What's Happening

August 12, 2025, Adrian, Michigan – Come to Weber Retreat and Conference Center on Wednesday afternoons once a month to enjoy lunch and feed your mind and spirit. The Lunch and Learn series continues this fall from 12:15 p.m. to 1:00 p.m. on the following dates:

•    September 10, 2025, Saving our Land, Water, and Soil: Representatives of the Lenawee Conservation District share how they carry out their mission to sustain and enhance natural resources through education and technical service.

•    October 15, 2025, Amazing Historical Sites: Paul Plassman, author of Southern Michigan’s Castles, Churches, and Courthouses, will show us the amazing but often overlooked architectural gems in our midst.

•    November 12, 2025, Weber Center Shop Christmas Open House Preview: It isn’t too early to begin to shop for Christmas. Katherine Dusseau, Weber Center Shop Manager, shares what’s new and popular. The event includes door prizes, discounts, and unique fair trade items. 

•    December 10, 2025, Christmas Cookie Ideas: Bring a sample of your favorite Christmas cookies to share – as well as the recipe – and enjoy samples from other participants. 

Bring your lunch; drinks and dessert are provided. You can also purchase your lunch for $8 for your choice of egg salad, turkey and cheese, or chicken salad croissant sandwich with chips. To order a meal, register at least two days in advance. Registration is not needed if you bring your own lunch. 

Weber Center is on the campus of the Adrian Dominican Sisters Motherhouse, Adrian, Michigan. On East Siena Heights Drive, turn into the driveway between Adrian Rea Literacy Center and the solar panel-covered carport. Follow the signs to Weber Center. For information, call the Weber Center at 517-266-4000.

July 11, 2025, Notre Dame, Indiana – History and congregational archives are important tools to keep the knowledge of the dedicated ministries of U.S. women religious alive well into the future – and even to bring a sense of healing from division.

Those were some of the lessons that archivists of congregations of U.S. Catholic Sisters heard about during a national conference, held June 22-25, 2025, in Notre Dame, Indiana.  

Among those featured in a recent Global Sisters Report article was Adrian Dominican Associate Arlene Bachanov, of the Congregation’s History Office. She and Grand Rapids Dominican Sister Mary Navarre, OP, Director of Archives, noted the healing effects of investigating the past. Their research helped members of the two congregations to understand the division experienced by the Grand Rapids and Adrian Dominicans, who were once separate provinces of the same Dominican congregation in New York. 

“There were all sorts of assumptions about what happened,” Arlene told the conference participants. But their research – collected into a 30-page publication, Golden Links – revealed that, in 1894, Bishop Henry Joseph Richter wanted the Sisters in Grand Rapids to be a diocesan congregation. Sisters could choose to become part of the new Grand Rapids congregation or remain in the New York congregation as part of the Adrian Province. The Adrian Province became an independent congregation in 1923.  

Both Arlene and Sister Mary had extensive help in their research from their respective archives: Arlene through Lisa Schell, Archivist, and Sister Joy Finfera, OP, Secretary of the Congregation and Director of the Office of Information, and Sister Mary through the Associate Director of Archives, Jennifer Morrison.

Read more about the importance of archives for congregations of Catholic Sisters in an article written by Dan Stockman for The National Catholic Reporter’s Global Sisters Reports.