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Sister focuses on interreligious work at Portiuncula Center

Sister Corrina Thomas works as program coordinator, offers spiritual direction as well as retreats, and leads public relations activities at the Portiuncula Center for Prayer located in Frankfort, Ill. The Port, as it’s called, is a Franciscan retreat center that is nestled in St. Francis Woods. It serves as a sacred space of welcome and nurturing for those seeking peace of body, mind and spirit, just 45 minutes south of the buzz of downtown Chicago, set amid 54 acres of wooded land. It’s a ministry guided by the mission and Gospel charism of the Franciscan Sisters of the Sacred Heart.

Sister Corrina offers much to the center’s visitors in the way of communications, organization and spiritual guidance—but it’s her work with interreligious dialogue and activities that has been garnering tremendous attention these days.

Sister Corrina says offerings at the center, besides being very Franciscan, are varied and welcoming with a holistic bent. “In our presentations we do a lot of body, mind, spirit-centered programs which is our focus, like meditations, the chakra systems and spirituality, yoga and spirituality, interfaith/interreligious programs—those are the kind of things that we nurture.”

Left to right, affiliate Margaret Bluske, Amy Chabban and Sister Marilyn Renninger, OSF, chat while visiting the Mosque in Frankfort, Ill.

Such a broad-based approach to spirituality has helped the center connect with people in search of a spirituality that is even deeper than religious-type spirituality, according to Sister Corrina. “Finding spirituality in the oneness of ecology and the combination of East and West and a cosmic consciousness . . . these are the kind of people I come across here. They are very happy here because they have the freedom to explore a more personal-oriented faith that is different from dogma.” For Sister Corrina, the broadening of the definition of religion includes her involvement in interfaith/interreligious programs both within and beyond the Portiuncula Center for Prayer.

In August she helped organize and facilitate A Franciscan Gateway into Interreligious Experience, a six-day conference held at the Portiuncula Center for Prayer, which brought people together from various faith backgrounds to discuss major religious traditions, such as Islam, Judaism, Buddhism and Hinduism. The conference grew out of several years of projects developed by Sisters Corrina and Marla Lang. The goal: to strengthen the position that interreligious dialogue is vital to the church’s mission today. To that end, topics centered on interreligious understandings, appreciation of values that connect people, approaches to relationships, engagement of the commitment to peace-making, universal fraternity and interreligious dialogue as a spiritual practice.

“I was very happy with the way the conference went,” says Sister Corrina. “For me it was best expressed by one of our Muslim sisters who said; ‘today, our family has expanded—we have found new sisters and brothers and we would like to continue to meet.’ I would characterize the dialogue that happened at the conference as very respectful with an attitude of deep listening and with no need for defense.”

Beyond the center, Sister Corrina serves on the board for an organization called the Southwest Interfaith Team (SWIFT), a regional interfaith group formed to promote understanding and mutual respect among religions. “We do wonderful things for Jewish, Christian and Muslim dialogue, all kinds of activities to promote bridge building and peace,” explains Sister Corrina. “I think that’s exactly what we need at this time in our lives. There are so many feelings of war and separation and division and apparently it seems it’s all based on the differences in our religions. This is an opportunity to go to a deeper space and work through our differences.”

Her role on the board of SWIFT is an extension of her role at the Portiuncula Center for Prayer, according to Sister Corrina. “Being at the table and on the board we have a chance to bring our ideas and shape what is happening,” she explains. Events for the group have included speaker forums, dinners, discussions, an interfaith youth picnic, and joint community projects. Sometimes, SWIFT members will just get together and eat at a restaurant, silently communicating to others that people of differing faiths can and should get along. Sister Corrina says when objections arose over the building of a Mosque in a predominantly Christian neighborhood in the area, SWIFT members joined in with several other justice groups and stepped forward to vocalize their support in front of the city council, calling for the community to come together on the issue. Construction of the Prayer Center of Orland Park has since been completed, and stands, in part, as a nod to the supportive interfaith efforts of various groups.

Sister Corrina says future conferences, like the one held in August, are necessary to promote dialogue among different religious communities and help them to work together in harmony. “The hope is that the efforts will promote mutual respect and will build understanding among these religious communities by providing opportunities for the Christian, Muslim and Jewish people in the area to come together to educate, interact with and learn from each other.”

The interreligious conference is scheduled to be repeated Jan. 2-7, 2009.

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