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Women's Leadership Institute Enabling women to develop and strengthen their leadership skills is one of hundreds of ways in which Medical Mission Sisters around the world try to be a healing presence to those in need today. Sister Miriam Therese Winter, well-known author and composer, has served as Professor of Liturgy, Worship, and Spirituality at Hartford Seminary in Connecticut for over 26 years. Ten years ago, she began the Women's Leadership Institute: A Program in Applied Spirituality (WLI), which she continues to lead. WLI invites women of all ages, from diverse cultures, to come together to create a community committed to liberation and transformation.
As Sister Miriam Therese explains, "The strength of this experience-based program lies in its capacity to speak honestly to the deepest of needs, to listen to and affirm women wherever they are on their journey, and to offer a rich mix of theory and theology, prayer and practical application, as the basis for facilitating leadership, and as substance for transformative change." Participants in WLI attend 9 weekend seminars over the course of 9 months. They are also required to enroll in a Hartford Seminary course; complete a cross-cultural immersion experience; and design and implement a leadership project. This is a certificate program, although undergraduate and graduate students can receive academic credit for it.
In 2002, the first 3 Muslim participants applied to WLI. "My Muslim sisters, who are my friends, continue to teach me a lot about themselves, their faith, their spirituality, and their culture, revealing similarities and differences that both challenge and energize," Sister Miriam Therese says. "The heart of my ministry here is learning, and helping others to learn, how to be in conversation, and eventually in community, with those who are different and consequently force us out of our comfort zone," she reflects. "With Anna Dengel (our Foundress) we continue to envision a more just, compassionate, equitable world, where the light of God's all encompassing spirit is there for everyone."
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