Events: Women's Flourishing
Can’t make it to our California celebration of the Danube 7? You’re in luck! WOC and WHIMM (Washington Home Inclusive Monthly Mass) are also hosting a virtual gathering on Sunday, June 26 at 11 a.m. to honor this prophetic movement.
The
program will feature an international panel of inspiring women priests
from Canada, Colombia, South Africa and the U.S. who will share about
this historic event, their life of ministry today, and the future of
inclusive priesthood in the global church. (Spanish translation
available!)
FutureChurch is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extend allowed by law. |
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May 24, 2022 at 8:00pm EDTJoin
Professor Patel as we explore her research showing that in the early
church, women served clerical roles as ordained ministers called
deacons and presbyters, both subordinate to the higher-ranking bishops. Scholars
agree that we should think of Christianities in the plural when we
think of the era of Christian origins. There was never one
Christianity, in other words. Women’s clerical leadership, likewise,
spanned a range from women being thought of as prophetic mouthpieces
for Christ himself to being relegated to silence during worship. In
this talk, we’ll explore evidence supporting women’s clerical
leadership from lesser-known sources and some of the ways we moderns
have sought to erase this evidence in order to advance the idea of a
coherent Christianity stretching back to the apostolic age. From
manuscript variants, to prophetic utterings, to the stories of women
martyrs and “monks,” we’ll survey the various ways women could occupy leadership roles in ancient Christianities and consider the role of history inshaping the present. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/recovering-the-female-clerics-of-the-early-church/
Shaily Patel is
assistant professor of early Christianity in the Department of Religion
and Culture at Virginia Tech. Her research focuses on the diversity of
early Christianity and how discourses of magic helped solidify
Christian group identities. Currently, she is working on a book called Smoke and Mirrors: Discourses of Magic in Early Petrine Traditions.
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June 7, 2022 at 8:00pm EDTJoin
filmmaker, AnaMichele Morejon, and Roman Catholic Womenpriest, Diane
Whelan, for this special screening of the short documentary, The Forbidden Call, with conversation to follow.
From the director's note: My
journey with THE FORBIDDEN CALL began with curiosity. I was born and
raised in the Catholic Church. Growing up in a generation increasingly
disillusioned with organized religion, I have always had questions, and
that continued into college. As a film and theology student at Loyola
Marymount University, I was researching the topic of women’s ordination
when stumbled upon the movement, Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP). I
was shocked. I
am a woman who has never felt represented or understood in a Church led
by a celibate, male priesthood. I found a ray of hope in RCWP, and I
hope others do, too. RCWP ordains women to a renewed, more inclusive
vision of priesthood. They minister to those often rejected by the
institutional church, such as those who are divorced without an
annulment and the LGBTQ+ community. THE
FORBIDDEN CALL confronts a Church that shuts down dialogue on women’s
ordination to the priesthood. Women like Diane have so much to offer. I
hope that the film encourages viewers to reflect on the unique gifts of
every human being and what it means to truly love others. The film is a
poignant reminder that change in the Catholic Church is long overdue,
but Diane’s ministry is one step in the right direction. AnaMichele Morejon is
a filmmaker from South Florida who is fascinated by stories of people
who challenge the norm. Her deep empathy for those alienated by
mainstream society and love for character-driven narratives led her to
study film at Loyola Marymount University in Los Angeles. AnaMichele’s
creative work explores themes at the intersection of identity, belief,
and modern culture. Most recently, she directed the short, The Road to
Sanctuary, which was released by Spirit Juice Studios, a multiple Emmy
award-winning production company.
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August 2 , 2022 at 8pm EDTThe
popular perception that Jesus was a first-century feminist amid a
Judaism that made the Taliban look progressive is compelling for many
women who seek from Jesus a message of liberation from patriarchy. This
perception is also both historically inaccurate and theologically
toxic. How can better historical work help us reconstruct the lives of
first-century Jewish women, and how can this reconstruction in turn
provide good news to women today? Amy Jill Levine is
Rabbi Stanley M. Kessler Distinguished Professor of New Testament and
Jewish Studies at Hartford International University of Religion and
Peace and University Professor of New Testament and Jewish Studies
Emerita, Mary Jane Werthan Professor of Jewish Studies Emerita, and
Professor of New Testament Studies Emerita at Vanderbilt. Her
publications include The Misunderstood Jew: The Church and the Scandal of the Jewish Jesus, Short Stories by Jesus: The Enigmatic Parables of a Controversial Rabbi; six children’s books (with Sandy Sasso); The Gospel of Luke (with Ben Witherington III, the first biblical commentary by a Jew and an Evangelical); The Jewish Annotated New Testament (co-edited with Marc Brettler), TheBible With and Without Jesus: How Jews and Christians Read the Same Stories Differently (with Marc Brettler), The Pharisees (co-edited with Joseph Sievers), and thirteen edited volumes of the Feminist Companions to the New Testament and Early Christian Literature. Along with Introduction to the Old Testament for the Teaching Company, her study guides include Sermon on the Mount: A Beginner’s Guide to the Kingdom of Heaven; Light of the World: A Beginner’s Guide to Advent, The Difficult Words of Jesus: A Beginner’s Guide to His Most Perplexing Teachings, and Witness at the Cross: A Beginner’s Guide to Holy Week. The
first Jew to teach New Testament at Rome’s Pontifical Biblical
Institute, and an elected member of the American Academy of Arts and
Sciences, AJ describes herself as an unorthodox member of an Orthodox
synagogue and a Yankee Jewish feminist who seeks to correct
anti-Jewish, sexist, andother harmful interpretations of the Bible.
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June 28, 2022 at 12:00 Noon EDTNational Catholic Reporter’s Brian
Fraga will join us to speak on the web of “dark money” flowing from
conservative and right wing sources to Catholic organizations in the
United States. Several of these same donors have also funneled money to
far-right groups that the Southern Poverty Law Center and the
Anti-Defamation League have described as white nationalist
organizations. Some of those recipients worked to spread false
information about election fraud and were involved in planning
demonstrations that preceded the Jan. 6, 2021, assault at the United
States Capitol. Brian Fraga is
a staff reporter at National Catholic Reporter. He covers news
pertaining to the Catholic Church in the United States. He was
previously a contributing editor at Our Sunday Visitor and has written
for a variety of Catholic publications over the last decade. Brian was
also a reporter for daily newspapers in Massachusetts, Connecticut, New
York and New Mexico. He lives in Fall River, Massachusetts, with his
wife Catherine and their daughter Hope.
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July 19, 2022 at 12noon EDTDavid
Gibson, longtime Catholic journalist and currently director of the
Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham University, discusses his recent National Catholic Reporter article on
the decision by the USCCB to shutter Catholic News Service and what it
says about their financial priorities, their pastoral priorities, and
the entire project of evangelization and communications.
David Gibson was
appointed the director of the Center on Religion and Culture at Fordham
in July 2017, coming to New York’s Jesuit university after a long
career as an award-winning religion journalist, author and filmmaker.
He’s also a convert to Catholicism, and came by all those vocations by
accident, or Providence, working at the English Program at Vatican
Radio in Rome in the late 1980s. He returned to the United States in
1990 and worked for newspapers in the New York area and has written for
a variety of magazines and periodicals. He is the author of two books
on Catholicism: The Coming Catholic Church: How the Faithful are
Shaping a New American Catholicism, and The Rule of Benedict: Pope
Benedict XVI and His Battle with the Modern World. Before coming to
Fordham, Gibson workedfor six years as a national reporter at Religion
News Service specializing in coverage of the Vatican and the Catholic
Church. Gibson is a frequent media commentator and op-ed writer on
topics related to the Catholic Church and religion in America.
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Celebrate!Sr.
Thea Bowman radically changed the church as a Black Woman Religious who
knew both God and her people. She spoke bodly to bishops and
seekers alike. This prophet of God was born on December 29,
1937. As we celebrate her birth and her life , let's
share her wisdom and her indomitable Spirit. |
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Take Action!Lectionary
readings that explicitly promote subordination of women and still
authorize slavery should be excluded from our liturgical life. It
is tragic, even scandalous, that in the 21st century, the Catholic
Church, which incorporates the transformative wisdom of the Second
Vatican Council along with a challenging and robust catalogue of
Catholic Social Teaching, continues to subject Catholics to lectionary
texts that explicitly encourage the subordination of women and enslaved
peoples. Yet, these exhortations are part of our Sunday and weekday
readings -- teachings that Catholics hear and assimilate. Learn
more from our educational resource and find downloadable letters for
the USCCB Committee on Divine Liturgy and for your bishop, priest, and
local newspapers.
Please join our campaign to reform the Catholic Lectionary today! |
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Support the Work of FutureChurch |
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FutureChurch is a national 501(c)(3) non-profit organization and your donation is tax deductible to the extend allowed by law. |
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We
know this email may reach you at a time of uncertainty and upheaval.
But our commitments to you remain steadfast — to uphold the sacred
equality of women and all genders, and to seek ordination justice in a
transformed Catholic Church.
We've got a
number of events approaching that live out these commitments creatively
and prophetically, and we hope you can join us and save the dates for:
- 20 Years of Prophetic Obedience, June 29 - a celebration of the 20th anniversary of the ordination of the Danube Seven, in Berkeley, CA
Find
out more details about each event, as well as a Vocations Sunday
prayer, below. We stand with you in a spirit of Resurrection hope that
a new way of being Church will come, and is already here. |
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| Kate McElwee Executive Director
Katie Lacz Program Director |
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| June 29th: Celebrate the Anniversary of the Ordination of the Danube 7 |
In
celebration of the 20th anniversary of the "Danube Seven," we will hold
a celebratory roundtable discussion and wine reception featuring those
continue the tradition of prophetic obedience to God's call.
What: "Celebrating
20 Years of Prophetic Obedience: Breaking Unjust Laws to Become
Priests," a roundtable discussion and wine reception
When: June 29, 2022, from 6 - 8 p.m. |
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Where: The Badè Museum at the Pacific School of Religion, 1798 Scenic Ave., Berkeley, CA
Featuring: Rev. Mary Alice Nolan, Rev. Jennifer O'Malley, Rev. Kori Pacyniak, Dr. Jill Peterfeso, and Fr. Anne Tropeano
RSVP here. (Please note: This event will not be live streamed, but a recording will be made available after the event.) |
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We've got new merchandise! |
We now have new "Domina Pastor Est" t-shirt designs for purchase, as well as our umbrellas, bumper magnets, and more! |
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JOIN US AS WE WALK TOGETHER! WE ARE A SYNODAL CHURCH! INVITE YOUR FRIENDS, FAMILY, COLLEAGUES!
SIGNUP
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WOMEN WITNESSES FOR RACIAL JUSTICE RESOURCES |
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In Celebration of Women Witnesses for Racial JusticeSr.
Thea Bowman radically changed the church as a Black Woman Religious who
knew both God and her people. She spoke bodly to bishops and
seekers alike. This prophet of God was born on December 29,
1937. As we celebrate her birth and her life , let's
share her wisdom and her indomitable Spirit. |
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HOLY FAMILY CAMPAIGN! TAKE ACTION TO END SUBORDINATION IN OUR LECTIONARY! |
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Take Action!Lectionary
readings that explicitly promote subordination of women and still
authorize slavery should be excluded from our liturgical life. It
is tragic, even scandalous, that in the 21st century, the Catholic
Church, which incorporates the transformative wisdom of the Second
Vatican Council along with a challenging and robust catalogue of
Catholic Social Teaching, continues to subject Catholics to lectionary
texts that explicitly encourage the subordination of women and enslaved
peoples. Yet, these exhortations are part of our Sunday and weekday
readings -- teachings that Catholics hear and assimilate. Learn
more from our educational resource and find downloadable letters for
the USCCB Committee on Divine Liturgy and for your bishop, priest, and
local newspapers.
Please join our campaign to reform the Catholic Lectionary today! |
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| | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | | Seeking Counseling, Spiritual Direction, or Clergy Supervision? WATER is here to support you. Contact us for spiritual
direction, psychotherapy, clergy supervision, and pastoral counseling
provided by co-director, licensed psychotherapist, and spiritual
director Diann L. Neu. Email dneu@hers.com. | |
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WOC
is currently looking for people who are willing to serve on our Board
of Directors. Nominees should be passionate about ordination justice
advocacy and speaking out against all forms of oppression in the Roman
Catholic Church and society. Applications accepted until April 1
and terms begin in the Fall of 2022. Click below to find out more and
consider sharing your gifts with WOC! |
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| Report from our February 1 Synod listening session |
On
February 1, approximately 60 people gathered on Zoom for WOC’s second
synod “town hall,” an opportunity to discern and share together where
the Spirit is calling the Church and the People of God more broadly.
Participants
engaged in an Examen and in small group conversations featuring
questions such as: “What am I hearing the Holy Spirit saying to
us?” or “Where is God calling the church as it journeys together?”
Participants shared a sense of renewed hope even despite the hurt they
have experienced at the hands of the institutional Church.
Many
expressed that they have found faith communities in nontraditional
settings, outside the walls of a church. A sense of isolation was named
several times, but paired with gratitude to have found the WOC
community. These gatherings remind us that the Holy Spirit is alive and
moving among us, letting our voices carry to dream aloud of a more
inclusive Church. |
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Apply for the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship for those Discerning Priesthood |
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Women's Ordination Conference
Vocation Awareness conversation with Cardinal Cartone, (The Cardboard Cardinal), Check it out here.
Recently,
conversation focused on the perspectives of female survivors of
clerical abuse in the Catholic Church and how such a perspective can
help to heal the wounds of abuse in the Church, faith communities,
and other institutions.
Watch the event video
Watch a panel discussion with male survivors
Learn more about global safeguarding
A video of this presentation is now available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hGwwN0zC7Y8
Dr. Beth Allison Barr states
that the reason we think women cannot be in authority is simply
because we've taken five or six verses from the New Testament and we
have used those verses and read the entire Bible through them, through
that lens. And these are mostly the Pauline verses: women be silent,
women submit to your husbands, etc. If we step away from those verses
and actually put them in the context of what Paul was doing — and then
put that in the context of the entire Bible — what we see is that while
patriarchy exists in the Bible, that God is actually always fighting
against patriarchy, that he's always raising women out of it. He's
always giving women authority in surprising ways, both in the Old
Testament and in the New Testament. And that if we look at the
historical context of what Paul is actually doing in the New Testament,
there are serious problems with reading Paul as telling women that they
have to be silent and under the authority of men for all times. In her new book, The Making of Biblical Womanhood: How the Subjugation of Women Became Gospel Truth,
historian Beth Allison Barr traces cultural sources of patriarchy that
have all but erased women's historical importance as leaders of the
faith. Barr
is a Southern Baptist and a pastor's wife. In an interview with NPR,
she described the day she realized that "what we found in the Bible
about what women were supposed to do did not match with what my church
was saying women were supposed to do." Eventually, she and her husband
left that congregation — no longer able to tolerate the contradictions,
she said.
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Sr.
Miriam Therese Winter joins FutureChurch and the Women's Ordination
Conference to recall the ministry and life of Ludmila Javorová, a woman
who was ordained a Roman Catholic priest by Bishop Felix Davidek to
serve in the underground church there when the church was under threat
by the Communist regime from 1948 through 1989.
Learn about her life, ministry, and why she is important as the world follows Francis to Slovakia:
This event was recorded; watch the video here: https://youtu.be/X44gIYt-8IU
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Women Erased Series
FutureChurch's Women Erased Series offers
online presentations that uncover the many ways women's leadership,
witness, and ministries have been erased from our Church's Scriptures
and Lectionary, historical record and memory, and communities.
These
sessions, featuring leading scholars of Biblical studies, Church
History, Ecclesiology, Canon Law, and Sacraments, as well as faith
leaders will not only name and explore the history, but also put forth
resources for correcting the record and telling the true story of
women's central role in shaping and spreading Christianity from its
beginnings to today.
Please
join us as we learn from one another and prepare ourselves for taking
action to build a Church where the gifts and ministries of women and
all Cathoics are valued and restored.
Upcoming Sessions and Video recordings of past sessions
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