Fwd: Join the fun this Vocations Sunday: tea party at the Vatican Embassy!

[Mary Hunt]

From: Jane <whi...@146649226.mailchimpapp.com>

Subject: Join the fun this Vocations Sunday: tea party at the Vatican Embassy!

Date: April 24, 2026 at 9:22:33 AM EDT

To: <mh...@hers.com>

Reply-To: <whi...@gmail.com>

View this email in your browser Celebrate Vocations Sunday in style! Vocations Sunday tea (chai) party  Sunday, April 26, 4-5pm In front of the Vatican Embassy 3339 Massachusetts Ave NW Washington, DC This year for the Catholic Church’s global day to celebrate and pray for vocations, whimm will be gathering at the Vatican Embassy to remind everyone that women priests are here! And Pope Leo will be meeting with Archbishop of Canterbury Sarah Mullally in Rome this weekend–what a beautiful and historic confluence of events!   We hope to have cucumber sandwiches and scones–please let us know if you can bring anything. Jane will bring a thermos of her famous family-recipe masala chai–a reminder that the Anglican Church is, like the Catholic one, a global entity funded in large part by imperial and colonial practices, but also enriched by the diverse cultures of people from around the world who identify as Christians, steeped in the Gospel teachings. Love God above all things, and love our neighbors as ourselves! So simple, and some days, so hard. Bring signs (honk for women priests! be not afraid! thanks Sarah and Leo!), lawn chairs, tea cups if you'd like. RSVP to whi...@gmail.com,  Scheme-Dream session this evening (Fri April 24) 5-6pm on Zoom\ If you’re able, please drop by our meeting today from 5-6pm ET on Zoom. Thank you! Zoom link: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/8858648486?pwd=cFpOUHZGZmhZU0tSRjR3bFZneXl4UT09 At the tea party, we will also have copies of the Be Not Afraid petition to Pope Leo that Women’s Ordination Conference is organizing. More info on that here–please sign if you haven’t already and share widely with your communities: https://www.womensordination.org/2026/04/vocations-sunday-2026-be-not-afraid/ April Mass a gorgeous multi-generational gathering Around twenty of us gathered April 11 on a beautiful day in Georgetown. From our host Ann Marie Peters: “Mass was grace filled this Spring afternoon. A most delightful blessing was having Min and Carolyn with a new tiny woman Julian (named for Julian of Norwich).” The Holy Spirit was also in attendance as we lifted up earnest prayers for peace along with Pope Leo’s call for prayers that day, said Cindy Pena. We also remembered beloved whimm community member and ancestor Gordon Jones on the one year anniversary of his passing. Thank you to all who made this Mass possible. Thanks to Ken and Ann Marie Peters for hosting a memorable liturgy on your back patio once again. Opening your doors to strangers is an incredible gift to our community, a gift of faith and service that also brings grace but with all Ann Marie does for us already, we are especially grateful when she hosts us, too.  If you’d like to help her with liturgy planning, please email us and we’ll get you connected. No experience necessary! But if you have some, that would be great too. Going over the readings, writing the intentions, compiling the Mass books, choosing art for them as she always does with so much care, and printing them on her home printer every month–her dedication is inspiring but also would be great if we could spread out the work a little! If you’re thinking of getting more involved with whimm, this would be a wonderful place to start. Next Mass Saturday evening June 13 – let us know if you’d like to host! Dear whimm friends, The springtime always fills me with a sense of new life, of energy and joy. And then news seeps in of tragedy and difficulty, violence and oppression, and I am reminded how privileged I am to wake up most mornings to birdsong and blue skies, to budding purple irises out my front door, to internet connectivity, the roof overhead, food on my table, loving friends and family, a sweet old dog, a warm cup of milky coffee, and good health. These are the things all people deserve--how we can we help bring this about? Last week we celebrated DC Emancipation Day. From the dc.gov website: "It’s the anniversary of the DC Compensated Emancipation Act of 1862, which ended slavery in Washington, DC, freed 3,100 individuals, reimbursed those who had legally owned them, and offered the newly freed women and men money to emigrate. It is this legislation, and the courage and struggle of those who fought to make it a reality, that we commemorate every April 16, DC Emancipation Day." I was happy to attend an event at the Potomac Boat Club in Georgetown, on the floating dock along the riverbank, featuring Michaela Harrison, the whale whispering priest and artist who sang at our Faith, Feminism and Being Unfinished event last year at the art museum at Georgetown University. This year’s program–“Wade in the Water”--was sponsored by Georgetown’s Center for the Study of Slavery and Its Legacies. It was transporting. We sang to the River and She shimmered back at us, offering leaping fish, swooping birds, and kayakers and canoers paddling by. We offered the Potomac flowers for healing, and in gratitude for all She has witnessed and carried for us over the generations. Early that morning I drove Amit to National Airport to go visit our aunt and uncle in Florida for the weekend. On the way home, I saw that the sun was just about to rise, so I pulled off at Gravelly Point and walked down to the river’s edge. A tree (possibly acacia) offered delicate white flowers, and I felt overwhelmed with gratitude for all the crap (literally!) that the river and the plants along it have processed for us into beauty, into food, into goodness. I hope we can continue to protect and love our natural surroundings, including people and places around the world, but yes right here at home, too.  I offer this photo, which as my dear friend Lucy would say, I received (rather than took), as inspiration for the road ahead. We are being invited to pause more and observe, do something but don’t try to do everything, and in the meantime, soak up God’s bountiful beauty! It’s everywhere–in the flower petals, in the eyes of a friend, in the rays of sunlight streaming sideways across the water, in the spinning glow of a light-up hula hoop.  As Jesus says in Mark 2 verse 27, we are not made for the Sabbath. The Sabbath is made FOR us. Sabbath is gift, holy gift, these times to be together, bake bread and then break bread with loved ones and strangers, dance, sing, find joy in the work, be at ease, tend to our gardens, soak up living. I’m saying all this to myself, folks, because I always struggle with the balance of it.  So I hope to see YOU this Sunday for our impromptu tea party, to celebrate the Sabbath and the historic meeting of these two institutional faith leaders, a great milestone for gender justice in sacred spaces. Bring friends, signage, and Brit-themed nibbles if you’re able, and together we will pray for the Vatican and us and the world, for peace, for justice, and for netzach–a new word I received from a friend this morning. With love, Jane Jane Varner Malhotra Co-founder with Mary Patrick, whimm Copyright © 2026 Washington Home Inclusive Monthly Mass, All rights reserved. You are receiving this email because you opted in via our website. Our mailing address is: Washington Home Inclusive Monthly Mass PO Box 32095 Washington, DC 20007 Add us to your address book Want to change how you receive these emails? You can update your preferences or unsubscribe from this list.