Notes from the Field - At Big Laurel Learning Center, the month of January is typically a very slow month, but almost without our notice, it began to fill up with visits and connections, both people visiting us and us visiting others.

Sr. Lisha Chiramattel has been working among the Ho people, one of the most isolated tribes in eastern India, for the past 23 years. The Holy Spirit nun's work has brought remarkable changes in their lives, people who have been ignored by mainstream society because of their remoteness and "uncivilized" living conditions. The Catholic Health Association of India honored her in 2006 for her outstanding contribution in bringing health care to an unreachable region. Chiramattel shared with Global Sisters Report her struggles to bring life and hope to an unwanted group of people in Odisha state.

"Face to face we begin to be together as one."

Three Stats and a Map - This week we got an email from a contact at Christian Universities Online who shared a stunning and very interesting graphic they made, which highlights the roles of women in the world's five major religions (Christianity, Islam, Judaism, Hinduism, and Buddhism).

Thousands stood on their feet with thunderous applause. The United Nations Climate Change Agreement negotiated by 195 nations had passed! I was amazed as both developed and developing nations agreed upon a foundational document to address the gravest challenge humanity faces. What a privilege it was to be an official observer with Franciscans International at the U.N. Conference of Parties (COP21) in Paris in December and sponsored by my Franciscan community of Rochester, Minnesota.

GSR Today - White allies are a common motif within Christianity, so when I was reading all the "White Privilege II" think pieces tumbling down my social media feeds last week, the predominant image in my head was one of a white missionary ministering to brown people.

“If there is a sense of reality, there must also be a sense of possibility.”

For me, my GPS does something more than point me down the highway. I know where I am going, most times, but it is something deeper than that. My GPS can make me more aware of the presence of God all around me.

Dominican Sr. Barbara Reid has created a work of feminist biblical interpretation that delves into every book of the Bible. An eight-woman board of feminist scholars helped her coordinate the project, and in November, the first three of what will ultimately be a 58-volume series of feminist biblical commentary were published by Liturgical Press: Hebrews, Haggai and Malachi, and Micah.

GSR Today - Clean water is not a given for millions of people around the world, especially the economically disadvantaged; one Syrian refugee's story; the actual cost of mass deportation is untenable.