week 6

The Personal Spirituality of covenant House can be closely associated with the President and CEO of covenant House Kevin Ryan. Kevin is the first “Lay” President in that he is the first who is married and not in the employ of the Catholic Church. Throughout our History the Nuns and Fathers who were appointed as leaders too have played an important role in dictating the spirituality of the organization. Kevin as the first lay president has been instrumental in opening Covenant House in a more progressive direction. While he is still Catholic there is a modern perspective on spirituality that is reflected in his practices. While we still open board meetings with prayer it generally is done consciously to not exclude members of other faith backgrounds. There are other fixtures of the organization that may not be as obvious of a choice such as Dorothy, She is 92 years old and has worked at covenant house since the 80s. Every week when possible she organizes a mass to be held on the second floor during lunch hours that staff is welcome to attend. The way this often translates to members of the staff is a willingness to openly discuss spirituality. If a staff member is speaking to a large group they may be more willing to involve a god figure into how they speak about an issue, i.e. “We know that god loves the children we take care of at Covenant House…” By having spiritually invested leadership and long tenured employees embracing spiritual practices many employees are much more likely to feel comfortable in sharing their spiritual practices at least within the context of Catholicism. I am still knew but in my experience this has prompted people of others faiths specifically Jewish Buddhist and Hindi  to be more open and staff are more curious about religions other than their own.