Leadership Conference of Women Religious
(LCWR)
The Leadership Conference of Women Religious (LCWR) is exactly what its name says.
LCWR organizes itself like this:
A small staff supports the conference through programs and collaborations related to:
Some ways to get to know LCWR are:
To learn more, explore LCWR’s fine website, where the online documentary “Sisters” and the LCWR annual reports are great ways to get better acquainted. (The annual reports are quite different from most corporate annual reports.) The LCWR Timeline 1950-2011 gives a lot of history.
To learn about LCWR’s difficulties with the Vatican during 2008-2015 –
- Leaders constitute LCWR’s members – the elected leaders of congregations that represent 80% of the women religious in the United States.
- It’s not a professional association. It truly is a conference – an organization that exists so that leaders can confer and collaborate with each other.
- Obviously, it’s all women.
- The last word needs major emphasis: LCWR is religious in very deep ways. These women come together to help one another hear and understand and act on God’s call today.
LCWR organizes itself like this:
- The LCWR board and its officers are elected from among its members.
- The elected “presidency” is three sisters – the immediate past president, the current president, and the incoming president – who act collaboratively. The officers also include a secretary and treasurer.
- The congregations that are members of LCWR are entirely autonomous. LCWR assists them in collaboration and in other areas, but does not have authority over them.
- Where other organizations that engage tens of thousands of people might have a thick, detailed strategic plan, LCWR has a two-page Call to focus the energies of members and staff for a seven-year period. (And guess Whose call LCWR is working to follow?) The Call is beautiful and powerful. It’s the outcome of a process of communal discernment that extends beyond elected leaders and seeks the wisdom of sisters all over the country.
A small staff supports the conference through programs and collaborations related to:
- Social concerns, including the action resolutions that LCWR members adopt at their annual assemblies (e.g., immigration, human trafficking).
- Leadership development programs for LCWR congregations.
- Communications, including public communications and media relations as well as excellent books and periodicals that are popular among both sisters and lay people.
- Transition services, particularly for congregations that may be nearing completion of their missions.
- Business, finance, and organizational support, including annual LCWR assemblies in which many hundreds of congregational leaders participate.
Some ways to get to know LCWR are:
- Read the 2015-2022 LCWR Call. It’s beautiful and short.
- Explore LCWR assembly materials, especially the major speeches. We’ve grouped the speeches together in hopes that you’ll open some up. Try Sister Pat Farrell’s 2012 presidential address or Sister Mary Pellegrino’s 2017 presidential address, for instance – incisive wisdom, pivotal power.
- Use LCWR’s beautiful reflection journals.
- Read LCWR’s three books, especially 2018’s However Long the Night: Making Meaning in a Time of Crisis, which gives intimate insight into who these sisters are together, and how their hard-earned learnings can inspire and challenge us layfolks, too.
- Stay current with LCWR's monthly Update newsletter. News, upcoming leadership programs, LCWR's social justice actions and initiatives, Assembly info, and, on page 2, an always rich reflection by a current LCWR leader.
- Read LCWR's twice-yearly periodical, Occasional Papers. It is ALWAYS a treasure of articles that stimulate reflection and personal action. Oriented toward women religious, it's valuable for anyone.
- Use LCWR’s notecards for your own inspiration, or send to friends.
To learn more, explore LCWR’s fine website, where the online documentary “Sisters” and the LCWR annual reports are great ways to get better acquainted. (The annual reports are quite different from most corporate annual reports.) The LCWR Timeline 1950-2011 gives a lot of history.
To learn about LCWR’s difficulties with the Vatican during 2008-2015 –
- The single best source is LCWR’s book However Long the Night: Making Meaning in a Time of Crisis: A Spiritual Journey of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.
- A summary of major events is NCR’s Timeline of the Doctrinal Assessment of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious from 2008 through the Joint Final Report in 2015. (The timeline begins by noting a separate Vatican action, the Apostolic Visitation of some congregations of US women religious, and omits its positive conclusion.
- Ten women religious leaders spoke about how the apostolic visitation of women religious changed their congregations and their sense of unity across congregations. They are authors and editors of the important 2014 book, Power of Sisterhood: Women Religious Tell the Story of the Apostolic Visitation.
- Solidarity with Sisters began accompanying LCWR in 2012. We kept additional detail organized from 2012 into 2014, and you can also skim our News page 2012-2015 for more information.