The Conference of Major Superiors of Women has voted at its annual convention in Atlanta to change its name to Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

The approximately 600 sisters attending the week-long session, which ended Sept. 11, felt that the new title more aptly describes the groups and is more in accord with the times.

Also during the session, Sister Martin de Porres Grey, chairman of the National Black Sisters Conference, announced creation of a Tribunal for Black Religious Affairs.

It is a structure to deal with the problem of Black Sisters who are in white congregations which do not appreciate the pace at which the Black Sister wishes to move.

Sister cited statistics indicating that in the past several years black sisters have been forced out of white congregations because of conflicts and persuasion.

The Tribunal has seven persons -- attorneys, sisters and one black brother --Sister said. It will implement grievance procedures, call for the rights of the black sister, support liberation and serve as a mediator between black sisters and white communities as well as being an organ for survival of black nuns in white congregations.

Opening her brief address to the assembly, Sister Martin de Porres prayed for the recognition of a different persuasion, a different set of values and what might be a contradictory direction. Historically black people have been "separated" she said because white people insisted on it. This is true also of the Church.

The purpose of the NBSC is to unify efforts and minimize obstacles in order that black sisters may effect change. It is a sign of contradiction to those who think there is intrinsic value in "whiteness," Sister continued. The NBSC aims to help restore self-dignity and self-respect in blacks, she commented.

On October 17, in Adrian, Mich., Sister Martin told the CMSW that the NBSC will conduct a five-day workshop for white congregations "on how to keep and attract black sisters." Sister sees the workshop as a possible thermometer by which to measure the sincerity of white congregations in regard to black sisters.

Representative of Las Hermanas (Spanish-speaking sisters) and NBSC (National Black Sisters Conference) spoke to the CMSW of the specific orientations of their groups.

Sister Gloria Gallardo traces Las Hermanas to June, 1970, when it organized for service to the Hispanic people. Today, there are 900 members representing 60 to 70 religious congregations.

Ongoing projects include formation of intercommunity teams for education, religious education, social work and health of Spanish-speaking people; training teams to go, upon request, to religious congregations to conduct seminars and workshops on the Hispanic culture; a communications center to act as a clearing house and personnel bank, and a central religious formation center for Spanish-speaking sisters.

Las Hermanas' second national conference will be held in Santa Fe, NM, at Thanksgiving.

Resolutions of the convention called for representation of women (lay and religious) at the Bishops' Synod in Rome, involvement of religious women in developing pastoral statements on policies affecting Catholic education in the U.S., membership of American sisters in the Sacred Congregation for Religious to share in the decision-making that affects their lives, and active participation of sisters in the revision of Canon Law.

They called for collaboration with the Conference of Major Superiors of Men and the Canon Law Society of America in working out structures of due process relating to women religious and for members of CMSW working with these groups in studying questions of transfers of religious between congregations.

Resolutions also spoke to active participation of religious women through workshops such as those outlined by the National Center for Urban Ethnic affairs, and support for the individual congregation in working through the national Center for Concern and other such organizations that promote the dignity and defense of human life.

The Conference passed a resolution encouraging congregations to sponsor low- to moderate-income housing for families and for the elderly. The resolution also calls for sisters to provide for the management of such programs. The superiors see this as an area of new ministry for sisters.

Another significant resolution approved the Leadership Conference's participation in a group called Sisters Uniting. Five national Sisters' organizations have now pledged cooperation with each other and collaboration on important issues that affect all sisters and their service to the world. They are: National Assembly of Women Religious, National Sisters Vocation Conference, National Coalition of American Nuns, National Sister Formation Conference and the Conference of Major Superiors of Women newly renamed Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Legislation and housekeeping mechanics which formerly consumed CMSW convention times, dissolved to a minimum at this '71 session. Polarities remained, but somehow they did not seem to be as important as before. Though there seemed to be general agreement as to the merits of the assembly, some sisters would have preferred accenting "more spiritual" thrusts.

Following the meeting, Sister Thomas Aquinas Carroll of the Sisters of Mercy in Pittsburgh moved into the presidency vacated by Sister Angelita Myerscough. Sister Margaret Brennan, superior general of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, Monroe, Michigan, was elected vice-president, and Sister Charitas Marcotte, superior general of the Sisters of Mercy of Plainfield, NJ, was voted into the office of CMSW secretary-treasurer.

Characterizing the life of the "Church for the world" as developmental, responsive and dialogic, four main speakers complemented and stimulated workshops geared to sensitize sisters and raise their level of awareness and participation in world development. Speakers were: George Cardinal Flahiff, Archbishop of Winnipeg, member of the Sacred Congregation for Religious; Rev. Gregory Blaum, professor, Institute of Christian Thought, University of St. Michael's College, Toronto; Rev. Richard P. McBrien, associate professor of Theology, Boston College; an Rev. Mark Said, dean of the faculty of Canon Law, Pontifical University of St. Thomas Aquinas, Rome, and Consultor of the Commission for the Reform of the Code of Canon Law.

Speaking to the need for "conversation" in order to achieve world solidarity, Father Baum insisted, "If the human reality is developmental, then we expect the Church to change, to grow, to move … Conversation changes us. We listen, we are touched, we are moved, we understand better, we are resituated within ourselves, we see life differently, we discover new solutions for our problems … conversation is a way of God's presence. It transforms the consciousness of the people involved, and then looking at life with this new awareness, they may see what before was hidden to them … the developmental consciousness of which we have spoken has made us aware of our responsibility for history, for the future of the world, for other people.

"The new solidarity and global awareness," Father continued, "have had a profound effect on all aspects of Catholic life, especially on religious. It profoundly modifies what we mean by Christian action, Christian spirituality, Christian presence in the world. Because of this change of consciousness, the older spirituality, which was good and holy in its day, is no longer viable. One of the great challenges for religious has been to reconstitute themselves in the new spirit.

In his opening address to the convention, Cardinal Flahiff projected the dialogic developmental thrust for sisters in the world. "Vatican II has led the Church as a whole to take a more positive view of the world," he said. "Not only did it break with the isolation of the past, it opted for solidarity and communication with the world. It recognized that the latter, too, was created by God out of love, that it was saved by Christ and that, while destined ultimately to be fulfilled in Him, it has meanwhile been entrusted to men … it is simply a matter of a new awareness of the specific mission received from Christ whereby the Church, like Christ himself, must be at the service of the world and must therefore dialog and collaborate with it. By the same token, the Church must be a constant challenge to the world to fulfill itself and what is more to surpass itself, even to transcend itself."

Accenting the architectural principal that form follows function, Father McBrien said that forms of Church life-ministry, doctrine, must serve a meaningful function and change accordingly. New forms must be created. He outlined the changing church concepts in regard to the Catholic Church itself, non-Catholic Christian religious, to non-Christian religious. Father defined the Church as a community called to acknowledge the lordship of Jesus, ratifying a faith commitment sacramentally and committing itself to membership and mission to God's Kingdom. He said the Church exists to be spokesman of a kingdom in dialog. It is a sign or sacrament of that kingdom and a facilitator or enabler for the kingdom to allocate resources to where "we presume to perceive the kingdom of God in crisis."

Underlining the need for ongoing dialog on all levels, Rev. Mark Said spoke to "Future Church Law Concerning Religious Life." Father Said marked the present reform of the Code of Canon Law as a non-finished product and insisted that he could only talk of "guidelines." Change in the Code was mandated by Vatican II because every human law by its nature is limited in space, time and population. Law is conditioned by culture and civilization, he said. Canon law, which is human law, needs revision. "Common law of the Church should avoid detailed and minute rulings," Father stated. These are the responsibility of the individual institutes. The law should be a framework allowing freedom to individual institutes. Canons should serve to foster and stimulate institutes in their own charisms, he continued, instead of the stumbling block it is now considered by some. Father Said thinks Canon Law must be a suitable instrument helping each congregation fully become itself. "Law gives the minimum essentials," Father insisted. "It is each congregation's, each person's responsibility to do the maximum for the kingdom."

Speaking to the workshop on women's ministries, Sister Sara Butler of Mobile summarized her statements in a wish: "One wishes that American sisters would give a more clear-cut witness to the demands of the gospel -- by actual corporate poverty, by the repudiation of war, of violence as means of social control, by their identification with the cause of the poor and oppressed in our society, by their zeal for justice, by their international horizons -- by their abandonment to the will of God and joyous freedom in obedience to him. Lastly, would that they could distinguish themselves by staying with their ministry, past the point of division to the point of reconciliation, witnessing in their local communities a spirit of true charity born of prayerfulness, humility, compassion and service.

Dialog with world society and development of processes and practical means of meeting world trends marked the five four-day workshops of the convention. A sense of urgency and purpose energized participants to determine immediate and long-range means of meeting crisis situations for which man today has no morality or social mentality.

"Do we belong in the public arena to help solve these problems?" sisters asked. "Can we support those who are politically involved? How can we raise the level of information on current critical problems of society? What ministries are calling women religious to help reconcile and heal today? How can we move to meet the needs of the middle America we do understand and the third world and youth cultures that are still so alien to us?"

So ran the tenor of the workshops: The Quality of Life, directed by Dr. Anthony A. Iezzi, associate professor of philosophy, St. John College, Cleveland; Exploration of Women's Ministries, directed by Sister Ann Patrick Ware, assistant director Commission on Faith and Order, National Council of the Churches of Christ; Cultural Development, directed by Sister Ann White, chairman, Religion Department, Webster College; Community and Ethnic Affairs and the Third World, directed by Reverend William F. Ryan, director, Center for Concern.