Call To Action 2004 Conference

Call To Action National Conference
Friday Seminars and Days of Reflection

St. Mary of Magdala: Fact, Fiction and Feminism in Popular Culture

Teresa Berger and Joseph Kelly are the presenters. In the morning, Berger discusses the many ways in which biblical texts, historical reception, popular religiosity and current cultural trends ”frame” (!) this important and enigmatic biblical woman. Berger has doctorates in dogmatic theology and liturgical studies, and teaches theology at Duke. Her books include Dissident Daughters: Feminist Liturgies in Global Context (2002). The Vatican has barred her from Catholic faculties in her native Germany and throughout Europe. In the afternoon, Kelly gives a Power Point presentation about the portrayal of Magdalen in Dan Brown's best selling novel, The DaVinci Code, which has caused more than 60 million readers to look at her in a new way. Kelly is chair of the religious studies department at John Carroll University, Cleveland. For more about Kelly and his related presentation on Saturday, click here. Friday, 9 AM-2:45 PM (1.01)

Sex, Marriage and Spirituality: Can the Church's Blind Spot Unveil a New Vision?

Charles Curran, Fran Ferder, and Patricia Beattie Jung are co-presenters. In the morning, Fr. Curran, renowned moral theologian, surveys the negative aspects of Catholic moral theology on sex, which have lost the church so much credibility, but then lifts up positive parts of the tradition which could ground a more adequate sexual ethic. Psychologist and Franciscan Sr. Ferder examines “the sex offender mentality in the Church,” and argues that not only individual offenders but also church structures need therapy. After lunch, as a married theologian Dr. Jung offers theological reflections on marriage. She uses current debates about gay marriage to reflect on sexual pleasure, procreativity, gender complementarity, the sexuality of Jesus, and Christian beliefs about the goodness of creation. The workshop closes with a panel discussion with all three speakers. For more about them and their related presentations during the weekend, click here. Friday, 9 AM- 2:45 PM (1.02)

How to Get Discussions Going Locally

An interactive workshop on the goals of the “Culture of Conversation” and the practicalities of how to start dialogue in your parish. The Culture of Conversation involves hundreds of organizations and prominent Catholics joined together in speaking out for an end to silencing in the Church. Representatives of the Culture of Conversation include Jon Nilson of Loyola University, Nancy Sylvester, IHM. president of the Institute for Communal Contemplation and Dialogue, and Chris Schenk, CSJ, coordinator of the Dialogue Projects developed by FutureChurch in partnership with Call To Action. Practitioners include Rachel Pokora, professor of communication, Nebraska Wesleyan University; Janet Kohler Claussen, on involving high-school-aged youth; Christian Brother Thomas P. Draney, cfc on adult education; Carol Gabrielli, chair of CTA’s Next Generation Planning Committee; Kathy Kidder of the St. Augustine's Women's Book Group; and CTA staffer Bob Heineman, formerly a trainer with the Great Books Foundation “shared inquiry” method. Friday, 9 AM- 2:45 PM (1.05)

Dismantling Institutional Racism

Crossroads Ministry trainers join members the CTA Anti-racism Task Force for this workshop, part of the CTA board's multi-year initiative to work to eliminate racism within our organization so that we may work authentically to end racism elsewhere. Come for discussion and examples of the institutional and systemic definition of racism, examining how power, privilege and prejudice combine in racism. Talk with the task force about the process we will use to transform CTA. Crossroads Ministry is an interfaith organization based in Racine, Wis., which has worked with Pax Christi USA, major religious communities, universities and companies, teaching them how to understand and combat institutional racism. For a related, shorter workshop on Saturday led by Task Force members Thomas Honoré and Lena Woltering, click here. Friday, 9 AM- 2:45 PM (1.03)

Ancient Echoes, Ancient Women: Music, Story, Ritual and Dance

Martha Ann Kirk (right) and Covita Moroney lead us through song, story, drumming and dancing on a pilgrimage to the deep center of the heart, finding wisdom for the outward journey to understand and help others. Kirk shares stories of Christian, Jewish, and Muslim women from her forthcoming book, Women of Bible Lands: A Pilgrimage to Compassion and Wisdom. Singer-songwriter Covita Moroney provides Middle Eastern music and melodies from her CD, Ancient Echoes. Sr. Kirk of Incarnate Word University in San Antonio, a theologian and sacred dancer, was a presenter at the World Council of Churches in Zimbabwe in 1998, and has graced conferences in India, Hong Kong, and Mexico. Moroney is a founder of the San Antonio Vocal Arts Ensemble. For their one-hour Saturday workshop, click here. Friday, 9 AM- 2:45 PM (1.04)

Healing Relationships, Saving the Planet

Brian Swimme, Mary Evelyn Tucker and Diarmuid O'Murchu are co-presenters. In the morning, Swimme and Tucker address “The Universe Story and a New Planetary Civilization.” We are the first generation to see ourselves as part of a vast cosmological and biological narrative going back billions of years. Thomas Berry has called this awakening part of the Great Work of our times: as ecosystems decline and species vanish, we must create a new sustainable planetary culture and economy in alignment with Earth processes. After lunch, O'Murchu discusses “Erotic Relationships: Cosmic and Personal Dimensions.” Relationships and sexuality for long have been conditioned and undermined by narrow anthropocentric and biological terms of reference. To heal the woundedness that pervades our relationships and our planet, we need to reclaim the deeper, embracing dimension of relationality that permeates creation at every level, human and non-human alike. Swimme, the Friday evening keynote speaker, directs the Center for the Story of the Universe, San Francisco. Tucker teaches religion and ecology at Bucknell University and helped draft “The Earth Charter,” 1997-2000. O'Murchu is a social psychologist known for such books as Quantum Theology (1997) and Evolutionary Faith (2002). Read about separate Saturday workshops by Tucker (click here) and O'Murchu (click here), and Swimme's Friday keynote address. Friday, 9 AM- 2:45 PM (1.06)