.” Amazing, amazing. But to have the connection, you have to sacrifice, you have to work for him, and give for him, and do what he wants from you. And it's amazing what you get back. Well, thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. That's all the questions that I had for you off the top my head. But is there anything that I'm missing that you'd like me to know? Or that you'd like our listeners to know? Thank you so much, and thanks for everyone who's listening to me. I would ask everybody who's listening to us: don't judge people. Learn, ask, and ask with a smile. And believe me, everybody will be more than happy [to help]. But don't judge anybody just because they look different. Especially women, just because they look different or maybe they have an accent. Believe me, this is what we believe in Islam: we all were created from dust, and we all got to go back to dust. One thing we've seen over the course of these episodes is how many people worship through service, and our next guest, Uzma Popal, is no exception. Popal has long been a member of the Al-Hidaya Center in Latham, New York, and since 2017, she's been the director of the center's Muslim Soup Kitchen Project. The charity, which helps families across the Capital Region, says it's served roughly 42,000 meals since 2014 - and the projects keep coming. I sat down with Popal to learn more. How did you get involved with the organization? So I actually grew up here, I came to America when I was nine years old. I had heard about the Muslim Soup Kitchen Project a while ago, and at that time, I was mother of two: my kids were around 10, 11. And I really wanted them to learn to give to the needy, and to help others. Because we have a lot that He has blessed us with, but I wanted my children to be able to be grateful and to give back. In our faith, charity is one of our pillars. We can't even really call ourselves Muslims if we don't give in charity. And when this, MSTP, came into my lap, I knew that this is something I really wanted to do. Tell me a little bit about what the project does. How often do you hold soup kitchens, and where do you operate? So MSKP, Muslim Soup Kitchen Project, has many programs underneath its umbrella. We serve monthly soup kitchens, monthly meals to local shelters in Schenectady, Albany, and Troy. We serve about 300 to 500 meals. On top of that, once a year we do the National Soup Kitchen Day, in which we serve over 1,200 meals just locally, and we extend to multiple shelters in Albany. There's also monthly drives that we do. So maybe in winter we do coats and socks and hats and stuff like that. When school starts around August, we do school supplies, and then we do fresh vegetables and fruit, things like that. So we do that every month. We have a donation center that we collect those things, and then we distribute it to local refugees, local families in need. In our holidays, we have either Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. So one of the holidays is where we sacrifice meat, and we actually donated over 1,500 pounds of meat to local families in need. These are just a few of the things that MSKP does, along with, you know, visiting the sick and the elderly. That's another thing in our religion, is that we look out for our elders. Just the idea of putting your parents or somebody into the nursing home, it's like a foreign thought for us. I know it can't be helped sometimes, because people have to work. We understand that, you know, just because you put your parent in a nursing home doesn't mean you don't love them. Of course, everybody loves their parents. But in our culture, it's more, “They took care of us, now we have to take care of them.” So in the community, if there's somebody that doesn't have a family member, or they're alone, it's a community's job. It's their right upon us that we have to check on them. As you're helping people with these projects, what are the things that you often see them struggling with? What are some of the things that you're seeing out there in the community? Especially with COVID right now, you know, some people have temporarily lost their jobs. And everything is so expensive – even food, everything is rising. So even people that may have lived normally, without feeling the pain of all this, they are starting to feel that. And we also have the refugee group that has come, and we work closely with USCRI. When the refugees come, they contact us and we try to help them get resettled as much as possible. So for the Muslim refugees that come, some of the things that we provide for them, like welcome packages, may have their prayer rugs, as well as the Quran. Not only that, but before they can find permanent housing or apartments – USCRI finds it for them – so in that meantime, they are in a hotel, and they have no money, they don't have food stamps or anything like that. In order to help them with that, we actually provide lunches. You mentioned that there are different things you guys are looking for different times of the year. What are some ways that people can help out with the soup kitchen project right now? One thing that we're always in need of obviously, is volunteers. And people can go to our website, they can email mskp@al-hidaya.org. So they can even email us and say, “Hey, we want to volunteer,” and we can get them started. I like to see what the volunteers are into, what they like to do, and then we try to find the right spot for them. Another way people can donate is they can donate toiletries, or cleaning supplies, because these are the types of things that food stamps doesn't cover – but they're expensive. What was it that made you want to get more involved with your faith? Or has this always been a part of your life? Oh, yeah, definitely. The main reason I'm doing this and being part of this is because of my faith. We have the Quran, the holy book, and after that, we have Hadith. The Hadith is all the Sunnah, which is the sayings of the Prophet and the things he did. So it'll say, “Give charity,” but then the Hadith will tell us how to give charity, and who to give to charity. And one thing that always stands out to me is, it says, “One cannot be a Muslim, unless they want for their brothers what they have for themselves.” So when you think about that, how can I eat food, and be OK with that, knowing that my neighbor, or somebody I know, is starving and going hungry? And then another thing that I really like is, when it comes to charity, it says charity begins at home. So I can't go and help the community when my own children are starving, you know? That just doesn't make sense. So I see it as a circle that grows. It's all about intentions. So if we do something, it depends what your intention is. For example, if I said, “I like your shirt” in a cynical or wrong way, where it hurts your feelings – like, yeah, I said, “I like your shirt,” but am I going to get a good deed or a bad deed? You know, obviously, it's a bad deed, because what was the intention? So if I say, “I like your shirt” [and mean it] – which I do, by the way – I get a good deed for that. If I sit down and I watch a movie with my family, and I did it with the intention that, you know, I want to spend time with my family, that's good, I get a good deed for it. And I don't know too much about too many other faiths and everything, but in one day, every action, everything that I could do, I could get a reward for it. National Muslim Soup Kitchen Day is scheduled for May 28th with participating soup kitchens across the U.S. For additional info on donations and more about the charity, check them out at al-hidaya.org. Our last guest today has actually already been mentioned on this program before. Dr. Amina Darwish is a close friend of last week's guest, Sangeetha Kowsik, and she does quite a lot of work as a spiritual advisor and the Associate Dean for Religious & Spiritual Life at Stanford University. She originally got her doctorate in chemical engineering before switching career paths and choosing to pursue Islamic scholarship. What made you want to steer your life toward studying Islam? I don't know if I should call them spiritual crises, because they ended up being spiritual awakenings. But when I was 16, I decided like, “You know, this whole praying five times a day thing is a lot of work. I'm either going to do it for me, or I'm not going to do it at all.” And I started reading the Quran mostly to like, argue with my mom. If I was gonna be like, “Oh, I'm not gonna pray anymore,” then I could rebut what she was saying based on this text. And I remember reading it for the first time, and by the end of it, I was like, “Shoot, I think I'm still Muslim. I have to keep praying. I think I should do this now.” And I remember once going to a conference, and it was a discussion on spirituality, and Imam Ghazali is like one of the most renowned Muslim mystics in Islamic history. And I remember hearing his book, it's called The Alchemy of Happiness – and I was like, “Where has this been my whole life?” I still have my notes about like the spirit and the ego, and how your spirit existed before your body, and it still remembers the presence of God, and it's always yearning for and it's always yearning for this, like, timeless existence. That was actually the beginning of me trying to learn and study Islam more seriously. Unfortunately, there are a lot of idiots on the internet. And when you research things online about Islam, the junk that they say about women is ridiculous. I grew up in a Muslim family, I lived in Kuwait for a long time, I've lived in Muslim societies, and I knew what they were saying was just not true to the lived reality. And I also knew deep in my heart, like, I know God's not a misogynist. And there were so many women in the life of Prophet Muhammad, that anytime someone's like, “Oh, women can't do this,” I'm like, “Let me tell you about a woman in the life of Prophet Muhammad who did.” There's a woman that goes to the Prophet, peace be upon him, and she asks him, she's like, “Why in this verse are men mentioned more than women?” And my response every time I present this – this woman was later widowed, Prophet Muhammad marries her later in her life – and I'm like, if people ask who wants to marry the crazy feminist woman that's like, “What about this thing?” The answer's Prophet Muhammad, and people who are actually following his footsteps. So I like this woman. And I'm so grateful for all of those examples of women in the life of Prophet Muhammad. And I feel like very few people know about them. Are there any other things that you feel people misunderstand about your faith? That seems to be the biggest one. I've lived in different parts of the country, so I lived in Ohio, and I remember showing up to spaces where I'm the Muslim representative, and someone's like, “Islam oppresses women.” And I'm like, “My dude, they sent me. What are you talking about?” I'm just so confused. And it's odd, because I feel like, especially as women, we struggle claiming [our] space and claiming [our] expertise – and I'm standing in this space, and I'm like, “No, I'm the expert in this room about Islam. And you're not going to tell me what it is.” We had a guest speaker, it's actually the first event I did at Stanford. Dr. Donna Austin is a professor at Rutgers University, and she had a discussion on the women in Malcolm X's life. His sister, Ella Collins, was the one that got him transferred, and advocated for him to get transferred to the prison that had the library. And that's how he learned how to read. He memorized a dictionary. And without his sister, he wouldn't have been there. And she talked about his sister, she talked about his mother, she talked about Dr. Betty Shabazz – like, we celebrate him, and we forget to mention the women that made him who he is. He couldn't have been that person without her, and this unspoken emotional labor that a lot of the times women do. And she was talking about [how] loving someone that society has deemed unlovable is an act of resistance. And it's an act of beauty. And that really resonated with me. Because even in the story of Moses, and I think this is true in the Jewish, Christian, and Muslim scriptures, a lot of the women in history are unnamed. And it talks about his sister, it talks about his mother, it talks about his adoptive mother, and you see all of these women that healed him, carried him through his trauma, and protected him, and gave him the opportunity to become who he was. So then he can walk into the court of Pharaoh be like, “Let me tell you about God. Even though you're trying to kill me.” It's such a badass moment, but he couldn't have been there without the love these women gave him. I've been teaching the life of Prophet Muhammad for a number of years now, and a lot of the times the feedback I got from people was like, “This is the first time I've heard these particular stories.” I'm named after Prophet Muhammad's mom, so of course, I'm gonna talk about his mom. I'm talking about his mom a lot. Other times, you're like, ‘OK, this is where he was born.” [I start the story at] “No, this is everything that was happening in his society when he was born.” His father passed away when his mom was still pregnant, this pregnant widow is carrying all of this. And that's the beginning of his life. Tell me a little bit more about Muhammad's mother. Sadly, she passed away when he was six years old. He had so much trauma as a child. And even the Quran later addresses it and says, “You were an orphan and we sent people to love you.” Because if you look at a tribal society, the most vulnerable person is the orphan. And there's so much celebrating that child and protecting that child. And not just protecting that child with like, here we give, we donate. No, people loved him, people took him in. And it's fascinating that like, that was part of God helping him through his trauma. When he was much, much later in his life – he's in his 60s, he's achieved this success of his message spreading everywhere, people are recognizing him for the leader that he is. And he stops by the place where his mother is buried, and he's just gone for a long time. And then they send someone to go find him, and they just find him standing right next to where his mother was buried, just crying, just missing her. She clearly gave him so much love, and believed in him so much, that he was able to carry through the rest of his life knowing he was loved. That love is healing, it gives people resilience. I was talking to a student earlier today that's telling me about her fiancée. She's like, “It's getting really exciting, I think I'm gonna marry him.” And one of the conversations we had reflected on the story of Moses, and like, “If you marry him, do you think in 10 years that your prayers will be better? That they'll be deeper, they'll be more meaningful?” And she's like, “Yeah, I think so.” Then he is your spiritual partner. That's awesome. For those who don't know, let's just go over some of the basic beliefs in Islam and the ways that you worship. Most basic belief is just the oneness of God. There's one God, he sends prophets to tell us about – I want to say himself, just because English doesn't have a genderless, singular [pronoun]. Arabic does, which I'm grateful for. Even just putting God, when you say “he,” it becomes so limiting. God by design is one, and only God can be one, because only God is perfect and unique in their oneness. All the rest of us need other people. What daily practice looks like? I mentioned the five daily prayers, they're based on the position of the sun. They're at different times, just spread out throughout your day. They're very small circuits. It's also a physical prayer, so you're in different physical positions – there's a point where your head is above your heart and you're standing, there's a point where you're bowing and your heart and head are level, there's a point where your face is on the ground, and your heart is above your head. And there's different things that you're saying in each of those positions. And it's very personal, [but] you can do it in a group. It looks like people standing in rows doing yoga together, which I think is hilarious. In the same way that Muslims are talked about a lot, unfortunately, in the news, in very negative light, very rarely is everyday Muslim life actually discussed. The most consistent thing that is said in the prayer is “Allahu Akbar,” “God is greater.” This is, by design, not a complete sentence because you can, in your own mind, like “God is greater than whatever I was worried about before I started the prayer.” “God is greater” than this. I can personalize it, I can make it my own experience. And unfortunately, a lot of Americans will hear the words “Allahu Akbar,” and they're like, “Oh, no, this is something bad.” And that makes me sad. Like, I say it a lot. Any practicing Muslim says that a lot. And it feels so insulting, that someone can commit an evil act, say it once, and somehow their once becomes more valuable than my 100 times a day. Me and every other practicing Muslim. Overall, do you have any religious stories or messages that you'd like to share? So Prophet Muhammad's wife narrates the greatest number of narrations from him. He passed away, and she, for the rest of her life, carried on his message. Up to a third of Islam came to us from this woman, and such detailed things of like, “This is the procedure he followed in his shower.” Who would be able to tell us that besides his wife? And any time there's someone that is insulting to Muslim women, I'm like – first of all, go talk to one. I promise we're a force to be reckoned with. And two, a third of Islam came to us through a woman. We wouldn't know so much of our religion without her, and it's not like the other two thirds was all men. The other two thirds included both men and women. Muslim women have always been at the forefront of our faith: the first martyr was a woman, the first believer was a woman. There's so many firsts in Islam. One of my favorites, the oldest running degree-granting university in the world is the one in Fez in Morocco. It was opened by a woman by the name of Fatima al-Fihri. There was a moment where the [former] president of Harvard, at some point, was like, “Women are just not as good at math.” And then he got himself fired and replaced by a woman, which was perfect poetic justice. Thank you, whoever did that. But I remember when he said that, and we were having a discussion at the mosque, and I was like, “No, no. This university was credited of introducing the Arabic numerals that we now use to Europe. So we all wouldn't do math the way that we do without this particular woman, let alone every woman that has been.” I mean, like, women were at the beginning of computer science, and now our image of a computer scientist is a man. And it just it's not giving credit where credit is due. You've been listening to 51%. A big thanks, again to Dr. Amina Darwish, Uzma Popal, and Dr. Sh. Haifaa Younis for participating in this week's episode — and thanks to you for joining us in this special series. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. You can also find us on Twitter and Instagram at @51percentradio. Until next week, I'm Jesse King for 51%.

On this week's 51%, we speak with Sangeetha Kowsik, a Hindu Chaplain at New York University, as part of our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Kowsik discusses the multitude of ways Hinduism is practiced, her love of pujas, and her thoughts on how the religion is depicted in popular culture. (more…)

On this week's 51%, we speak with Sangeetha Kowsik, a Hindu Chaplain at New York University, as part of our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Kowsik discusses the multitude of ways Hinduism is practiced, her love of pujas, and her thoughts on how the religion is depicted in popular culture. Guest: Sangeetha Kowsik, Hindu Chaplain at New York University 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's hosted by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. This week, to kick off your new year, we're continuing our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars, to celebrate the different ways that we worship. Our guest today is Sangeetha Kowsik, a Hindu Chaplain and founder of the Hindu Center at New York University. Kowsik has a lot of loves: she's an artist and fashion designer by profession, a scholar of Arabic calligraphy, an activist, and even a trained dancer. But she says her faith plays a role in every aspect of her life — and it has for as long as she can remember. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Kowsik says her father helped start three Hindu temples across the U.S., including her childhood temple in Livermore, California. Tell me about growing up by the temple. What was it that you connected with in Hinduism? Unfortunately in the West, there's a negative connotation, that they call our deities “idols,” and that Hindus are idol worshipers – which is not correct. The correct term for the statues, the deities that you see inside the temple, is “murti,” which is a symbolic representation of the divine. So these murtis stayed at my house and our puja room – a puja room is a special room, or a corner, or a cupboard, or anything in your house that you dedicate just for worship. We have an extra bedroom downstairs, so that's our puja room. So before the temple was consecrated, the deities stayed in our home. And for me, as a child – I'm a very small child here, [about] 4-years-old – these deities, I thought they were my friends. Just like I would play with my Barbie dolls and my stuffed toys, I would feed them, I would play with them. I gave them tea, played tea party with them. I loved them, and especially Durga. Hinduism is the only religion in the world that sees the divine as not just an almighty father, but almighty mother. So this murti, Durga, stayed in our puja room, and I thought she was my friend. I thought she was my bestie. I loved her so much. So when the deities – I think I was four – when the deities got moved, the temple was consecrated, I remember throwing a huge temper tantrum. Because you took my friends away. You took my dolls away, basically, right? But as I got older, I realized how much they mean to me, and how much Hinduism means to me. I'll give you an overview. So, India is the birthplace of Hinduism – South Asia, basically this giant landmass. So what is now India: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, parts of Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan. They were all one giant landmass before partition and lines occurred. So Hinduism has no historical founder, like the three Abrahamic religions. Islam, Christianity and Judaism all come from the prophet Abraham, peace be upon him. [But] we don't have that. Hindus don't have that. What I thought was so cool, is that you can see the divine in so many different ways. It's not some scary being in the sky, with a huge beard, telling you like, “This is wrong. That is wrong.” It could be the soft, sweet, beautiful deity like Ganesha – the elephant I'm wearing, it's written in Arabic here, right? So Ganesha, he's so sweet and gorgeous that you just want to pick him up and play with him, like a child. Or you see Lord Shiva, almighty Shiva, who is the mighty father. So whenever you have an issue or problem, you can call to Lord Shiva – like your dad, “Go kick his ass,” you know what I mean? It's like, “That dude is rude. Go kick his ass.” You can pray to Lord Shiva. You can see beautiful Mahalakshmi dressed in her gorgeous robe… And the fact that the songs that my mom taught me, the meaning behind them, is so beautiful – it's a very personalized relationship with God. That's why I love Hinduism so much. It's very personal, like you can feel it. You can feel him / her/ it, I don't know all these pronouns, [but] we believe in all the pronouns. So it's like all of them in your heart, and Hinduism doesn't state that something is wrong. It gives LGBTQI rights. It gives women's rights. It gives rights to all creation, because everything in this world is created by the mighty divine. Like paper, pens are all of the goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning. So we don't step on any paper or step on paint brushes or musical instruments with our feet – feet are nasty and gross, you walk outside with it – I always thought that was so cool, and wonderful, that we respect everything. Everything is divine. When you say namaskar or namaste to somebody, it literally means, “I bow to the divine in you.” The fact that you can see multiple ways of the divine is something that always appealed to me. Like whatever you're feeling inside, there's space for you. There's room at the table for you. There's room for you in the temple. Kowsik says the Shiva-Vishnu Temple in Livermore showcases that inclusivity with a range of languages and priests, as well as a combination of North and South Indian architecture. When Kowsik moved to New York City, she found herself attending and volunteering at another temple her father had a history in: The Hindu Temple Society of North America in Flushing, Queens. Kowsik says her work with youths there caught the attention of NYU — that, and her participation in another, what she calls “more hipster” temple at the time: Eddie Stern's Broom Street Temple in Brooklyn. Tell me about your work at Broom Street Temple and NYU. Well, I got 80 white people to sing [in service]. Pat on my back. Yeah, pronunciation was wack, but whatever. God accepts everything, you know. It's the intention behind the prayer, not your pronunciation. Anywho, NYU – they'd never met anyone who was born and raised in the U.S. who knows Hindu scriptures. Because generally, Jesse, most people who go to Hindu temples in the U.S., you just see older people. You see grandmas and grandpas, aunties and uncles. More people from India going to temples – you rarely see people born and raised here [in the U.S.] going to temple, because it's not clearly explained. I get it, I totally get it. You take a kid into a temple, the priest is doing something for like 40 minutes, he doesn't get what he's doing. He's bored, and thinks, “I'm gonna watch The Simpsons or some s***." You know what I mean? So it's like, I get it. Hinduism, it might be the oldest religion in the world, [but] it's still very much a baby religion in the United States. It's brought by immigrants. And so it's going to take a while for people to understand what this faith is. So I help the students [by] not just having events to teach about Hinduism [and] take part in worship, but also if they need spiritual advice, if they're having an issue, [I help them] solve that. I can refer them to a scripture passage, or teach them a mantra, or teach them a saying to help them get through their darkness as well. For those who might not know, what do Hindu prayers and services look like? OK, so again, Jesse, this depends on how you were born and brought up and raised – whether you're South Indian, North Indian, East Indian, this and that. “Puja” means ritualistic prayer. In Hinduism, when we're praying, we're not worshiping the idol. We're worshipping what this murti represents. We're asking the divine to come and inhabit this Ganesha, for example. Let's set Ganesha as an example, right? We're asking Lord Ganesha to inhabit this. And you have to go back into history: South Asia was very rich with gold, as well as agriculture, back in the day before colonization and partition. And so to express gratitude, they used to give everything to the temple. And they imagine that Ganesha is sitting right in front of them. We worship as though God is sitting right in front of us. So like the exalted king, or the exalted queen, these words that we're saying in the puja: “Avahayami, avahayami,” means, “Please come forth, my beloved.” So like a king or a queen, you offer them a seat, you offer them food, you offer them ritualistic bathing. At the end is the Aarti. People might be familiar with Aarti, because of all the Bollywood films. Everyone does it, right. But again, it's beautiful because when they sing it, it's saying, “You are my mother, you are my father, you are my friend, you are my beloved.” “You are my everything,” is what they are calling to the divine. So that's what a puja is. Puja is ritualistic prayer. Everything has to be neat and clean. Like, for example, before the priest starts the prayer, he cleanses himself with water, he'll drink the water to clean his insides, clean his heart, clean his brain, his ears – you know, to let only good thoughts [in] and let [him] be pure and clean when [he] offers these prayers. So a priest, he leads the prayer – but he's not God. Anybody can do this, that's another thing. But priests are trained, because they go to special schools in India where they study all these mantras, these chants, prayers. And then they come to the United States, and they lead it. And they're not chaplains. Like, you know how in Christianity, there's a pastor, and he goes up there, and he takes a Bible verse, and then he explains it? Or then he talks about day-to-day life, what's going on, and helps people? We don't have that. The priest, that's not his job to do something like that. His job is to lead the prayer rituals. And then he gives you the offering, the flowers, or the food that you offered, and stuff like that. So that's what puja is like. Pujas are very high flown in South India – because again, they didn't have the Islamic influence, they didn't have the Christian influence, because there's a mountain range that protects South India. Where my parents are from, it's called the Temple State. So these rituals for years on end, eons on end, have remained the same. Because they didn't have an influence from anybody else. North India, they have the Islamic influence. So a lot of North Indian women, they cover their hair when they go to prayer. And in North India, Sanskrit is the language, [they use] Sanskrit prayers. Sanskrit is supposed to be the mother of all languages – that's where Hindi came out of, Urdu came out of. Everything, all of our prayers and rituals, came out of Sanskrit language and came down here. But Tamil people also have a unique way of worshipping. So do Bengali people. So do Punjabi people. That's what makes Hinduism so cool, is its diversity, and multitude of practices. For example, if you took the New York City area: in Manhattan, there's only the Hari Krishna center, the Bhakti Center, which is in the East Village. So their main deity is Radha-Krishna, and they follow the sayings of the saint who started the Hari Krishna movement. But that's it. If you want to see a South Indian ginormous temple, you haul yourself on the seven train to go to Flushing, Queens, and then you can see the Flushing Ganesha temple. And then across the street from Flushing temple, there's a North Indian one that's there too. They have marble deities. And there's an Afghan Hindu temple, also. Afghan people were Hindus back in the day, and there's still some Afghan Hindus left. And the way they do things vary. But Flushing temple, you go on their website, and ever since COVID, they've been live streaming their prayer rituals every single day. And it's beautifully done. It starts on time ends on time, no Indian Standard Time, no brown standard time. Everything starts and ends on time. Why Jesse? Because it's run by a woman. Dr. Uma Mysorekar, for 45 years, she's been the president of flushing temple. Everything starts and ends on time, you know, complete efficiency. Well, on that note, is it becoming more common to see women becoming priests or taking leadership roles in temples? I think so. Like I read about in the New York Times, there's a – I think she's a North Indian lady – who married LGBTQI couples. She was featured in the New York Times, so that was pretty cool. I know another two or three like pujaris – “pujaris” means “lady priests” – in Chicago and in the New York area. So there are some people taking the initiative to learn these prayers and hymns and to be able to lead puja. Slowly but surely things are changing now in the community. You've mentioned some of the misconceptions about Hinduism. What are some other things that you feel people confuse between Hinduism in practice versus other societal or cultural norms? Of course, like, for example, the idea of arranged marriages. Did you see that crappy show, that show Indian Matchmaking on Netflix? Yes, I have. Yeah, I hate binge watched it along with Amina, my Muslim lady chaplain friend. We hate binge watched it, OK? Because, first of all, what she's saying – not all Indian people act like that. Not all Hindu people act like that. In fact, in Hinduism, none of our deities were arranged marriages. Goddess Parvati, who is the embodiment of beauty, and who's Shakti – “Shakti” means “energy,” like no male deity can live without his female counterpart, the energy, the almighty mother, right? Parvati won Shiva through penance. And her penance was so intense that the entire world shook. She chose Lord Shiva. She chose Lord Shiva. Lakshmi, she came out of the churning of the ocean. She chose Lord Vishnu. So not an arranged marriage, right? And Ganesha is technically Parvati's kid, Parvati didn't need Shiva to have a kid. Ganesh came out of a piece of Parvati's body, right. So why do we make fun of single mothers? Why is it such a taboo to be a single mom, when technically Parvati is a single mom? Subramanya, Kartikeya, [Ganesha's] younger brother came from the six sparks of Lord Shiva. So this is a modern-day family. Shiva and Parvati are a modern-day family because you have a father, you have a mother, and they have these two children. Ganesha's the first deity, you can't get around him. Every prayer begins with Lord Ganesha, can't get around him. Ganesha and Subramanya are brothers, but technically, they're not even half-brothers. They're brothers who came, one from Lord Shiva, one from Goddess Parvati. So why do we judge single parents? Why do we judge divorced people? Another cool thing, Lord Ayyappan – Ayyappa is a deity of South India, Kerala. He is the son of two male deities, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. So why is there so much animosity towards the LGBTQI community, when Ayyappa is the son of two fathers? Even though Vishnu took the form of the enchanter Mohini, the lady, to have the baby, still. It's like, why do we have these stigmas and taboos? Arranged marriages, it's a cultural phenomenon. It's not a religious phenomenon. And why is it always considered a Hindu thing, when the tutors in the European dynasties also had arranged marriages, in order to keep wealth in the family? Why is it a taboo that, “Hindus believe in arranged marriages?” No, we do not. It's a cultural thing. Maybe it's an Indian practice, or South Asian practice, you can say, but it's not a Hindu practice. That's something that I firmly believe in. Also, and we have Brahmacharya deities, celibate deities. Hanuman is a celibate deity. He didn't want to get married. Ganesha's technically a celibate deity. You know how he got out of marriage? They were pressuring him to get married. And he's like, “OK, fine.” He's also the lord of wisdom, right? It's like, “Alright, fine. Find me a woman more accomplished than my mama, more beautiful than my mama, and I will marry her,” right? And you can't get more beautiful or more accomplished than goddess Parvati, so he got out of it. But in some stories, in some ways of thinking, he has Siddhi and Buddhi, he has two wives. Also, when women have periods, they're considered impure. I remember, Jesse, when I went to India, and we went to a temple in North India, there's a huge sign outside that said, “Women on their periods who are menstruating should not enter the temple premises at all.” I'm like, “What are you going to do, check?” When I saw that, I was horrified, and I was disgusted also. I gave a lecture on this topic with Amina. So you have to go back, again, in history. When women had their periods, people didn't live in cities [back then] – they were gatherers and wanderers and nomads. They lived in like, tents in the middle of the forest. So when women bled, animals could smell the blood, right? Then they would attack. So that's why they kept these women isolated – so people could protect them. They would build the village around them. And where did everyone socialize and gather? It was at the temple back in the day. So when women are going there, animals could smell the blood, and they would attack. So that's why it's they kept them separate, they kept them from going there to keep [the community] safe. Plus, I don't know about you, but women, when we get our periods, we go crazy with PMS. It feels like someone stabbing us in the back with a stiletto. So why would you want to go to temple, when you're trying to pray and connect with God, and you're like, “Oh, my back hurts. Oh, my legs hurt.”? You know, that's another reason people kept them separate. But it's not because you're impure, or you're unclean. Actually, there are a couple of temples in northeastern India – I read about this – where the goddess menstruates. They have an entire festival built around this lady who menstruates. I thought that was so beautiful and so cool. You had asked me before what I love about Hinduism. There's always something new and fun and fascinating to learn about in Hinduism. Another deity, another way of thinking, another practice, another book, another scripture. Everyone says that in Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture that they're familiar with. No, that's not the only scripture we have. We have Vedas, we have Shastras. We have different books written by different saints and sages. So Bhagavad Gita isn't our “Hindu Bible.” That's another stigma that needs to be broken. While I was working at the Metropolitan Museum, a curator told me, he's like, “Think about it. Before the British came, the Bhagavad Gita wasn't really illustrated. It wasn't really written down. It wasn't really illustrated on paper. You saw carvings of it, but there's no paintings, no paper of this. Why? Because when the British came to South Asia, they saw all these people thinking in a multitude of different ways, praying in all sorts of ways, and they were massively confused, because they came from a Christian background. Because they came from one book, one prophet, one thing. And they saw all of this and they're like, ‘OK, you know what, we're going to take Mahabharat, the poem that Bhagavad Gita is extracted from, and here you go, this is the Hindu Bible.” And that's not right. So after the British came, you see a lot more paintings and drawings of Lord Krishna giving the sermon to Arjuna, and stuff like that written down. But it's interesting, you look in art history, and it teaches you a lot as well. So we don't just have one central text, we have a multitude of ways of thinking, and multiple books, and everyone should accept how the other ones think. North India isn't better than South India, South India isn't better than East India, East isn't better than the West. We're all equal, under the divine. You mentioned that Hinduism is growing in the US, but it's still one of the smaller religions. What do you see as both the obstacles and opportunities in Hinduism right now? For opportunities, first of all, we're all spending more time online, because we can't congregate in person because of COVID. Right? That means the reach is far. People can get to know about Hinduism through YouTube, through Facebook, through all these channels of communication, through the digital world. So that opportunity, and the fact that the world is becoming more inclusive. You see all of these different colleges have inclusivity and diversity trainings, so that's a step in the right direction – at least they're starting to care a bit more. The obstacles I face is that people don't know so much about Hinduism correctly in order to actually help. For example, I was part of NAHCA, the North American Hindu Chaplains Association when it was formed. And that's to help with spiritual caregiving and find chaplains to work in hospitals, the military, and the university system. But even the word chaplain, we don't have that in Hindu language. Like, when I went to NYU, Imam Khalid was the first person who took me under his wing, and I'm like, “What the hell's a chaplain, dude?” And he explained to me, it's spiritual caregiving. It's being there for someone the way they need you to be there for them. “Dope, that's so cool. I can do this.” But when you say Hindu chaplain, most Hindus, even the ones born and raised here, they don't know what a Hindu chaplain is. My parents don't know what a chaplain is, until I explained to them. Slowly, Hindu chaplaincy is growing in the United States. Like, I've had people contact me from the military, and from also prisons as well. But they also need to know the right terminology. For example, I'll get requests, “Can you marry this couple?” And I'm like, “OK, in Hinduism, what is the language that they speak? What culture did they come from? How are they raised? What do they prefer?” They can't explain these things to me, so you need to ask the right questions. Also, for example, one of my students at NYU, he wanted to study chaplaincy. So I wrote his recommendations to divinity schools – there's Harvard Divinity School, and there's one in Chicago. And the box check [on the form] says, “Affiliation: Church, Synagogue.” Yo, you forgot temple, you know what I mean? Stuff like that. But you know, Jesse, I have a positive outlook that things are growing. And because the world is becoming more inclusive, and people are starting to understand each other more, and have access to each other more – like, no matter how much I have a love-hate relationship with social media, at least you learn information, learn about new things. You can hear about some cool graffiti artist in the middle of Africa someplace, because he has an Instagram account. You know, there's a huge Hindu temple in Ghana, Africa, that I can't wait to go to. Yeah, Black people, African people are Hindus. There's a gigantic temple in Ghana, Africa. So [likewise] there are different Hindu people in the U.S. who are trying their level best to bring Hinduism to the mainstream. But I really don't appreciate [things like] this Indian Matchmaking show. You need to put a disclaimer on that, that this is only certain types of people who act like this. Meanwhile, there are other like good TV shows like Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever. Did you see that? I haven't seen that, no. It's about an Indian American family who lives in Southern California, in L.A. But you know, she beautifully illustrates what Indian American Hindu kids feel. Devi, that's the lead [character] in that show, she doesn't know anything about Hinduism. She's growing up like any other American kid, like, she has a crush on the hot guy or whatever. And then they take her to a Hindu puja in a school gymnasium, and it's just more a cultural thing than anything. No one is really worshiping. They don't understand the meaning behind it. That's how a lot of people feel, a lot of Hindu kids feel in the U.S. But I thought that was a beautifully done show. Because people assume, also, culturally, that everyone speaks Hindi. Like all Indians speak Hindi, which is not true. I don't speak Hindi. I don't understand Hindi so much, here and there. My father speaks Hindi fluently, because he lived in the north, and my mom does not. So it's like, at least Tamil has been put on the map, like, a South Indian language has been put on the map. And people need to realize that India is extremely diverse. There's over 5,000 languages that are spoken there. English and Hindi are not the only two, you know. People need to accept the diversity of Hinduism, the diversity of Indian cultures, as well as their different ways of thinking. And accept all of them. Lastly, do you have a favorite religious message or deity or story that you'd like to share with listeners? Oh, my God, I love all of them. That's the biggest thing is for me is this Sanskrit phrased that means, the world, the entire world, is one family. That's the principle that I adhere by. So technically, you're my sister. He's my brother. She's my mother. She's my sister. If you see everyone as one, as oneness, then you wouldn't have hatred or malice or judgement in your heart and your brain. And then another phrase, which means, “Let all creation be healthy, happy, prosperous.” It's said at the end, after every prayer ritual. So we're not just praying for Hindu people to be happy, or Indian people to be happy. We're praying for the entire world, entire planet, all creation. And creation includes animals, birds, plants, vegetation – all of that, too. Sangeetha Kowsik is the Hindu Chaplain at NYU. You can learn more about her work on the university's website, and her artwork at www.ihsanishan.com. You've been listening to 51%. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's hosted by me, Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Thanks again to Sangeetha Kowsik for taking part in this week's episode. Until next week, I'm Jesse King for 51%. Happy New Year!

On this week's 51%, we speak with Sangeetha Kowsik, a Hindu Chaplain at New York University, as part of our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars. Kowsik discusses the multitude of ways Hinduism is practiced, her love of pujas, and her thoughts on how the religion is depicted in popular culture. Guest: Sangeetha Kowsik, Hindu Chaplain at New York University 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's hosted by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. This week, to kick off your new year, we're continuing our series speaking with women religious leaders and scholars, to celebrate the different ways that we worship. Our guest today is Sangeetha Kowsik, a Hindu Chaplain and founder of the Hindu Center at New York University. Kowsik has a lot of loves: she's an artist and fashion designer by profession, a scholar of Arabic calligraphy, an activist, and even a trained dancer. But she says her faith plays a role in every aspect of her life — and it has for as long as she can remember. The daughter of Indian immigrants, Kowsik says her father helped start three Hindu temples across the U.S., including her childhood temple in Livermore, California. Tell me about growing up by the temple. What was it that you connected with in Hinduism? Unfortunately in the West, there's a negative connotation, that they call our deities “idols,” and that Hindus are idol worshipers – which is not correct. The correct term for the statues, the deities that you see inside the temple, is “murti,” which is a symbolic representation of the divine. So these murtis stayed at my house and our puja room – a puja room is a special room, or a corner, or a cupboard, or anything in your house that you dedicate just for worship. We have an extra bedroom downstairs, so that's our puja room. So before the temple was consecrated, the deities stayed in our home. And for me, as a child – I'm a very small child here, [about] 4-years-old – these deities, I thought they were my friends. Just like I would play with my Barbie dolls and my stuffed toys, I would feed them, I would play with them. I gave them tea, played tea party with them. I loved them, and especially Durga. Hinduism is the only religion in the world that sees the divine as not just an almighty father, but almighty mother. So this murti, Durga, stayed in our puja room, and I thought she was my friend. I thought she was my bestie. I loved her so much. So when the deities – I think I was four – when the deities got moved, the temple was consecrated, I remember throwing a huge temper tantrum. Because you took my friends away. You took my dolls away, basically, right? But as I got older, I realized how much they mean to me, and how much Hinduism means to me. I'll give you an overview. So, India is the birthplace of Hinduism – South Asia, basically this giant landmass. So what is now India: India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, parts of Iran, Nepal, Afghanistan. They were all one giant landmass before partition and lines occurred. So Hinduism has no historical founder, like the three Abrahamic religions. Islam, Christianity and Judaism all come from the prophet Abraham, peace be upon him. [But] we don't have that. Hindus don't have that. What I thought was so cool, is that you can see the divine in so many different ways. It's not some scary being in the sky, with a huge beard, telling you like, “This is wrong. That is wrong.” It could be the soft, sweet, beautiful deity like Ganesha – the elephant I'm wearing, it's written in Arabic here, right? So Ganesha, he's so sweet and gorgeous that you just want to pick him up and play with him, like a child. Or you see Lord Shiva, almighty Shiva, who is the mighty father. So whenever you have an issue or problem, you can call to Lord Shiva – like your dad, “Go kick his ass,” you know what I mean? It's like, “That dude is rude. Go kick his ass.” You can pray to Lord Shiva. You can see beautiful Mahalakshmi dressed in her gorgeous robe… And the fact that the songs that my mom taught me, the meaning behind them, is so beautiful – it's a very personalized relationship with God. That's why I love Hinduism so much. It's very personal, like you can feel it. You can feel him / her/ it, I don't know all these pronouns, [but] we believe in all the pronouns. So it's like all of them in your heart, and Hinduism doesn't state that something is wrong. It gives LGBTQI rights. It gives women's rights. It gives rights to all creation, because everything in this world is created by the mighty divine. Like paper, pens are all of the goddess Saraswati, the goddess of knowledge and learning. So we don't step on any paper or step on paint brushes or musical instruments with our feet – feet are nasty and gross, you walk outside with it – I always thought that was so cool, and wonderful, that we respect everything. Everything is divine. When you say namaskar or namaste to somebody, it literally means, “I bow to the divine in you.” The fact that you can see multiple ways of the divine is something that always appealed to me. Like whatever you're feeling inside, there's space for you. There's room at the table for you. There's room for you in the temple. Kowsik says the Shiva-Vishnu Temple in Livermore showcases that inclusivity with a range of languages and priests, as well as a combination of North and South Indian architecture. When Kowsik moved to New York City, she found herself attending and volunteering at another temple her father had a history in: The Hindu Temple Society of North America in Flushing, Queens. Kowsik says her work with youths there caught the attention of NYU — that, and her participation in another, what she calls “more hipster” temple at the time: Eddie Stern's Broom Street Temple in Brooklyn. Tell me about your work at Broom Street Temple and NYU. Well, I got 80 white people to sing [in service]. Pat on my back. Yeah, pronunciation was wack, but whatever. God accepts everything, you know. It's the intention behind the prayer, not your pronunciation. Anywho, NYU – they'd never met anyone who was born and raised in the U.S. who knows Hindu scriptures. Because generally, Jesse, most people who go to Hindu temples in the U.S., you just see older people. You see grandmas and grandpas, aunties and uncles. More people from India going to temples – you rarely see people born and raised here [in the U.S.] going to temple, because it's not clearly explained. I get it, I totally get it. You take a kid into a temple, the priest is doing something for like 40 minutes, he doesn't get what he's doing. He's bored, and thinks, “I'm gonna watch The Simpsons or some s***." You know what I mean? So it's like, I get it. Hinduism, it might be the oldest religion in the world, [but] it's still very much a baby religion in the United States. It's brought by immigrants. And so it's going to take a while for people to understand what this faith is. So I help the students [by] not just having events to teach about Hinduism [and] take part in worship, but also if they need spiritual advice, if they're having an issue, [I help them] solve that. I can refer them to a scripture passage, or teach them a mantra, or teach them a saying to help them get through their darkness as well. For those who might not know, what do Hindu prayers and services look like? OK, so again, Jesse, this depends on how you were born and brought up and raised – whether you're South Indian, North Indian, East Indian, this and that. “Puja” means ritualistic prayer. In Hinduism, when we're praying, we're not worshiping the idol. We're worshipping what this murti represents. We're asking the divine to come and inhabit this Ganesha, for example. Let's set Ganesha as an example, right? We're asking Lord Ganesha to inhabit this. And you have to go back into history: South Asia was very rich with gold, as well as agriculture, back in the day before colonization and partition. And so to express gratitude, they used to give everything to the temple. And they imagine that Ganesha is sitting right in front of them. We worship as though God is sitting right in front of us. So like the exalted king, or the exalted queen, these words that we're saying in the puja: “Avahayami, avahayami,” means, “Please come forth, my beloved.” So like a king or a queen, you offer them a seat, you offer them food, you offer them ritualistic bathing. At the end is the Aarti. People might be familiar with Aarti, because of all the Bollywood films. Everyone does it, right. But again, it's beautiful because when they sing it, it's saying, “You are my mother, you are my father, you are my friend, you are my beloved.” “You are my everything,” is what they are calling to the divine. So that's what a puja is. Puja is ritualistic prayer. Everything has to be neat and clean. Like, for example, before the priest starts the prayer, he cleanses himself with water, he'll drink the water to clean his insides, clean his heart, clean his brain, his ears – you know, to let only good thoughts [in] and let [him] be pure and clean when [he] offers these prayers. So a priest, he leads the prayer – but he's not God. Anybody can do this, that's another thing. But priests are trained, because they go to special schools in India where they study all these mantras, these chants, prayers. And then they come to the United States, and they lead it. And they're not chaplains. Like, you know how in Christianity, there's a pastor, and he goes up there, and he takes a Bible verse, and then he explains it? Or then he talks about day-to-day life, what's going on, and helps people? We don't have that. The priest, that's not his job to do something like that. His job is to lead the prayer rituals. And then he gives you the offering, the flowers, or the food that you offered, and stuff like that. So that's what puja is like. Pujas are very high flown in South India – because again, they didn't have the Islamic influence, they didn't have the Christian influence, because there's a mountain range that protects South India. Where my parents are from, it's called the Temple State. So these rituals for years on end, eons on end, have remained the same. Because they didn't have an influence from anybody else. North India, they have the Islamic influence. So a lot of North Indian women, they cover their hair when they go to prayer. And in North India, Sanskrit is the language, [they use] Sanskrit prayers. Sanskrit is supposed to be the mother of all languages – that's where Hindi came out of, Urdu came out of. Everything, all of our prayers and rituals, came out of Sanskrit language and came down here. But Tamil people also have a unique way of worshipping. So do Bengali people. So do Punjabi people. That's what makes Hinduism so cool, is its diversity, and multitude of practices. For example, if you took the New York City area: in Manhattan, there's only the Hari Krishna center, the Bhakti Center, which is in the East Village. So their main deity is Radha-Krishna, and they follow the sayings of the saint who started the Hari Krishna movement. But that's it. If you want to see a South Indian ginormous temple, you haul yourself on the seven train to go to Flushing, Queens, and then you can see the Flushing Ganesha temple. And then across the street from Flushing temple, there's a North Indian one that's there too. They have marble deities. And there's an Afghan Hindu temple, also. Afghan people were Hindus back in the day, and there's still some Afghan Hindus left. And the way they do things vary. But Flushing temple, you go on their website, and ever since COVID, they've been live streaming their prayer rituals every single day. And it's beautifully done. It starts on time ends on time, no Indian Standard Time, no brown standard time. Everything starts and ends on time. Why Jesse? Because it's run by a woman. Dr. Uma Mysorekar, for 45 years, she's been the president of flushing temple. Everything starts and ends on time, you know, complete efficiency. Well, on that note, is it becoming more common to see women becoming priests or taking leadership roles in temples? I think so. Like I read about in the New York Times, there's a – I think she's a North Indian lady – who married LGBTQI couples. She was featured in the New York Times, so that was pretty cool. I know another two or three like pujaris – “pujaris” means “lady priests” – in Chicago and in the New York area. So there are some people taking the initiative to learn these prayers and hymns and to be able to lead puja. Slowly but surely things are changing now in the community. You've mentioned some of the misconceptions about Hinduism. What are some other things that you feel people confuse between Hinduism in practice versus other societal or cultural norms? Of course, like, for example, the idea of arranged marriages. Did you see that crappy show, that show Indian Matchmaking on Netflix? Yes, I have. Yeah, I hate binge watched it along with Amina, my Muslim lady chaplain friend. We hate binge watched it, OK? Because, first of all, what she's saying – not all Indian people act like that. Not all Hindu people act like that. In fact, in Hinduism, none of our deities were arranged marriages. Goddess Parvati, who is the embodiment of beauty, and who's Shakti – “Shakti” means “energy,” like no male deity can live without his female counterpart, the energy, the almighty mother, right? Parvati won Shiva through penance. And her penance was so intense that the entire world shook. She chose Lord Shiva. She chose Lord Shiva. Lakshmi, she came out of the churning of the ocean. She chose Lord Vishnu. So not an arranged marriage, right? And Ganesha is technically Parvati's kid, Parvati didn't need Shiva to have a kid. Ganesh came out of a piece of Parvati's body, right. So why do we make fun of single mothers? Why is it such a taboo to be a single mom, when technically Parvati is a single mom? Subramanya, Kartikeya, [Ganesha's] younger brother came from the six sparks of Lord Shiva. So this is a modern-day family. Shiva and Parvati are a modern-day family because you have a father, you have a mother, and they have these two children. Ganesha's the first deity, you can't get around him. Every prayer begins with Lord Ganesha, can't get around him. Ganesha and Subramanya are brothers, but technically, they're not even half-brothers. They're brothers who came, one from Lord Shiva, one from Goddess Parvati. So why do we judge single parents? Why do we judge divorced people? Another cool thing, Lord Ayyappan – Ayyappa is a deity of South India, Kerala. He is the son of two male deities, Lord Vishnu and Lord Shiva. So why is there so much animosity towards the LGBTQI community, when Ayyappa is the son of two fathers? Even though Vishnu took the form of the enchanter Mohini, the lady, to have the baby, still. It's like, why do we have these stigmas and taboos? Arranged marriages, it's a cultural phenomenon. It's not a religious phenomenon. And why is it always considered a Hindu thing, when the tutors in the European dynasties also had arranged marriages, in order to keep wealth in the family? Why is it a taboo that, “Hindus believe in arranged marriages?” No, we do not. It's a cultural thing. Maybe it's an Indian practice, or South Asian practice, you can say, but it's not a Hindu practice. That's something that I firmly believe in. Also, and we have Brahmacharya deities, celibate deities. Hanuman is a celibate deity. He didn't want to get married. Ganesha's technically a celibate deity. You know how he got out of marriage? They were pressuring him to get married. And he's like, “OK, fine.” He's also the lord of wisdom, right? It's like, “Alright, fine. Find me a woman more accomplished than my mama, more beautiful than my mama, and I will marry her,” right? And you can't get more beautiful or more accomplished than goddess Parvati, so he got out of it. But in some stories, in some ways of thinking, he has Siddhi and Buddhi, he has two wives. Also, when women have periods, they're considered impure. I remember, Jesse, when I went to India, and we went to a temple in North India, there's a huge sign outside that said, “Women on their periods who are menstruating should not enter the temple premises at all.” I'm like, “What are you going to do, check?” When I saw that, I was horrified, and I was disgusted also. I gave a lecture on this topic with Amina. So you have to go back, again, in history. When women had their periods, people didn't live in cities [back then] – they were gatherers and wanderers and nomads. They lived in like, tents in the middle of the forest. So when women bled, animals could smell the blood, right? Then they would attack. So that's why they kept these women isolated – so people could protect them. They would build the village around them. And where did everyone socialize and gather? It was at the temple back in the day. So when women are going there, animals could smell the blood, and they would attack. So that's why it's they kept them separate, they kept them from going there to keep [the community] safe. Plus, I don't know about you, but women, when we get our periods, we go crazy with PMS. It feels like someone stabbing us in the back with a stiletto. So why would you want to go to temple, when you're trying to pray and connect with God, and you're like, “Oh, my back hurts. Oh, my legs hurt.”? You know, that's another reason people kept them separate. But it's not because you're impure, or you're unclean. Actually, there are a couple of temples in northeastern India – I read about this – where the goddess menstruates. They have an entire festival built around this lady who menstruates. I thought that was so beautiful and so cool. You had asked me before what I love about Hinduism. There's always something new and fun and fascinating to learn about in Hinduism. Another deity, another way of thinking, another practice, another book, another scripture. Everyone says that in Hinduism, the Bhagavad Gita is the only scripture that they're familiar with. No, that's not the only scripture we have. We have Vedas, we have Shastras. We have different books written by different saints and sages. So Bhagavad Gita isn't our “Hindu Bible.” That's another stigma that needs to be broken. While I was working at the Metropolitan Museum, a curator told me, he's like, “Think about it. Before the British came, the Bhagavad Gita wasn't really illustrated. It wasn't really written down. It wasn't really illustrated on paper. You saw carvings of it, but there's no paintings, no paper of this. Why? Because when the British came to South Asia, they saw all these people thinking in a multitude of different ways, praying in all sorts of ways, and they were massively confused, because they came from a Christian background. Because they came from one book, one prophet, one thing. And they saw all of this and they're like, ‘OK, you know what, we're going to take Mahabharat, the poem that Bhagavad Gita is extracted from, and here you go, this is the Hindu Bible.” And that's not right. So after the British came, you see a lot more paintings and drawings of Lord Krishna giving the sermon to Arjuna, and stuff like that written down. But it's interesting, you look in art history, and it teaches you a lot as well. So we don't just have one central text, we have a multitude of ways of thinking, and multiple books, and everyone should accept how the other ones think. North India isn't better than South India, South India isn't better than East India, East isn't better than the West. We're all equal, under the divine. You mentioned that Hinduism is growing in the US, but it's still one of the smaller religions. What do you see as both the obstacles and opportunities in Hinduism right now? For opportunities, first of all, we're all spending more time online, because we can't congregate in person because of COVID. Right? That means the reach is far. People can get to know about Hinduism through YouTube, through Facebook, through all these channels of communication, through the digital world. So that opportunity, and the fact that the world is becoming more inclusive. You see all of these different colleges have inclusivity and diversity trainings, so that's a step in the right direction – at least they're starting to care a bit more. The obstacles I face is that people don't know so much about Hinduism correctly in order to actually help. For example, I was part of NAHCA, the North American Hindu Chaplains Association when it was formed. And that's to help with spiritual caregiving and find chaplains to work in hospitals, the military, and the university system. But even the word chaplain, we don't have that in Hindu language. Like, when I went to NYU, Imam Khalid was the first person who took me under his wing, and I'm like, “What the hell's a chaplain, dude?” And he explained to me, it's spiritual caregiving. It's being there for someone the way they need you to be there for them. “Dope, that's so cool. I can do this.” But when you say Hindu chaplain, most Hindus, even the ones born and raised here, they don't know what a Hindu chaplain is. My parents don't know what a chaplain is, until I explained to them. Slowly, Hindu chaplaincy is growing in the United States. Like, I've had people contact me from the military, and from also prisons as well. But they also need to know the right terminology. For example, I'll get requests, “Can you marry this couple?” And I'm like, “OK, in Hinduism, what is the language that they speak? What culture did they come from? How are they raised? What do they prefer?” They can't explain these things to me, so you need to ask the right questions. Also, for example, one of my students at NYU, he wanted to study chaplaincy. So I wrote his recommendations to divinity schools – there's Harvard Divinity School, and there's one in Chicago. And the box check [on the form] says, “Affiliation: Church, Synagogue.” Yo, you forgot temple, you know what I mean? Stuff like that. But you know, Jesse, I have a positive outlook that things are growing. And because the world is becoming more inclusive, and people are starting to understand each other more, and have access to each other more – like, no matter how much I have a love-hate relationship with social media, at least you learn information, learn about new things. You can hear about some cool graffiti artist in the middle of Africa someplace, because he has an Instagram account. You know, there's a huge Hindu temple in Ghana, Africa, that I can't wait to go to. Yeah, Black people, African people are Hindus. There's a gigantic temple in Ghana, Africa. So [likewise] there are different Hindu people in the U.S. who are trying their level best to bring Hinduism to the mainstream. But I really don't appreciate [things like] this Indian Matchmaking show. You need to put a disclaimer on that, that this is only certain types of people who act like this. Meanwhile, there are other like good TV shows like Mindy Kaling's Never Have I Ever. Did you see that? I haven't seen that, no. It's about an Indian American family who lives in Southern California, in L.A. But you know, she beautifully illustrates what Indian American Hindu kids feel. Devi, that's the lead [character] in that show, she doesn't know anything about Hinduism. She's growing up like any other American kid, like, she has a crush on the hot guy or whatever. And then they take her to a Hindu puja in a school gymnasium, and it's just more a cultural thing than anything. No one is really worshiping. They don't understand the meaning behind it. That's how a lot of people feel, a lot of Hindu kids feel in the U.S. But I thought that was a beautifully done show. Because people assume, also, culturally, that everyone speaks Hindi. Like all Indians speak Hindi, which is not true. I don't speak Hindi. I don't understand Hindi so much, here and there. My father speaks Hindi fluently, because he lived in the north, and my mom does not. So it's like, at least Tamil has been put on the map, like, a South Indian language has been put on the map. And people need to realize that India is extremely diverse. There's over 5,000 languages that are spoken there. English and Hindi are not the only two, you know. People need to accept the diversity of Hinduism, the diversity of Indian cultures, as well as their different ways of thinking. And accept all of them. Lastly, do you have a favorite religious message or deity or story that you'd like to share with listeners? Oh, my God, I love all of them. That's the biggest thing is for me is this Sanskrit phrased that means, the world, the entire world, is one family. That's the principle that I adhere by. So technically, you're my sister. He's my brother. She's my mother. She's my sister. If you see everyone as one, as oneness, then you wouldn't have hatred or malice or judgement in your heart and your brain. And then another phrase, which means, “Let all creation be healthy, happy, prosperous.” It's said at the end, after every prayer ritual. So we're not just praying for Hindu people to be happy, or Indian people to be happy. We're praying for the entire world, entire planet, all creation. And creation includes animals, birds, plants, vegetation – all of that, too. Sangeetha Kowsik is the Hindu Chaplain at NYU. You can learn more about her work on the university's website, and her artwork at www.ihsanishan.com. You've been listening to 51%. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's hosted by me, Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Thanks again to Sangeetha Kowsik for taking part in this week's episode. Until next week, I'm Jesse King for 51%. Happy New Year!

On this week's 51%, we continue our series talking to women religious leaders. Rabbi Debora Gordon discusses how music can help build connection and community. And we also speak with soferet Julie Seltzer about the art of writing and transcribing holy Jewish texts. (more…)

On this week's 51%, we continue our series talking to women religious leaders. Rabbi Debora Gordon discusses how music can help build connection and community. And we also speak with soferet Julie Seltzer about the art of writing and transcribing holy Jewish texts. Guests: Rabbi Debora Gordon, Congregation Berith Sholom; Julie Seltzer, STAM Scribes 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for tuning in, I'm Jesse King. This week, we continue our series speaking to women religious leaders, and celebrate the different ways that women worship - particularly across faiths that may be traditionally male-led. Our first guest today has been the rabbi at Troy, New York's Congregation Berith Sholom for almost 25 years. Rabbi Debora Gordon, aka “Reb Deb,” has been hard at work bringing renovations to Berith Sholom (the congregation currently resides in the state's oldest building in continuous use as a synagogue), and she's been brushing up on her technical knowledge to keep members connected with hybrid services during the coronavirus pandemic. At the time of our conversation, the delta and omicron variants of COVID-19 were on the rise ahead of the holiday season — so you'll notice that I kept my mask on as we met in person. But Gordon was eager to share the ways her congregation has come together during these pandemic times. She says female rabbis aren't uncommon nowadays, especially in progressive, Reform congregations like hers. But she found herself on the path toward becoming a rabbi before that was the case, at a young age. She says she got into it for the community. What made you want to become a rabbi? It started out that when I was at a Jewish summer camp. I was just a little bit more interested in the ritual part of things. And, you know, celebrating Shabbat, Sabbath, or any other of the Jewish pieces. I mean, we were 12, maybe, [and people were saying], "Are you going to be a rabbi when you grow up?" And the funny thing is that, aside from Regina Jonas, who was ordained in the 1930s, in Berlin, and didn't survive the war, the first woman was ordained a rabbi in 1972. So this would have been like '74/'75. None of us had probably ever met a woman rabbi. The funny thing is that it never occurred to us that I couldn't be a rabbi. As I got into college, I discovered that one of my skills, just because of the home I was raised in, was leading services with a lot of music, integrating music and words, and nurturing the community that way. And I had to decide, actually, cantor or rabbi? And while music was my first way in, what I decided was, "Rabbis talk, cantors sing." Which is super simplified, [but] I had things to say. Over time, it turns out that I have all kinds of skills that nurture community. What's an example of a song that you particularly like? Well, besides the fact that there are 100 million of them. So here's one that I reintroduced on Friday night. I don't know why it came back into my head after several years of not being around, but it's the last line of the book of Psalms. At the end, there's "Hallelujah," so you say "jah" at the end. That's a name for God. That's like a breath, right? You're supposed to actually pronounce that "jah," sound at the end. So it goes: [Gordon singing Halelu] But what's really magical about [that song]? That tune was created by Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, who is Pakistani, I think. But someone, possibly Jewish contemporary Jewish songwriter Craig Taubman, brought together this Sufi chant, and these words — because the original words were "Allahu," so invoking God, by the name of Allah, which is a cognate, to the Hebrew "Eloah," and just means God. So besides the power of the music, and the words themselves, is this connection. Intercultural connection. You said that you had things to say, and that you wanted to help nurture this community. What are some of those messages that you were hoping to get out there? Well, I can't tell you what my messages were when I was 24, because I don't particularly remember. But at the core of my life, as well as my rabbinate, is a two-word phrase from Genesis chapter one, where it talks about humanity being created in God's image. Now, I am not taking that in any literal, physical way. And the whole stories of the Torah, to me, they are our sacred stories — but that's not a comment on their historicity. It doesn't matter to me if they happened that way or not. What matters to me is that these are the stories that nurture our community. And this idea that every human being is created of infinite worth, and infinite possibility. That's, to me, the basis for the radical assertion of justice. I am not personally much of an activist, politics is not my thing. Community organizing, [well], I'm an introvert, there's only so much that I can do with people before I have to recharge by myself. But I can use the stories and the teachings of a 3,000-or-more year tradition to leverage community action, individual action, to bring hope. It's a lot of what I've been doing the last two years: helping people stay connected to each other, providing perspective, reminding people that we are hoping to be post-pandemic at some point. And that our pre-pandemic, like normal life, was post the last pandemic. So of course, this one's going to come to an end at some point. Describe for me what your services are like here, especially during COVID. Well, during COVID, as you can see, we have chairs spaced apart, we've been requiring masks, and mostly people are attending online. But it's important to me that we do it over Zoom, so that it remains interactive. And the singing, the loss of singing has been one of the hardest things — but let me tell you about the high holiday services. So the first year, they were entirely virtual. Our choir director, Dan Foster, is also a tech wizard. He wasn't sitting at a keyboard [during those services], he was at two different Mac computers. And I was up front, but we leaned into the medium, right? And over the summer, he brought choir members in one at a time and made some of those "Brady Bunch" or "Hollywood Squares" [music videos], depending on your generation. He made music videos of some of the most beautiful pieces. [Berith Sholom Choir singing V'Shamru by Elliot Z. Levine] And we hired a congregant who's a videographer, whose work had been affected by COVID, to put together a nature montage. With the choir singing in the background, [we had] that quiet time with beautiful images on the screen, and people writing things in the chat, and adding names for healing in the chat, and names of people they were remembering for the memorial prayer in the chat. In terms of bringing people together, it's allowed us to remain a community. Aside from COVID, one thing I've been asking people is: what are some of the opportunities and obstacles facing your religion as a whole right now, or your congregation? You know, it's not how I look at the world. I see people, and in particular, young people, looking for meaning. And if you as a religious community can be real, and meet people where they are and with what they need, then people want to be there. Then you're offering something, then they become you, right? And this is something that this congregation has been really good at. I mean, when I arrived, it was already a welcoming congregation. There were gay and lesbian members, which in 1997, was not nearly so common as it is today. Today, there are a lot of young, trans folks who are either interested in becoming Jewish, or who were raised Jewish and really don't know if there's a place for them in the community. And I guess we have a reputation out there, because that's a lot of the young people that I see. The challenge is to be our best selves. The challenge is to have faith. But this is not faith in God, this is faith in humanity, in the future, in the reality that the principles and ethics and values that we prize are worth sticking to, even when it seems like it's going to be not to your advantage. There's a reason that they are ethics and morals and values, and you find out what they really are when it's tough. I'll give you a quick example. This year is the Jewish Shmita year — it's the seventh year in a seven-year agricultural society in which land was left fallow, debts were remitted, and indentured servants came to the end of their indenture. This is all laid out in Deuteronomy. I think only the land and maybe the debt part is still followed among some Jews in Israel — and I should say Israel-Palestine, because that's important to me. So we studied about it last year, and the congregant who organized that study decided she wanted to organize a loan to the community loan fund this fall, which would then be immediately forgiven. In other words, it was a donation, rather than an investment loan, which is what they usually do. And you could approach that, from a synagogue leadership perspective, two ways. You could say, "Oh, my God, if we're asking people to donate money somewhere else, that's going to take money away from us." Or you could say, "Encouraging generosity, encouraging people to live their values, will encourage people to value the synagogue as well." Which was the response of our leadership, and we ended up making an over $3,000 donation. So that's, that's an example of [why] I can't answer your question about problems, because challenges are opportunities. I'm not an eternal optimist in the sense that I believe everything's going to turn out all right. But I am a person with hope. And it's not just based on feelings, it's based on, hello, Jews have been here for over 3,000 years — whatever it is, we've seen it before. And there may be personal suffering, and people may die. I mean, we're in the middle of a pandemic, and we are, I hope, still in the middle of a reckoning with systemic racism. It's not that everything's OK. But we will get through this. Thank you so much for taking the time to speak with me. Is there anything that I'm missing that you'd like me to know? Well, you wanted to know about specifically being a female religious leader. I think as a lesbian, I navigate the world a little different than straight women. My assumptions about what my relationship is going to be — to both men and women and non binary people — is different than many heterosexual women. I think that sometimes my congregation has looked at me with expectations they might not have had of a male rabbi, in terms of bending over backwards to be understanding and compassionate. I'm not entirely sure, because I don't tend to lead by setting boundaries, and tend to lead collaboratively. But it's not that men don't do that, so it's hard for me to say this is because I'm female, even though I feel it. But I think that on the occasions where I've deviated from that, it's probably come as something of a shock. For people who are interested in participating in a service over Zoom or in person, what are the details? What should they know? They should know that this is a warm and welcoming and friendly congregation. The service is a combination of Hebrew and English. If you're going to be in person, we ask that you register ahead of time. Anybody's welcome on Zoom. But also know if you're coming from a really short Protestant service — Friday night services are usually an hour and a quarter. High holiday services are two and a half, Yom Kippur mornings, probably three, Rosh Hashana morning may also be three. You know, I try to keep it moving. I try and make it something that speaks to people and touches them. But you're not talking about being in and out in 45 minutes for a Jewish service, at least not here. Our next guest says she worships through inward reflection and quiet work. Julie Seltzer, from Beacon, New York, is part of the “Stam Scribes,” a collective of progressive, Jewish scribes from around the world. The Stam Scribes are some of just a few women to claim the title “soferet” worldwide. With a quill and ink, they patiently and artfully transcribe the various religious texts needed for holy rituals and prayers. While Seltzer says she grew closer to her Jewish faith and learned Hebrew at a young age, she came to the craft almost unexpectedly. What made you want to become a scribe? In terms of what got me interested in the scribal arts, I was living and working at a Jewish retreat center when my mother was diagnosed with late-stage cancer. And it was a few months before she died, that this idea seemingly out of nowhere popped in my head, that I wanted to learn the art of sacred Hebrew calligraphy. I always loved Hebrew. And I was already involved in Jewish practice, I even chanted from the Torah on the Sabbath — the Torah being one of the objects that is handwritten by a scribe. But I really had never given much thought to who wrote them, and what that process was even like. At that time, facing mortality in a way that was very close to me, I think I was drawn to a practice that was about transmission from one generation to the next. It's also a practice that demands a certain quiet that I think I was craving at that moment in time. So I just decided to start learning. I found what I could find on the internet and took it from there. Can you tell me a little bit about why scribes are important? I think it's fascinating, and learning about this, I was surprised that you can't just go and pick up a printed copy of something. Right, exactly. A lot of people don't realize that the Torah is written by hand, along with some other sacred objects. Of course, the Torah is also printed, and we learn from printed copies, but the handwritten copy is what is chanted from as part of the ritual of reading the Torah out loud in a synagogue space. I'm technically what's called a soferet STAM. STAM is an acronym that stands for the objects that we're trained to write: a sefer Torah, that is the scroll of the Torah; tefillin, which are religious objects, these small boxes that are wrapped around the head and the arm, and inside the boxes are small handwritten scrolls, sections from the Torah; and also a mezuzah, which is parts of the Torah that comprise most of a Jewish prayer called the Shema. And those are placed in small boxes, and on the doorposts. You may have seen a small rectangular box on the door of a Jewish home. The other thing that's written by hand, by a scribe, is the book of Esther, which is read on the holiday of Purim. You mentioned that you learned a lot of how to do it online. But what was that process? Like? How long does it take to master this craft? I was really a beginner, I had never even done any calligraphy in my life. Pretty early on, about a couple months in, I found a teacher by the name of Jen, and I started to learn with Jen weekly. What we did was we both learned the technicalities of the practice, that is, the calligraphy, because it's traditional to write with a reed or a feather with liquid ink. And the other aspect is I had to learn all of the rules for how this is done. Because it's not just the calligraphy, it's a whole series of traditions about how one goes about it. So for example, the scribe sets an intention, before they even start writing, that they're writing for the sake of the sanctity of that object. They're not writing for any other reason, and their attention is focused on the writing. This is for radio, so unfortunately we can't watch as you write, but help me visualize the process a little bit. How long does a typical piece take? Sure, so it really depends what you're writing. The mezusah, that will take a day or half a day to complete. But a Torah will take much longer. The Torah has over 300,000 letters in it. It takes at least a year, it takes me a year and a half. To be honest, maybe I'm just a slower writer than others, but between the writing and the proof reading — these days, there's even a computer program that checks a Torah for mistakes, and then you can go back and fix any errors, because once it's in use it can't have any errors in it. If it has mistakes, then those mistakes need to be fixed within a certain amount of time. You're doing it in ink, right? So if you make a mistake, do you have to go start from the beginning? There's no delete button, and white out would would not look so good, so the way that mistakes are corrected is that the ink, once it's dry, is scraped off. And then you can rewrite the letter. You would never be in a situation where you have to start the whole thing over. The very worst case scenario would be that you would have to write one of the sheets over. The Torah is written on separate sheets of parchment of animal skin, and the sheets are stitched together. So in one of the classic layouts, there are 62 sheets that are sewn together. So if I made a major error in one of those sheets, I would have to rewrite the sheet. So a major error would be something like I skipped a line and didn't realize it, and you can't scratch off an entire column because it would look terrible. And we also take forever, so you would really have to write that section over — but most mistakes can be fixed. Something that's interesting, a tradition that we have, is if there's a letter, but it might look a little too much like another letter, you ask a child. And if the child correctly identifies the letter, then the letter is good, it's fine. They make the determination. I like that. I think that's cool. What's the hardest part when you're doing these? Are there letters that are more difficult than others? Are there particular items that are tricky? Yeah, there are definitely letters that are more complicated than others. For example, the letter shin has three different elements and [they're] kind of curved, but also straight, so it it's a little bit more difficult to make them than some basic letters, say a dalet, which has a roof and a leg. And in terms of overall projects, I don't think there's any one object that's more difficult to write than another, except that mezuzahs and tefillin are often written in very, very small print, and that makes it challenging. They also happen to have an additional rule, the rule being that all the letters have to be written in order. So if you wrote the Mezuzah and then found an earlier mistake, you can't actually correct it, because you will be writing that letter after all the letters that have already been written, which is not permitted. So you have to be paying extra close attention when you're writing one of those objects. Is it becoming more accepted for women to become scribes? I wouldn't say it's common, but I would say it's growing. We have, actually, a group of a women who work together, share resources, and are very much connected, especially in this digital age. And we're all over the world. But we're still a very small group. I mean, I personally know basically all of us, it would be unusual to hear that there is a woman that I didn't know about somewhere in the world, though it has happened, and there is starting to be more and more women who are learning. But I have to say it's still quite unusual. Scribes learn from another scribe, so you have a teacher, and in the past the most common scenario was a father teaching his son. There is a school in Jerusalem, but women are not actually allowed to go to the school. So in traditional circles, the writings that we create are not accepted, for the most part, as kosher in the Orthodox world. So it's complicated. And in fact, Jen, the teacher that I first found — when I looked around for a teacher, everyone was giving me the same couple of names because there were barely any people willing to teach a woman, and there were barely any women who had learned and who were able to teach. In fact, Jen is the first woman that we know of to write a Torah roll. She finished her first Torah in 2007. Do you have a favorite passage or story that you'd like to share with listeners? Wow. They're like babies, you can't choose a favorite. But you know, in different moments of my life, I've been drawn to different sections of the Torah. When I was first starting out, I loved a section in Numbers. And the reason I loved it is because it repeated itself. It was like 12 paragraphs that essentially are the same exact thing, with slight differences in the names of the people. And I loved it, because I could practice and get better at it each time. Now, I might say, this part gets a little dry. But I tend to be drawn to the earlier, narrative stories — especially the story of Joseph, who is enslaved in Egypt, but then over the years is appointed second in command to the Pharaoh. I think I like the drama. My background is actually theater, I studied theater in college. And so I just love those intense, emotional moments. Joseph, his father thinks that he's dead, and he finds out so many years later that he's alive, and he gets to see his son. And for Joseph, he was betrayed by his brothers. I mean, he didn't behave so well to them, but still they betrayed him, sold him. And that moment of forgiveness and reunification is really emotionally beautiful and poignant. How would you say being a scribe has shaped your outlook or your understanding of your faith? I think a lot of people are searching for something meaningful, and I think Judaism has a lot to offer in this realm. And there's no neutral way to be in the world, right? We're always experiencing it through a particular lens. And I think the Jewish lens — not that there's one Jewish lens, but the way that I experience it — Judaism is marked by the weekly cycle and the yearly cycle of holidays. And for me, this really helps mark time in a way that the secular calendar doesn't quite do it for me, and it helps provide some structure and meaning to my life. I hope that Judaism will evolve the way that language evolves, kind of naturally through its continued use, and everything that's in use changes, right? The religion is not meant to be a museum piece, frozen in time. But these texts, these core texts, like the Torah, I do hope will stay intact. Because the Torah is like the shared conversation piece, right? Think of it kind of like a book club: you need to anchor the discussion, you need the thing that you're all talking about. And I think this is much of what Judaism is and can be, a conversation, like a fascinating discussion across time and space. That's a wrap on this week's episode of 51%. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by me, Jesse King. Our Executive Producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Thanks to Rabbi Deb Gordon and Julie Seltzer for taking the time to speak with me for this week's episode. We'll continue our series speaking to women religious leaders next week. Until then, I'm Jesse King for 51%.

On this week's 51%, we continue our series talking to women religious leaders. Rabbi Debora Gordon discusses how music can help build connection and community. And we also speak with soferet Julie Seltzer about the art of writing and transcribing holy Jewish texts. (more…)

On this week's 51%, we kick off our series speaking to women religious leaders and celebrate the different ways that women worship. Sister Danielle Bonetti teaches the importance of worship through service, and the women behind the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church share their hopes for the future of the UMC. (more…)

On this week's 51%, we kick off our series speaking to women religious leaders and celebrate the different ways that women worship. Sister Danielle Bonetti teaches the importance of worship through service, and the women behind the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church share their hopes for the future of the UMC. Guests: Sister Danielle Bonetti, Providence Coordinator of the Justice Ministry for the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet; Kathleen Ryan, priest with the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests; Heather Williams (pastor) and Alison Klock (associate pastor) of the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's produced by Jesse King. Our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and our theme is "Lolita" by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. Follow Along You're listening to 51%, a WAMC production dedicated to women's issues and experiences. Thanks for joining us, I'm Jesse King. For many of us, the topic of religion plays a considerable role in our lives, whether you're born and raised in your beliefs, “newly reformed,” devout, agnostic, or even atheistic. Our feelings on the afterlife have a way of guiding our life paths - but many of today's mainstream religions are, at least traditionally, male-led. So, with the holiday season in full swing, consider this part one of a series speaking to women religious leaders about why they worship, how they worship, and the issues they care about most in their respective faiths. Because increasingly so, women are finding ways to take part and lead. Today we'll start in Latham, New York, at the provincial house of the Sisters of St. Joseph of Carondelet, a Roman Catholic group of women religious that traces back to the mid-1600s in France. The Latham headquarters serves primarily as a home for retired sisters, but it also houses its administrative offices, including the office of Sister Danielle Bonetti, the group's Province Coordinator of the Justice Ministry. “The Sisters of St. Joseph were founded in 1650. In those days, in the 1600s, if a woman entered a religious life, there was only one form of religious life, and that was cloistered convents. And so they have to spend their whole time praying and just living behind a cloister,” Bonetti explains. “What Father Medaille wanted to do was have little cells of women dedicated to serving others, who he called ‘the dear neighbor.' There was a strong Jesuit influence, and what they call ‘ignatian spirituality,' so that attracted me a great deal. Because I've always been attracted to the ignatian way of praying and imaging God.” Bonetti says the Roman Catholic faith was always a major part of her life. She went to join the Sisters of St. Joseph at just 18 years old, with hopes of serving in one of several ministries. The Sisters of St. Joseph notably started Albany College of Saint Rose in 1920, and played a role in the development of St. Mary's Hospital (now St. Mary's Healthcare) in Amsterdam. “But I was always wanting to do pastoral work, to be out with people,” says Bonetti. “So I was lucky, I got to do the very beginnings of parish work, of Sisters being in parish work. I was a religious ed director. I was always in the Albany diocese, and I was out in Oneonta for five years, and then in Troy. So I organized all the religious ed for the children who didn't go to Catholic school. What did that work look like? In those days I mainly worked to train the lay people who were gonna be what we would call the ‘catechist,' or the religion teacher. And in Oneonta, it was kind of exciting. It was a very rural parish, in the city of Oneonta we had the mother parish, and then we had these little missions. And so every day I was in a different little town, and I had a group of, usually, mothers who were (at that time) home during the day, and they would be the teachers. These children would be released from school, and we'd walk them to — it was a rural area, so we would use whatever building we could. One time, we even rented a grange hall and we had the classes there. One time there was an undertaker who let us use the basement of his establishment — which wasn't the best place to have class, but we did it. And being with the young mothers was wonderful, because it was a chance to get to know them, and for many of them it was their entry back into the workplace. Many of those women went on and stayed in that field, became religious ed directors themselves, youth ministers. So it was a chance to work with adults as well as the children. Later on, like the 1980s, late 1980s, I was like the assistant to the pastor, and I did hospital visiting. I had time to visit the parishioners who were homebound. [The pastor] would do the funeral, and I would do the wake service. It was what they called a “pastoral associate” role.  What kind of work do you do now? I organize things to help the Sisters grow in their understanding of justice issues, which is a tremendous commitment on our part as a community. We see ourselves as advocating for those on the margin of our society, doing legislative actions, [advocating for the passage] bills and laws that will lead to a more just society. I work with a group called Capital District Border Watch, and these are people very committed to work for immigrant rights, especially the people that are being detained at the border. So I just did a project yesterday with our senior Sisters here, where we made Christmas cards for the people who are now being held in detention. And I translated phrases into Spanish, so they wrote the phrases in Spanish to tell people that we're thinking of them and praying for them. But then I also work with the Capital District Council of Churches, and also the New York State Council of Churches, where we'll visit with legislators to look at New York legislation. Now that we can get out more, I'm starting to meet with groups. I've tried to get in touch with what's happening with the Afghan refugees who are coming into the area.  What other kinds of leadership positions do you see women taking in the Church? I think this is a crucial time for the Church right now. We've had some real soul-searching moments that still are very difficult. And I think the Church has the opportunity, especially with Pope Francis, to reach out to women — and he is doing that, he's starting to include women in leadership roles at the Vatican. And here in this diocese, we had many Sisters in leadership roles. When I worked for the diocese, almost every diocesean department was led by a woman, lay woman or a Sister, and that was a wonderful time in the Church. We're in a different time now, we don't have as many Sisters. But I think the Church has the opportunity of using the gifts of women — lay women, married women — and integrating that into the very life of the Church. I think women are studying theology and becoming very experienced in areas like teaching theology and spiritual direction. We have many Sisters, including myself, who do spiritual direction. We help men and women talk about and get in touch with how God is leading them in their life.  So it sounds like the acts of service are almost a way of worshiping. They are. They're very much tied into the way we envision God among us. Emmanuel means “God among us,” and we have a rich, rich tradition of spirituality. Of how we pray and how we approach God, and how we reach out to others. We see that as all connected. You know, we don't say, “Here you pray, here you serve others, and here you study scripture.” We're very strong about relationships. We really believe that our God is a God of relationships. Jesus didn't send a program, he came himself and was among us, and formed relationships. And so we feel that the best way to serve people is to be in a relationship with them. And we're enriched, you know, it's not a one-sided thing. I can't think of one experience in my life as a Sister that hasn't enriched me as much as I've given. My favorite, very favorite scripture story is “The Visitation,” where Mary, when she realized she was pregnant, she heard the angel speak to her — and she heard that her cousin was pregnant — went out right away to visit her cousin, and to be with her. You can just visualize, she was an older woman, and here's this very young woman. Both of them were pregnant, and they were both there to help each other and to, probably, try to understand what was happening. Because both were pregnancies that weren't expected. That's my very favorite, because I think women have always done that for each other, and you want to encourage that. And that doesn't exclude men, because I think men are called to the same kind of reaching out to others. Rather than top-down, it's much more one-to-one to each other.  While Sister Danielle points out that there are many ways women lead within the Roman Catholic Church, the Church currently does not allow women to become priests. Our next guest, Kathleen Ryan, was ordained in 2015 by an organization that hopes to change that. The Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests says it is technically excommunicated by the Vatican, but it still sees itself as loyal members of the Church, and it has ministers in the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and elsewhere around the world. Ryan is one of multiple priests at The Upper Room, a non-hierarchical, Inclusive Catholic Community in Albany, New York. Like Sister Danielle, Ryan says her faith was an important part of her life from a young age.  What made you want to become a priest? I wanted to be very active [in the Church]. I was baptized Roman Catholic, and I grew up in the Catholic Church. But from the very beginning, I always felt like an outsider. The men — and the boys, my brothers — were able to do things in the Church that I wasn't able. So I always participated in every way I could as a young person, and then also as an adult. I was parish president, you know, I did all the things that the Church would allow women to do. But we were never really a full participant. And then in 2002 this movement began — and I didn't hear about it until 2013 — and one of the bishops, her name is Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, she was coming to Albany to do “A Conversation with a Woman Bishop.” I went to hear her speak, and when I got home, I said to my husband, “We just found our church.” This was so inclusive, including men. And it's a theology of blessing. The Catholic Church, we grew up with the theology of “original sin,” and we no longer accept that any more than we accept that canon law says that women cannot be priests. So for you, what was the process of becoming a priest? Well, there's a police background check, psychological background check. But a lot of new theology. It's progressive theology, the kind of theology that you cannot get in the typical seminary nowadays. And so we've created, through a program called People's Catholic Seminary, which is open to the public, a very progressive study of Christianity. We don't believe that everybody has to be baptized. I mean, it's nice — we do baptisms if you request it — but you're baptized into the church, into the community, and not to get that sin off your soul, so to speak. We're pro-immigrant, we are very socially justice minded. We're not for war. And yet we're a continuum, so if you talk to 200 women priests, you'll probably get differences of where we are on the continuum. But in general, we are an inclusive community who accepts anybody who feels they have the call, and are willing to study. Do you see this becoming more prevalent in the future of the Church? Well, we hope so. For a while we were hoping that the Catholic Church, the Vatican, would see us and say, “Hey, women should be part of us, too.” Well, it's not happening. If anything, many of our women priests have gotten letters of excommunication. They won't excommunicate a male priest who has abused, but they'll excommunicate me, who decided I wanted to be a woman priest. So their level of why they excommunicate — they're saying it's traditional, they say that Jesus did not have women priests. But he didn't have priests, for one. But he also did have many women who followed him and formed communities at his time. There was 12 disciples, but there was a lot women, and some are named, but more are not named because at the time women were not named in writings. It was just uncommon. There was a woman who walked with Paul, her name was Thecla. She worked with Paul in getting the message out of Jesus — and Jesus' message always was, “God loves you, and you need to love everybody else.” He didn't have all these canon laws. You know, he was Jewish, and he obeyed the Jewish traditions, but he did it with great love. And that's what Paul was saying. His words got kind of turned sometimes, but Thecla was right with him. She herself became a bishop. During the persecutions, they tried to kill her in the coliseums, and the legend is that she went in with the lions, and the lions just laid down. They didn't kill her. So she is as famous as Paul was at the time, but the Church kind of let that disappear. There's actually writings called, “The Book of Paul and Thecla.” Well, they left out the “Thecla.” Women have disappeared. Mary Magdalene is often considered to be a prostitute. Well, she wasn't. She was a follower of Jesus, and she was the first one to see Jesus resurrected. He came to her first. Why, because women weren't important? Women were very important.  Do you have a favorite biblical message or story you'd like to share? My favorite is “The Road to Emmaus.” So it's after Jesus was crucified, and the word was that he was resurrected, but not everybody saw it. And a disciple of his called Cleopas and his “companion” were walking to Emmaus. Well, the companion, we suspect strongly, was a woman, and most likely his wife, because women in those days would not walk alone. And the two of them were walking on the road to Emmaus, and talking about what they'd heard about Jesus being resurrected after the crucifixion, and they were all upset. And Jesus appears to them, but they don't recognize him. The way I look at it, Jesus followed them and chased after them to catch up to them. And he explained to them what happened in Jerusalem, why the crucifixion, why it had to happen, and what it means for now. And they still didn't recognize him until he sat with him and broke the bread. Cleopas and his wife ran back to Jerusalem — it's about seven miles away — to tell the disciples what they witnessed. And by that time Jesus had been appearing in different places, including to the other disciples. What I love about it is, first of all, [Jesus] chased after them to let them know what was really happening. He followed them, he pursued them. And I think God always pursues us. We're always on some path going in some direction, and somehow God pursues us. Our last guests today are the leaders of the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church in Saratoga Springs, New York. The UMC is one of the largest Protestant churches in the U.S., behind the Southern Baptist Convention, but a long-held stalemate over its stance on same-sex marriage and LGBTQ clergy is prompting threats of a split by some of its more conservative churches.  Pastor Heather Williams has been at the front of her congregation for the past eight years. Her associate pastor, Alison Klock, could be considered its next generation: she graduated from Drew Theological School this past spring, is working toward becoming ordained, and splits her time as a program director for a Christian summer camp at Sky Lake, a retreat center in Windsor, New York. The pair shared with me their love for their congregation, their views on women in the Bible, and their hopes for the future of the UMC.  What made you want to become a pastor? Klock: I would say, for me, it was definitely a process that began because I had so many mentors in my life who sort of ushered me forward in this process. Because I would say I was maybe 11/12-years-old when I started to sense a call on my life toward ordained ministry, but I didn't know how to identify that. But other people who had been through this process were able to identify that in me, and they said, “Had you considered this?” or “Maybe we'll get you signed up for this.” And before you knew it, I was a 12-year-old girl who was reading scriptures on a Sunday, and going to summer programs where you learn about leadership in the church, and all these sorts of opportunities were thrown my way because people saw something in me. Williams: And for me, in ministry over the last 20-ish years…at first, I just thought my pastor had a cool job. To be honest, I always wanted to do what he did. But now, after 20 years, my real passion has grown into mentoring and uplifting and nurturing women in leadership.  Tell me more about the community you have at the Saratoga Springs UMC. Williams: We have this incredible group of generous and kind people, and yesterday, a member donated land for us to start a Habitat build across from the high school in Saratoga Springs.  So, like a Habitat for Humanity kind of build? Williams: Yes. That's just the tip of the iceberg, though. We're a reconciling congregation, and in the United Methodist Church, that means that we are open and affirming of people from the LGBTQ community. That decision was made in 1995. And they embody the position of welcoming everyone. It is one of the healthiest churches I've ever seen, and they do welcome children, and love them, and make space for them to be them. We created a “little kid nook” in the back, with rocking chairs for parents and soft toys for children to play, in the sanctuary itself. This Sunday we had a baby cry, and it just took everyone's breath away, because it's been so long that we've heard a baby cry in the sanctuary, because of COVID and everything.  You said that a big part of your passion now is inspiring leadership, and working with women. Can you tell me a bit more about that? Williams: Sure. I am currently working on my Doctor of Ministry degree at Drew University, “Women in Religious Leadership.” And now I think I'm more formally thinking that that is my call. How exactly that will take shape, I'm not exactly sure. It's still a rough environment. It's still an environment where people assume my husband is the pastor being appointed to the church. It's still a place where people touch you unwarranted. It's still a place where you feel your voice is not seen as…and I think the political environment that we had for the last four years nurtured that type of ability to disempower, disengage, or push aside the voices of women.  One thing I've been asking my guests is — either in the UMC or in the church in general — what do you see as some of the biggest obstacles facing the church? And what do you see as some of the biggest opportunities? Williams: I think, for me, one of the obstacles is the rigidity around doing church differently. I read this book, Another Way, for my class in seminary, and it had this acronym, C.A.R.E., about leadership and creating a safe place, and hearing the voices [of everyone]. And that's one style of leadership that we won't embody, because church growth looks like, and I'm just gonna be real, a young, white man in skinny jeans and a large church. And the numbers are growing and growing and growing. That's what is seen as valuable or successful leadership in the church. And women don't lead that way. Women lead in teams. Women lead in community. Women lead in relationship. We don't lead in a top-down way where numbers are the most important thing. But the greatest hope is our denomination is in the middle of upheaval. So my hope is that, out of this upheaval, will come a brand new thing that the spirit of the living God will breathe into. That's my hope. Klock: Yeah, I was gonna speak on that a little bit, too. Our denomination, as it stands now, is the product of several, several years of denominations coming together and splitting for different political/social reasons. So yeah, where we are now is a product of that, and we are in the process of moving forward, too. And there's talks of splits, and that's very anxiety-provoking, because when something splits we don't know what will stand, but as Heather said, we're confident that the Spirit will burst something beautiful out of this new creation, whatever it is. Williams: One of the things we are planning: we are having an old-fashioned tent revival. “Resurgence: This is What Holiness Looks Like.” May 6 and 7 at our church, we're bringing in a renowned musician, Mark Miller. And the point of our gathering is to build hope. To build hope and for people to see the voice in the denomination, the things you've been hearing in the news, that's not what we are all. This is what holiness looks like. Being engaged in social justice, and showing up, and being present with one another no matter what. And we will not go back to a denomination that says you cannot recognize the full humanity of all people and provide full pastoral care. We won't go back. Our congregation refuses to adhere to that.  Lastly, do you have a favorite message or character from the Bible that you'd like to share? Klock: One of my favorite women in the Bible is actually “The Woman at the Well.” And the reason I like this story is because it's oftentimes a story that conservative folks will use to villainize women. It's a story where Jesus recognizes a woman who is living with a man who is not her husband, and she's been married several other times. She goes out in the middle of the day to get water from the well, and Jesus is there, and he says, “I know who you are,” and he references that. And so people will use that as a way to talk about, you know, “Jesus is calling you away from your sinful life.” But what I really like about that story is that Jesus is sitting there — it's noon on a really hot, summer's day — and he says, “Do you have water?” And she offers him water. And I don't think people recognize the significance of that. That Jesus asked this woman for something that is life-saving. Something that is life-giving. And that she is able to give this to him. She is the only one that's able to give this to him. So I think by people using this story as solely an opportunity to talk about sexual morality — they're missing the point, of the way that Jesus asks each of us, of all genders, of all walks of life, for our life-giving resources, to offer to him, to create something beautiful. Williams: Allison preached a beautiful sermon on Sunday about Mary and Elizabeth. In her sermon, she made me realize the need, for my own life and my own heart, to claim the beauty and the light that God has planted in me. And you can recognize that when you're in the presence of your Elizabeth.  You're the second person who's brought up that story. I think that's cool. I was speaking with Sister Danielle, and she mentioned that that was one of her favorite stories, too. Because Mary was so young, and she made the trip to go and see [Elizabeth], and [Sister Danielle mentioned] it being a story of women supporting each other. Williams: Yeah, she literally ran for the hills, that's what the scripture says. To go see Elizabeth. But yeah, there are so many other stories of women in the scripture, some of them fraught with racism and classism. We see too many times the ability of one woman, because of their status, to be able to subjugate, or abuse, or mistreat another woman because of their status. And so I guess that's why it's so important to me.  That's a wrap on this week's 51%. 51% is a national production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio. It's hosted by me, Jesse King, our executive producer is Dr. Alan Chartock, and that theme underneath me right now? That's “Lolita” by the Albany-based artist Girl Blue. A big thanks to all of the women who took part in this episode: Sister Danielle Bonetti, Kathleen Ryan, Pastor Heather Williams and Associate Pastor Alison Klock. We'll continue our celebration of women religious leaders next week. Until then, I'm Jesse King for 51%.

On this week's 51%, we kick off our series speaking to women religious leaders and celebrate the different ways that women worship. Sister Danielle Bonetti teaches the importance of worship through service, and the women behind the Saratoga Springs United Methodist Church share their hopes for the future of the UMC. (more…)

Sister Joan Chittister is a member of the Benedictine Sisters, played a huge hand in developing the Charter of Compassion, was president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious., director of Benetvision, founder of Monasteries of the Heart, passionately advocated on behalf of peace, human rights, women's issues, and church renewal, written over 60 books, and has a bird named Lady Hildegard. The focus of our conversation today is Joan's book, The Monastic Heart: 50 Simple Practices for a Contemplative and Fulfilling Life. Check out the show notes at contemplify.com

Welcome Sister Joan Chittister to the Unhurried Living Podcast where we are talking about her latest book, "The Monastic Heart" where she offers simple, practical, deep wisdom. You know when someone has lived truth well when they can make things so very easily understandable. Sr. Joan Chittister is an internationally known author and lecturer, and the executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality. She is past president of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Her books include:The Gift of Years The Breath of the SoulCalled to Question Following the Path She is also a member of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, Pennsylvania.

This article is from "A Matter of Spirit" Fall, 2021 issue on Sacred Pathways. "A Matter of Spirit" is the quarterly justice journal of the Intercommunity Peace and Justice Center, Seattle Washington.

Sr Kemi Akinleye and Sr Beatrice  Efembele who are heading the publication department of the Paulines Sisters, West Africa tell the stories of their lives, ministry, grassroots evangelization, and faith animation through the Paulines Publications, Africa. They narrate the challenging experience of Christian persecution in Nigeria, the rise in violence in the country, the hostile environment in which they work, and their courageous effort to be present in the chaos of the lives of the people. They speak of hope for Africa and make a passionate appeal for the inclusion of the voices of women in the synodal process in Africa.  

Joan Chittister, OSB, is an internationally known writer and lecturer and the executive director of Benetvision, a resource and research center for contemporary spirituality in Erie, Pennsylvania. A Benedictine Sister of Erie, Pennsylvania, she served as president of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and of the Conference of American Benedictine Prioresses, and was prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie for twelve years. Sister Joan received her doctorate from Pennsylvania State University in speech communications theory. She has authored sixty books and received numerous awards for her work on behalf of peace, justice, and women in church and in society.Her latest book, The Monastic Heart, was released September 21, 2021. This book carries the weight and wisdom of the monastic spiritual tradition into the twenty-first century. Sister Joan leans into Saint Benedict, who, as a young man in the sixth century, sought moral integrity in the face of an empire not by conquering or overpowering the empire but by simply living an ordinary life extraordinarily well. This same monastic mindset can help us grow in wisdom, equanimity, and strength of soul as we seek restoration and renewal both at home and in the world. At a time when people around the world are bearing witness to human frailty—and, simultaneously, the endurance of the human spirit—The Monastic Heart invites readers of all walks to welcome this end of certainty and embrace a new beginning of our faith. Without stepping foot in a monastery, we can become, like those before us, a deeper, freer self, a richer soul—and, as a result, a true monastic, so “that in all things God may be glorified.”

Franciscan Spirituality Center920 Market StreetLa Crosse, WI 54601608-791-5295https://www.fscenter.orgSteve Spilde: Today, it is my honor to welcome as my guest Sister Rose Elsbernd. Rose is a teammate, a mentor, and a friend. She serves as a Spiritual Director at the Franciscan Spirituality Center, and is a longtime supervisor in the Spiritual Direction Preparation Program. Recently, five FSPA sisters and staff traveled to volunteer at a facility on the border in Arizona. Rose joins me to talk about her trip and her efforts to respond with compassion to those seeking asylum. Welcome, Rose.Sister Rose Elsbernd: Thank you, Steve. It's good to be with you today.Steve: You recently came back from a trip to Arizona. Could you tell us where you went?Sister Rose Elsbernd: We went to, as a response to the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, had put out an asking for volunteers for people to work at the borders, partly because they were really in a need for volunteers. Many of the people who were helping during the winter were gone, and the students weren't yet back from college. As most of these facilities depend almost – I would say 95 percent – on volunteers, there was a need for us to go down. We Franciscan Sisters of Perpetual Adoration wanted to respond to that, and there was a number of us that just volunteered to go. Only four of us could go with our Justice and Peace person, Pat Bruda, who has gone a couple other times. We went to Tucson with the intention of coming to a knowledge of what's going on, because there's so much that you don't know, and you almost have to sort through the facts to know what it is. We were in Tucson. We did visit the border at two different places, and [we] went into Mexico twice. But mostly, we volunteered at Casa Alitas, which is a Catholic Charities-sponsored program that receives people from the border crossings, basically, either from Nogales or Yuma, and they have the paperwork. They have a file that's maybe an inch-and-a-half that they carry with them. At this point, they're legal to come into the United States.What they do as they come into this Casa Alitas is immediately they get water, they get some soup for nourishment, and then they begin to make them feel comfortable enough, and they stay maybe one or two days until they can get transportation out to where their sponsor is. If they can't find a sponsor, they start looking for one. There's a lot of navigation that they have to do to get them on the road and out, but most of the time it's a day or two. However, that's very different from on the Mexico side. They might have been waiting on the Mexican side for a year, year and a half, or even two [years], to get the papers for asylum that they need. It's kind of an interesting phenomena of how people are so desperate to get to a better life.Steve: So you went to this facility that serves as kind of a welcome for immigrants. These are legal immigrants [and] they have paperwork, but they've come to the border waiting to get in. They were waiting for a year or two on the Mexican side, and then they come in. But many of these immigrants really don't have anything as they arrive, correct?Sister Rose Elsbernd: No. What they get, of course, while they're there, they will get products they need for just hygiene, and then they get a backpack. Maybe they get a pair of shoes if they need it, [and] definitely shoelaces, because all the shoelaces are taken out of the shoes in Mexico – even the children's which is kind of like … They say it's for their safety, primarily, so they can't run. They get shoes, socks, a couple pair of underwear, two shirts, and usually one pair of jeans or something like that. That's what they carry onto the bus or the airplane as they leave.Steve: So they've come into this country [and] they're going to go to some … They might go to La Crosse if there's an organization willing to sponsor them. But basically, what they have as possessions is what's in that backpack.

The Catholic Church is the United State's second largest religious grouping, after Protestantism, and the country's largest church or religious denomination.  As of 2018, 23% of the United States population was Catholic. This is startling when you realize that at the beginning of the American experiment, religions and their adherents were almost completely Protestant and vehemently, sometimes violently, anti-Catholic. The story of this transformation is critical to understanding the American religious landscape, which is another way of saying it is critical to understanding America. And, often the best way to understand a historical movement or event is to learn about individual actors on history's stage. Importantly, as historian Anne Braude of Harvard Divinity School wrote: “Women's History is American Religious History.” One prominent Catholic in American history is Elizabeth Ann Seton, who began the Sisters of Charity, the first religious community of women founded in the United States, and who was the aunt of Seton Hall University's founder, Bishop James Roosevelt Bayley. Today to help us understand the life and times of Elizabeth Ann Seton is Catherine O'Donnell, Professor of History at Arizona State University and author of Elizabeth Seton: American Saint, which was awarded the Distinguished Book Award by the Conference on the History of Women Religious, for books published from 2016-2018, as well as the Biography Prize from the Catholic Press Association. Her primary research interests include Early American history, culture, and religion. She is also the author of Men of Letters in the Early Republic and many articles appearing in venues including the William and Mary Quarterly, the Journal of the Early Republic, Early American Literature, and the US Catholic Historian. She teaches undergraduate and graduate courses on early American history and the Atlantic World. It is hoped that our time together today will help us better understand what religion has done to America, and what America has done to religion, and we trust that as a result, listeners will come to better understand how revolutionary and indispensable the idea of religious freedom as a governing principle, is, to the United States and its future. Join us in building The National Museum of American Religion in the nation's capital, to open in 2026, on the 240th anniversary of Thomas Jefferson's immortal words "Almighty God hath created the mind free", by donating at storyofamericanreligion.org/contribute.

We’re joined by historian, activist, and Trekkie Blair Imani to discuss the women religious leaders we see throughout Star Trek - from Nuria to Kai Winn to Zani - as well as Trek’s representation of human religion in the 22nd Century and beyond. HOSTS Grace, Sarah, Sue GUEST Blair Imani - @BlairImani EDITOR Andi Send us your feedback! Email: crew@womenatwarp.com Twitter/Instagram: @womenatwarp Facebook: http://facebook.com/womenatwarp Support the Show on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/womenatwarp Visit our TeePublic Store: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/womenatwarp For more Roddenberry Podcasts, visit http://podcasts.roddenberry.com And don’t forget to subscribe to the Roddenberry Podcasts Master Feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

We're joined by historian, activist, and Trekkie Blair Imani to discuss the women religious leaders we see throughout Star Trek - from Nuria to Kai Winn to Zani - as well as Trek's representation of human religion in the 22nd Century and beyond. HOSTS Grace, Sarah, Sue GUEST Blair Imani - @BlairImani EDITOR Andi Send us your feedback! Email: crew@womenatwarp.com Twitter/Instagram: @womenatwarp Facebook: http://facebook.com/womenatwarp Support the Show on Patreon: http://www.patreon.com/womenatwarp Visit our TeePublic Store: https://www.teepublic.com/stores/womenatwarp For more Roddenberry Podcasts, visit http://podcasts.roddenberry.com And don't forget to subscribe to the Roddenberry Podcasts Master Feed, wherever you get your podcasts.

Over the next several months, our hosts Kari Janisse and Mike Walsh will be chatting with members from various women religious communities in South Jersey. For the first of these one-off episodes, we welcome from the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal (aka the CFRs), Sister Ann Kateri, Sister Chiara, and postulant Kate Creel. The trio chat with us about how their community was founded, its charisms, their work in Atlantic City and in their convents in New York, England and Ireland, and how they support the local Samuel Group, a discernment group for young adults, ages 18-39, who meet together once a month from September through May in order to study, pray, and discover their individual vocations or lifetime call from God. The purpose of the program is to equip young adults with the tools they need to approach vocational discernment with peace, joy and confidence. The CFRs are always great guests (Mike think this is their 5th appearance on the podcast) and will give your soul a joyful boost. To learn more about the Franciscan Sisters of the Renewal, check out: https://www.franciscansisterscfr.com/postulants To learn more about young adult discernment initiative, Samuel Group, go to: https://www.camdendiocese.org/samuelgroup/ You can also catch us on Domestic Church Media radio Sundays at 11 AM or Mondays at 4 PM https://domesticchurchmedia.org. Follow us on... Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TalkingCatholic Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/talkingcatholic Twitter: https://twitter.com/talkingcatholic

At first glance, evangelical and Gotham seem like an odd pair. What does a movement of pious converts and reformers have to do with a city notoriously full of temptation and sin? More than you might think, says Kyle B. Roberts, who argues that religion must be considered alongside immigration, commerce, and real estate scarcity as one of the forces that shaped the New York City we know today. In Evangelical Gotham, Roberts explores the role of the urban evangelical community in the development of New York between the American Revolution and the Civil War. As developers prepared to open new neighborhoods uptown, evangelicals stood ready to build meetinghouses. As the city's financial center emerged and solidified, evangelicals capitalized on the resultant wealth, technology, and resources to expand their missionary and benevolent causes. When they began to feel that the city's morals had degenerated, evangelicals turned to temperance, Sunday school, prayer meetings, antislavery causes, and urban missions to reform their neighbors. The result of these efforts was Evangelical Gotham—a complicated and contradictory world whose influence spread far beyond the shores of Manhattan.-Kyle Roberts is the Associate Director of Library & Museum Programming of the American Philosophical Society Library & Museum. Dr. Roberts helps to integrate the programming departments of the Library, which manage scholarly programming and digital outreach, with those of the Museum, which oversee education programming and adult learning. Prior to coming to the APS Library & Museum, Dr. Roberts was an Associate Professor of Public History and New Media and Director of the Center for Textual Studies and Digital Humanities at Loyola University Chicago. A scholar of Atlantic World religion, print, and library history, he is the author of Evangelical Gotham: Religion and the Making of New York City, 1783-1860 (Chicago, 2016) and the co-editor, with Stephen Schloesser, of Crossings and Dwellings: Restored Jesuits, Women Religious, American Experience 1814-2014 (Brill, 2017) and, with Mark Towsey, of Before the Public Library: Reading, Community, and Identity in the Atlantic World, 1650-1850 (Brill, 2017).

Christian Movie Roast/Jesus Camp 10 Years Later/Mayor Bans Women /Religious BS WEDNESDAYS! (PTL 24) by Dusty Smith

Sister Kim King catches up with John Reine, a retired educator of the Sacred Heart, writer and storyteller. John reflects on meaningful relationships and their influence on his faith and spiritual life.“Follow the Flow” is featured in ‘Coral Castles’ by Carol Bialock, RSCJ. For more information about the book and how to purchase it, click here.

Sister Kim King speaks with Claire Lorentzen, a Sacred Heart alumna, millennial and Sacred Heart educator, touching on self-identity, spirituality and responsibility.

Sister Kim King sits down with Moira Schrader, a former Sacred Heart student, current Sacred Heart mom and educator, reflecting on her understanding of faith throughout the various stages of life.

This podcast is for the sake of all of us, you included!

We are excited to announce our new podcast For The Sake Of, introduce our host Sister Kim King and share a little bit about our podcast.

Learn about who's behind the podcast and what it means.

Pope Francis has for the first time publicly acknowledged the scandal of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns. Rocio Figueroa, a theologian and lecturer and Doris Reisinger Wagner tell us their experience in a discussion with Sister Sharlet Wagner, a sister of the Holy Cross and the current President of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the United States.The Football Association should increase the Women's FA Cup Prize Fund according to Charlie Dobres from Lewes FC, the only football club to pay their men and women teams equally. He's joined by sports writer Anna Kessel to tell us why.We discuss Onlyness – when you're the only person with a certain characteristic, perspective or life experience in a group – usually a work setting. Chloe Davies Executive Officer at UK Black Pride and Chloe Chambraud Gender Equality Director at the Prince's Responsible Business Network discuss.The writer Lucy-Anne Holmes tells us about her book Don't Hold My Head Down where she explores her sexuality and looks at improving her sex life.Southeastern Trains wants more women to become train drivers. It's launched a campaign to get 40% of applicants to be women by 2021. We hear from their Services Director, Ellie Burrows and from Kelly-Joe Ballard who has been a train driver for two years.Bullying and stereotyping of black female academics is stopping them from progressing at UK Universities according to a new report. We hear from Gina Higginbottom an emeritus professor of Ethnicity and Community Health at the University of Nottingham and Dr Nicola Rollock a reader in Equity and Education at Goldsmiths, University of London, who carried out the research. Catherine Simpson on her memoir, Once I Had a Little Sister - about suicide, loss and how it felt to come from a family who never spoke about their feelings.Presented by Jane Garvey Produced by Rabeka Nurmahomed Edited by Jane Thurlow

Pope Francis has for the first time publicly acknowledged the scandal of priests and bishops sexually abusing nuns, and says he is committed to doing more to fight the problem. Jenni speaks to survivors; Rocio Figueroa a theologian and lecturer, and author, Doris Reisinger Wagner, who were both once nuns and to Sister Sharlet Wagner, a Sister of the Holy Cross and the current President of The Leadership Conference of Women Religious in the US.A report released by the University and College Union suggests that bullying and stereotyping is blocking the professorial path for black women. Dr Nicola Rollock conducted the research and spoke to 20 of the 25 female black professors in the UK including Gina Higginbottom, Emeritus Professor of Ethnicity and Community Health at the University of Nottingham. They join Jenni to discuss the explicit and more subtle ways that black female academics are prevented from attaining the highest positions at UK universities.American actor and Paralympian Katy Sullivan plays Ani, who becomes quadriplegic following a car accident in Martyna Majok's Pulitzer prize winning drama The Cost of Living. Katy talks to Jenni about how the play explores attitudes to disability, race, class and wealth.And the fourth in our series of family secrets. A woman we are calling Liz found out her father's secret at the worst possible time.

In this episode, Pa Ying talks about the decline of women religious around the around and the changes that US communities are taking to maintain religious communities. Curve Riders series art by Garrett Tiedemann & Rocky Pierson. Curve Riders is a short narrative podcast of women who didn't make the history books. Produced by Pa Ying Vang, a student at St. Catherine University, and the oral history project SisterStory; the series presents achievements and cultural impacts of women religious. Inspired by SisterStory's coverage "Sisters of Influence" on pinterest the podcast aims to present these stories anew with an emphasis on storytelling through writing, sound design, and music. SisterStory is the ongoing story of National Catholic Sisters Week aimed at broadening awareness of Catholic sisters through the collection of oral histories, social media outreach, and the creation of additional media content. For more information visit SisterStory.org. National Catholic Sisters Week is a celebration of the lives and legacies of Catholic sisters every year from March 8-14 in conjunction with NWHM. If you wish to participate or have events you would like to share please visit www.NationalCatholicSistersWeek.org. Links to the communities in the episode: Salesian Sisters (Daughters of Mary Help of Christians): https://www.salesiansisters.org/ Order of Discalced Carmelites: http://www.carmelite.com/ Claretian Missionary Sisters: http://www.claretiansisters.org/english/usa.html Franciscan Missionaries of Mary: http://fmmindia.org/home/homepage Congregation of the Mother of Carmel: http://www.cmcsisters.org/ Missionaries of Charity: http://www.motherteresa.org/ Sisters of Charity of Saints Bartolomea Capitanio and Vincenza Gerosa: http://www.sccg.in/index.php Benedictine nuns: http://www.osb.org/ Sisters of the Adoration of the Blessed Sacrament: http://www.sabscongregation.org/ Sisters of Mercy of the Americas: http://www.mercyworld.org/mercynetwork/index.cfm?loadref=81 More Information: Full Report from CARA: http://cara.georgetown.edu/Publications/WomenReligious.pdf Full statistics: http://cara.georgetown.edu/frequently-requested-church-statistics/ 2011 Full report: http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/663/nuns_worldwide.aspx

Author of the new book "LOVE EVERYONE - the Transcendent Wisdom of Neem Karoli Baba Told Through the Stories of the Westerners Whose Lives He Transformed", Parvati Markus on the show! Lovers of Yoga, Ram Dass, mystics and seekers - check it out! Parvati Markus is a developmental editor and writer of spiritually oriented nonfiction books and memoirs. She has worked on books by various members of the satsang, from Ram Dass’s classic Be Here Now (before she went to India) to those since her time in India with Maharajji (1971–1972)—from Dada Mukerjee’s By His Grace and The Near and the Dear to Krishna Das’s recent Chants of a Lifetime. She is a former president of the board of the Neem Karoli Baba Ashram and Temple and a former development con-sultant for the Global Peace Initiative of Women Religious and Spiritual Leaders, held at the U.N. in Geneva, Switzerland. She lives in West Palm Beach, Florida. You can buy "LOVE EVERYONE" at Amazon or any local bookstore. 

On this 25th Sunday of Ordinary Time, Fr. Chris Stanish talks about the Year for Consecrated Life and the necessity to promote a culture of vocations. In this episode, Fr. Chris presents a newly published video about Women Religious called For Love Alone. This amazing video can be found here.

Rev. Susan Hayward, MDiv '07, directs the United States Institute of Peace's religious peacebuilding program, which seeks to recognize religious dynamics in violent conflict and develop strategies for engaging religious actors and factors to transform drivers of violence and build sustainable peace. Hayward will discuss the new volume that she has co-edited, Women, Religion, and Peacebuilding: Illuminating the Unseen, offering reflections on the opportunities and challenges women religious leaders across faiths and regions face as they navigate complex conflicts and power dynamics in institutions to accomplish their goals. Learn more about Harvard Divinity School and its mission to illuminate, engage, and serve at www.hds.harvard.edu.

She became a national figure as the face of the “Nuns on the Bus.” Sr. Simone Campbell is a lawyer, lobbyist, poet, and Zen contemplative working on issues such as “mending the wealth gap,” “enacting a living wage,” and “crafting a faithful budget that benefits the 100%.” She is a helpful voice for longings so many of us share, across differences, about how to engage with the well-being of our neighbors in this complicated age.

Sr. Simone Campbell is the executive director of NETWORK. She is the author of “A Nun on the Bus: How All of Us Can Create Hope, Change, and Community.” This interview is edited and produced with music and other features in the On Being episode “Simone Campbell — How to Be Spiritually Bold.” Find more at onbeing.org.

November 19, 2013 - What brings women to consider religious life, and what makes them stay? Sister Gloria Marie Jones, O.P., Congregational Prioress of the Dominican Sisters of Mission San José, and Sister Ramona Bascom, O.P., both of whom have strong connections to the Catholic Community @ Stanford, share their own lived experience in the light of the history of religious life for women.

This panel discussion explores the issues behind the recent conflict between the Vatican and the leadership community for American sisters. The conversation looks at the contributions of women religious in shaping American Catholic life, the changes they have undergone since Vatican II, and strategies for moving forward. Panelists are Sr. Jane Morrissey, of the Sisters of Saint Joseph of Springfield, who is co-founder and executive director of Homework House, Inc. and Sr. Donna Markham, of the Adrian Dominican Sisters, who is vice president of behavioral health services at Catholic Health Partners in Cincinnati and former president of the Leadership Conference of the Women Religious. Virginia Ryan, visiting assistant professor of religious studies at Holy Cross, moderates.

In 2005, Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender congregation of Muslims in prayer. This event became the focal point of substantial media attention and highlighted some of the tensions within the Muslim community. However, this prayer gathering was the culmination of a series of events and embodied several ongoing intra-Muslim debates. In American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (University of Texas Press, 2012), Juliane Hammer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlines the circumstances leading up to the prayer event and employs it as point of convergence to explore the multiple discourses surrounding Muslim gender issues. The debates following the prayer fell into two discursive frameworks, legal and symbolic. Hammer explores these themes through a broader body of sources written by American Muslim women both in relation to exegetical projects or legalistic frameworks leading towards gender equality or human rights. While gender remains central to the arguments of the book Hammer uses this subject to examine various issues related to contemporary Islam, including participation, leadership, law, media, and self-representation. In our conversation, we discuss the disintegration of traditional modes of authority, “progressive” Muslims, embodied tafsir, feminism, the permissibility and validity of women lead prayer, the hijab, book covers, mosques, networks, Asra Nomani, and Amina Wadud, but are only able to scratch the surface of this wonderful book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2005, Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender congregation of Muslims in prayer. This event became the focal point of substantial media attention and highlighted some of the tensions within the Muslim community. However, this prayer gathering was the culmination of a series of events and embodied several ongoing intra-Muslim debates. In American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (University of Texas Press, 2012), Juliane Hammer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlines the circumstances leading up to the prayer event and employs it as point of convergence to explore the multiple discourses surrounding Muslim gender issues. The debates following the prayer fell into two discursive frameworks, legal and symbolic. Hammer explores these themes through a broader body of sources written by American Muslim women both in relation to exegetical projects or legalistic frameworks leading towards gender equality or human rights. While gender remains central to the arguments of the book Hammer uses this subject to examine various issues related to contemporary Islam, including participation, leadership, law, media, and self-representation. In our conversation, we discuss the disintegration of traditional modes of authority, “progressive” Muslims, embodied tafsir, feminism, the permissibility and validity of women lead prayer, the hijab, book covers, mosques, networks, Asra Nomani, and Amina Wadud, but are only able to scratch the surface of this wonderful book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2005, Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender congregation of Muslims in prayer. This event became the focal point of substantial media attention and highlighted some of the tensions within the Muslim community. However, this prayer gathering was the culmination of a series of events and embodied several ongoing intra-Muslim debates. In American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (University of Texas Press, 2012), Juliane Hammer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlines the circumstances leading up to the prayer event and employs it as point of convergence to explore the multiple discourses surrounding Muslim gender issues. The debates following the prayer fell into two discursive frameworks, legal and symbolic. Hammer explores these themes through a broader body of sources written by American Muslim women both in relation to exegetical projects or legalistic frameworks leading towards gender equality or human rights. While gender remains central to the arguments of the book Hammer uses this subject to examine various issues related to contemporary Islam, including participation, leadership, law, media, and self-representation. In our conversation, we discuss the disintegration of traditional modes of authority, “progressive” Muslims, embodied tafsir, feminism, the permissibility and validity of women lead prayer, the hijab, book covers, mosques, networks, Asra Nomani, and Amina Wadud, but are only able to scratch the surface of this wonderful book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2005, Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender congregation of Muslims in prayer. This event became the focal point of substantial media attention and highlighted some of the tensions within the Muslim community. However, this prayer gathering was the culmination of a series of events and embodied several ongoing intra-Muslim debates. In American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (University of Texas Press, 2012), Juliane Hammer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlines the circumstances leading up to the prayer event and employs it as point of convergence to explore the multiple discourses surrounding Muslim gender issues. The debates following the prayer fell into two discursive frameworks, legal and symbolic. Hammer explores these themes through a broader body of sources written by American Muslim women both in relation to exegetical projects or legalistic frameworks leading towards gender equality or human rights. While gender remains central to the arguments of the book Hammer uses this subject to examine various issues related to contemporary Islam, including participation, leadership, law, media, and self-representation. In our conversation, we discuss the disintegration of traditional modes of authority, “progressive” Muslims, embodied tafsir, feminism, the permissibility and validity of women lead prayer, the hijab, book covers, mosques, networks, Asra Nomani, and Amina Wadud, but are only able to scratch the surface of this wonderful book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2005, Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender congregation of Muslims in prayer. This event became the focal point of substantial media attention and highlighted some of the tensions within the Muslim community. However, this prayer gathering was the culmination of a series of events and embodied several ongoing intra-Muslim debates. In American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (University of Texas Press, 2012), Juliane Hammer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlines the circumstances leading up to the prayer event and employs it as point of convergence to explore the multiple discourses surrounding Muslim gender issues. The debates following the prayer fell into two discursive frameworks, legal and symbolic. Hammer explores these themes through a broader body of sources written by American Muslim women both in relation to exegetical projects or legalistic frameworks leading towards gender equality or human rights. While gender remains central to the arguments of the book Hammer uses this subject to examine various issues related to contemporary Islam, including participation, leadership, law, media, and self-representation. In our conversation, we discuss the disintegration of traditional modes of authority, “progressive” Muslims, embodied tafsir, feminism, the permissibility and validity of women lead prayer, the hijab, book covers, mosques, networks, Asra Nomani, and Amina Wadud, but are only able to scratch the surface of this wonderful book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

In 2005, Amina Wadud led a mixed-gender congregation of Muslims in prayer. This event became the focal point of substantial media attention and highlighted some of the tensions within the Muslim community. However, this prayer gathering was the culmination of a series of events and embodied several ongoing intra-Muslim debates. In American Muslim Women, Religious Authority, and Activism: More Than a Prayer (University of Texas Press, 2012), Juliane Hammer, Professor of Islamic Studies at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, outlines the circumstances leading up to the prayer event and employs it as point of convergence to explore the multiple discourses surrounding Muslim gender issues. The debates following the prayer fell into two discursive frameworks, legal and symbolic. Hammer explores these themes through a broader body of sources written by American Muslim women both in relation to exegetical projects or legalistic frameworks leading towards gender equality or human rights. While gender remains central to the arguments of the book Hammer uses this subject to examine various issues related to contemporary Islam, including participation, leadership, law, media, and self-representation. In our conversation, we discuss the disintegration of traditional modes of authority, “progressive” Muslims, embodied tafsir, feminism, the permissibility and validity of women lead prayer, the hijab, book covers, mosques, networks, Asra Nomani, and Amina Wadud, but are only able to scratch the surface of this wonderful book. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Summary of today's show: On our Thursday news show, Scot Landry, Susan Abbott, Antonio Enrique, and Domenico Bettinelli discussed the headlines of the week, including the work of the Opus Dei center in Pembroke; Our Sunday Visitor acquires a local offertory envelope company; the conviction and sentencing of an Archdiocese of Philadelphia priest; preparing for the Olympics; and an interview with the new head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Antonio Enrique, editor of the Pilot, the newspaper of the Archdiocese of Boston, and Domenico Bettinelli, creative director of Pilot New Media Links from today's show: Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: Opus Dei center; OSV buys Zartarian; Philly cleric sentenced; Olympics 1st segment: Scot and Susan caught up on their week and she told him that she's talking an online course through the University of Dayton. It is one of the avenues that catechists can use toward certification. She wanted to experience it. She's taking a survey of Catholic doctrine course. She described the other students in her class, who hail from Hawaii, Germany, Bahrain, and throughout the United States. Scot asked if it was asynchonrous learning where they login as they can. Susan joked that if she learns anything new it will be grounds for dismissal. She said there is a lot of writing required. Scot noted that the Catholic Media secretariat has partnered with another online Catholic educational institution called and noted the classes he has taken have helped him refresh his understanding of the faith. Scot welcomed Dom and Antonio to the show. One of the local stories this week in the Pilot is a feature story on Arnold Hall in Pembroke, a retreat center connected to Opus Dei. Scot and Susan recounted the well-known retreat centers in the Archdiocese of which Arnold Hall is one. “Pembroke Opus Dei center ready to ‘change the world'”, The Boston Pilot, 7/27/12 Antonio said he was contacted by Joe Billmeier from Opus Dei in June about covering a special Mass, which they couldn't cover, so instead he offered a feature story on Opus Dei in Boston and on Arnold Hall. Antonio said the Pilot should have both hard news and feature stories. The features inspire Catholics to explore their faith in all its diversity. Scot said the article is long and the first third explains what Opus Dei is and how it's been portrayed in Hollywood. He recounted the different levels of membership in Opus Dei. Dom talked about the experience of attending a silent retreat at Arnold Hall. Susan said there is a connection between Opus Dei and the Montrose School and she loved hearing about the young women who have been involved in programs there. She quoted the end of the story as well in which the work of Opus Dei to change the world is described. Antonio said the idea was that Christian sanctify themselves and the world through the little things they do every day. St. Josemaria Escriva promoted the idea that there aren't two kinds of Christians: the holy clergy and the regular laypeople. But he promoted the idea that we are all called to holiness. Opus Dei is not controversial in quite the way Hollywood frames it. “If you want something controversial, it is just simply that, yeah, we want to change the world. But, how are we going to change the world? It is just everything you have heard here. It is smiling when you don't feel like smiling. It's undertaking this little mortification. Ir is helping the guy you work with. It is using your own initiative,” he said. For more information, go to . “Our Sunday Visitor acquires regional firm Zartarian Publishing”, The Boston Pilot, 7/27/12 Scot said Our Sunday Visitor yesterday acquired the biggest local offertory envelope provider. While OSV serves more than half of the 18,000 parishes nationwide, locally Zartarian had held sway among parishes. Recently, Zartarian decided the best way to stay with the modern times was to partner with OSV, which offers so many more services. Susan related how her parish has used Zartarian for years. Scot said he is inspired by OSV's and Zartarian's attitude that they are in business to serve the Church. Dom said he looks forward to all the associated services that OSV will now offer to Zartarian parishes. Scot by having envelopes and online giving under the same roof means it's not competition or taking away from one company. Antonio said he prefers the offertory in the Church where people have the experience of giving. Scot noted how people are paid twice a month or monthly and why wouldn't we move that way in the Church. When we see our monthly giving to the Church we can compare it to what we're paying in our monthly bills. Susan said she and her pastor have gone around on this issue for ages and he had argued that there is something about people coming and contributing in person. Scot said instead of the offertory being just about money, that people be able to submit a paper prayer petition to put in the basket. Scot noted that Our Sunday Visitor's 100th anniversary this year. They were founded by a priest who wanted to publish pamphlets to combat anti-Catholic untruths. 3rd segment: Scot and Dom noted the story about the conviction and sentencing of a priest in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia for failing to do enough when he knew of priests who had abused children. Scot read from the archdiocesan statement on the sentencing. Dom noted that it seemed like a symbolic sentencing designed to send a wide message. He hoped that this wasn't just a message to the Church, but to all institutions where such things have happened. Scot noted there is a double standard, but we should welcome the double standard because people should have a higher expectation of the Church. Antonio said if you're in a position of authority, you're in a position to prevent not just one event, but many possible crimes. There is some outrage over the longer sentence for the supervisor than for the perpetrator of the crime. He said we can't forget the horror of the sex abuse crisis. This isn't just a Church issue; it's a societal issue. No institution is addressing this issue more carefully than the Church. We need to pray for everyone involved and hope we can move forward. [“Pope says he hopes greatest sports event in world brings global peace”,The Boston Pilot/CNS, 7/23/12](http://pilotcatholicnews.com/article.asp?ID=14918 Pope Benedict was asked his opinion about the start of the Olympics and he said he hopes it brings peace to the world. Scot noted that there has been conflict surrounding the Olympics, such as in 1980 when the US and the USSR had disputes over the invasion of Afghanistan or this year over the controversy surrounding the 40th anniversary of the assayer of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Susan said sports is one of those things that transcend religion, culture and language. [“Pope says he hopes greatest sports event in world brings global peace”,The Boston Pilot/CNS, 7/23/12](http://pilotcatholicnews.com/article.asp?ID=14918 Pope Benedict was asked his opinion about the start of the Olympics and he said he hopes it brings peace to the world. Scot noted that there has been conflict surrounding the Olympics, such as in 1980 when the US and the USSR had disputes over the invasion of Afghanistan or this year over the controversy surrounding the 40th anniversary of the assayer of Israeli athletes at the Munich Olympic Games. Susan said sports is one of those things that transcend religion, culture and language. Dom and Scot talked about 15-year-old Katie Ledecky from Bethesda, Maryland, an Olympic swimmer and Catholic school student. Scot noted briefly the interview with Bishop Gerhard Muller, the new head of the CDF. He noted the two zingers from the interview that mentioned the Society of St. Pius X and the Leadership Conference of Women Religious. Antonio noted that you often have the most candor from such high officials when they're first in office. Scot and Antonio talked about how Muller has seemed to be very open to all that is true, without regard to conservative or liberal ideologies.

The Bishop talks about the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith's call for doctrinal renewal regarding the Leadership Conference of Women Religious, a coalition of women religious superiors. The Bishop talks about the need for unity and for fidelity.

Summary of today's show: Our regular panel reviews the headlines of the week, including Pope Benedict's 7th anniversary as Pope and 85th birthday; the appointment of Fr. Kevin Sepe to the significant post of Secretary for Parish Life and Leadership in the Archdiocese; the Pilot's extensive coverage of the NCEA convention last week; a profile of the Fall River diocese's office of pastoral planning; the Vatican's call for reform of a US religious women's group; defeat of an assisted suicide bill in Vermont; and the US bishops' statement on religious liberty. Listen to the show: Today's host(s): Scot Landry and Susan Abbott Today's guest(s): Fr. Roger Landry, executive editor of The Anchor, the newspaper of the Fall River diocese; and Gregory Tracy, managing editor of The Pilot, the newspaper of the Boston archdiocese Links from today's show: Some of the stories discussed on this show will be available on The Pilot's and The Anchor's websites on Friday morning. Please check those sites for the latest links. Today's topics: Pope's anniversary; Fr. Sepe's new role; NCEA; religious liberty 1st segment: Scot welcomed everyone to the show and talked about his recent time he's been able to spend with his family. Susan said tomorrow she's looking forward to the Co-Workers in the Vineyard conference taking place tomorrow at t Our Lady Help of Christians Parish in Newton. Many different offices and ministries are participating and producing the conference together for parish staff, pastoral associates, and other parishioners. 2nd segment: Scot noted that today is the seventh anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI on April 19, 2005. Rick played a clip from CNN of the announcement of the pope's election. Scot asked Susan for her recollection. She said she was in her office at the tribunal building in Brighton. They'd heard the announcement was coming and they all gathered in a small conference room with a TV along with people from some other offices to hear the announcement. Susan said her pastor, Msgr. Helmick, was in St. Peter's Square that day. It's exciting to see the tradition and the Holy Spirit at work. Greg said the Pilot was in Cray library at the old chancery and they gathered in a room with a TV there as well. He recalls the reactions of people after all the speculation on who would be elected. He said no one was upset although they might have been hoping for a Latin American or African. Fr. Roger said he was on a priests' retreat in Pembroke when it was announced the white smoke from the Sistine Chapel had gone up. They decided to tell the priests before the conference that it was happening and interrupt. He recalls being certain it was going to be Ratzinger after just four votes. It made the rest of the retreat very memorable Scot said this past Monday was also another significant date for the Holy Father as he celebrated his 85th birthday. He is the now the sixth oldest pope in recorded history. Pope Leo XIII was over 93 years old when he died. The others were Clement XII, Clement X, Pius IX, and Innocent XII. Some have asked how old a pope would be before resigning. Scot asked Fr. Roger. He said Cardinal Ratzinger had offered his advice to Pope John Paul II on this, but John Paul wrote in 2004 that he never looked at the papacy as a job, but as the vocation of a father., Fathers don't resign from their fatherhood and he wouldn't as long as he could continue. That was probably from the advice he got from Ratzinger at the time. Scot noted that the holy Father recently traveled to Mexico and Cuba and then celebrated the very rigorous Holy Week. Greg said his recollection in Cuba was that the Holy Father was very vigorous during his trip. He said John Paul II set a tone and expectation of being very energetic and making many trips, but Pope Benedict has set a different tone. Susan said it's not important whether he can walk the length of St. Peter's, but what is important is that he's working on a new encyclical and a new volume in his trilogy of books on Jesus of Nazareth. His writings are far more important than that he does these other tasks. Fr. Roger said he expects the Holy Father will put most of his work into his homilies each week, his book on Jesus, and a continued renewal of the Church, especially the episcopacy, trying to choose the right men to be bishops. There have been rumors in Rome this week that a reconciliation with the Society of St. Pius X, the only schism since the Second Vatican Council. Signs are very hopeful that the schism will be brought to a conclusion, and this was a major part of the Holy Father's work in the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. 3rd segment: Scot said in the Pilot this week is the announcement of the appointment of Fr. Arthur Mackay to be pastor at Our Lady of the Assumption Parish in Marshfield. He was recently ordained from Bl. John XXIII Seminary, which is for late vocations. Another big appointment concerns Fr. Kevin Sepe who has been pastor of St. Francis of Assisi Parish in Braintree. He will succeed Fr. Tom Foley as Secretary for the Parish Life and Leadership. Fr. Foley will become an Air Force chaplain. Scot said he's a wonderful builder of fraternity and well liked by his brother priests. Greg said Fr. Foley said in the Pilot story that he felt a calling to the military chaplaincy. Greg said of Fr. Sepe that he has been known for his work with seminarians, senior priests, and other priests. Scot said some priests are known as builders of great community in their rectories. Susan said Fr. Sepe has high standards for his religious education program, and a few years ago the parish received an award from the town of Braintree for their work in religious education with special needs kids. He's been at St. Francis since 1998. He was ordained in 1986. Scot said he hopes to have Fr. Foley on the show before he ends his tenure on July 1. Fr. Roger said military chaplaincy is very demanding and rewarding work among young men and women willing to lay down their lives for their country. Many of these young people will only see a priest once every few months in the theater of operations. There is a great demand for priests in military service. He said the military lately has been getting some of the finest priests available even where they don't have many of them. Scot said the Pilot has extensive coverage of the NCEA convention in Boston last week. Greg said it's the second time the convention has been here. They had expected 8,000 attendees and got over 10,000, which is a record. They were at the Hynes for workshops and talks and networking. A big part of the convention was the expo where vendors could show their wares. Greg said the nature of the vendors has changed a lot from 2004 when he saw it last. There's now a lot about iPads and other technology in schools. Greg said the fact that the convention was in Boston allowed many schools to send their entire faculty to the convention. Some schools had each staff member attend a different workshop and then brief the rest on what they had learned. Susan said the liturgies were among her favorite part. They were reverently done, despite being in a giant auditorium seating 10,000 people. The music was wonderful with a different group each day. They had a number of school choirs providing the music. Susan said her first NCEA was in 1984 and then 1991 when they were in Boston before. She said this convention was the best because of the energy of the group. Scot said he was stunned by the number of exhibitors showing some kind of new technology for our local schools. Scot said in the Anchor this week is another profile of a Diocese of Fall River office, the Office of Pastoral Planning. Fr. Roger said they give a snapshot of the typical work in that office. Pastoral Planning is about more than closing or merging parishes, but advancing the mission of the diocese as a whole. One initiative is the formation of leaders in parishes to set up pastoral plans. Scot noted that in Boston, the associate director of the Office of Pastoral Planning has left for another job and the director has been reassigned by his religious order, so Fr. Paul Soper, pastor of St. Albert the Great in Weymouth, will be filling in part-time until a new director is appointed. 4th segment: Scot said a significant story in the Church broke yesterday regarding an action by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith with regard to the Leadership Council for Women Religious. Fr. Roger said there was an investigation begun a few years ago of this group because of the some of the teachings of the Church were not being supported and being disputed in some cases by the leadership or speakers at conferences. The Vatican has appointed Archbishop Peter Sartain of Seattle has been appointed to lead a reform of the group. Fr. Roger said women's religious groups ought to be known for their fidelity to the Church's teachings. He also noted that some of these religious orders have very few vocations, while those that are growing are the more orthodox orders that don't belong to the LCWR. Fr. Roger hopes it's an opportunity for real, genuine renewal. Scot said women religious have made many contributions to the Church over the years. The LCWR represents about 80 percent of the country's women religious, although many of those communities aren't growing quickly, which some say is because of straying from Catholic teaching. Greg said there was a meeting of women religious at Stonehill College a few years ago in which Cardinal Seán and Cardinal Rode spoke, and Cardinal Rode said some orders had moved outside the bounds of the Church. Susan said this report grew out of the apostolic visitation of women's religious orders that began in December 2008 and was submitted to the Vatican this past December. Scot said they said yesterday that the revising of statutes and reviewing liturgical texts and affiliation with problematic organizations among other actions could take about 5 years. Fr. Roger said the timeline could depend on how much resistance there will be. He said some people are encouraging the LCWR to leave the Church and form a secular organization. This highlights the problems underlying the leadership of these groups. Scot said another local story reported in the Anchor was the defeat of an assisted suicide bill in Vermont. He said he hopes this has a positive ripple effect in Massachusetts. It also notes some recent polls in Massachusetts that indicate those opposed to assisted suicide have their work cut out for them. The poll showed 43% in Massachusetts were in favor of assisted suicide with 37% opposed. There's also an age gap, with those who are older very opposed while those who are younger but in a caregiver age range are in favor. Fr. Roger said those who have been pushing this have been better at getting their message out. Even in Vermont, which is among the most liberal states in the country, people were opposed to assisted suicide. Fr. Roger's editorial this week concerns the US bishops' document on religious liberty. He said this is a very significant intervention by the bishops. He said their statement on not obeying unjust laws was very courageous. They also concretely addressed the various groups in the Church to assimilate these words and work to protect religious liberty. He encouraged everyone to read the document. Greg said his experience is that we shouldn't be surprised that people around need to hear about this issue from us, however much we think they're well-informed.

FP006 Feature Podcast on Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women's Religious Life by historian Dr. Margaret Susan Thompson. Published in her 18-lecture series, The History of Women Religious in the United States, through NowYouKnowMedia.com. Click PLAY below or right-click here to download the MP3. Introduction and Lecture 1: Discovering Foremothers: Origins of Women's Religious Life If [...]