It’s now the season of Christmas — wreathed in majesty and mayhem both. But the thoughts of Sister Nancy Elizabeth Doran of Wurtsboro have turned to Mary, the mother of Jesus, who launched that huge event some 2,000 years ago. 

“I think of our blessed mother and how little she had for the infant Jesus,” said Sister Nancy Elizabeth who, after raising three children of her own, pledged vows as a nun five years ago.

Mary’s stable, cattle, shepherds, likely a large, chilly room – any mother would shudder.

“My own first child was born on Dec. 2 in 1978,” said the nun. “I had everything I needed.”

Nancy and her husband Paul Doran grew up in Flushing, Queens, and his family spent summers in Sullivan County’s hamlet of Rock Hill. 

After the couple married and children Heather, Kevin and Matthew came along, the family moved to Wurtsboro. Paul, a graphic artist, died in 2008 after a 15-year illness. 

As wife and mother, Nancy Doran worked first with children in her parish church in Flushing and then in Orange County teaching about Jesus and the Mass.

Eventually, with a masters degrees in religious education, Nancy signed on with the Archdiocese of New York as Manhattan regional director, overseeing 63 parish education programs and working with deans, pastors, directors of religious education and other leaders.

It was then she got to know Sullivan County’s Sister Kevin John Shields, the faith formation director for lay teachers in Sullivan and Orange counties. The two women often traveled together. 

Later, Ulster County was added on to Shields’ plate, a burden that Nancy Doran eventually took over – only now, Nancy was a nun herself.

“After Paul died, my heart was questioning,” she explained.

All along she had belonged to the secular order of Franciscans: a group of men and women who strive for holiness in their ordinary lives. But she wanted more.

Eventually, she heard about the Society of Sisters for the Church, launched in the 1970s in Patterson, N.J. The community was a response to the interests of religious women who left their convents for various reasons, such as the need to care for aging parents. But the women still wanted to live vowed lives.

“We live on our own [rather than in a convent],” explains Sister Nancy Elizabeth, who professed her vows in July of 2018. “We are bound by the Eucharist and by permanent commitment.”

The Society of Sisters live in California, Connecticut, Florida, Idaho, Massachusetts, New York, New Hampshire, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Virginia. They connect on Zoom and enjoy a gathering each July.

When Sister Kevin John, at age 89, died last Jan. 28, Sister Nancy Elizabeth was asked to take on her work in Sullivan and Ulster counties. Sister Nancy also lends her time at the Holy Name of Jesus Church in Otisville and the Church of St. Joseph in Wurtsboro.

Recently, she held a county-wide Advent Day of Prayer at St. George Church in Jeffersonville.

As for her sense of spirituality, she finds herself more focused. “There is more prayer time, you go deeper and deeper as you go through life,” she said. 

The nun pointed to the Wurtsboro church’s garden dedicated to Sister Kevin John. In September, friends and Kevin John’s family participated in an unveiling of the garden complete with the things she loved: a crucifix, a statue of the first North American saint, Kateri Tekakwitha, and statues of a deer and her beloved yellow Labrador dog.

As the winter moves into spring, “people can sit and pray for Sister Kevin John and ask for her prayers,” said Sister Nancy Elizabeth. “I’m always talking to her. I think of her all the time. Her legacy lives on, and her spirit is with us.”