Welcome to the Rev. Francis L. Markey Center for Leadership & Ministry
Mission
An extension of the Graduate Program in Pastoral Ministries (GPPM), the Markey Center for Leadership and Ministry offers formation and lifelong learning opportunities focused on the needs of parishes and the wider community and oriented toward the transformation of church and society.
Vision
Motivated by faith, hope, and love, the Markey Center listens to the needs of ecclesial communities, as well as broader society, culture, and the earth, and responds by fostering transformative conversation and collaboration. Offering lectures, workshops, and other programs, the Center aims to develop empowered and informed servant leaders working on the ground in parishes, schools, and other ministry settings—with special attention to the future of women in ministry.
Core Values
Inspiration
"When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim." Acts 2:1,4
Around us and among us, within all creation, the Holy Spirit is at work. When we, like the Apostles on Pentecost, receive the Spirit, we discover new horizons for the future of the Church and for each of us as followers of Jesus. Like an artist at her easel, the Spirit guides us in the work of crafting a beautiful new future where all may flourish. Together in community, we ask the Spirit to kindle in our imaginations ideas that will transform, refresh, and renew our ministry, our communities, and the earth.
Transformation
“The way in which Jesus formed the disciples constitutes the model we need to follow. He did not merely impart teaching but he shared his life with them... formation is not only or primarily a strengthening of one’s own abilities; it is a conversion to the ‘logic’ of the Kingdom that can render even defeats and failures fruitful.” Synod Synthesis 14b.
A principal fruit of the Spirit’s work, transformation remakes us, our communities, and the church according to the vision of God’s reign. Flowing from the grace of Baptism, transformation happens when we attune ourselves to God’s work within and around us—in our embodied existence and in all creation. Yet attuning ourselves to God’s work depends on formation, on learning how to see and attend to God’s wisdom. Such formation challenges us to discern how to live in accordance with wisdom, so that each of us reflects more fully the image and likeness of God and the world reflects more fully the vision of God’s reign.
Advocacy
"The unity of truth and love implies bearing the difficulties of others, even by making them our own… this unity can only be achieved, however, by patiently following a path of accompaniment." Synod Synthesis 15f
Just as Jesus sent the Spirit—the one he called the Advocate—so the Spirit opens our hearts to the needs of others and sends us as advocates who work on behalf of the “least of these.” Moving us away from judgment and towards mercy and the work of justice, the Spirit emboldens us toward authentic encounters with others and calls us to speak and act in ways that lift up the dignity of all God’s creatures.
Flourishing
“I came so that they might have life and have it more abundantly.” Jn 10:10b
At the moment of creation, God oriented all things—individually and collectively—toward perfect union with God and each other in what Pope Francis has named a “splendid universal communion” (LS220). Guided by the Spirit, we are called to challenge systems that oppress and harm and discern new ways of fostering the fullness of life for all creation.