Soul sisters.

WASHINGTON, D.C.--The National Black Sisters' Conference, an organization of African American nuns, is hoping to connect with fellow "sisters"--that is, black Catholic women--at a national gathering that will be the culmination of a three-year Black Women's Project. Organizers expect 1,500 lay and religious women to attend the National Gathering of Black Catholic Women July 27-29 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

"Black women have always been the nurturers in the family and the backbone of passing on the faith tradition to the young," says Sister Patricia Chappell, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur and president of the sisters' conference. "Yet many black Catholic women feel somewhat marginalized within the institutional structures of the church."

As part of the Black Women's Project--partially funded by two grants from Mary's Pence, which supports the work of Catholic women--the sisters' conference has surveyed black Catholic women and held forums in nearly a dozen cities across the country.

The national gathering has as its goal to "identify, celebrate, energize, and set an agenda to motivate intergenerational black Catholic women who minister in church and society for the glory of God and the spiritual and social liberation of black peoples," Chappell says. For more information about the gathering, contact the Sisters' Conference at 202-529-9250.