Symposium Speakers - School Sisters of Notre Dame

The Symposium will include two major presentations by guest speakers with responses by a panel of SSND (see below) who will share from their cultural perspectives. The presentations will be incorporated in prayer, reflection, sharing and feedback from all participants (in-person and on livestreaming). We were blessed with a wealth of potential speaker suggestions; decisions were guided by multiple criteria given to us by our leadership teams and SSND responses to surveys and by the responses of prospective speakers.

The following two speakers will collaborate with each other in preparing their presentations and will share their final presentations with us after the symposium. In addition, they are open to archiving the livestreaming and putting it on DVDs for those who do not have easy access to the internet. Their openness to this supports the request from SSND leadership to have the symposium as part of a three-stage process: a period of preparation, the event and follow up.

Symposium Presenters

Stephen B. Bevans, SVD
Fr. Stephen is the Louis J. Luzbetak, SVD, Professor Emeritus of Mission and Culture at Catholic Theological Union in Chicago. He is a commissioner on the World Council of Churches’ Commission on World Mission and Evangelism, and a member of his SVD Chicago Province’s Provincial Council. His current work includes research into Pope Francis’ thinking on enculturation and his signature phrase “the culture of encounter.”

Gloria L. Schaab, SSJ
Sister Gloria is Professor of Systematic Theology and Chair of the Department of Theology and Philosophy at Barry University in Miami Shores, Florida. She is the author of Trinity in Relation: Creation, Incarnation and Grace in an Evolving Cosmos (Anselm Academic, 2012), If God is For Us: Christian Perspectives on God and Suffering (Anselm Academic, 2016) and the forthcoming Liberating Pneumatologies: Spirit Set Free (Herder and Herder, 2021).

SSND Panel

Beatriz E. Martinez-Garcia

My current ministry is Director of the SSND UN-NGO Office. I responded to the invitation to be a presenter at the Symposium because in my prayer/discernment, I feel that my SSND community is inviting me to deepen my relationship with our Triune God.

Masicha Nasimiyu

I live and minister as a Postulant Director in Our Lady of Good Counsel Postulancy Formation House in Kisumu – Kenya, East Africa. Here, I accompany and journey with Postulants of the Province of Africa in the process of Religious formation. Together, we discern God’s Will for them and for the School Sisters of Notre Dame.

I am grateful to have been invited to respond to the major presenters at the Symposium on the Triune God. My ‘yes’ response was influenced by my desire for opportunities to deepen my relationship with the Triune God, in order to live Love gives everything. I believe that my preparation toward this Symposium will draw me into deeper reflections. This invitation is an opportunity for me and my community (of Sisters and Postulants) to “…deepen our consciousness of who we are in relation with the Triune God, one another, and God’s amazing universe through theological reflections on the Trinity” (YAS, C 12). Besides, I would like to learn from the major presenters, fellow respondents and participants at the Symposium. I hope my responses/sharing from the African perspective will contribute to, enrich and encourage a deepening of our prayer life and intimacy with God as a Trinitarian presence. In return, the acquired and shared knowledge and insights will enrich our community living and ministerial life.

Addie Lorraine Walker, SSND, PhD
Currently, I am in ministry as a Professor of Practical Theology at Oblate School of Theology in San Antonio, TX. As a member of the full-time faculty, I also serve as Director of the Sankofa Institute for African American Pastoral Leadership. Along with my professional commitment to formal theological education, I serve as consultant, workshop/retreat presenter, and facilitator of inclusion and diversity training workshops for teachers and religious congregations.

I responded to the call to be a presenter at the Symposium on the Triune God, first of all, because I am an SSND who is committed to living a Trinitarian Spirituality as intrinsic to what it means to live community. Secondly, I responded to the invitation because I am a theologian committed to teaching theology in ways that help us reflect on, embody, and actualize what we believe as Christians and as SSND when we say, “As community we are sent in the power of the Spirit to continue Christ’s mission, to proclaim him, to be transformed and to transform our world, bringing all to that oneness for which Jesus Christ was sent” (YAS 48). “Let us continue to serve the Triune God all our lives with joy, to obey him, to love him above all” (No. 714). I say “yes” to this invitation to lend my support and assistance to this congregational effort to be who we are called to be in this day and time.