Sister Elizabeth Anne (Liz) Dodd was received as a novice last Saturday by the Congregation of the Sisters of St Joseph of Peace (CSJP). The former home news editor of The Tablet took part in a ritual of reception held at the St Joseph House of Hospitality in Carlton, Nottingham.
Congregation Leader Sr Andrea Nenzel welcomed Sr Liz as a novice and presented her with a peace cross, a special symbol of identity with the congregation.
The novitiate program will last two-years and is regarded as a time to deepen understanding of the congregation’s history, spirit and mission as peacemakers.
“The call to practise radical hospitality is really intertwined with my call to Religious life," said Sr Liz. “My hope is that I will learn from the asylum seekers, refugees, and homeless people I live with as well as from my sisters and associates.”
The newly-opened St Joseph’s House of Hospitality has been designated as the congregation novitiate. Sr Liz will join two finally professed Sisters of St Joseph of Peace in community there. “I want to become more like myself, as God sees and has always seen me, without the masks of defences and walls and scaffolding that age and experience force us to construct,” said Sr Liz. “The novitiate feels like a rare, safe space to explore that, to feel held by my community and the wider congregation while I ask big questions, both of God and myself.”
Liz, 35, was born and grew up in Oxford, England. She studied theology at Magdalene College, Cambridge, before embarking on a career in journalism, first as a music journalist, then as a travel writer for National Geographic (Traveller UK), The Guardian and the Independent. She was home news editor at The Tablet, the International Catholic weekly, between 2016-2021, taking a sabbatical to bicycle around the world.
The rest of the congregation in the United Kingdom and United States witnessed the service virtually via Zoom. “Carrying out this important ritual via Zoom is not our normal practice,” said Sr Coralie Muzzy, congregation formation director. "Zoom stretches across borders to allow Liz's family and friends and sisters and associates from across all CSJP regions to witness this important next step Liz is taking.”
The Sisters of St Joseph of Peace, founded in 1884 in Nottingham, England by Margaret Anna Cusack, is an international community built on a rich heritage of promoting social justice as a way to peace. Sisters and associates minister in education, health care, religious education, parish ministry, social justice, spiritual direction and peace ministry in the US, UK, Haiti, and El Salvador.
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