The Dominican seminar

Jesus speaks to us in the lives of the poor and from the pages of Scripture. He is worshipped as Lord by the Church. All this and more was discussed in the Dominican Seminar at Leeds.

Archbishop Malcolm McMahon opened the seminar with an overview of the way Christ is present in his body the Church.  The topic for Saturday morning was “Meeting Jesus in his little ones and the poor.” Sue McQuinn, a lay Dominican from London spoke movingly of her work with prisoners and seeing Christ in them.  Karl Grobicki talked of his work teaching RE in secondary school.  Nick O’Brien talked about his work as a lawyer in dealing with appeals from those who have been sectioned under the Mental Health Act.  Sr Albertina Bongo of the Crawley Sisters talked about her congregation’s work in Zimbabwe among those born with HIV. In the afternoon,  fr Simon Gaine explored  how a theology of Jesus is related to a theology of the Trinity.

To round off Saturday, the Bushey Sisters led by Sr Ann Cunningham shared a mediation on Jesus in the Gospels as depicted in art and poetry.  On Sunday morning, Sara Parvis (pictured above), a lay Dominican who teaches Patristics at New College in Edinburgh, gave an overview of  New Testament scholarship on Jesus, the Gospels and Paul.  She finished by relating each of the four presentations mentioned above to one of the gospels.

– Fr Dermot Morrin OP

The Dominican Seminar is open to all members of the Dominican Family (sisters, friars, and Lay Dominicans). It is normally held each year in early January. To find out more, watch the events calendar or sign up for an email notification of the dates and topic for 2016.