All Are Welcome!

Advent Reflection: The Mystery of the Incarnation

Sunday, November 24, 2024
4:30 PM
on Zoom

Speaker: Father Anthony Randazzo

Zoom details will be provided in the invitation to the presentation to be emailed on the Thursday before the event.

An Evening with Ilia Delio, OSF, PhD

Save the date!
Friday, January 10, 2025
7:30 PM on Zoom

“An American Franciscan Sister, Ilia Delio, a theologian at Villanova University, is now emerging as the single finest exponent of Teilhard’s vision and its relevance for science and cosmology in the twenty-first century.” ~DIARMIUD O’MURCHU

More information will be coming in the fall. Read about Sister Delio and the Center for Cristogenesis here.

Liturgies of the Word

Community Celebrations
November 3 & 17, 2024, 4:30 PM

Thanksgiving Liturgy
November 28, 10 AM
Mike Corso, Presider

 Zoom details will be provided in the invitations to the liturgies.
We invite everyone not only to join our liturgies but to actively participate!
Please This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. if you would like to be a reader or present the Eucharistic prayer.

Sadness and Service at the Border

Sadness and Service at the Border
Sr. Norma Pimentel, MJ, Exec. Dir. of Catholic Charities of the Rio Grande Valley
Sunday, September 22, 2024, 4:30 PM, on Zoom

See video of Sr. Pimentel's presentation here.

Part of our 2024 Program Topic: The Journey to Citizenship

Texas is escalating efforts to criminalize migrants, says Bishop Seitz

Threats to Catholic Charities staffers rise amid far-right anti-migrant campaign!"

CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD A DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THESE VOTFNJ 2024 PROGRAMS.

The Journey to Citizenship

 VIEW PAST PROGRAMS

A panel of professionals presented actual experiences with migrants and asylum seekers.

Sunday, January 28, 2024, 4:30 PM, via Zoom.

Erin Sweeney, NJ Immigration Attorney
Evan Meade, Asylum Application Assistant, NYC Mayor’s Office of Immigrant Affairs
Alejandra, immigrating from South America

View recording of this presentation here.

The theme of this year's presentations is "Migration."

March 10, 2024 - Bishop John Stowe OFM, Conv., President of Pax Christi USA

View recording of this presentation here.

April 14, 2024 - Migrants Are Some-bodies, Rev. Daniel Groody, CSC, author of A Theology of Migration: The Bodies of Refugees and the Body of Christ.  

Chapter 7 from the book available here was used for the discussion.

View recording of this presentation here.

Living the Gospel - Intentional Eucharistic Communities

Intentional Eucharistic Communities (IECs) are those small faith communities, rooted in the Catholic tradition, which gather to celebrate Eucharist on a regular basis. Born in the enthusiasm flowing from Vatican II for a church of the people, some IECs were instituted in parishes, some were created as alternatives to the parish, some retain close ties with the institutional church, and some function independently. VOTFNJ considers itself to be an Intentional Eucharistic Community. 

Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community is the "Sister Community" of VOTFNJ. Their Morristown Liturgy meets the 2nd Sunday of each month at St. Mark's Lutheran Church, 100 Harter Rd. Morristown, NJ at 4:30 p.m. Follow Sophia on Facebook. During ths pandemic, you can join Sophia's Zoom liturgies on Sundays at 10:50 AM. Contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information.

The Christian Community usually has a liturgy with Peter Krebs at 10:30 AM each Sunday in room 110 on the first floor of the Motherhouse of the Sisters of Charity of Saint Elizabeth, Convent Station NJ.

The Emmaus Community welcomes all at mass every Sunday at 9:30 AM at the Shrine of St. Joseph in Sterling NJ.

THE VOICE - VOTFNJ News & More

THE VOICE - VOTFNJ's Monthly Newsletter

Click here for VOTFNJ monthly news and more...

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VOTF National News & Views

Stay in touch and informed!

Read In the Vineyard and stay abreast of VOTF national activities and views here.

Join Us to Support Refugees in New Jersey

 Refugee Assistance Update

At VOTFNJ's invitation, a steering committee for refugee assistance held its first organizational meeting on May 23, 2016 at St. Peter's Episcopal Church. The result: a coalition of 23 member organizations which have named themselves, Refugee Assistance Morris Partners (RAMP). Their stated purpose: "...to assist vetted Middle Eastern and other refugee families to transiton to productive lives of dignity, safety, and hope in the Morris County area of New Jersey." The group has partnered with the International Rescue Committee (IRC) and with the Community Foundation of New Jersey (CFNJ).

Learn more about RAMP here.
Learn more about RAMP's partnership with CFNJ here.
Donate to RAMP here.

If you would like to join this multi-faith and civic effort, check for the opportunities available here. Contact RAMP This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. for more information and to receive updates.

Confronting Systemic Racism

VOTFNJ Offered Two-part Online Series on Racism

• Moderator, Peg Pipchick PhD APN, Member of Voice of the Faithful New Jersey
  Peg Pipchick is an Advanced Practice Psychiatric Nurse and Marriage and Family Therapist who has spent the last five years trying to understand the true facts about Racism and Slavery in the United States.

Racism in the Catholic Church
Event held Sunday, January 24, 2021

Program readings: Please click on this PDF to access these readings:

• Open Wide our Hearts, 2018 pastoral document of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops.
• Interview with Bryan Massingale SJ, in Commonweal. 
• Daniel F. Horan OFM, When Will US Bishops Address Evil Systemic Racism? 
• Shannen Dee Williams, The Church must make reparation for its role in slavery, segregation. National Catholic Reporter 
• Black Catholics: Words Not Enough as Church Decries Racism AP article.
• Desegregating the Altar: The Josephites and the Struggle for Black Priests. Book review by Randall M. Miller, published in U.S. Catholic Historian. 
• Oral History interview with Sister Gwynette Proctor. From “Habits of Change: An Oral History of American Nuns” by Carole Garibaldi Rogers (Oxford University Press, 2011).
• Pope Sends Strong Message to US Catholics After Floyd Death AP article. 
• Church of St. Francis Xavier, New York. Pastoral Council Statement on Communal Commitment to Establishing Racial Equity and Dismantling Racial Injustice.

Systemic Racism in American Society

1. What was Jim Crow? Jim Crow Museum of Racist Memorabilia
2. The New Jim Crow. Michelle Alexander (Book Review)
3. The White Space. Elijah Anderson, Yale University
4. The GI Bill. Discovering the meaning of unearned privilege. Excerpt from book by Debby Irving.

Resources on Systemic Racism

The VOTFNJ Coordinating Team has compiled a resource list on the subject of systemic racism, offering theological readings as well as historical and political perspectives. Download it here.

Dr. Shannen Dee Williams was with us on November 21, 2021. Her book, Subversive Habits: Black Catholic Nuns in the Long African American Freedom Struggle is available through VOTFNJ. Please email if you would like to purchase a copy.

God made Black saints. The church whitewashed them. US Catholic Magazine