Women's Ordination Worldwide (WOW) has released the latest edition of their e-news letter. You can read that here. It contains some important information about their international conference scheduled to take place in Philadelphia later this year. WOC e-news #4
New Hampshire's only female Catholic priest shares her struggle By Ashley Saari Monadnock Ledger-Transcript Peterborough, New Hampshire On Tuesday, Franklin Pierce University hosted a showing of the documentary “Pink Smoke Over the Vatican,” which chronicles the journey of women priests. Following the showing of the film, The Rev. Theresa Chabot (RCWP), the only female ordained Catholic priest in New Hampshire, was on hand to speak to the crowd and answer questions from the audience. continue Good people of God, From Huffington Post: Muslim Group To Form Human Shield Around Oslo Synagogue... On Feb. 21, a week after a shooting outside a synagogue in Copenhagen, Denmark, left two people dead and five injured, a Muslim group in Norway plans to take measures to help ensure the safety of Jewish worshipers in that country. The Community of St. Bridget will be kicking off Lent this year by taking part in the Brecksville United Church of Christ's service this Wednesday, February 18 at 7:00 pm. (address & map) Pastor Dave Shackle, presiding.
Everybody is welcomed. Ashes will be distributed. From NCR: Could Pope Francis be any clearer about his vision for the church? In a Homily, given in St Peter's Basilica on Sunday February 15th titled: Cardinals are servants of the Church, Francis has clearly outlined a clear vision for a Church which should be less legalistic and more loving… saying “Truly the Gospel of the marginalized is where our credibility is found and revealed!” From the NCR article: By now, Francis has made it clear what he believes -- that the Holy Spirit is pushing the church to be more inclusive, compassionate and outward-looking; that the Lord Jesus is calling it to be less inward-focused, legalistic and obsessed with the nonessential externals. Francis urged 20 new Cardinals -- … to imitate his namesake, St, Francis of Assisi, by embracing the leper and accepting all the different types of outcasts. "Truly, dear brothers, the gospel of the marginalized is where our credibility is at stake, is discovered and is revealed!" Mass Schedule for Holy Spirit Catholic Community For Ash Wednesday, February 18, our Mass will be at 5:30 p.m. at the Interfaith Chapel of Toledo Campus Ministry, 2086 Brookdale Road, Toledo, OH 43606. You may recall that we met there before Unity of Toledo became available. From the New York Times: Muslims, Marriage and Bigotry by Nicholas Kristof In North Carolina, three young Muslims who were active in charity work were murdered, allegedly by a man who identified as atheist and expressed hostility to Islam and other faiths… When I was a young girl falling madly in love with God, a nun gave me two books about St. Teresa of Avila. Later, I discovered that Teresa and I had another thing in common besides love of God: concern for women's equality. Teresa witnessed women suffering in a church that did not value their gifts, so she set out to make changes. As part of her reforms, she wrote a prayer manual, or, as I like to think of it, a 16th-century feminist survival guide. continue From NCR: Planet Vatican by Phyllis Zagano The Pontifical Council for Culture touted its meetings as analyses of the status of the world’s 3.5 billion women… Think all these Vatican Men have figured out what to do about the church’s “woman” problem? Apparently they have… From the Council’s working document: “There is no discussion here of women priests, which according to statistics is not something that women want.” Well, that settles it then. read the full article
Justice delayed is justice denied. From the BBC: How much will Pope Francis change the Church? By Ed Stourton Pope Francis has declared that he is "convinced of the urgency of offering spaces for women in the Church" and that he wants a "more widespread and incisive female presence". SAD. Justice for Women will likely wait for a future pope. Expect a lot of nice words and not much progress.
Independent Lens on Public Television is airing an important series on the issue of Gender Based Oppression. We believe that our readers will find this compelling material... A Path Appears, from the creative team behind the series Half the Sky: Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide, follows Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn and a group of dedicated actor/advocates to Colombia, Haiti, Kenya, and throughout the United States. They uncover the harshest forms of gender inequality, the devastating impact of poverty and the ripple effects that follow: including sex trafficking, teen-pregnancy, gender-based violence, child slavery and the effective solutions being forged to combat them. The three-part series will take viewers on a journey across the country, and across the globe, to drive home the universality of gender inequality and the roots of vulnerability. The series, produced by Show of Force, will lead audiences to a deeper understanding of these critical issues and the proven methods of bringing about change. Episode One: Sex Trafficking in the USA
From Huffington Post: This Is How Many Words Are Spoken By Women In The Bible ~by Antonia Blumberg There are 93 women who speak in the Bible, 49 of whom are named. These women speak a total of 14,056 words collectively -- roughly 1.1 percent of the total words in the holy book. continue Clearly, the Bible was "written by men and largely for men" as Greg Carey, a New Testament professor at Lancaster Theological Seminary, is quoted as saying. This massive underrepresentation of women is an unfortunate legacy of our patriarchal systems. The bible, as we have received it, is flawed. We must seek every opportunity to bring forward the voices of women and listen to the divine feminine.
From Aljazeera America: First all-female mosque opens in Los Angeles, Long relegated to basements and balconies in their places of worship, women are front and center at LA mosque ~ by Nick Street LOS ANGELES — The first women-only mosque in the United States opened its doors in Los Angeles on Friday with an inaugural jummah, or prayer, by Edina Lekovic of the Muslim Public Affairs Council. The mosque is housed in a century-old multifaith worship space near downtown. Originally built as a synagogue, Pico-Union is now the home of the nonprofit Women’s Mosque as well as several Jewish and Christian groups. Edina Lekovic, of the Muslim Public Affairs Council, said: In mainstream mosques, women’s issues are usually a sideshow. Our intention is to help women read the Quran and interpret the scriptures and tradition for themselves. We’re doing this with an eye on empowering women to serve the broader Muslim community. We applaud and celebrate these women. No woman should feel like a "second-class sideshow" in her own faith tradition.
From the New York Times: Do Gays Unsettle You? Same-Sex Marriage, Republican Scorn and Unfinished Work by Frank Bruni “We want to make sure that marriage is looked at as the benchmark and not the finish line,” she said. “Where are the hearts and minds of Americans?” Like racism, anti-gay bigotries will live on long after our legal system has removed the remaining legal impediments to equality. Sadly, we are still fighting for women's equality 95 years after the 19th amendment guaranteed women the right to vote. These are long battles. Keep up hope. We ARE seeing progress.
From Mother Jones: Please Keep Asking Ruth Bader Ginsburg, "How Many Women on the Supreme Court Are Enough?" When speaking to students at Georgetown University earlier this week, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg said she is regularly asked when she believes there will be "enough" women sitting on the Supreme Court. continue We love her answer. Watch the video of this pioneering, inspirational woman. Well, this about sums it up: Vatican Council on Women would be funny were it not so insulting by Mary E. Hunt: It may be Women’s Week at the Vatican, but you have to look carefully at the skirts to find many women. However well-intentioned Vatican officials may be, they embody Murphy’s Law when it comes to women: everything that can go wrong does go wrong. Maybe if women were more than bit players, things might improve. From Takepart: Robes for Women: Demolishing the Gender Gap in Catholic Priesthood By Michelle Bergmann Despite the recent rebranding of the Roman Catholic Church, with the liberal Pope Francis addressing climate change and recognizing the LGBT community, the church continues to ban women from preaching the gospel. But a group of rebel women is defying the rules of the Vatican by ordaining women as priests across the U.S. continue We love being called "a group of rebel women".
We've just added a new link on our Blogroll: Phrogge.com. Phrogge describes himself as: A retired Active Duty Army Chaplain and a retired Diocesan Catholic Priest. I help out in local parishes and hospitals whenever I can, which is fairly often. Check out Phrogge's web-page, we think you'll find his experience and wisdom shows in his writing.
|
Categories
All
Archives
February 2020
|