This Holiday Season and throughout the New Year, Global Ministries University wishes you and those you love...

Global Ministries University extends a message of heartfelt gratitude and blessings to our staff, students, board members, volunteers, and donors to the mission of GMU in 2022. We are grateful for all of you who have taken part in our programs this past year. We hope that you will participate in our second interfaith global conference, "Walking Together in the Light of Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si'," from February 2 to February 4, 2023, in collaboration with the United Nations World Interfaith Harmony Week. We are privileged to have a voice for compassion and concern about the major issues facing our global community through the courses and degrees we offer and our international, interfaith conference with participants in the US, Africa, Europe, and Asia. Please let us know how we can include your voice and participation in our programs for 2023.

~ President Gerald Grudzen

President Gerald Grudzen and Mary Aktay participated in the ICDE Members’ Forum held on 7 December with members presenting

their latest updates on open, flexible, and distance learning topics. President Grudzen spoke about the upcoming "Walking in the Light of Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si' " international interfaith conference.

"Walk this Way"!

Join sisters and brothers from all around the globe as we share our dreams for a better world. GMU joins universities and interfaith organizations and pontifical dicasteries in a free 3-day event on YouTube during the United Nations Interfaith Harmony Week, culminating on February 4, 2023, International Day of Human Fraternity.

The American "hub" conducted by GMU will offer a series of presentations on the environment, Laudato Si’, immigration, education, building a “Just Peace,” and “The Voices of Women.”

In addition to President Gerald Grudzen and Marita Grudzen, GMU graduates Anthony Pino and Lisa Gosiaco will participate in panel presentations. 

Essentials of Just Peace within Catholic Social Justice Teaching

Bishop John Stowe, OFM, of Lexington KY, President of the National Council of Pax Christ USA, will be a keynote presenter at the conference on February 3, 2023.

GMU faculty member, Father Bob Dueweke, OSA, former Augustinians’ representative to the United Nations, will moderate this session.

Voices of Women: Human Solidarity and Walking Together in the Light of Fratelli Tutti and Laudato Si'

Dr. Azza Karam, the Secretary General of Religions for Peace, will give a recorded presentation in preparation for the international conference.

January 18

9 AM Pacific Time

12 noon EST

8 PM EAT

GMU is an affiliate member through Rev. Juanita Cordero's Magdala Community of the Silicon Valley Interreligious Council. President Grudzen will meet with the Chairperson of the Council in early January to discuss how GMU can expand our interfaith collaboration. SIVIC has been a leading voice for homeless advocacy in Santa Clara County, home to most of the major technology companies such as Google, Apple, Adobe, and Facebook.

We invite you to join the Facebook event on December 21 honoring the homeless who have died in the past year. Rev. Penny Donovan of the Magdala Community will be offering one of the prayers.

What is Open Access? 

As we begin an academic research project, one of the very first, and most essential, steps we undertake is a review of the literature—an exploration of what other scholars have investigated and written about our subject. We do this by searching for books (broader in scope) and journal articles (more narrowly focused). Decades ago, we used the library’s card catalog, or printed indexes to journals in our field of study. Today, we use online databases. Until relatively recently, most of those commercially controlled databases were inaccessible without a password generated by the university or a public library—and many of them still are.

But scholars and academics began to realize that access to information was severely hampered by these restrictions, and the concept of Open Access was created. Now we have many databases that are open and available to all, including people with no institutional affiliation, thus making these resources easy to access. Open Access journals provide availability on the Internet, permitting any user to read, download, copy, distribute, print, or link to the full text. There are thousands of peer-reviewed, Open Access journals out there, with new titles emerging rapidly.

I encourage you to explore these resources. On our GMU website, go to GMU Classroom and click on GMU Library. There you’ll find a list of recommended Open Access resources, with links to their websites. Among them: Open Access Digital Theological Library, WorldCat, DTL (Digital Theological Library), Google Scholar, Internet Archive, Theological Commons, and more. 

And please contact me for assistance if you’re not finding what you need!

Happy Holidays to All!

Judy Clarence, M.L.I.S., GMU Librarian

Center for Celebrant Training

"May your Holiday Season be filled with love, peace, and joy, and your hopes and dreams be fulfilled in 2023!"

 ~ Jean Conley, Director, Center for Celebrant Training

People's Catholic Seminary

Save the dates for the new PCS courses in 2023.

January 11: PCS 202 – Jesus' Spiritual Awakening: Diving deeper into the first chapter of Mark’s gospel.

January 12: PCS Forum: Topic: Introduction to the "I Am" Teachings of Jesus - FREE

February 1: PCS 710 – Celebrating Celtic Spirituality

March 1: PCS 508 – The Gospel of Thomas Goes Public

Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan recommends this new BBC World News Documentary on Catholic women answering the call to be priests. She ordained both Anne Tropeano and Olga Lucia Alvarez, who appear in the film along with Bishop Bridget Mary and Rev. Mary Theresa Streck. Bishop Bridget sends Christmas blessings to all!

What Are You Waiting For?

Intelligence permeates the universe

It makes our hearts pump, our fingernails grow.

Every cell knows what to do

because it is intelligence materialized.

In the circle of life,

the wave of knowing becomes the particle of being.

Energy slows down and becomes matter.

Like Einstein said: energy is simply matter

times the speed of light squared.

Energy never dies. It just keeps changing form.

A dewdrop becomes a cloud, becomes rain,

becomes the sea, becomes a cloud, becomes sleet

becomes the icy road.

The hydrogen atoms forged in the Big Bang

are in your eyelash, your cat’s fur,

your piano bench.

You are more than a child of the heavens and earth.

You are mortal and immortal,

finite and infinite,

human and divine.

Own up to it.

Inside you burns the flame of Creation Itself.

If you heard it once, you heard it a hundred times:

You are the light of the world.

You are the miracle you are waiting for.

Your body is a chalice holding Mind-at-Large.

What in the world are you waiting for?



~Jan Phillips, Bulletins from Immortality