The Bethany Mutualities, one of the oldest OPPeace Dominican groups, currently has 16 members. One of the members, Betty Schlotterer, recently shared the group’s history. In the early 1980s, Sr. Noreen Malone asked Betty and her husband George to serve on a committee charged with determining where God was leading the Dominicans and associated lay people in Columbus. The committee’s work led to a one year pilot program and the Bethany Mutualities was born with participants known as Affiliates.

In 2002, Betty wrote an article about the group’s history and Dominican Spirituality. In preparation for a Bethany Mutualities gathering, Betty read A Fresh Look at Dominican Spirituality by Donald Goergen, OP. While in prayerful reflection on the 4 pillars of Dominican life: prayer, study, ministry/preaching/service and community, she she found herself drawing an image of a tree. This gave her an insight about how these 4 elements are dynamic and grow together to form strong roots. These roots, she realized, are essential and enable branches of change, growth and possibility to open wide so as to stretch and feel God’s joy.

Through many years, Bethany Mutualities has also changed, grown and opened its arms wide to embrace new members. Currently, about half of the members are founding members. During the pandemic, the group met monthly on a Sunday afternoon using zoom. The format continues to be one of reflection and sharing. We take turns in leading the group in contemplative prayer by having a reading or reflection, often begun with a musical selection.

The most recent gathering was lead by Associate Marybeth Auletto who opened the session with a Sikh song called Peace. Together, we read reflections from Jewish, Muslim and Christian traditions taken from Love Poems from God: 12 Sacred Voices from the East and West by Daniel Ladinsky. These diverse resources resulted in our usual deep and meaningful sharing which has kept this group vibrant, growing from its strong roots for so long.

The many years together have brought growth through change, yet stability. While we miss being able to meet in person, we remain thankful we have been able to be together using the Zoom technology through these challenging times.