Sisters for Christian Community

Last updated
Sisters For Christian Community
AbbreviationSFCC
Formation1970
TypeIndependent congregation of religious sisters
Key people
Sister Lillanna Kopp – founder
Website http://www.sfccinternational.org/

Sisters for Christian Community is a contemporary, non-canonical, ecumenical community of religious sisters founded in 1970 in direct response to the Catholic Church's Second Vatican Council.

Contents

Members live by a profile that embodies the values and principles defined and set forth in the official documents of the council.

Description

Members live according to the evangelical vows of poverty, celibacy, and obedience and manifest their commitment to God within a new form of consecrated life they believe to be both prophetic and ecclesiastical. The Vow of Poverty is lived as serving and sharing; Obedience is practiced by the individual member through a careful listening to God and the cry of the poor; Chastity is lived as celibate love. Each member is self-supporting and responsible to finance her ministry, personal needs, housing, medical care and retirement. Each member determines her ministry on the basis of her personal call within community, her training and interests, as well as response to both the God within herself and the needs of those around her. Sisters For Christian Community are most often found in ministries that favor the poor and marginalized of the world. The primary mission of the Sisters For Christian Community is to work toward a global community of equality, justice and integrity.

The community is organized into geographical regions. As of 2015, there are 31 regions spread throughout 14 nations, which include but are not limited to: Australia, Canada, England, Guam, Guatemala, Honduras, India, Ireland, Kenya, Mexico, the Netherlands, Nigeria, Philippines, Portugal, Scotland, Uganda, and the United States. Members convene annually at an International Assembly to conduct community-wide business, and to explore the spiritual theme and topic selected for the specific assembly. The location of the International Assembly is in a different place each year. All community decisions, at both the local and international levels, are made through a process of consensus.

Leadership in Sisters For Christian Community is primarily for the purpose of communication. Selection of a leader is through a community-wide process in which each member discerns her qualifications, ability, and time before offering her services at either the regional or international level. Serving in a leadership role is an unpaid, voluntary endeavor for the good of the community.

Formation in Sisters For Christian Community is called the Becoming Process. A person in the 1st stage is an Inquirer. Any member may serve as the contact between an Inquirer and the local community members for 1 year. The Inquirer attends meetings in the local region in order to learn about Sisters For Christian Community and to meet members.

The Region members and the Inquirer discern when she is ready to sign the Covenant of Affiliation and enter the 2nd stage as an Affiliate. The new Affiliate selects her SFCC mentor with whom she works closely for one year. She continues to attend meetings. During this period, the Region formally introduces the new Affiliate to the international membership through the community-wide newsletter, ALL-TO-ALL (ATA). The Region membership and Affiliate mutually discern when the Affiliate will be affirmed into full membership of the Sisters For Christian Community. Affirmation includes the pronouncement of the evangelical vows of poverty, obedience and celibacy, referred by Sisters For Christian Community as Serving, Listening and Loving. [1]

Among its more prominent members in 2020 is Sr. Alison McCrary, whose resume includes Executive Director of the National Police Accountability Project, President of the Louisiana Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild, spiritual advisor on Louisiana’s death row, and social justice attorney. [2] She is frequently mentioned in the media. [2] [3] [4] [5] [6]

Notable members

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nun</span> Member of a religious community of women

A nun is a woman who vows to dedicate her life to religious service and contemplation, typically living under vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience in the enclosure of a monastery or convent. The term is often used interchangeably with religious sisters who do take simple vows but live an active vocation of prayer and charitable work.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical Covenant Church</span> North American Christian denomination

The Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) is an evangelical denomination with Pietist Lutheran roots. The denomination has 129,015 members in 878 congregations and an average worship attendance of 219,000 people in the United States and Canada with ministries on five continents.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate</span> Catholic missionary order

The Missionary Oblates of Mary Immaculate (OMI) is a missionary religious congregation in the Catholic Church. It was founded on January 25, 1816, by Eugène de Mazenod, a French priest later recognized as a Catholic saint. The congregation was given recognition by Pope Leo XII on February 17, 1826. As of January 2020, the congregation was composed of 3,631 priests and lay brothers usually living in community. Their traditional salutation is Laudetur Iesus Christus, to which the response is Et Maria Immaculata. Members use the post-nominal letters, "OMI".

In the Catholic Church, a religious profession is the solemn admission of men or women into consecrated life by means of the pronouncement of religious vows, typically the evangelical counsels.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Religious vows</span> Promises made by members of religious communities

Religious vows are the public vows made by the members of religious communities pertaining to their conduct, practices, and views.

In Christianity, an oblate is a person who is specifically dedicated to God and to God's service.

A fourth vow is part of religious vows that are taken by members of some religious institutes in the Catholic Church, apart from the traditional vows based on the evangelical counsels: poverty, chastity and obedience or their equivalents stability, conversion of manners, and obedience.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Society of the Divine Word</span> Catholic missionary religious congregation

The Society of the Divine Word, abbreviated SVD and popularly called the Verbites or the Divine Word Missionaries, and sometimes the Steyler Missionaries, is a Catholic clerical religious congregation of Pontifical Right for men. As of 2020, it consisted of 5,965 members composed of priests and religious brothers working in more than 70 countries, now part of VIVAT international. It is one of the largest missionary congregations in the Catholic Church. Its members add the nominal letters SVD after their names to indicate membership in the Congregation. The superior general is Anselmo Ricardo Ribeiro, who hails from Brazil.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Consecrated life</span> Type of lifestyle advocated by the Catholic Church

Consecrated life is a state of life in the Catholic Church lived by those faithful who are called to follow Jesus Christ in a more exacting way. It includes those in institutes of consecrated life, societies of apostolic life, as well as those living as hermits or consecrated virgins.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anglican religious order</span> Community in the Anglican Communion living under a common rule of life

Anglican religious orders are communities of men or women in the Anglican Communion who live under a common rule of life. The members of religious orders take vows which often include the traditional monastic vows of poverty, chastity and obedience, or the ancient vow of stability, or sometimes a modern interpretation of some or all of these vows. Members may be laity or clergy, but most commonly include a mixture of both. They lead a common life of work and prayer, sometimes on a single site, sometimes spread over multiple locations. Though many Anglicans are members of religious orders recognized by the Anglican Communion, others may be members of ecumenical Protestant or Old Catholic religious orders while maintaining their Anglican identity and parochial membership in Anglican churches.

The Missionaries of Our Lady of La Salette are a religious congregation of priests and brothers in the Latin Church. They are named after the apparition of Our Lady of La Salette in France. There is also a parallel religious community of sisters called the Missionary Sisters of Our Lady of La Salette. A lay fraternal group of associates also works in cooperation with the vowed religious. The Missionaries are dedicated to making known the message of Our Lady of La Salette, a call to healing of inner brokenness and personal reconciliation with God, especially as found in the first three commandments. The missionaries are popularly known as "the La Salettes."

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Evangelical counsels</span> Chastity, poverty (perfect charity) and obedience

In Christianity, the three evangelical counsels, or counsels of perfection, are chastity, poverty, and obedience. As stated by Jesus in the canonical gospels, they are counsels for those who desire to become "perfect".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Dominican Sisters of St. Cecilia</span> Catholic religious institute

The Congregation of St. Cecilia, commonly known as the Nashville Dominicans, is a religious institute of the Roman Catholic Church located in Nashville, Tennessee. It is a member of the Council of Major Superiors of Women Religious, one of the two organizations which represent women religious in the United States. The sisters combine a monastic communal lifestyle of contemplation in the Dominican tradition with an active apostolate in Catholic education. As of 2018, the congregation has 300 sisters.

The Dominican Sisters of the Immaculate Conception Province are a religious community of women consecrated to Christ in the Dominican charism with the mission of preaching the Gospel especially to those in most need. The Congregation lives out this preaching through education, evangelization, and by aiding the sick and suffering. The community was founded in 1861 by Maria Rose Kolumba Białecka (1838–1887) in Poland.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Vocational discernment in the Catholic Church</span>

Vocational discernment is the process by which men and women in the Catholic Church discern, or recognize, their vocation in the church and the world. The vocations are the life of a layperson in the world, either married or single, the ordained life of bishops, priests, and deacons, and consecrated religious life.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Franciscan spirituality in Protestantism</span> Influence of the spirituality of Catholic saint Francis in Protestant Christians

Emerging since the 19th century, there are several Protestant adherent and groups, sometimes organised as religious orders, which strive to adhere to the teachings and spiritual disciplines of Saint Francis of Assisi.

Miles Jesu is a Catholic institute of consecrated life founded on January 12, 1964, in Phoenix, Arizona, whose membership comprises lay people and clerics who take religious vows and in addition, since it is structured as an ecclesial family of consecrated life, it also has people in other states of life as members.

A Religious Brother is a lay member of a religious institute or religious order who commits himself to following Christ in consecrated life of the Church, usually by the vows of poverty, chastity and obedience. Equivalent to a Religious Sister, he usually lives in a religious community and works in a ministry appropriate to his capabilities.

In the Catholic Church, a religious institute is "a society in which members, according to proper law, pronounce public vows, either perpetual or temporary which are to be renewed, however, when the period of time has elapsed, and lead a life of brothers or sisters in common."

The Society of Our Lady of the Most Holy Trinity (SOLT) is a Society of Apostolic Life within the Roman Catholic Church. It was founded in 1958 by Father James H. Flanagan, a priest from the United States. The Society maintains missions in various countries, describing itself as Marian-Trinitarian, Catholic, missionary, and family. Membership in the Society includes priests, permanent deacons, religious sisters, religious brothers, and the lay faithful.

References

  1. Sisters For Christian Community Collection, Avila University Special Collections, Kansas City, Missouri
  2. 1 2 "An Interview with Sister Alison McCrary". Nations Media. 2018-11-09. Archived from the original on June 29, 2020. Retrieved 2020-06-27.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: unfit URL (link)
  3. "Sr. Alison McCrary | Beyond the Habit". America Magazine. 2019-09-27. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  4. "Sister Alison McCrary - from Lawyer to Nun". Franciscan Voice Canada. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  5. "Q & A with Sr. Alison McCrary, working to hold police accountable". Global Sisters Report. 2018-04-05. Retrieved 2020-06-27.
  6. "The Joseph William and Madeline Eberle Klein Fund | Faith-Justice Institute | Saint Joseph's University". Faith-Justice Institute. Retrieved 2020-06-27.