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Under the leadership of Siobhan O’Neill Meluso, Communications Coordinator for the Benedictine Sisters of Chicago, a group of communicators from Benedictine women’s monasteries have produced a video, “Benedictine Values, Modern Monasticism,” that illustrates 10 Benedictine values with photographs provided by 21 monasteries. Judith Sutera, OSB, a Benedictine scholar and historian from Mt. St. Scholastica in Atchison, KS, was instrumental in preparing the script. The technical expertise of Amanda Hackett, Communications Coordinator, Sisters of the Order of Saint Benedict (St. Joseph, MN), and Susan Damon, Development Associate, Benedictine Sisters of Boerne, TX, created the video including an instrumental track of the handbell choir of the Sisters of St. Benedict, St. Joseph, MN, arranged by Christine Manderfeld, OSB © 1997. Other committee members were Jan Gull, Sisters of St. Benedict at St. Mary Monastery, Rock Island, IL, and Linda Romey, OSB, Benedictine Sisters of Erie, PA.
SBEC proactive on issues of food insecurity
St. Benedict Education Center (SBEC) has two staff members who work with Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) referred clients. Deb Maxwell is working with those in Clarion, Forest, Warren, and Venango Counties; Sandy Osmanski in Erie and Crawford Counties. Deb and Sandy help their participants understand and access the benefits available to them to meet their food needs through SNAP. In addition, the program administered by SBEC is designed “to move clients toward family economic stability.” Goal: The client will no longer be dependent on SNAP. The program provides guidelines, criteria to be met, and limitations.
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End of the Summer Semester at Neighborhood Art House
After five very busy weeks, the Neighborhood Art House summer program has come to a successful close. Students finished projects in a wide range of classes, including some that are only offered during the summer session. As always, we’re proud of the work students accomplished and we’re looking forward to seeing our summer crew again next year!
Neighborhood Art House Partners with ExpERIEnce Children's Mobile Museum STEAM Lessons
Art House students ages 8-10 were able to learn exciting lessons about STEAM (science, technology, engineering, arts, and mathematics education) through a partnership with the ExpERIEnce Children’s Mobile Museum for two weeks this summer. Children’s Museum Assistant Education Coordinator & Outreach Coordinator, Breanne Daugherty, arrived each day with kits to build, experiment, and create. Students loved the hands-on lessons which were educational and definitely fun as well.
The Green Building Alliance Features Benedictine Ministry’s Projects
Representatives of the Green Building Alliance, a Pittsburgh non-profit that provides project and technical assistance throughout Western Pennsylvania, visited Erie to interview member organizations of the Erie 2030 District including the Benedictine Sisters of Erie. Sister Dianne Sabol, Sister Annette Marshall, and Dan Welch, a member of the maintenance staff, spoke about the improvements to the buildings on East 10th Street.
SBA Christmas in July
Walking into the St. Benedict Academy "bingo hall" at Polish Falcons Club, the first sign on the ticket desk read, "Admission $25. With a Christmas gift or a $5 donation receive a free additional pack!" "Those gifts," SBA Board co-chair Valerie Purzycki, '88 explained, indicating several large piles that included toys, games, dolls, and beautiful hand-knit hats and scarves, "are all for the children at St. Benedict Child Development Center. A portion of the proceeds from today's bingo will go to help support the Center."
Nuns & Nones at the monastery
The six core team members of Nuns & Nones, an “intergenerational, spiritual community dedicated to care, contemplation, and courageous action in service of life and liberation,” recently spent two weeks at the monastery's Glinodo Center. They gathered to dream, plan, learn, and enjoy time together. Pictured are Diana Marin, Adam Horowitz, Alan Webb, Brittany Koteles, Sarah Jane Bradley, and Katie Gordon at a conversation with the Benedictine community. “We see ourselves as bridge-builders between sisters and today’s youth-led justice movements,” said Katie, who lives with the Benedictines. “Young people realize that we need the spirituality for the long haul that sisters have. We share their passion for justice and recognize the work they do and look for ways we can collaborate with them in creating a more just world.”
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Jesus, Women and Nonviolence Zoom Conversation
Join Erie Benedictine Sister Anne McCarthy on July 24, 2:00 p.m. ET as she shares reflections she offered at the Vatican at the historic 2016 Vatican Conference on nonviolence, on “Jesus, women and nonviolence.” She will point to several key stories in the Gospels where the nonviolent Jesus healed, defended, befriended and entered into transformative dialogue with women, acts of nonviolent civil disobedience in those times. Then, she will lead us to reflect on what the nonviolent Jesus’ positive actions towards women mean for us today in our unjust, sexist, and violent world, and how we too can deepen in Gospel nonviolence and Jesus’ all-inclusive nonviolent action. Registration fee is $25. INFORMATION AND REGISTRATION >>>
SBEC officially home to ECCCPA
A formal lease-signing ceremony marked the official beginning of the relationship between St. Benedict Education Center (SBEC) and the newly-established Erie County Community College of PA (ECCCPA). Sister Stephanie Schmidt, prioress of the Benedictine Sisters of Erie, (right of sign) and Dr. Judith Gay, interim president of ECCAPA (left of sign) signed the lease in the presence of city and county officials gathered at SBEC. ECCCPA will occupy one floor of the SBEC building at 330 East 10th Street and share some space. The arrangement will not affect SBEC programming, and as Director Nancy Sabol notes, “ECC will provide affordable, accessible education for the very population that St. Benedict Education Center serves.”
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Joan Chittister on the future of Religious Life
In 1996 Erie Benedictine Joan Chittister wrote the book, The Fire in These Ashes, an exploration of the spirituality of contemporary religious life. In a new interview with LCWR communications director Annmarie Sanders, IHM, Sister Joan reflects on religious life 25 years later. She says, "We have to remember that we are here to do charity, but religious life has to do with something beyond charity. We have to keep asking: Whose life are you living besides your own? That is a big question and we have an obligation to live in such a way that it affects a life beyond our own. You can call that politics, but I call it the Gospel." PDF file posted with permission; subscribe here to LCWR Occasional Papers.
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