These are very tough times to be a reformer.
Now more than ever we need to stand up for human rights in the world and in the church.
We ask, how can the church credibly advocate for justice in the world while denying basic human rights to the majority of 1.35 billion members? Jamie says, ‘we have a hierarchy that is too afraid of admitting its vulnerability as an ailing and alienating institution’.
Don’t we have a responsibility to a God of love and justice to lead the way and show how we can Be Church outside of the institution?
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We are all leaders. But what sort of leaders will we be?
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What sort of theology will influence our approach? Lay people have huge sacramental power and leadership.
How will we identify and overcome the obstacles in our path - our fears, and our scepticism as well as the patriarchal and authoritarian culture that is the Catholic Church?
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As Jamie will explain, the church makes a formidable opponent.
Jamie is a challenging, inspiring and deeply thoughtful leader with over 200 published articles, over 30 years’ experience of activism in the world and in the church. She is also a woman of deep faith and belief who from the age of 14 has felt called to the priesthood.
Her message is one of hope….
‘There are countless women and men who are doing the work of justice and compassion, the true work of the church. While the institutional church crumbles under its own weight of faithless, desperate acts of self-preservation, they are modeling the work to which God calls us, by serving in hospitals, prisons, shelters, schools, community centers and anywhere else God seeks to be made present.’These servant leaders are the keys to the future of the church’.