CWR provides networking and education to professionals who communicate and advance the mission and ministries of women religious. CWR professionals represent religious congregations that range in size from 18 to as many as 4,000 vowed members worldwide. The organization identifies 17 geographic regions, and encourages members who are in those specific areas to meet regularly, share information, and collaborate on projects when appropriate.
CWR is led by an elected board of directors. From its members, the board elects an executive team that consists of a chair, vice-chair, treasurer, and corporate secretary.
Typical CWR Professional
The most recent professional surveys found the following characteristics apply when creating the profile of a “typical” CWR professional:
- More than 75 percent of CWR professionals are lay communicators
- Fifty-four percent of us have been CWR participants for more than six years; 28 percent have been participants for more than 10 years.
- Forty percent of CWR professionals are the sole member of their communications/marketing team
- Eighty-eight percent of us report that acting as newsletter/magazine editor is a top responsibility with website development coming in second (81 percent)
- Sixty-five percent find the future of religious life to be a topic most challenging to communicate about
Who are Women Religious?
They are vowed women who give public witness to Christ through a diversity of ministerial works such as teaching, pastoral care, health care, retreat, and spirituality programs and a multitude of other outreach efforts. They often work on the frontlines of global change, striving to improve various aspects of society, especially for those on the margins. For example, today this can mean efforts to reverse the climate crisis, work for immigration reform, upholding human rights, and other social justice concerns. While prayer and community are integral to the lives of all women religious, some are called to live cloistered lives dedicated full-time to contemplative prayer.
What is a charism?
While each congregation or community of women religious give witness to the gospel, they do it through their unique charism or gift of the spirit. How that gift is lived can change as the world changes and as the membership of the community shifts. Today, many congregations are living their charisms more broadly through the work of non-vowed women and men who make formal commitments to these charisms as associates, oblates, agrégées, or third orders.