By Amy White
The Texas Catholic
From the speakers to the goodie bags to the atmosphere, each little detail of St. Ann’s inaugural Women’s Summit was selected with the hearts of women in mind.
The sold-out event, hosted by St. Ann Catholic Church in Coppell on April 5-6, saw 500 women gather to encounter Christ and celebrate each other.
“It was women of all ages and all seasons of life: single women and moms and older ladies,” said Lisa Schniederjan, 37, a parishioner of St. Ann. “It was really powerful for us to all come together under one roof and glorify the Lord together in our femininity.”
Over the course of the weekend, women at the summit engaged in eucharistic adoration, confession, and worship, as well as community-building opportunities. They gathered to socialize over wine and dessert, lifted their voices in praise, and turned their attention to keynote and breakout speakers.
Pauline Stein, 61, who traveled to the summit from Colorado, described the atmosphere of the weekend.
“It was very joyful. The women were laughing. There were reunions,” she recalled, adding that women were “hungry” for a chance like the summit to gather together, encounter God, and grow in community. “An event like this shows you how many other people in your community who maybe you don’t know are also yearning for more fellowship.”
Stefani Blackwell, a member of the summit’s leadership team, agreed.
“All humans are designed for community, but there’s something special about women gathering together,” she said. “[The summit] is primarily about encountering the Lord, specifically through the gift of femininity, and then at the same time, it’s equipping women to be authentically Catholic Christians out in the world.”
Unfold
The theme of the summit was “Unfold,” inspired by words from St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross: “A woman’s soul is fashioned as a shelter in which other souls may unfold.” Participants explored three main components of the theme: unfolding the truth, the beauty, and the mission of being a woman.
Schniederjan, a Catholic therapist, helped the women at the summit dive into the theme by renouncing lies about their own identities. She led the workshop “Beauty from the Ashes” with her mother, Diana Morin.
“The workshop was about renouncing the lies we believe about ourselves, trying to go down to the heart level of really feeling free of those lies,” Schniederjan explained. “I had the participants imagine a knot that they had in their life—a wound, like different negative beliefs about themselves—and offering it to Mary and having her undo the knot.”
Schniederjan said she felt the Holy Spirit speak through her to the women.
“There was a lot of crying and tears, and people said that they were able to access deep wounds that have been hidden in their life for a long time and feel Jesus in there, giving them healing,” she said.
Other summit speakers included Sister Marie Fidelis Sledgeski, DLJC, Katie Hartfiel, and Ali Hoffman, who gave keynote talks about unfolding beauty, truth, and mission respectively.
Attendee Nicole Storrs, 40, said she was especially impacted by the message of mission.
Although Storrs has roots at St. Ann, she has lived in London since 2022. Storrs shared that the speakers inspired her to bring the vibrancy of her faith to her community back in the UK—to be “on mission” in her home abroad.
“I’m bringing a whole bunch of tidbits with me and hoping to share that with some of my friends,” she said, adding. “I’ve already texted my friends back in London ‘Who is coming with me next time?’”
Storrs added that the summit as a whole was deeply refreshing to her soul, like “a nice warm embrace.”
“Being in a community of sisters, it felt like my soul needed that connection,” she shared. “Being able to specifically create space for women to be able to grow in their faith, or maybe even heal in their faith, with other women is just very powerful and comforting… I feel so directly and individually loved by God through this experience.”
Schniederjan agreed.
“There’s power in being able to come together as women, since the gift of our femininity is so needed in our world,” she said. “Women who have truly come alive in Christ— that is what our world needs.”
