Mary Rhodes Awardees 2011 (left to right): Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Clarice Hall, Rabbi Susan Talve, and Asra Nomani.
By Mary Ann Cunningham SL
Loretto celebrated the 30th anniversary of the Mary Rhodes Awards on May 6 with an amazing panel of women, recipients of the 2011 awards sponsored by the Loretto Women’s Network. Barbara Roche, Nerinx Hall President emceed the event in the Heagney Theater at Nerinx.
Patsy Byrne from the St. Louis Staff Office prepared booklets containing a history of the ceremony and bios of the 76 women nominated by the Loretto Community and chosen to receive the awards from 1981 to the present. Roberta Hudlow created the lovely awards this year.
The 2011 awardees were four remarkable women who embody our hope to “reach out beyond boundaries imposed by any differences that tend to separate us … as we commit ourselves to improving the conditions of those who suffer from injustice, oppression, and deprivation of dignity.” (I Am the Way)
Donna Day introduced Rabbi Susan Talve of the Central Reform Congregation in St. Louis, a strong advocate for women, for LGBT folks and for health care reform. Because we were gathered on the evening of Sabbath, Rabbi Talve celebrated a Shabbat ceremony, lighting candles, offering prayers and bringing us into an understanding of her call to work for Tikkun Olam, the “healing of the world.”
Valerie Novak and the Latin America/Caribbean Committee coordinators nominated Methodist Bishop Minerva Carcaño of Phoenix, Arizona, a strong proponent of immigrants’ rights. Her work reminds us of the story of the disciples on the road to Emmaus who failed to recognize Jesus even though he walked along the road with them. Perhaps these recent immigrants, these brothers and sisters who walk among us unrecognized, are Jesus for us.
Because our meeting was held around Mother’s Day, we also welcomed the bishop’s daughter,Sofia, a college student, who came to be with her mother for the weekend.
Clarice Hall, who taught first grade for 51 years in the St. Louis public schools—even including members of three generations of some families—was introduced by Roberta Hudlow, who had taught with Clarice. A quiet and dignified woman and a good storyteller, Clarice laughed as she explained how her reputation for firmness preceded her and had a remarkable effect on each incoming class. What lucky children!
Asra Nomani, born in Mumbai,India, grew up in West Virginia. A reporter for the Wall Street Journal before 9/11, she has become an outspoken exponent on the journey to return her religion to “an Islam of Grace.”
In her book, Milestones for a Spiritual Jihad, she says, “It is time that we rise to a higher expression of Islam, create a new reality, and reclaim the principles of social justice, women’s rights, pluralism, and tolerance with which Islam was born.” Calling those of us who wish the same for our own religions “bad girls of the faith,” Asra shared and encouraged efforts “to reject so many of the notions that keep us narrow-minded, rigid, dogmatic, and violent.”
As we left the theater for the reception in the foyer, we shared bread that Rabbi Talve had blessed by her prayers as the evening began and felt new strength for the journey from the example of these four women of spirit.
