As part of the launch of our Organizer Toolkit, we’ve invited local organizers to share their stories to help illuminate why and how Nuns & Nones thrives where they live. Download the (free!) organizer toolkit here.
—
Just a week after the launch of the DC Nuns & Nones group, many sisters were involved in a national Catholic Day of Action, at which 70 Catholics were arrested during a direct action in protest of the US government’s cruel treatment of immigrants at the border. Sr. Joan Mumaw, IHM and Brittany Koteles were both involved. Here’s what they shared about their experience.
This wasn’t a “Nuns & Nones” action, but the group got involved. How did this happen?
Brittany Koteles: Our Nuns & Nones group had just gotten started, and we created a local listserv almost right away (googlegroups = so helpful!). Sr. Marie Lucey, who helps run the Franciscan Action Network and helped plan the day of action), wasted no time in sharing about the protest. We really tried to encourage the ‘nones’ to go. Even on short notice, several turned out.
What were each of your roles in this?
BK: I participated in the direct action and was arrested - a first for me. In other opportunities to risk arrest, the actions often felt ungrounded or ego-driven. Being with the sisters and their co-organizers, everything felt different from the start. Even the recruitment process was an “invitation to discern risking arrest.” The deep groundedness I experienced from the beginning allowed me to trust and feel safe.
Sister Joan Mumaw: I was asked to be a marshall at the event, someone who would help to move the participants from our gathering place to the location of the direct action. I also was able to provide some assurance to those doing civil disobedience for the first time. I told Brittany, who seemed a bit nervous, “Just stay close to the sisters. Take your cues from them. This is an experienced group. You will be fine.”
BK: It’s true! We were walking into the Senate Office Building, and there was Joan in her orange marshall vest, smiling and waving as she shepherded us down an echoing hallway - quite literally “showing me the way.” And all I felt was relief and love. And I thought, what a beautiful, literal embodiment of the kind of mutual accompaniment we want to create through Nuns & Nones? What if we could all show up to the interspiritual, intergenerational work of justice together, and instead of feeling fear or powerlessness, we felt nothing but love and relief?What role do you think the shared, on-the-ground work plays in the N&N group? Is it a nice-to-have, or is it core?
BK: I absolutely think it’s core. That’s not to say that community for the sake of inner growth is a terrible thing… but given the times we’re in, the state of our planet and political systems, the world will look to the most spiritually-resourced communities to help us all imagine and walk our way out of this mess. It might be possible to “do” N&N without that element, but that’s not what calls me. I want shared, I want real, I want to get my hands messy together.
JM: I agree with Brittany, that such shared experience is core to N&N. Otherwise it is just another meeting to attend. Connecting and forming community is what is needed in our world, and shared experience is one of the most important means to do that. Right relationships are what the world needs; we can bridge our differences through shared action on behalf of justice and peace or caring for the poor of our world.
Do you have a sense of what possible justice-oriented collaborations might be emerging in your group?
JM: It is a bit early in the life of the group to say what these might be. Each person in the group brings a wealth of lived experience and many are engaged in action on behalf of justice in the area.
BK: I mean, in Washington DC, the possibilities are endless. I can’t wait to see what happens.
What advice to you have for local groups who want to move from dialogue into shared action
JM: Take the time to prepare, experience action together and then take the time to reflect on what it all means. Catholic Sisters are steeped in social analysis and theological reflection as are many of the others in the group. Such reflection can deepen the formative impact of the experience which is so important for the transformation of our world.
BK: Weave the two things together. Both the night of the action and the night before, a sister-run social justice space in DC hosted potluck dinners. The opportunity to pause, reflect, and share together with sisters and other participants was the vehicle that helped me make meaning of the whole day, and integrate my takeaways into future actions.
Learning is a constant cycle of action and reflection. We need one in order to sustain the other, and the example of direct action within Nuns & Nones is no exception. Let the foundation of the relationships you form stand on that ongoing cycle, where prophetic action inspires care and contemplation -- and vice versa. Neither side should live in isolation of one another; our call is to bridge the two, together.