Nancy Sylvester joined the Sisters, Servants of the Immaculate Heart of Mary in Monroe, Michigan straight out of high school. It was 1966, just after the close of Vatican II - a time of great excitement and fluidity in the church and in women's congregations.

Coming from a more traditional Catholic milieu on the south side of Chicago, Nancy found herself at a crossroads as a postulant in formation. Along with 61 other young women at the Monroe convent, she was studying the most current theology and philosophy, ethics, political science and economics, learning how to pray, and how to integrate her studies into her prayerlife. At the same time she was astonished to discover the radical documents that belonged to the body of official Catholic social teaching, beginning with Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Labor, 1891) and continuing in the modern era with Peace on Earth and The Church in the Modern World.

It wasn't long before Sister Nancy was organizing against the Vietnam War and helping to close down the ROTC program on campus at St. Louis University, where she was finishing her education. Nancy's life since that formative time has been marked by leadership at the national level.

In her work at NETWORK, a national Catholic social justice lobby, she helped establish a progressive Catholic voice in U.S. political discourse and policy.

As president of LCWR (a national conference representing 95% of U.S. women religious) Nancy represented U.S. sisters in the face of significant controversies with the Catholic church hierarchy.
The film finds her at another crossroads: trying to find a path amidst the impasse many people are experiencing in our
society, our political system, our religious institutions, and our relationship with the planet. Band of Sisters follows Nancy from Michigan to Milwaukee to White Plains, NY, as she works to create a safe space for people to imagine a new way of responding to the chaos of our time - a way rooted in communal contemplation and dialogue.