Invite me to speak

To invite me to speak at your place of worship, education, or business, please contact me.

I offer both lectures and retreats.

Retreats

I  would be glad to design a retreat for you and your church, business, or university. Just contact me to discuss. Retreats almost always hinge on a theme or central question and offer participants an opportunity to slow down, consider it, and build community while doing so.

I offer one-day retreats (for example, on a Saturday), one-evening retreats (for example, 2-3 hours in an evening), or full weekend or week retreats (for example, during Lent, Advent, a summer intentional week).

Some examples of retreat themes might include:

• Encountering God in the time of Covid
• Clearing a space amid the noise this Advent
• What is God’s purpose for me?
• Where is God leading our group/place of business/university?
• Team building
• Embracing/seeing oneself as part of a mission statement
• Pro-life theology
• A retreat centered on creation and care for the planet
• God’s purpose for my life
• Being a holy woman in today’s world
• Raising faithful children
• Work-life balance

I’d be happy to design one on a topic of your choice, too.

Lectures

As a theologian, I offer educational and formative lectures on a wide variety of topics about God, ecumenism, the Church, and related topics. Below is a sample of some of the lectures I give. I would also be happy to discuss creating a new one to fit your needs.

General

• Theological anthropology – how we understand ourselves – “me”
• The life and teachings of Jesus – how do we understand Jesus as the fulfillment of Old Testament covenants? As the Son of God, the Messiah? As savior? As teacher? What does he teach, exactly?
• What does it mean to call oneself a Christian? (And what it doesn’t mean)
• Ecclesiology – understanding of church identity and mission
• Eschatology – where are we headed?
• Apostolic succession – who’s in charge and on what authority?
• The Mass – how it developed and why it is what it is
• The Mass – theological understandings of God breaking in to time
• God’s identity – how God has been self-revealed to us
• Trinitarian Theology – how Christians came to understand the 3-in-1 God: disputes, disagreements, and development (major area for doctoral comps exam)
• The Liturgical Year
• The Sacraments
• Theology of the Body and sexuality – I especially advertise my middle school sex talk based on dignity

Ecumenism

• Anglican-Lutheran Dialogue in the US, Northern Europe, and Canada (doctoral dissertation topic)
• Catholic-Lutheran dialogue (I currently serve as the Catholic chair for the New England Catholic-Lutheran bilateral dialogue)
• Unitatis Redintegratio and Vatican II ecumenical theology

Spiritual & Emotional Elements of Faith Practice

• Belief and doubt
• Prayer and relationship with the divine
• Theology in dialogue with the psychological research of Dr. Brene Brown: vulneraility, shame, resiliency
• Repentance and Forgiveness
• Trust
• Grief and loss
• Spirituality in the aftermath of trauma
• Control
• Theology of music as a spiritual phenomenon

Theology and Science

• Laudato Si’ and the call to respond to the environmental crisis
• Ian Barbour’s research
• Science vs. and religion
• Metaphorical readings of the Genesis creation stories in dialogue with the big bang theory and evolution
• Theology of music as a natural phenomenon with emphasis on the work of Albert Blackwell

Vatican II

• Overview of the documents
• Understanding what was decided and what the implications were
• Pre- and Post- Vatican II Catholicism
• Unitatis Redintegratio, Nostra Aetate and dialogue between Catholic and non-Catholic children of God
• Sacrosanctam Concilium and changes to the liturgy
• Gaudium et Spes, Lumen Gentium and understanding of the Church
• The lesser discussed documents

The Least of These

• Pro-life theology: what it is and what it isn’t (hint: it is a call to foster the full flourishing of all human life. It is not just relevant to the abortion debate. Pro-life theology does include, but is not limited to, the evil of killing the defenseless. The defenseless include: preborn babies, the elderly, the disabled, the oppressed, which also includes issues of gender, race, ethnicity. More than that, it fosters the preservation and flourishing of life, including access to food, water, shelter, education. It also includes dignity and full flourishing at the end of life.) It’s a sensitive subject and I believe I lead sensitive and enriching discussions on it.
• How climate change affects the poor greater than it affects the well-to-do
• Social justice in general
• The seven themes of Catholic social teachings according to the USCCB