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Mary Eileen Collingwood was ordained a Roman Catholic priest on May 24, 2014 in Brecksville, OH, and ordained a bishop in apostolic succession on September 24, 2015 in Wallingford, PA. She has served over forty years in church ministry. With her Master of Arts degree in Theology from St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology, Mary Eileen taught theology on the secondary and college levels. In the parish setting, she was a Director of Religious Education, Coordinator for Marriage Preparation, and Pastoral Minister. She served as the Diocesan Director of the Pro Life Office, and was a member of various boards and councils. On the national scene, Mary Eileen was an elected regional representative to the National Board for Voice of the Faithful-- always an activist for church reform! Mary Eileen and her husband, Rich, live in the Cleveland area and continue to be blessed with seven remarkable children and many grandchildren. She is currently a faculty member for Global Ministries University and the People’s Catholic Seminary. Animated by the Spirit’s call for a renewed priestly ministry within a community of equals, Mary Eileen welcomes all to the Table of Friendship. Her ministerial services include weekly Eucharistic liturgies, sacramental celebrations, pastoral counseling, and faith education in our ever-evolving, contemporary world.
"Women are being called by the Holy Spirit to image the Divine Feminine through ordained priestly ministry, thereby restoring the wholeness of God’s presence in our Church. For me, this entails ordination and embracing circle leadership as an egalitarian model of decision-making within Catholic communities. It is truly right and just for me to live this Spirit-led change in solidarity with the People of God by ministering with communities of faith, and supporting my sisters as they embrace their call to ordination.” |
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Four priests ordained in Brecksville, Ohio on May 24, 2014
Marianne Smyth, Irene Scaramazza, Mary Collingwood, Bridget Mary Meehan (ARCWP) presiding Bishop, Mary Blanchard
Marianne Smyth, Irene Scaramazza, Mary Collingwood, Bridget Mary Meehan (ARCWP) presiding Bishop, Mary Blanchard
Youtube videos of the Ordination Ceremony
Veni Sanctus Spiritus * Anointing of priests * Introducing new priests
Veni Sanctus Spiritus * Anointing of priests * Introducing new priests
Ordination Homily
by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan (ARCWP), May 24, 2014, Cleveland
“Women Priests Sharing the Living Water of God’s Love of All”
We thank Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan for permission to reprint her Homily in this space.
by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan (ARCWP), May 24, 2014, Cleveland
“Women Priests Sharing the Living Water of God’s Love of All”
We thank Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan for permission to reprint her Homily in this space.
Today we rejoice that the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests will ordain 6 women:
Deacon Barbara Billey who lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, has been married for 32 years. She is currently a counselor and art therapist. Barbara, a Doctor of Ministry candidate, has a particular interest in women's spirituality and a passion for integrating sacred arts in liturgy.
Deacon Susan Marie Guzik from Eastlake, a suburb of Cleveland, is a widow, mother, grandmother. She received certification as a Lay Ecclesial Minister in the Diocese of Cleveland. Susan has volunteered in the Diocese as a pastoral minister and for the past seven years served as the Director/Advisor of the Stephen Ministry Program at St. Mary Magdalene Parish.
The following women will be ordained PRIESTS:
Mary Bergan Blanchard from Albuquerque, NM, is a former Sister of St. Joseph, a widow, mother, grandmother, teacher, writer and licensed counselor. After retiring in New Mexico, she served as a Mental Health Counselor in a Roman Catholic Church for twenty years.
Mary Eileen Collingwood, from the Cleveland area, is a wife, mother and grandmother who, with her advanced degree in theology, has served for 40 years in church ministry and taught theology on the high school and college levels. In the parish she was Director of Religious Education, Coordinator for Marriage Preparation and Pastoral Minister.
Irene Scaramazza, from Columbus, Ohio has advanced degrees in theology, pastoral counseling, and family therapy. She is currently working as a hospice chaplain having completed her Provisional Board Chaplaincy Certification.
Marianne Therese Smyth, from Silver Spring, MD; is a mother of two sons. She is a hospice volunteer with Montgomery Hospice and has worked for 25 years as a para-educator with special needs students. She has a Masters of Education in counseling, a certificate in theological studies and serves the Living Water Inclusive Community in Catonsville, Maryland.
These women, like the Samaritan woman have left their water jars behind. They come today to share the living water of their lives with God’s people.
The story of the Samaritan woman at the well records the longest conversation between Jesus and anyone in the gospels. This sacred text reveals that Christ is the “wellspring of love” that will fill us forever. Everyone is invited to drink the “living water” and belong to the community of faith. Jesus’ trademark is inclusiveness. There are no outsiders. All that is required is that we worship in spirit and truth.
In the encounter with the woman at the well, Jesus goes beyond the social and religious taboos of his times. It is astonishing for us and shocking even for the apostles that Jesus confided his identity as Messiah to a woman who does not belong to the religious establishment and who is a foreigner and divorced.
According to biblical experts, the woman understood Jesus’ mention that she had no “husband” not as a call to true repentance, but as a call to true worship. Other commentators believe that Jesus’ referral to the woman’s “husbands” pointed to the Samaritan practice of intermarriage outside the tribe, a custom that caused tension with the Jews because it destroyed Jewish ancestral lines. No matter what interpretation we accept, the Samaritan woman continues to live in couples today who reflect the face of God as they live as spiritual equals in committed, covenantal relationships.
So too, today, Roman Catholic Women Priests are listening and responding to God's Living Water flowing through us as we evangelize our church with the good news that all are invited to live Gospel equality now in inclusive communities where everyone is welcome.
Like the Samaritan woman, we too are daring and bold women, who are leaving our water jars behind, because we are being and encountering the Living Water of God’s love every day on the margins of our church. Beyond our comfort zone and off the power grid we minister to the family of God who do not have a spiritual home - divorced and remarried Catholics, gays, lesbians, transgender, women who are excluded from liturgical leadership, youth and many others who are seeking a contemporary model of Church that is aligned with Gospel values.
In his recent book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, President Jimmy Carter, who supports women’s ordination and women’s equality in all religions, finds it “ironic” that women are welcomed into many professions “but are deprived of the right to serve Jesus Christ in positions of leadership” as they did in the early Christian churches. The former president said that the violence and abuse of women in society is directly connected to the spiritual inequality of women in religious practice. He said that he would become a Catholic when he is invited to do so by a female priest! I assure you that we have issued an invitation!
World-renown Spanish human rights activist, Sister Teresa Forcades, affirms the vision of Vatican 11 and suggests that Pope Francis might be an agent for change. In an article entitled: "Activist Nun -Change Comes from the Bottom" written by Janice Sevre-Duszynska and published by the National Catholic Reporter: “Sister Teresa said that it must be the people in the church who will promote the acceptance of contraception and an end to the church's homophobia and who become voices in the struggle for justice for women.” ‘We now have women priests with the people from the bottom up,’ Forcades said with a smile. ‘The people are ready.’ ”
Twenty years ago, on May 22, 1994, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter, “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” (“Priestly Ordination”) which reserved priesthood in the Catholic Church to men only."This teaching that 'women are not fully in the likeness of Jesus' -- qualifying, as it does, as a theological explanation -- is utterly and demonstrably heretical,” said Augustinian theologian John Shea in his 2nd letter to U.S. bishops.
Despite two decades of blatant discrimination of women and denial of women’s basic human rights as spiritual equals before God, justice is rising up for women in the church in grassroots, inclusive, Catholic communities. With almost 200 Roman Catholic Women Priests in the international movement, a renewed priestly ministry is flowering in 10 countries. Catholics worldwide are embracing a new model of church led by women and men.
In imagining a dialogue with our beloved Pope Francis, I would invite him to consider faithful dissent in our church as healthy. I would ardently appeal for the end of discrimination, spiritual violence and bullying toward any member of the Body of Christ, including the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and for the cancellation of ecclesiastical punishments, including excommunication against women priests and our supporters. Let us pray that the Spirit will move our Pope to affirm all of us as beloved sisters and brothers in the family of God.
I believe that on a deep, mystical level women priests are beginning a healing process of centuries-old deep misogyny in which spiritual power was invested exclusively in men. With your prayers and commitment, we are recovering the dropped thread of our sister women in the early Church who embraced with dignity their full right to preach, to proclaim and to lead worship.
Now we ordain you, our beloved Sisters, Mary, Marianne, Mary, Irene, Barbara and Susan. In solidarity with Jesus and the Samaritan woman may you be God's living waters bringing refreshment to the arid structures of our Church and beyond. May you help to liberate God's people from oppression by acts of justice, compassion and love. May you foster spiritual renewal in inclusive faith communities of equals.
Today, all of us rejoice that Christ Sophia, Wellspring of Wisdom, is in our midst!
-----
Bridget Mary Meehan, D.Min., a Sister for Christian Community, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31, 2006. She was ordained a bishop on April 19, 2009. Dr. Meehan is currently Dean of the Doctor of Ministry Program for Global Ministries University, and is the author of 20 books, including Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God, The Healing Power of Prayer and Praying with Women of the Bible . She presides at liturgies in Mary, Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida. Dr. Meehan can be reached at sofiabmm@aol.comand www.arcwp.org
Deacon Barbara Billey who lives in Windsor, Ontario, Canada, has been married for 32 years. She is currently a counselor and art therapist. Barbara, a Doctor of Ministry candidate, has a particular interest in women's spirituality and a passion for integrating sacred arts in liturgy.
Deacon Susan Marie Guzik from Eastlake, a suburb of Cleveland, is a widow, mother, grandmother. She received certification as a Lay Ecclesial Minister in the Diocese of Cleveland. Susan has volunteered in the Diocese as a pastoral minister and for the past seven years served as the Director/Advisor of the Stephen Ministry Program at St. Mary Magdalene Parish.
The following women will be ordained PRIESTS:
Mary Bergan Blanchard from Albuquerque, NM, is a former Sister of St. Joseph, a widow, mother, grandmother, teacher, writer and licensed counselor. After retiring in New Mexico, she served as a Mental Health Counselor in a Roman Catholic Church for twenty years.
Mary Eileen Collingwood, from the Cleveland area, is a wife, mother and grandmother who, with her advanced degree in theology, has served for 40 years in church ministry and taught theology on the high school and college levels. In the parish she was Director of Religious Education, Coordinator for Marriage Preparation and Pastoral Minister.
Irene Scaramazza, from Columbus, Ohio has advanced degrees in theology, pastoral counseling, and family therapy. She is currently working as a hospice chaplain having completed her Provisional Board Chaplaincy Certification.
Marianne Therese Smyth, from Silver Spring, MD; is a mother of two sons. She is a hospice volunteer with Montgomery Hospice and has worked for 25 years as a para-educator with special needs students. She has a Masters of Education in counseling, a certificate in theological studies and serves the Living Water Inclusive Community in Catonsville, Maryland.
These women, like the Samaritan woman have left their water jars behind. They come today to share the living water of their lives with God’s people.
The story of the Samaritan woman at the well records the longest conversation between Jesus and anyone in the gospels. This sacred text reveals that Christ is the “wellspring of love” that will fill us forever. Everyone is invited to drink the “living water” and belong to the community of faith. Jesus’ trademark is inclusiveness. There are no outsiders. All that is required is that we worship in spirit and truth.
In the encounter with the woman at the well, Jesus goes beyond the social and religious taboos of his times. It is astonishing for us and shocking even for the apostles that Jesus confided his identity as Messiah to a woman who does not belong to the religious establishment and who is a foreigner and divorced.
According to biblical experts, the woman understood Jesus’ mention that she had no “husband” not as a call to true repentance, but as a call to true worship. Other commentators believe that Jesus’ referral to the woman’s “husbands” pointed to the Samaritan practice of intermarriage outside the tribe, a custom that caused tension with the Jews because it destroyed Jewish ancestral lines. No matter what interpretation we accept, the Samaritan woman continues to live in couples today who reflect the face of God as they live as spiritual equals in committed, covenantal relationships.
So too, today, Roman Catholic Women Priests are listening and responding to God's Living Water flowing through us as we evangelize our church with the good news that all are invited to live Gospel equality now in inclusive communities where everyone is welcome.
Like the Samaritan woman, we too are daring and bold women, who are leaving our water jars behind, because we are being and encountering the Living Water of God’s love every day on the margins of our church. Beyond our comfort zone and off the power grid we minister to the family of God who do not have a spiritual home - divorced and remarried Catholics, gays, lesbians, transgender, women who are excluded from liturgical leadership, youth and many others who are seeking a contemporary model of Church that is aligned with Gospel values.
In his recent book, A Call to Action: Women, Religion, Violence and Power, President Jimmy Carter, who supports women’s ordination and women’s equality in all religions, finds it “ironic” that women are welcomed into many professions “but are deprived of the right to serve Jesus Christ in positions of leadership” as they did in the early Christian churches. The former president said that the violence and abuse of women in society is directly connected to the spiritual inequality of women in religious practice. He said that he would become a Catholic when he is invited to do so by a female priest! I assure you that we have issued an invitation!
World-renown Spanish human rights activist, Sister Teresa Forcades, affirms the vision of Vatican 11 and suggests that Pope Francis might be an agent for change. In an article entitled: "Activist Nun -Change Comes from the Bottom" written by Janice Sevre-Duszynska and published by the National Catholic Reporter: “Sister Teresa said that it must be the people in the church who will promote the acceptance of contraception and an end to the church's homophobia and who become voices in the struggle for justice for women.” ‘We now have women priests with the people from the bottom up,’ Forcades said with a smile. ‘The people are ready.’ ”
Twenty years ago, on May 22, 1994, Pope John Paul II issued an apostolic letter, “Ordinatio Sacerdotalis” (“Priestly Ordination”) which reserved priesthood in the Catholic Church to men only."This teaching that 'women are not fully in the likeness of Jesus' -- qualifying, as it does, as a theological explanation -- is utterly and demonstrably heretical,” said Augustinian theologian John Shea in his 2nd letter to U.S. bishops.
Despite two decades of blatant discrimination of women and denial of women’s basic human rights as spiritual equals before God, justice is rising up for women in the church in grassroots, inclusive, Catholic communities. With almost 200 Roman Catholic Women Priests in the international movement, a renewed priestly ministry is flowering in 10 countries. Catholics worldwide are embracing a new model of church led by women and men.
In imagining a dialogue with our beloved Pope Francis, I would invite him to consider faithful dissent in our church as healthy. I would ardently appeal for the end of discrimination, spiritual violence and bullying toward any member of the Body of Christ, including the Leadership Conference of Women Religious and for the cancellation of ecclesiastical punishments, including excommunication against women priests and our supporters. Let us pray that the Spirit will move our Pope to affirm all of us as beloved sisters and brothers in the family of God.
I believe that on a deep, mystical level women priests are beginning a healing process of centuries-old deep misogyny in which spiritual power was invested exclusively in men. With your prayers and commitment, we are recovering the dropped thread of our sister women in the early Church who embraced with dignity their full right to preach, to proclaim and to lead worship.
Now we ordain you, our beloved Sisters, Mary, Marianne, Mary, Irene, Barbara and Susan. In solidarity with Jesus and the Samaritan woman may you be God's living waters bringing refreshment to the arid structures of our Church and beyond. May you help to liberate God's people from oppression by acts of justice, compassion and love. May you foster spiritual renewal in inclusive faith communities of equals.
Today, all of us rejoice that Christ Sophia, Wellspring of Wisdom, is in our midst!
-----
Bridget Mary Meehan, D.Min., a Sister for Christian Community, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31, 2006. She was ordained a bishop on April 19, 2009. Dr. Meehan is currently Dean of the Doctor of Ministry Program for Global Ministries University, and is the author of 20 books, including Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God, The Healing Power of Prayer and Praying with Women of the Bible . She presides at liturgies in Mary, Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida. Dr. Meehan can be reached at sofiabmm@aol.comand www.arcwp.org
The Story of the Name
12/28/2015
Dear Community,
Several members have asked: "Why the name change?" since my episcopal ordination. So, here's my story:
My parents named me "Mary Eileen" when I was born. My mother wanted me to be called by that name-- both names together: Mary Eileen. When I started Catholic grade school, there were many little girls named "Mary" with all of them having a second name added to the first, e.g., Mary Ann, Mary Lou, Mary Kay, Mary Ellen, Mary Fran, Mary Bridget, etc. But of course, I didn't want to "belong" to that group! I wanted to be known, not as part of a group of girls named Mary- so-and-so, but on my own terms. Thus, l refused to sign or print my full name on any of my papers. When my mother was told about this, she simply replied that I should be allowed to determine how I wanted to be known.
Fast forward many years later, my mother died of Alzheimer's disease in January of 2012. There were many years that my family watched her slowly slip away from us. But there were also some "break through" moments that occurred. One such time, I walked into her room and there was a program on television that was reporting on the scandals within the RCC. She was sitting in her chair with tears streaming down her face, looked up at me and asked, "What is happening to my Church?" I knelt down beside her, looked into her eyes and said, "Don't worry about it Mom, I'm working on it." She took my hand and replied, "I knew I could count on you!" I consider this experience her way of affirming my journey with the ARCWP.
Time moves forward and I am elected bishop. In preparation for this, I was told to bring a ring to the ordination rite because it was part of the ceremony that I would take a ring as a sign of my role as bishop. I didn't like this part of the deal at all! I never liked all the demonstrations of special privilege or special accessorizing, etc. At one point in my deliberations on what I was going to do about this, I remembered my father giving me my mother's rings to hold for him till he decided what he would do with them. So I found the rings and dumped them on the kitchen table to look at. Out bounced the ring that we bought for my mother-- a ten jeweled ring that contained all her children's birth stones. I looked at it and understood why my father didn't know what to do with that one-- who would actually wear this now?
As I pondered this, the Spirit moved within me, and I asked my father if he would give me permission to use my mother's "mother's ring" as my bishop ring for the ordination. His eyes lit up and he immediately replied that he thought it was a wonderful idea, and that my mother would be so proud if I wore the ring.
Further reflection led me to find a way to honor my mother after all these years. "It was in the name" is all I could think about. Then I realized that to honor her life, I would sign my name as she wished, "Mary Eileen."
And so my friends, I will answer to most anything right now-- "Mary", "Mary C.", "Collingwood" or whatever; but I will always sign my name "Mary Eileen."
Wishing you all the joy and peace of this holy season,
Mary Eileen
12/28/2015
Dear Community,
Several members have asked: "Why the name change?" since my episcopal ordination. So, here's my story:
My parents named me "Mary Eileen" when I was born. My mother wanted me to be called by that name-- both names together: Mary Eileen. When I started Catholic grade school, there were many little girls named "Mary" with all of them having a second name added to the first, e.g., Mary Ann, Mary Lou, Mary Kay, Mary Ellen, Mary Fran, Mary Bridget, etc. But of course, I didn't want to "belong" to that group! I wanted to be known, not as part of a group of girls named Mary- so-and-so, but on my own terms. Thus, l refused to sign or print my full name on any of my papers. When my mother was told about this, she simply replied that I should be allowed to determine how I wanted to be known.
Fast forward many years later, my mother died of Alzheimer's disease in January of 2012. There were many years that my family watched her slowly slip away from us. But there were also some "break through" moments that occurred. One such time, I walked into her room and there was a program on television that was reporting on the scandals within the RCC. She was sitting in her chair with tears streaming down her face, looked up at me and asked, "What is happening to my Church?" I knelt down beside her, looked into her eyes and said, "Don't worry about it Mom, I'm working on it." She took my hand and replied, "I knew I could count on you!" I consider this experience her way of affirming my journey with the ARCWP.
Time moves forward and I am elected bishop. In preparation for this, I was told to bring a ring to the ordination rite because it was part of the ceremony that I would take a ring as a sign of my role as bishop. I didn't like this part of the deal at all! I never liked all the demonstrations of special privilege or special accessorizing, etc. At one point in my deliberations on what I was going to do about this, I remembered my father giving me my mother's rings to hold for him till he decided what he would do with them. So I found the rings and dumped them on the kitchen table to look at. Out bounced the ring that we bought for my mother-- a ten jeweled ring that contained all her children's birth stones. I looked at it and understood why my father didn't know what to do with that one-- who would actually wear this now?
As I pondered this, the Spirit moved within me, and I asked my father if he would give me permission to use my mother's "mother's ring" as my bishop ring for the ordination. His eyes lit up and he immediately replied that he thought it was a wonderful idea, and that my mother would be so proud if I wore the ring.
Further reflection led me to find a way to honor my mother after all these years. "It was in the name" is all I could think about. Then I realized that to honor her life, I would sign my name as she wished, "Mary Eileen."
And so my friends, I will answer to most anything right now-- "Mary", "Mary C.", "Collingwood" or whatever; but I will always sign my name "Mary Eileen."
Wishing you all the joy and peace of this holy season,
Mary Eileen
Mary Eileen shares with us a little about her call to the Priesthood...
Called to serve the Church... by Mary Eileen Collingwood, ARCWP
1/12/2017
I grew up in a family that was always taking care of someone. During my teenage years, I worked in a Catholic-sponsored nursing home as a nurse's aide. The nuns in charge indoctrinated us so that everyone who worked there knew the main goal was to prepare the residents for heaven. After high school, I entered the convent. When it was apparent that my mother was having difficulty caring for my grandmother and I felt the pull to help out, I left the convent to come home. (My Superior wasted no time in letting me know that I was not submissive enough for convent life.) So naturally, after I was married and our first child was 6 months old, I thought nothing of having my great-aunt's best friend move in with us when she had nowhere else to live. This gesture often repeated itself throughout our marriage, including the time after my older sister's death when her five girls needed a place to stay when their father worked weekends, holidays, and summer recess. And when my father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, my husband and I cared for him in our home until he could be placed in an appropriate nursing facility. continue reading
Called to serve the Church... by Mary Eileen Collingwood, ARCWP
1/12/2017
I grew up in a family that was always taking care of someone. During my teenage years, I worked in a Catholic-sponsored nursing home as a nurse's aide. The nuns in charge indoctrinated us so that everyone who worked there knew the main goal was to prepare the residents for heaven. After high school, I entered the convent. When it was apparent that my mother was having difficulty caring for my grandmother and I felt the pull to help out, I left the convent to come home. (My Superior wasted no time in letting me know that I was not submissive enough for convent life.) So naturally, after I was married and our first child was 6 months old, I thought nothing of having my great-aunt's best friend move in with us when she had nowhere else to live. This gesture often repeated itself throughout our marriage, including the time after my older sister's death when her five girls needed a place to stay when their father worked weekends, holidays, and summer recess. And when my father-in-law was diagnosed with Alzheimer's, my husband and I cared for him in our home until he could be placed in an appropriate nursing facility. continue reading