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March 26, 2025, Chicago – Sister Jamie Phelps, OP, was honored in early March as Founding Director of the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program. The program at Catholic Theological Union (CTU) provides Black Catholics with scholarships and professional and spiritual formation to serve Black Catholics in pastoral ministry.

The program is named after Venerable Father Augustus Tolton (1854-1897), the first recognized Black Catholic priest in the United States. He is among six prominent U.S. Black Catholics whose causes for canonization in the Catholic Church have been opened.

Sister Jamie completed her doctorate from Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., before becoming a Professor of Systematic Theology at CTU. “CTU is a graduate theology program that prepares men and women for mission all over the world,” she said. “When I came to CTU, I was delighted because it helped me translate my theological study into something that would help people in their involvement” in the Church’s mission. She served at CTU from 1986 to 1998.

Sister Jamie said she and others at CTU realized that few Black Catholics were involved in ministry among Black Catholic parishioners. The Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program was developed in collaboration with Father Donald Senior, President of CTU, and Cardinal Joseph Bernardin, who wanted a place to train Black Catholics in ministry.

“In order to encourage Black participation, we set up the Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program,” along with a scholarship program to provide for tuition and books, Sister Jamie said. “A lot of people were working in the parishes but didn’t have money for the program. I was interested in providing education that grounded them in Catholic theology.” 

Sister Jamie said the program offers a Master’s in Divinity (MDiv) as well as a Master of Arts in Pastoral Studies (MAPS). The MAPS program had a pastoral component, requiring students to participate in practicums in the community and to write about their experience from a theological perspective. 

The goal, Sister Jamie said, was to help students “address the specific needs of Black Catholics in urban settings and to make sense of who God is and who Jesus is in the context of the Black community in the United States in particular.”

Over the years, Sister Jamie said, the program benefited the Black Catholic community. “They have priests, Sisters, and lay people doing more effective, theologically grounded ministry,” she said. Graduates of the program were trained to educate their parishioners about Jesus Christ.

“We developed the method of analysis that was not just left-brain but right-brain,” she explained. “How do you see yourself, your identity in your mission and in your ordinary life? You have to demonstrate your love for Jesus by loving your neighbor. This would compel you to be engaged in justice ministry … helping people to change their behavior to a right relationship with God, neighbor, and self.”

Sister Jamie said the 35th anniversary celebration included dinner and a recognition award for herself as founding director of the program. But she particularly enjoyed the celebration because it brought together former and current faculty members and students of the Tolton Program. “The real highlight for me was seeing [the Tolton Program’s] effects and meeting old colleagues from CTU,” as well as realizing the success of the program: the graduates made a positive impact on Church and society, she said.

During the celebration, she said, “My most profound rejoicing was to recognize that the founding of the Tolton Program was of God – because if it’s of God, it will grow. It has grown and continues to grow.” 

Read more about the celebration and the Augustus Tolton Pastoral Ministry Program in this article in the Chicago Catholic.

 

Caption for above feature photo: Kim Lymore, Director of Catholic Theological Union’s Tolton Scholars Program, holds a photo of Father Augustus Tolton, the first recognized Black Catholic priest in the United States. Seated in front of her are Sister Jamie Phelps, OP, center, with two current Tolton Scholars: Gardis Watts, left, and Kianda Boyd.
Photo Courtesy of Catholic Theological Union
 

January 10, 2025, Providence, Rhode Island – After nearly 40 years of ministry at Providence College and 50 years living in Rhode Island, Sister Gail Himrod, OP, received a special gift to remind her of the long-time connection as she was preparing to move to the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse in Adrian, Michigan. 

Sister Gail was presented with the Laudare Medal as a sign of gratitude for her years of ministry at Providence. Father Joseph Guido, OP, Prior of the U.S. Eastern Province of Dominican Friars, made the presentation at the conclusion of Vespers in the chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas Priory. The friars founded Providence College in 1917.

“I was very surprised and overwhelmed,” Sister Gail recalled. Sister Gail holds a bachelor’s degree in music and English from Siena Heights College (now University) in Adrian, a master’s degree in music history and musicology from the University of Michigan, and a doctorate in music education and music history from Boston University.

While taking a semester of courses at Catholic University of America in Washington, D.C., Sister Gail often went to the Dominican House of Studies for liturgy and to use its library. While there, she met a Dominican Friar from Providence College and told him about her newly completed master’s degree. “He told me they were trying to start a music major at Providence,” Sister Gail recalled. “He asked if I was interested, and I was because I wasn’t doing anything with my degree.” In November, the friar asked her to submit her resumé. 

Sister Gail began her ministry at Providence College in the 1974-1975 academic year. By that time, she said, Providence was offering music courses but still needed to develop the degree program – a project in which she became heavily engaged. Tasks included studying music programs at nearby colleges, writing materials, and created proposals presented to the Committee on Studies.

“There were specific history and theory courses outlined for a music major,” Sister Gail recalled. Students needed to take the courses and private lessons for their instrument to be declared a music major. 

Sister Gail also led the Music Department’s efforts to gain accreditation through the National Association of Schools of Music (NASM). “The initial accreditation inquiry began with my attending the yearly national meetings in order to determine whether we were ready for this step,” she recalled. She directed the department’s self-study and drew up the required documentation. After the NASM visiting team’s report and Providence’s response, the college was accredited to offer music major, Sister Gail said. 

In her ministry at Providence College, Sister Gail taught courses including History of the Middle Ages, Music in the Classical Era, Women and Music, Music and Society, and Music Appreciation. She also chaired the Music Department at various times and served on the Faculty Senate. Her committee work included the Diamond Jubilee Committee, preparing for the celebration of Providence’s 75th anniversary, and the Centennial Committee, planning for the college’s 100th anniversary in 2017.

Sister Gail also played the organ for nearby parishes. For about five years, she served as assistant organist for the Cathedral of Saints Peter and Paul, often substituting for Dr. Alexander Peloquin (1918-1997), the Cathedral organist and Director of Music Ministries, as well as a noted composer, director of the Peloquin Chorale, and composer-in-Residence at Boston College. Sister Gail has been gathering material for a biography she hopes to write of Dr. Peloquin.

While she served the college in a variety of ways, Sister Gail has also placed much focus on the students themselves and is pleased with the lives of many of her students after graduation. “You hope they will become proficient in whatever areas they were involved in,” she said. Her former students have not disappointed her. Many are music educators in public elementary and high schools and some became private teachers for instruments or voice, conductors, and performers.   

Sister Gail’s identity as a Dominican Sister was also key at Providence College, a Catholic and Dominican school. Her work at the college and her mission as an Adrian Dominican Sister have never been separate, she said. A major part of her ministry was her Dominican presence. “Whether it be in a classroom or walking around campus or something else,” the presence was always important, she said. “I was a Dominican – not just Gail Himrod but I was Sister Gail Himrod. I was a Dominican Sister working alongside the Dominican men and women.”