Category Archives: Nuns on the Bus 2016

Slideshow: Toledo Rally

Reflection: Connecting with Other Sisters

Reflection: Connecting with Other Sisters

Sister Larretta Rivera-Williams, RSM

July 16, 2016

“Excuse me, do the sisters take turns driving the bus?” Sarah Spengeman, our Grassroots Mobilization Manager, laughs and then responds, “No, we have a professional driver, Bill.”

Years ago Bill was on tour with Elvis Presley. When Bill is not driving the bus for Anthony Williams, Mary J. Blidge, Fantasia, Maxwell, or Justin Beber he is driving Nuns on the Bus. Conversations with Bill are enjoyable and interesting!

Today, Bill is driving us from Fort Wayne, Indiana to Toledo, Ohio. Thus far, we have travelled more than a thousand miles, visited seven different ministries, have now crossed into our fifth state, and met several hundred people.

My vocation as a Religious Sister of Mercy has been reaffirmed. This call and commitment to serve God’s people, to seek justice for God’s people, has been echoed by those I am traveling with. We all agree that witnessing to Gospel values and staying strong to Pope Francis’ call of love and service, continues to be the role of Religious Woman in the 21st Century.

Our morning prayer, the impromptu bus discussions, and our evening transition conversations are rich! We have all been touched spiritually and emotionally by the passionate stories we have heard.

1-notb Presently, I am the only Mercy on the bus. The nine of us have formed community with ease; already knowing we will miss each other after next week. We represent the Sisters of St. Agnes, the Comboni Missionary Sisters, the Dominicans, the Religious Sisters of Mercy of the Americas, the Sisters of St. Joseph of Peace, Sisters of Social Services, and the Ursuline Sisters. We are modeling that we can pull together to achieve the possible; charism, age, and culture should not alter God’s plan for peace and love.

Perhaps, our different ministries are not in the trenches of despair with the people we have met. I am sure, however, that their faces and stories are forever carved in our minds.

After Toledo our journey continues to Cleveland, Ohio for the Republican National Convention. Please pray for everyone headed to Cleveland; a special prayer for Nuns on the Bus and our professional driver, Bill!

Slideshow: Fort Wayne Caucus

Travel Log: Fort Wayne, Indiana

Sister Erin Zubal, OSU

July 15, 2016

“Hope is being able to see that there is light despite all the darkness.” ~ Desmond Tutu

Indiana brought both tears and laughter as we made our way from Terre Haute to Fort Wayne. Being a part of Nuns on the Bus has presented us with the sacred opportunity to have our hearts broken open by the brave souls who are willing to share their stories of struggle, perseverance and hope with us. The site visits afford us the opportunity to hold space for the women, men and children who each day are faced with injustice, racism, poverty, and a broken system that continues to push them further to the margins of society instead of drawing them closer to community. This sacred story telling fuels our work to Mend the Gaps and empower our elected officials to Reweave the Fabric of Society.

1ftwayne Our site visit began Friday at Vincent Village in Fort Wayne, IN. We were greeted warmly by families and staff of Vincent Village who had crafted welcome banners for our arrival.

Vincent Village is a long range solution to family homelessness. This organization offers one of the most comprehensive approaches to addressing homelessness that I have seen. The mission of Vincent Village is to alleviate the problems of homelessness by providing shelter, care, advocacy, affordable housing and supportive services for homeless families as these families build strength and strive to become independent, productive members of the community. Rooted in a belief in God and under the direction of the board, Vincent Village seeks to affirm the dignity of life and all served. Vincent Village has ten full time employees and eight part time employees who seem to be doing the work of fifty full time employees. In 2015, 302 clients were served and 91% of those families moved into permanent housing. Vincent Village is most certainly living out its mission to providing a strategic and lasting solution to family homelessness.

During the site visit we heard the sacred stories of Jennifer, Wanita, Leila and Sonya. They shared with us the journey of their lives and how they came to know Vincent Village. These four women found themselves in the throws of homelessness due to multi-layered factors that left them with nothing but the clothes on their back. These four strong and valiant women took life one day at a time and did all they could to survive moment to moment, day to day. Jennifer, Wanita, Leila and Sonya are survivors because they knew they had no other choice if they were going to save their children from the world of racism, oppression and poverty. These four women made an intentional choice to reach out to Vincent Village for the life of their families. The love of their children and grandchildren gave them the courage, fortitude and perseverance to survive and eventually thrive. Jennifer, Wannita, Leila and Sonya are a few of the success stories that come out of the over 250,000 people that are homeless in the United States on any given night. We pray that our society creates the avenues and opportunities for many more to follow in these women’s footsteps.

2ftwayne In the evening, we were greeted by Father Phil Widman and the community of St. Mary’s Catholic Church for the Caucus. All who gathered for the Caucus were engaged and eager to discuss the gaps facing the people of Fort Wayne. In equal measure they were visionary and hopeful in discussing what their neighborhoods and communities could look like if the inequalities were addressed and everyone had the opportunity to experience justice and peace. We pray that our brothers and sisters in parishes and places of worship throughout the United States take their responsibility of faithful citizenship and living the Gospel as seriously as the Father Phil Widman and the faithful of St. Mary’s.

Nuns on the Bus has been an incredible journey. It is a privilege to stand shoulder to shoulder with these women as we offer a living prayer with our feet and hands and hope to create the holy places for crucial conversations and transformation to take place. We stand in solidarity with all of the faithful women, men and children who have signed the bus and ride with us, seeking inclusion, justice and peace for all. May our elected officials and government structures hear this message and start working on policies that address the cries of the poor and needs of the world.

Slideshow: Vincent Village (Fort Wayne, Indiana)

Reflection on Day Four: Crafting Community

Reflection: Creating Community

Sister Susan Rose Francois, CSJP

July 15, 2016

The opportunity to be a Nun on the Bus is a multi-dimensional blessing. We are privileged to hear stories of pain and promise, challenge and opportunity, impasse and creative responses to systemic injustice.

Sister Simone Campbell keeps reminding us that, in effect, we are missionaries. We are on a mission to mend the gaps. To the observer the public advocacy side of being a nun on the bus is perhaps more apparent, but there is a profound pastoral side to our mission as well. We are listening to how the gaps are impacting folks across this country in real and immediate ways. We are also witnesses to the resilient efforts of communities to reweave the fabric of our society.

Community is key. The nine of us boarded the bus in Madison as relative strangers to one another. Most of us, in fact, had never even met before. Now that we have arrived in our fourth state and seventh city, it is hard to believe that I have not always known these sisters of mine. We certainly belong to and love our respective religious communities. We know that our sisters are praying for and supporting us across the miles. But we are also now members of another community—we are, now and forever more, Nuns on the Bus.

Prayer has been key to crafting this sense of community among us so quickly. Most days, before we board the bus in the morning, we find a quiet spot for community prayer in the motherhouse where we have found gracious hospitality the night before. Other days we pray together on the bus at the beginning of our morning journey. Whatever the location, contemplation and sharing of the heart brings us together and focuses us on our mission.

Tears have also brought us together as we have met ordinary folks who are struggling to meet basic needs and provide for their families. I will never forget Julie who teared up as she shared her sadness at not being able to provide safe affordable housing for her three children because she could not find a job in her area that provided a living wage. Or Anne who, because she lives in a state that has not expanded Medicaid benefits, almost died when she was taken to an emergency room for care that had reached a crisis level because she did not have health insurance and thus could not afford regular checkups. It is difficult, if not impossible, to avoid having your heart broken open, again and again, by such stories. Tears are a healing and human response to this sacred sharing.

In our mission to reweave the fabric of society, we are weaving together the threads of our individual stories and experiences with those we meet along the way. It is no coincidence that the graphic on the side of our bus resembles the squares of a quilt. Each state of our union is part of a whole and we have heard certain patterns emerging across our trip. During our caucus events and site visits, we have heard how problems like the lack of affordable mental health care, stable funding for K-12 and higher education, inadequate public transportation systems, and the prevalence of only low wage employment for job seekers are tearing at the fabric of our society. While there are some variations in the ways these gaps color the lives of the communities we have visited, the overwhelming pattern that is emerging is one of widening gaps caused by policies that do not promote or serve the common good.

At our caucus event in Terre Haute, Sister Simone told the crowd: “I believe that in the 21^st century it is necessary for us to work in community to make change.”

In St. Louis, we spent a few hours with one community of women working on the multi-dimensional problems facing their community. Voice of Women is a community development organization that unites women to address issues affecting their neighborhood, such as gentrification, lack of access to banking and affordable lending, and food insecurity. Their micro-lending and savings programs provide the economic engine that helps community members thrive. The community garden provides healthy vegetables and brings folks together to tend the garden and relationships. During our tour of the neighborhood, I met a woman around my age who was raising her children in the same house in the neighborhood where her grandmother had raised her family. She was committed to the future of her community, and wanted to make sure that her 8-year-old daughter would have the same opportunity to stay connected to this resilient community, even as it changes and becomes more racially and economically diverse.

We are about half way through this leg of the trip. The community we are crafting informs our advocacy and gives us food for the journey. I cannot help but think of the words of the prophet Isaiah 25.

On this mountain (or on this Nuns on the Bus trip),
God will prepare a feast of rich food for all peoples,
a banquet of aged wine—the best of meats and the finest of wines.
On this mountain God will destroy
the shroud that enfolds all peoples,
the sheet that covers all nations;
God will swallow up death for ever.
Our God will wipe away the tears
from all faces.

As we get closer to Cleveland and the Republican Convention, there will no doubt be more tears and more stories. Yet another blessing of being a nun on the bus is the chance to carry these sacred stories in my heart and share them in order to inform new policies crafted to mend the gaps.

Slideshow: Terre Haute Caucus

Travel Log: Terre Haute, Indiana

Sister Clare Lawlor, CSA

July 14, 2016

The Nuns on the Bus came to Terre Haute, Indiana where we participated in a Caucus to Mend the Gaps at St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church. We were very warmly welcomed by the community.

1terrehaute Sister Simone greeted the large groups of caucus participants, grouped at tables labeled by the Nuns on the Bus gap and access issues. As she does at every caucus, Simone asked the group some “buzz” questions to get the conversation started. We all discussed the divides in the local community.

We then had small group conversation, after which the groups reported out the need for more jobs that pay a living wage, and the need for re-tooling workers for today’s jobs. The healthcare group raised the issue of child hunger, and we learned that 60-65% of children in the area suffer from food insecurity. The group asked “Why is this happening in our community?”

From the housing group, we learned that many local people need to work two or three jobs to afford housing, which results in less time available to support their family in ways other than financial.

The absolute interconnectedness of all of the issues was a key learning from the evening. At the end of the evening, caucus participants committed to mending the gaps together, and signed the bus as a demonstration of their commitment.

Travel Log: Saint Louis

Sister Clare Lawlor, CSA

July 14, 2016

“The wheels on the bus go round and round” was the music on the bus as we entered the Forest Park Southeast area of St. Louis. Our site visit brought us to Southside Housing Coalition’s Midtown Center where we met with the women from Voices of Women.

Met by Ms. Bobbie Sykes, chairperson of VOW (Voices of Women), the sisters participated in a tour of the local neighborhood. We saw a very mixed neighborhood with houses in varying stages of redevelopment. Ms. Bobbie explained that the area is undergoing gentrification where houses that previously were affordable were now out of the economic range of the local population. Her organization helps families stay in their homes.

Ms. Sykes gathered a group of VOW members (clients, board members, elected officials) for a discussion about the Work of VOW at their community center. Their vision affirms women, particularly mothers, are decision-makers. VOW also holds the belief that all people bring diverse experience and knowledge to our efforts and that everyone has efforts, ideas and hopes to contribute.

In order to assist women as heads of households, Ms. Sykes and her Board of Directors have embodied this mission in a project called the “Unbanked Program”. Instead of using Payday Loans, the Board set up the “Unbanked Project”. Women can make take out small, interest free, loans. As Bobbie Sykes says, “We don’t do background checks, we do face checks!” Women repay the loans and contribute to the services of the program. Another microfinance project, Women’s Helping Hands and Tiny Hands for children, allows women and children to make and save money, amounts of which are matched by a generous donor.

Slideshow: Southside Housing Coalition, Midtown Center (St. Louis)