Plenary Talks: Dr. Jessie Rogers

In this series, we will present the talks presented during the UISG Plenary Assembly in Rome in May 2022.

All the talks are available in the newest issue of the UISG Bulletin.

Wisdom for the Synodal Journey - Dr. Jessie Rogers

Developments in human knowing invite us to see the cosmos as an interconnected web that is on a journey of becoming. Our faith assures us that this is God’s world and that God is at work to reconcile and to restore all things in Christ (cf Col 1:15-20). We confess that the final destination is universal shalom: peace and wholeness and blessedness. Knowing this, we can discern God’s Spirit at work in every impulse toward life and love, even in the midst of brokenness. We also know that our mission is to build up the body of Christ, understood in the widest sense, and to be a channel of God’s blessing to the world.

But there are many different ways in which this can be done. The Holy Spirit bestows diverse gifts and there are numerous possibilities for faithfully living out our calling.

On top of that, we are journeying with the God of surprises who comes to meet us from an unknown future. We cannot predict ahead of time where the journey will take us. God is both faithful and creative, always true to Godself and a keeper of covenants, and yet bigger than any box we may make for God. How do we journey in an emergent cosmos with a trustworthy yet radically free God who has chosen to involve God’s creatures in the creative process and who has given us free will so that we can choose against, as well as for, life and wholeness? That is the challenge of synodality, of journeying together.

Dr. Jessie Rogers

Dr. Jessie Rogers made history recently, becoming the first lay person and the first woman to be dean of St Patrick’s College, Maynooth. Dr Rogers, originally South African, undertook her graduate studies at the University of Stellenbosch and came to Ireland in 2007 to teach in Mary Immaculate College before joining the Faculty of Theology at Saint Patrick’s College in 2014. As a Scripture scholar specialising in the Old Testament, her academic work focuses on biblical wisdom literature. In recent years it has broadened to include spirituality and a focus on the theology of childhood. Dr Rogers is a member of the Irish Biblical Association, the South African Society for Near Eastern Studies, the European Society for Catholic Theology, and the Godly Play International College of Trainers.