Women in Conversation meets bimonthly Saturday mornings to consider theology, scripture, spirituality, and Church issues from women’s perspectives, to deepen prayer and discernment practices, and to support one another as women in the Church.
For more information about the group or a specific program,
contact Susan Grant or Jean Molesky-Poz
2024-25 THEME: Listen, Discern and Act with Resilience
On January 18th, Women in Conversation continues its 2024-25 them practice of listening……
Our theme this year is Listen, Discern and Act with Resilience.
2024-25 Meeting dates, speakers, and topics:
September 14, 2024 Catherine Regan "Listening and Being Heard"
November 9, 2024 Mary Clemency “Good Grief: Spiritual Tools for a First Aid Kit”
January 18, 2025 Panel “Faith in Action: Women & Their Careers”
March 8, 2025 Dr. Lushombo “What can we learn from our sisters in Africa
May 10, 2025 TBD “Art & Spirituality”
We hope you’ll join us!
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Past Events
2024-25 THEME: Listen, Discern and Act with Resilience
September 14, 2024 - Listening and Being Heard - Catherine Regan Link to Video
Inspired by Catherine’s presentation, a number of women decided to participate in book groups to explore the ideas about faith and listening. Using a list of books recommended by Catherine, among them Listening for the Heartbeat of God by Phillip Newell (1997), Radical Hospitality: A Benedictine Way of Knowing by Daniel Homan and Lonnie Collins Pratt, (2011), The Wisdom Way of Knowing: Reclaiming An Ancient Tradition to Awaken the Heart by Cynthia Bourgeault (2003) and 7000 Ways to Listen by Mark Nebo (2013)
November 9, 2024
2023-2024 Theme:
Romans 16:1-2 - “Receive her in the Lord”: Yesterday, Today, and Tomorrow
Sept 10, 2023 - Honoring St. Phoebe, Deacon of the Church (Rom 16:1-2)
Description of St. Phoebe’s Day Event TEXT OF AMANDA WEHRMAN'S PRESENTATION ON ST. PHOEBE
Nov 11, 2023 - Women’s Perspectives from the 2023 Synod - Deborah Rose Description of event Link to video of event
Jan 13, 2024 - So, What is Discernment? Receiving God! - Beth Liebert (No Video)
Mar 9, 2024 - Biblical Women Who Changed the World - Gina Hens-Piazza Link to Video
May 18, 2024 - Women and Liberation Theology in Latin America During the Cold War - Mary Jo McConahay Link to Video
2022-2023 Theme:
The Culture of Encounter: Midwives of Change
The 2022-2023 theme was on the Culture of Encounter as discussed by Pope Francis in his Oct. 2020 encyclical, Fratelli Tutti.
In the Culture of Encounter, The Work That Reconnects, September 10, 2022, Anne Symens- Buecher. Link to Video
The “Spiral of the Wok that Reconnects” as taught by Joanna Macy invites us to transform the despair we feel in the face of social and ecological crisis into action on behalf o the Earth. Anne will guide us through the four stages of the Spiral: Coming from Gratitude, Honoring our pain, Seeing with new eyes, and Going forth.
Forgiveness and Ancestry, November 12, 2022, Anita Wells Link to Video
Recollecting America’s Original Sin: Race and Grace January 14, 2023, Alison Benders Link to Video
Reclaiming the Psalms in the 21st Century , March 11, 2023, Gina Hens-Piazza. CANCELLED.
Catholic Christianity and Nationalism, May 20, 2023, Mary Jo McConahay Link to Video
2021-22 Theme:
Care of the Earth
For our Fall 2021 – Spring 2022 series, Women in Conversation set out to inform ourselves on The Earth Crisis, through a well-designed sequence of topics, beginning with the “big picture,” that is, the dialogue of emerging theology and science, leading eight months later to practical and local projects in the East Bay. Aware that the gravity of today’s cultural and economic crisis must be translated into new habits, we asked what kind of conversion we need to take up in terms of our lifestyles, our spirituality and ways we relate with the Earth. What is ours to do? How can we care for creation?
Can the Earth Be Healed? Insights from Teilhard de Chardin, September 18, 2021, Ilia Delio, OSF (No Video)
The Catholic Church, land and social justice purposes, November 13, 2021, Molly Burhans Link to Video
Probing the Roots: Pope Francis’ Radical Call to Care for the Earth. January 15, 2022, Katie Hirschboeck Link to Video
Nurturing the Earth: Spirituality and Practices from South India, An Interfaith Exploration, March 15, 2022,
Swamini Ambikamrita Prana and Karen Mattern Link to Video
The Great Turning, Canticle Farm, an Urban Farm and Restorative Justice, May 21, 2022, Anne Buecher-Symens Link to Video
2020-21 Theme:
Finding Common Ground in Conflict
Can We Talk? Catholics, Politics and the Search for Common Ground. September 12 2020, Julie Rubio.
Getting Our Bearings on Race: a map, a compass and some paths. November 14, 2020, Alison Mearns Benders.
A Journey of Accompaniment. March 13, 2021, Jean Molesky-Poz
The Encounter: “Blest Are You.” May 21, 2021, Diana Butler Bass
Traveling with our Lamps: Seeking Wisdom during the Pandemic, June 10, 2021,
Jean Molesky-Poz in conversation with Roberta Gannon
2019-20 Theme:
Transitions: From Who We Are to Who We Are Called to Become
Silence Breakers: Woman Zion & the #Me Too Movement. September 14, 2019, Gina Hens-Piazza
Discovering Our Lives in Sacred Scripture. November 9, 2019, Veronica Mary Roth.
The Spirit of Reporting. January 11, 2020, Mary Jo McConahay.
March and May sessions cancelled due to COVID
2018-2019 Theme: The Beloved Community
SEPTEMBER How to Create a Beloved Community? Kristi Laughlin.
NOVEMBER: Seeking the Sacred: Prayer Forms (A panel of three women)
JANUARY: “All Will Be Well,” Julian of Norwich, Veronica Roth
MARCH: “A Response for Renewal Thinking of the Church Jesus Brought to Us.” Sandra Schneiders
2017-18 THEME
Dialoguing With the Other
SEPTEMBER: Prayer: In Dialogue with God, Roberta Gannon
NOVEMBER: Dialogue with Muslim women,. Hina Khan-Muhktar
JANUARY: Undocumented Women and Faith, Sister Maureen Duignan
MARCH: Catholic Women Dialogue Between Generations, Sara Ortega and Alondra Urbina,UCB seniors, both of Salvadoran immigrant families, Kristi Laughlin of the East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE), and Irene Woodward, former religious and president of a Catholic woman’s university.
JUNE, The Winds of Renewal: To What Action is the Spirit Calling Us? Jean Molesky-Poz
What is Women in Conversation?
What is it that you like about Newman Hall-Holy Spirit parish? What keeps you coming? Is it attending a good liturgy with prayerful music, a thoughtful homily, and a chance to mix during donuts and coffee afterward? More than this, are you hoping to make friends, to grow spiritually and intellectually, to find a real community where you can share your joys as well as your sorrows, your beliefs as well as your doubts in a setting of mutual acceptance?
In our parish, we have a wonderful venue for women of all ages to share experiences of faith and to build a vibrant spiritual community. Women in Conversation (WiC), co-founded in 2011 by Kaya Oakes and Jean Molesky-Poz, offers opportunities to consider theology, scripture and spirituality from women’s perspectives, deepen prayer and discernment practices, and to support one another.
We meet bi-monthly on the second Saturday, September to June. Not only are we treated to lectures, small group discussions and prayer, but we value getting to know each other over coffee and snacks, making friends with women of diverse ages and backgrounds. At a meeting, participants can number from thirty to sixty women.
Over the course of nine years, Women in Conversationhas considered topics such as “Women Seeking the Sacred” and “Transitions: From Who We are to Who We Are Called to Become,” as well as inquiring into more public roles of Catholic women’s leadership, including women’s ordination. Feminist biblical scholars have examined overlooked stories of women in the Bible with us and provided skills to reconstruct biblical history in which women were central and active agents. Muslim women dialogued with us on their faith, and undocumented mothers shared their stories, as have women ministering to girls who have been sex trafficked. We inform one another of needed social actions that reflect Catholic social teaching.
At our autumn event on September 14th one of our favorite biblical scholars, Gina Hens-Piazza of the Jesuit School of Theology, presented: Silence Breakers: Woman Zion and the #Me Too Movement: Lamentations 2:20-22 as Path to Resilience.
In an earlier session, women students led the group through a meditation on the visit of the young pregnant Mary who “set out with haste to a Judean town in the hill country” to stay with her aunt for three months (Luke 1:39). In small groups of students and regular parishioners, we asked, “What can we, as women of faith, learn from one another across the generations here at Newman?” Students said they were glad to “get out of their bubble;” a parishioner said to the students, “I am amazed at the depth of your spirituality, your freshness,” reflecting thoughts of many. We also sponsored a treasured event, “Women Resting in the House of God” an all-night vigil, praying and resting together in the quiet of the candle-lit chapel until daybreak.
As in the early church, we are women “of the Way,” searching, desiring to build a beloved, inclusive community. In Spring 2019, Sandra Schneiders, I.H.M., S.T.D. Professor Emerita from Jesuit School of Theology opened our eyes to the early church in the Gospel of John: “A Response for Renewal Thinking of the Church Jesus Brought to Us.” And in June, Elizabeth Johnson C.S.J. in her lecture, Your One Wild and Precious Life: Women on the Road of Ministry,advocated for “courage and hope,” that women’s voices and wisdom be recognized in the Church
All women are welcome -- students to boomers -- that we might dialogue across generations and enrich one another in faith and our experience of the Living God.
This was brought to you by the Women in Conversation planning team. For more information contact Susan Grant or Jean Molesky-Poz
