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Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community
Episode 12 • 27th August 2023 • Listening for Clues • On the Journey with Jon & Lauren
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Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community

We are honored to have the Rev. Gloria Carpeneto, a Roman Catholic Womanpriest, who talks about the Living Waters Inclusive Catholic Community, a prophetic voice of inclusion, worship and ministry. Gloria isCo-Pastor & Founder, Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community, 2008-present, an open, welcoming, and inclusive alternative Catholic community. Ordained, Roman Catholic Womanpriest in Boston MA 2008. Married to Myles Carpeneto, 53 years; 2 children, 4 grandchildren, 4 great-grandchildren, living in Catonsville. Labyrinth facilitator, retreat facilitator, spiritual director, working to help folks on their walk with God, whomever and whatever that is for them.

Resources mentioned in this episode:

Highlights:

00:00 Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community

00:00 Introduction

01:33 Roman Catholic Womenpriests

05:12 A Roman Catholic Prophetic Movement

08:56 The Living Water Inclusive Community

12:23 Surprises Along the Way

15:48 A Deeper Understanding of God

20:04 Obstacles Along the Way

25:56 Hope for the Future

29:20 Learn More, Make Contact

31:41 Final Words

33:51 Thanks

Listening for Clues is pleased to present our new series, "Good News!" featuring weekly conversations with people who are making a difference, large or small. We want everyone to know what they are doing, why they are doing it, and how. So, our listeners and viewers can experience the good news and go out and make a difference themselves.

Listening for Clues invites you into conversations that discover clues, rather than solutions to life’s problems. Join the journey with Jon Shematek and Lauren Welch, Episcopal deacons, as we explore whatever lies ahead. Check our website Listening for Clues.

© 2023 Listening for Clues

Transcripts

Jon:

Welcome to Good News, being brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Lauren:

We are Lauren Welch and Jon Shematek, deacons in the

Lauren:

Episcopal Diocese of Maryland.

Jon:

We sure are, and today we have a very special guest with us, the

Jon:

Reverend Gloria Carpeneto, who is the co pastor and founder of Living

Jon:

Water Inclusive Catholic Community.

Jon:

She's been doing that since the year 2008, and that is described as

Jon:

an open, welcoming, and inclusive, alternative Catholic community.

Jon:

Gloria is a Roman Catholic womanpriest, and was ordained in Boston, . She is

Jon:

married to Miles Carpeneto for 53 years.

Jon:

They have two children, four grandchildren, four great grandchildren,

Jon:

and live in Catonsville, Maryland.

Jon:

Gloria is also a Labyrinth Facilitator, a Retreat Facilitator, Spiritual

Jon:

Director, and she works to help folks on their walk with God.

Jon:

Whomever and whatever that is for them.

Jon:

Welcome, Gloria.

Jon:

We're glad to have you with us today.

Gloria:

Thank you, Jon.

Gloria:

It's good to be here.

Lauren:

Gloria, it's really good to have you here with us today.

Lauren:

So I'd like to begin with you're a Roman Catholic womanpriest.

Lauren:

So tell us about.

Lauren:

What that is and when that began, because many of our viewers may not have

Lauren:

heard of Roman Catholic womenpriests.

Gloria:

Well, it's a long story, but I will keep it pointed.

Gloria:

It really goes back to the women's suffrage movement.

Gloria:

I think that women in general were beginning to sense that

Gloria:

they were as called to serve as anyone was called to serve.

Gloria:

And certainly in the Episcopal tradition, you know, that

Gloria:

happened in what, about 1976?

Gloria:

And that just pushed the Roman Catholic womenpriest movement forward.

Gloria:

So, the formation of a group called the Women's Ordination Conference in

Gloria:

1976 moved forward, forward, forward through the decades so that at the The

Gloria:

point in about, I guess it was 2002, there were seven women who found three

Gloria:

Catholic bishops in the Roman Catholic tradition who ordained these seven women.

Gloria:

And what's important to note is that no matter what is said in the Roman Catholic

Gloria:

tradition about these ordinations, they are what is called illicit but valid.

Gloria:

In other words, there is a code, a canon, in the Catholic Church that forbids the

Gloria:

ordination of women, and these seven women and these three bishops said, that

Gloria:

is in the tradition of Nelson Mandela and Martin Luther King, unjust law,

Gloria:

and unjust laws are meant to be broken.

Gloria:

So, on the Danube River in 2002, these seven women were ordained.

Gloria:

A few years later, several of them were ordained bishops by Roman

Gloria:

Catholic bishops in good standing in the church secretly, of course.

Gloria:

And those Roman Catholic women bishops then began to ordain

Gloria:

Roman Catholic womenpriests.

Gloria:

So now there are about 300 Roman Catholic womenpriests around

Gloria:

the world in the United States, Canada, Central and South America.

Gloria:

South Africa, China, Taiwan Germany, the Philippines.

Gloria:

So, 300 of us now from 2002 when there were just 7.

Gloria:

And so I was ordained in 2008.

Gloria:

And ordinations were carried on, on the water because they are international.

Gloria:

And no one can really say much about those ordinations in international waters.

Gloria:

So we had two in the United States, one in Canada, one in Pittsburgh.

Gloria:

And then in 2007, I like to say that we crawled up out of the water onto the land.

Gloria:

And I was ordained in 2007 in New York as a deacon.

Gloria:

And then in 2008 in Boston as a priest.

Gloria:

So, the 300 of us are in ministry, oh gosh, a number of ministries all

Gloria:

around the world, but have formed communities like Living Water.

Gloria:

So that's kind of our story encapsulated.

Jon:

Yeah, wow, that's a very nice encapsulation, Gloria.

Jon:

Can you tell me in terms of Roman Catholic womenpriests,

Jon:

and womanpriests is one word.

Jon:

What would you say is distinctive about that in terms of, are you, you're

Jon:

still part of the Roman tradition?

Jon:

The unbroken, the apostolic succession?

Gloria:

Apostolic succession, yeah.

Gloria:

Yeah.

Gloria:

Yeah.

Gloria:

We are very careful to say that we never left.

Gloria:

As a matter of fact in Living Waters incorporation papers, we were very careful

Gloria:

not to incorporate as a church because we didn't want to be another church.

Gloria:

We said, we are Catholic.

Gloria:

Why should we not be Roman Catholic?

Gloria:

So we consider ourselves a prophetic movement within the Roman Catholic

Gloria:

Church speaking truth within.

Gloria:

Our tradition, which we have never given up.

Gloria:

The church, I believe, would say legally, canonically, there

Gloria:

is an excommunication of us.

Gloria:

We have said that we don't honor that.

Gloria:

And so the distinction, I suppose, is that we are women who don't honor our

Gloria:

excommunication and have gone ahead and functioned as Roman Catholic priests.

Jon:

And so you don't really, you have not organized, and this

Jon:

was not your purpose, to organize into alternative parishes as such.

Gloria:

No, no I will say this, because we are a prophetic movement within the

Gloria:

church, we have certainly taken what we've seen within the structure, the

Gloria:

canons, the liturgy of the church, and have tried to make that inclusive.

Gloria:

We've tried to make that welcoming.

Gloria:

I believe Lauren has been to our liturgy sometimes and she would know

Gloria:

that we've rewritten the Roman Rite.

Gloria:

So it's an inclusive language.

Gloria:

It honors other traditions than our own.

Gloria:

So in that sense, we are distinctive.

Gloria:

You know, it's funny.

Gloria:

A couple of years ago, we had a couple of gentlemen who had been

Gloria:

Roman Catholic priests and had had left the priesthood for various

Gloria:

reasons, and they had heard about us.

Gloria:

And they came to talk with us.

Gloria:

So they talked with my co pastor, Andrea Bishop.

Gloria:

Andrea Johnson and I for, I guess, about an hour.

Gloria:

And at the end of that, we invited them to our liturgy.

Gloria:

So they came and they participated, and at the end, as they were

Gloria:

walking out, one of them said to me, that was really recognizable.

Gloria:

As a Catholic Mass.

Gloria:

And I thought, well what did you think we were doing?

Gloria:

We weren't outside dancing in the moonlight or whatever.

Gloria:

We are in the Roman Catholic tradition.

Gloria:

And the fact that he said it was recognizable as a Mass, is I

Gloria:

think what we are trying to do.

Gloria:

We are trying to renew what is there.

Jon:

So it sounds like you are faithful to the tradition and

Jon:

prophetic to this new way of being.

Gloria:

Yeah.

Gloria:

Now, within the Roman Catholic womenpriests, certainly there is a

Gloria:

spectrum, you know, and some of us will be more conservative and some of us will

Gloria:

be less conservative on that spectrum.

Gloria:

But always we will be a prophetic voice within the church.

Lauren:

Gloria.

Lauren:

The Living Water Inclusive Community.

Lauren:

Tell us about how you, how you function as a community.

Gloria:

How we function as a community.

Gloria:

I would say that certainly since the pandemic, we are

Gloria:

primarily a liturgical community.

Gloria:

We've been together since 2008.

Gloria:

We began as actually two communities.

Gloria:

Brought together, my co founder, co pastor Andrea lives in Annapolis and knew several

Gloria:

people there looking for an alternative way of worshipping and being Church.

Gloria:

I lived in Baltimore and was surrounded by people, I had been a pastoral

Gloria:

associate at a Catholic church.

Gloria:

And so, I was surrounded by people who were also looking for an

Gloria:

alternative way of being Catholic.

Gloria:

The operative phrase there is being Catholic.

Gloria:

So, Andrea and I brought those two groups together at a place that we now

Gloria:

laughingly say was equally inconvenient to them both we've continued to meet

Gloria:

in Catonsville, which is where we have our total community masses.

Gloria:

Now we've, we've branched out from that, so that given the priests that we

Gloria:

have and the the people who are in our community now, we are having liturgies in

Gloria:

Annapolis, in Thurmont, in Catonsville, and in the general Northeast Baltimore

Gloria:

area to accommodate a whole community.

Gloria:

We have liturgies in sanctuaries.

Gloria:

We have them in homes.

Gloria:

We have them in, in one place sometimes.

Gloria:

We split out into Annapolis, Baltimore, and Thurmont.

Gloria:

So we're a church whose schedule is difficult to read.

Gloria:

But once you get the hang of it, we're, we're okay.

Gloria:

That community, I find this kind of interesting.

Gloria:

That community living water.

Gloria:

has seeded nine priestly vocations.

Gloria:

So there have been nine Roman Catholic womenpriests that have

Gloria:

gone through our community.

Gloria:

Some of them are still in the community, in service to the community.

Gloria:

Some have gone off on their own.

Gloria:

So we have a woman who was ordained with us, but now has a dignity

Gloria:

community in Northern Virginia.

Gloria:

We have two priests and a candidate And who will be ordained a deacon

Gloria:

soon, who serve a community in Western Maryland in Thurmont.

Gloria:

And the rest of us are split between Annapolis and Catonsville and Baltimore.

Gloria:

So what's really unique about our community is that so many women have

Gloria:

found a way to express their vocation within Living Water, their vocation

Gloria:

to be ordained Roman Catholic.

Gloria:

womenpriests, and then have gone on from there to whatever kind

Gloria:

of ministry they're in, which is, by the way, chaplaincy, spiritual

Gloria:

direction, certainly pastoral care that happens in our community, education.

Jon:

So so Gloria, I'm gonna actually steal a question that

Jon:

Lauren almost always asks.

Jon:

I'm thinking about in your Either in your journey to your ordained vocation

Jon:

or in the Living Water community, what along the way has surprised you?

Gloria:

What has surprised me has been my vocation.

Gloria:

I mean, there are Roman Catholic womenpriests who will say, and I

Gloria:

respect this, you know, from the moment I was a child, I was playing

Gloria:

being priest and that was not me.

Gloria:

That was certainly not me.

Gloria:

I certainly have always felt a call to be in service, and that service has

Gloria:

often been in a Catholic institution.

Gloria:

So I mentioned being a pastoral associate at a Roman Catholic parish, two parishes.

Gloria:

in Baltimore.

Gloria:

But I think that being there and feeling that, that sense my whole life

Gloria:

long of being called to some kind of a ministerial service and seeing how that

Gloria:

was absolutely thwarted, not only for me, but for other women who wanted to go

Gloria:

further in ministry within the church.

Gloria:

I left that job and not too long thereafter, I went to the ordination of

Gloria:

six women on the water in Pittsburgh.

Gloria:

And that's when I think it all just came together for me.

Gloria:

You know, I had been doing a lot of labyrinth work.

Gloria:

I had written my dissertation on the emergence of spirituality

Gloria:

in women in their middle years.

Gloria:

I'd been a very spiritually based person.

Gloria:

And I probably would have said I'm spiritual but not religious.

Gloria:

That kind of thing.

Gloria:

And maybe even now I would say that to a degree, but anyway, I just

Gloria:

was not thinking of service in the church and going to that ordination

Gloria:

just it literally opened my eyes.

Gloria:

I knew then and there that that was what I was called to do.

Gloria:

So my, my call was a surprise.

Gloria:

The fear of, of some priests that I knew when I was working.

Gloria:

Their fear of my being ordained and how that might reflect on

Gloria:

them was a bit of a surprise.

Gloria:

I was also very surprised the day of my ordination at the number of women

Gloria:

who came up to me afterwards and said, I've never seen a woman at the altar.

Gloria:

I've never seen anybody who looks like me.

Gloria:

So you begin to hear the same thing that African American

Gloria:

people say, that LGBTQ people say.

Gloria:

You've never seen a face like this in a place that's important to you.

Gloria:

You've never seen it.

Gloria:

So that was, that was actually a bit of a surprise to me.

Gloria:

I guess I hadn't realized.

Gloria:

the larger meaning of, of my answering the call and all of us

Gloria:

for that matter, answering the call.

Gloria:

So

Lauren:

Gloria how has this changed you or affected you being ordained

Lauren:

and, and following this call?

Lauren:

How has it deepened your relationship with God?

Gloria:

You know, the, a real quick smart answer is I don't know that

Gloria:

I ever knew the scriptures before.

Gloria:

But having to preach and having , and I say having in the best sense, I don't

Gloria:

mean that as a burden in any way, shape or form, but I mean being, having that

Gloria:

constant exposure to the scripture at a way different level than I ever had in

Gloria:

the pew, certainly that has changed me.

Gloria:

I think my sense of of Jesus.

Gloria:

The Christ, Christ consciousness, evolution, the sense of us all as one

Gloria:

has evolved in me, and I think that has changed me, or I think I have changed.

Gloria:

I,

Gloria:

I think I have a greater sense now of, I don't know how to put this,

Gloria:

there may be a better way to put it, but I'll stick with this for now.

Gloria:

This kind of love hate thing that I continue to have.

Gloria:

With a church that has been there for me, literally, from, you know,

Gloria:

being baptized at four days old.

Gloria:

So it's literally been there for me, has been a sense of grounding for me.

Gloria:

The church, what it taught about Jesus and God, the love that I

Gloria:

have for that institution, and then the, I don't want to say hate.

Gloria:

But certainly dislike, distrust that I have for the institution that has

Gloria:

grown up around the teachings of Jesus.

Gloria:

That is more prominent in me now.

Gloria:

I feel that more now.

Gloria:

I, and therefore, I mean that was preliminary to saying,

Gloria:

therefore I feel more called to do something about it, you know.

Gloria:

I feel called to do things like this interview.

Gloria:

I feel called to preach.

Gloria:

I feel called to work with women who are considering a vocation to the priesthood.

Gloria:

In, in RCWP, there are different leadership roles that, that are available.

Gloria:

And for six years, I was what was called the Program Coordinator for the East

Gloria:

Coast region, of which I am a part.

Gloria:

And the Program Coordinator is the one who is basically the director of our quote

Gloria:

unquote seminary, our training program.

Gloria:

So, you know, the opportunity to walk with women see how their call

Gloria:

manifests in different ways help.

Gloria:

I think about women who have a call to the priesthood and are at the same time

Gloria:

really stuck in thinking like the church.

Gloria:

And the ability to walk with them as they kind of unpack what they

Gloria:

believe and don't believe, and what matters and what doesn't matter to

Gloria:

them that has changed me tremendously.

Gloria:

It's just given me a much deeper understanding of what the church can be

Gloria:

when it manifests differently than it has manifested for the past 500 years.

Gloria:

You know, Jon asked me about, are we an alternative community?

Gloria:

Well, yeah, we are.

Gloria:

We are an alternative.

Gloria:

But we're not a different community.

Gloria:

We are a different way of looking at church.

Jon:

So, I can see the difference that has come to you and to so many of the women

Jon:

that you've been part of your community and that have been affected by it.

Jon:

There's definitely, there is new news there for folks.

Jon:

Gloria, I'm just imagining what I'm imagining is the number of obstacles

Jon:

you may have faced along the way.

Gloria:

Well, gosh, it's been a long time and I like to think I've

Gloria:

processed all this, but I can still speak factually about obstacles.

Gloria:

I had been very active.

Gloria:

within the, the Archdiocese of Baltimore in terms of retreat work work with

Gloria:

the Labyrinth and the minute I was ordained, that all just stopped.

Gloria:

So, one obstacle was a really sudden loss of income.

Gloria:

I mean, just income.

Gloria:

And so that, that was an obstacle.

Gloria:

I mean, I, I would say probably 60% of my income at the time that

Gloria:

I was ordained was wrapped up in what I was doing with the church.

Gloria:

And it didn't take too, too long.

Gloria:

I mean, it was very quick before I was anathema, to use the church term.

Gloria:

Obstacles, not personal to me, but community obstacles, for instance.

Gloria:

You know, people like to get up and go to church on Sunday morning.

Gloria:

Well, where are we going to find a church on Sunday morning?

Gloria:

There's no, no Roman Catholic church excommunicated.

Gloria:

So we have to wait until there's a church available.

Gloria:

So our whole schedule since 2008 has shifted to the afternoon.

Gloria:

And that's fine.

Gloria:

I mean, folks are used to it now.

Gloria:

It's just fine.

Gloria:

But there is, we have never, ever been able to celebrate a liturgy

Gloria:

in a Roman Catholic church.

Gloria:

And I think for a lot of people, that's that's been painful.

Gloria:

I think of it really as an obstacle, and I have to give a shout out to

Gloria:

the Episcopal Church, because we have met at the Church of the Nativity and

Gloria:

Holy Comforter, and we've met at St.

Gloria:

Luke's in Annapolis, and both churches have been very warm and welcoming, and

Gloria:

also Harriet Chapel, now that I think of it, in Thurmont, is an Episcopal

Gloria:

Church, and they have been very warm and welcoming to So they really helped us with

Gloria:

that obstacle of where to find a church.

Gloria:

And for people who are Roman Catholic and who want some familiarity,

Gloria:

the Episcopal churches have been pretty familiar looking.

Gloria:

So that's been really wonderful.

Gloria:

Thank you.

Gloria:

So, I mean, there were those kinds of obstacles.

Gloria:

There are some, our own Archbishop, I will give him credit for this,

Gloria:

our own Archbishop never put out any kind of a word that I'm aware of.

Gloria:

telling anybody not to talk to us or anything like that.

Gloria:

But individual pastors at Catholic churches in the Archdiocese of Baltimore

Gloria:

have told people that our masses are not real, that our ordinations are

Gloria:

not real, that people haven't quote unquote, met their Sunday obligation.

Gloria:

If they are worshiping with us nationwide, there have been leaders in the church

Gloria:

who have at the last minute said that we couldn't be at a church where I was

Gloria:

supposed to be ordained in New York.

Gloria:

At the very last minute, that church was just pulled out from under us.

Gloria:

So, we've lost churches.

Gloria:

Yeah, I mean, there have been bishops who have taken upon themselves the,

Gloria:

the task of excommunicating everybody.

Gloria:

The priests who are presiding.

Gloria:

The people who are in the church some, one person said you get excommunicated

Gloria:

every time you come to one of our masses.

Gloria:

I wasn't aware you could get excommunicated more than once.

Gloria:

So, you know, those kind of obstacles, on the one hand they're laughable.

Gloria:

On the other hand, they make it difficult to see a way forward in terms of this

Gloria:

prophetic voice that we want to have.

Gloria:

It's not to say that every priest, every bishop, every parish is like

Gloria:

that, but they're out there and they have been obstacles, certainly.

Gloria:

And I think there are folks who are, are really ingrained in the Roman tradition.

Gloria:

And so I have presided at weddings where I find out two weeks

Gloria:

later, a Catholic priest did the real wedding, quote unquote.

Gloria:

Or, I have baptized a child, only to find out that when she's ready

Gloria:

to go to Catholic school five years later, they do a real baptism.

Gloria:

So I think those kinds of things are, you know, Jon, you use the word obstacle.

Gloria:

They are obstacles that I think we overcome.

Gloria:

They are perhaps more hurtful than obstacles.

Gloria:

To think that our voices are, I like to think, prophetic voices for

Gloria:

equality and diversity and inclusion.

Gloria:

And that's kind of the response that sometimes we get, you know,

Gloria:

that, I think that's hurtful.

Jon:

Yeah.

Jon:

So, so Gloria, I think the thing that this is making me wonder

Jon:

about too, and I, I just, I know you're a woman of great faith.

Jon:

And as such, as a faithful Christian, as a faithful Catholic there's always

Jon:

this element of hope, and I'm wondering what hope you have for Living Water

Jon:

for Roman Catholic womenpriests.

Gloria:

Oh my gosh, it's so funny that you should ask that

Gloria:

question, because I just read an

Gloria:

Huge.

Gloria:

If, if you're familiar with any of the boroughs of New York, they were huge in

Gloria:

terms of the work that they did and are doing with hospitals shelters, homes

Gloria:

for children, work with immigrants.

Gloria:

The women have been around forever just doing wonderful work, and they just had

Gloria:

a, one of their councils, and at the council they voted, first of all, all

Gloria:

of the sisters voted unanimously, they voted to stop accepting applicants,

Gloria:

and they voted to see their work as they worded it to completion.

Gloria:

So their notion of hope is living to the end of what they began.

Gloria:

Knowing that beyond that, there's something else, you know, their hope

Gloria:

is in the seeds that they planted.

Gloria:

I think that's the gospel for us this weekend, isn't it?

Gloria:

The sower and the seeds their hope is in the seeds that they planted and allowing

Gloria:

someone else to take over after that.

Gloria:

So I think for Living Water, it's the same sense.

Gloria:

I happen to be writing right now, our spiritual autobiography.

Gloria:

And I, I actually finished it, or I thought I did in 2019.

Gloria:

I was writing about all the wonderful things that had happened to form

Gloria:

our community through 2019, and then bam, along comes the pandemic.

Gloria:

And so there's Zoom, and so we're not meeting in person anymore, and so a lot of

Gloria:

our outreach ministries have just stopped.

Gloria:

So, now there's a chapter.

Gloria:

of our autobiography that goes from 2020 to 2023.

Gloria:

And basically is saying, we think we are still doing good work.

Gloria:

We think we are going to be forever.

Gloria:

But like those sisters, if it happens that we are not, well, we will have been

Gloria:

a step in the evolution of whatever God's eye sees as the next point of evolution.

Gloria:

I don't know if I answered your question.

Jon:

Oh, yeah, you absolutely.

Jon:

That's such a clear answer, Gloria.

Jon:

And it's it's one I was looking forward to hearing because I, I really thought there

Jon:

is a message of hope in what you're doing.

Jon:

And sometimes prophecy is so difficult but I don't think you can

Jon:

be prophetic without hoping that being prophetic will lead to change.

Jon:

So, so Gloria, that kind of, I'd like to just know from you, let's

Jon:

say some of our viewers or listeners are interested in learning more about

Jon:

Roman Catholic womenpriests or the Living Water Inclusive Community.

Jon:

Are there ways that you can be reached?

Jon:

Do you have a website?

Gloria:

Well, certainly Roman Catholic womenpriests has a website it's very

Gloria:

comprehensive in terms of RCWP's history, all of our regions around the world.

Gloria:

All of the priests are listed.

Gloria:

You know, you could go on vacation just about anywhere in the

Gloria:

United States and find a liturgy if you were looking for one.

Gloria:

So I think that the RCWP, Roman Catholic womenpriests website, is one resource.

Gloria:

Closer to home, the Living Water Inclusive Catholic Community has a website and on

Gloria:

the website there are email addresses so that people can contact us and be on a

Gloria:

mailing list and we send a mailing out every single week just to let people

Gloria:

know where we are because, as I said, we're all over the map in Maryland.

Gloria:

So anyway, so they can contact us that way.

Gloria:

There are phone numbers we have a presence on Facebook, which to be real

Gloria:

honest, I need to update, but there is a presence on Facebook that now that

Gloria:

I've been on the show, I will update.

Jon:

Oh, that's great, Gloria.

Jon:

I appreciate it.

Jon:

And those will definitely be in the show notes for anyone who wants

Jon:

to find out more or make contact.

Jon:

That's just super.

Gloria:

You know, I should mention too that our priests are in, right

Gloria:

now, they're in Eldersburg, Annapolis.

Gloria:

Catonsville, Easton they're all over the map in Maryland and

Gloria:

our telephone numbers and email addresses are on the RCWP website.

Gloria:

So people can contact whomever they want.

Gloria:

Great.

Jon:

That's, that's great.

Jon:

This sort of reminds me of the early church where you had to kind

Jon:

of find where's this, where's the meeting going to happen, where is

Jon:

Eucharist going to be this week, look for a wall and there they are.

Jon:

So that's pretty cool.

Jon:

Thanks so much, Gloria.

Lauren:

Gloria, before we go, is there anything else you

Lauren:

would like to share with us?

Lauren:

Any, anything about your, your journey or Living Water or any words

Lauren:

of wisdom you want to leave us with?

Gloria:

I was okay with that question until you asked for words of

Gloria:

wisdom.

Gloria:

I want to go back to this, this question of hope.

Gloria:

I hope that RCWP and Living Water are a sign of hope.

Gloria:

to folks who may be ready to hang up their relationship with a church,

Gloria:

because sometimes that means you hang up your relationship with God.

Gloria:

Stop going to church.

Gloria:

I mean, the church is, at its best, it's a faith community.

Gloria:

You know, it's a faith community.

Gloria:

So I just, I like that idea of being hope filled.

Gloria:

Within the Archdiocese of Baltimore, I'm sure everybody is aware now,

Gloria:

the report came out recently on sexual abuse by priests.

Gloria:

And in the newspapers, on social media, you could see it everywhere that people

Gloria:

were saying, I will never set foot inside of a Catholic Church again.

Gloria:

Well, who do you think has been coming?

Gloria:

Who do you think has been coming to our kind of sister

Gloria:

communities in Northern Virginia?

Gloria:

People who want to be hopeful for the church.

Gloria:

People who want to be hope filled.

Gloria:

So, I think that, that would be my kind of parting words that I, I hope that we are a

Gloria:

sign of hope and that people feel welcome.

Gloria:

included and really wanted in this community of faith.

Jon:

Gloria, that is good news.

Jon:

That is great news.

Jon:

And we thank you so much for being here with us today.

Gloria:

Thank you.

Gloria:

Thank you.

Gloria:

It was my pleasure.

Lauren:

Jon and I want to also thank those who are watching

Lauren:

and listening with us today.

Lauren:

We cannot do this without your participation.

Lauren:

So please take a moment and comment, like, and share On all

Lauren:

your social media platforms.

Lauren:

This will help us to share the good news with even more people.

Lauren:

And again, Thank you for the gift of your time with us today.

Lauren:

Until next time, peace and blessings.

Jon:

Good news is being brought to you by Listening for Clues.

Jon:

You can find us on our website, listeningforclues.

Jon:

com, our YouTube channel, our Vimeo channel, and just about every

Jon:

podcast platform that there is.

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