WATER Meets the Moment
A Letter to Bishop Budde from WATER
January 22, 2025
Dear Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde,
The Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER) thanks and commends you for your excellent service and sermon at A Service of Prayer for the Nation on January 21, 2025. The Cathedral truly functioned as “A House of Prayer for all People” and you led the way with a message of unity and mercy. The nation is in your debt.
We applaud your forthright message. Immigrants, as well as Gay, Lesbian, and Trans people, along with others who are marginalized by those in power, tremble in the face of policies and Executive Orders that dehumanize all of us. Thank you for making public and explicit the expectation of this nation that all persons will be treated with dignity and respect regardless of status.
You modeled what religious leaders do, namely, unite people for the common good. We your siblings in ministry, education, and activism stand with and around you, wishing you every blessing and protection as you continue your stalwart and fruitful ministry.
Sincerely with gratitude,
Mary E. Hunt, Diann L. Neu, Magdalena Mueller, Wed Naji
WATER Co-directors and Staff
Upcoming Programs
WATERritual
Tuesday, January 28, 2025 at 7:30 PM ET
“Welcome the New Year with All of Its Struggles and Hopes” with Diann L. Neu and the WATER community
Let us pray, hope, resist, and recommit! Let us be together as we struggle to make meaning out of these historic times. Let us make change.
WATERtalk
WATERtalk Collaboration, Wednesday, January 29, 2025, SPECIAL TIME—12:30-2:30 PM ET with Elizabeth Davis, RSM and Phyllis Zagano, PhD
“The Synod and Women: What’s Next?”
WATER is delighted to join the Réseau Compassion Network (RCN), the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality (CNWE—Western region), the Sisters of Our Lady of the Missions (RNDM), and the Grey Nuns (SGM) to welcome Elizabeth Davis, RSM and Phyllis Zagano, PhD to share their expertise, open up conversations, and discuss what may come next for women as synodality unfolds.
Elizabeth Davis, a Sister of Mercy of Newfoundland, will share her experience of the second Synod session in Rome. She was one of fifty-four women among the 365 voting members who participated in the Synod on Synodality at the Vatican.
Phyllis Zagano, an expert on women deacons in the Roman Catholic Church, will focus on the Synod’s discussion about restoring women to the ordained diaconate. She will offer insights into possible ways forward, challenging as they may be.
To register for this program only: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZcrde6sqz4uHNIm9PVZdahjCT3Scnu_Rtwj
WATERmeditation
Monday, February 3, 2025 at 7:30 PM ET
“Kuan Yin: Goddess of Compassion” with Cynthia Tootle.
The Goddess Kuan Yin will inspire our meditation. We invite you to join WATER and Cynthia to hear about the Goddess of compassion. We will focus on compassion as a necessary part of our efforts at solidarity. All are welcome.
Charlotte Bunch: Lesbian Feminist Activist with Religious Roots in Conversation with Mary E. Hunt
February 19, 2025 at 1 PM ET
Join us to hear this incisive conversation about the progression of lesbian feminism and its intersections with religion with global feminist activist Charlotte Bunch and feminist theologian Mary E. Hunt. This dialogue will explore Bunch’s early religious activism and her analysis of how religion influenced—and was challenged by—LGBTQ activism and lesbian feminism, in particular. Hunt and Bunch will reflect on how LGBTQ and religious experiences evolved in global settings. Together they will reflect on where we are today as much of what we have achieved is threatened and discuss how we can collaborate across differences to bring insights from faith perspectives that might be helpful to the doing of justice.
Co-hosted by LGBTQ Religious Archives Network (LGBTQ-RAN) & Women’s Alliance for Theology, Ethics, and Ritual (WATER)
Intern at WATER
Be a Part of an Action-based Community
Become a WATER Intern
for Winter or Spring!
WATER welcomes students from seminaries, universities, colleges, volunteer programs, and more to work in the WATER office.
Interns at WATER engage in the full range of activities from office work to program planning. They learn how a small non-profit is run and what it takes to nurture an Alliance. Those wishing to do their own research will have a chance to utilize WATER’s constantly growing Resource Center as well as consult with our experienced staff through in-house seminars.
Interns must commit to a minimum of six weeks and can stay for as long as a year or two. All participants are encouraged to apply for academic credit from their home institutions for their work at WATER. We are delighted to work with programs which sponsor volunteers with expenses shared by WATER as the on-site placement.
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Land Acknowledgement
WATER, located in Silver Spring, Maryland, acknowledges that it sits on the traditional and contemporary homeland of the Piscataway and Nacotchtank (sometimes known as the Anacostan) people, the original stewards of this land.
We are committed to lifting up the names of these lands and the community members from these nations who reside alongside us and who were here long before we were. We affirm WATER’s intention to promote healing, respect, and love for all people through our work, with special indebtedness to Native people whose lands we are privileged to share.