The Catholic Society Outreach Board sponsored “Faith & Sisterhood,” a morning of faith, food, and fellowship for Catholic women in Greek life on Oct. 29. With a retreat-like structure, the goal of the event was to focus on cultivating faith through friendships in sorority life.
The event began with prayer, mass, and Adoration at St. Anthony of Padua Catholic Church, giving participants from Pi Beta Phi, Chi Omega, and Kappa Kappa Gamma time to pray, reflect, and foster unity together.
“I was sitting in Eucharistic Adoration and I had this thought that I felt so close to these women just through prayer,” said senior Anna Swartz, the Catholic Society outreach member for Pi Beta Phi.
Catholic Society outreach member for Chi Omega, junior Vivian Tork planned the event for sorority women last year with the help of Kappa alumna and director of academic services, Christy Maier.. Tork told Maier her idea of Faith & Sisterhood, and Maier took the opportunity to speak after Mass and Adoration. She asked fellow Kappa Kappa Gamma alumna, Lauren Smith ’07, to share her own insight as well.
After the time at church, participants congregated at Chi Omega for coffee, cinnamon rolls, and listened to Maier’s and Smith’s talks. The discussion focused on creating and maintaining friendships, setting good examples, and ministering to sorority sisters, with Maier and Smith offering their own testimonies, advice, and encouragement.
“I actually had a crisis of faith in college, and it was the faithful Christian witness of two of my sorority sisters that really helped bring me back to and deepen my faith,” Maier said.“I think that’s what a good friendship would do, to bring the people we know into a deeper relationship with Christ.”
Maier described relationships within sorority life compared to residence life. While dorm living allows students more freedom to choose friendships, Greek living can entail choosing close friendships that might not have formed otherwise. Maier advised the Greek women to create friendships within this unique context. Smith offered practical suggestions for maintaining those relationships, including Bible studies and prayer groups with small groups of three or four women.
“If you’re constantly pouring into one another in those small groups, then those people will in turn have a couple people they’re also pouring into spiritually, and that tends to be a really effective way of making the spirituality of your house really vibrant,” Tork said.
After counting 21 Greek women in attendance and receiving feedback from many who found Faith & Sisterhood insightful and edifying, Tork is considering holding similar events in the future.
“I’m really grateful that Catholic Society offered this opportunity for Greek women specifically, and I really hope that we can do more events like this in the future to continue to foster a sense that being in Greek life is compatible [with being Catholic] and that you can actually grow in your faith so much through your sorority,” Swartz said.
