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Women's Ordination Worldwide - Conference

7/31/2015

 
Women's Ordination Worldwide Third International Conference - 2015 is being held in the US: September 18-20, 2015, at the Marriott Downtown in Philadelphia. The speaker list is fantastic.  
Register here.

RCC - Ordain Women, Marry lesbian and gay couples.

7/29/2015

 
Mary Hunt, writing in Religion Dispatches, has penned a very interesting Memo to Catholic Theologians - RE: Curriculum update

Mary points out that Catholic Theologians are currently using inaccurate and misleading language to describe two Sacraments.

She suggests that theologians should change the way they refer to these sacraments to accurately reflect the fact that, within the Roman Catholic Church, the Sacrament of Priestly Ordination is available only to MEN and that the Sacrament of Marriage is available only to Heterosexuals.

Mary’s proposed new language:
Sacrament of Heterosexual Matrimony
Sacrament of Men’s Holy Orders
"That way, when children are taught about the sacraments, they will be given a realistic picture. For girls, there are six sacraments, whereas for boys there are seven; for heterosexual people, there is one more than for LGBTIQ people."
(We would add that for lesbians there are only five sacraments in the RCC as they do not have access to the Priesthood or Marriage.)

Mary's descriptive new names for the Sacraments correctly reflect the artificial restrictions which the RCC currently places on access to those Sacraments.  She intends the use of more accurate language to serve as a catalyst for discussion and change. 

We have a proposal for change. Discrimination which diminishes the full human and spiritual potential of Women and LGBT people is not defensible and must be eliminated from our Church.

Francis hear us when we say - ORDAIN WOMEN NOW.  Marry lesbian and gay couples NOW. 
As Baptized Catholics we ALL have a right to ALL SEVEN Sacraments.  

Women's Ordinations - June and July 2015

7/28/2015

 
Iglesia Descalza recaps Ordinations which have taken place in the last couple months with a brief bio of each newly ordained priest and some pictures.

Barbara Billey to be ordained today in Ontario

7/25/2015

 
From the Windsor Star - Movement wants Roman Catholic church to allow female priests by Sharon Hill
Barbara Billey is about to be ordained by the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) — a movement determined to shake up the church hierarchy  read full article
Barbara's ordination is today in Windsor.

Silent women seek justice in the Church - provide amazing witness

7/22/2015

 
From NCR - Women's longtime protests at Mass decrying discrimination, war receive bishop's praise by Claire Schaeffer-Duffy

Week after week, for over twenty years, a small group of women in Washington D.C. have stood during Mass silently protesting the church's discrimination against women and complicity in war.
In 1993, then-parishioner Gigi Gruenke, a clinical social worker, began standing during Mass as a simple "direct witness" on behalf of women, she said.

"Every time a woman goes to Mass, we are being discriminated against because we are women," Gruenke said. "We are not priests, not deacons, not dispensers of the sacraments. Mass at St. Aloysius used to be the better part of two hours. It was not comfortable for standing. The discomfort of standing was congruent with the discomfort of being a woman in the church."  

…Mary Helen Washington, a professor of english, said "I will keep standing during Mass until women have positions of equality. I plan to stand for a long time."  full article
If you are tempted to pass by reading this -- Please stop and take a few minutes.  These Women are amazing.  The RCC is not going to change until many many more of us follow the example of these tremendous women and STAND UP in protest against the profound sexist injustice at the core of the Roman Catholic Church.
"It is a gesture to say, This is a church that does not acknowledge us," Washington said, later adding that she never "intended to stand for so many years. Now, it would be impossible to sit down. My natural position is to stand up for women in the church and in the world."
Amen Sister!

Church must empower women

7/20/2015

 
From The American Prospect:  If the Pope Wanted to Help the Poor, He’d Be a Feminist 
by Adele M. Stan
The Church remains intransigent on virtually any vestige of equality for women. Ask any honest director of a non-governmental organization that focuses on economic development, and she’ll tell you that fundamental to economic progress for all people is the empowerment of women. When women can read, their families thrive; when they can control their own fertility the society benefits economically. In places where women lead throughout society, even at the micro-level (as in running small businesses), standards of living increase for all.

An institution that bars women from leadership conveys the message that women are not fully human. No leader of such an institution, especially one who has expressed his assent to that barrier, as Francis has, should ever be taken as a progressive  read full essay
It's time for the RCC to ORDAIN WOMEN and to move women into leadership roles as bishops, cardinals and popes.  To continue the power structures which force women into subordinate roles in our church is to diminish all of humanity.   

Dalai Lama -- "I'm a feminist"

7/16/2015

 
From NYT: Dalai Lama Gets Mischievous by Nicholas Kristof
• On gender: The Dalai Lama says he considers himself a feminist and would like to see more women leaders because he thinks women are often innately more sensitive and peaceful. “I insist that women should carry a more active role,” he said. “If eventually most of the leaders of different nations are female, maybe we’ll be safer.” read full article

Barbara Billey to be ordained in Ontario

7/10/2015

 
On Saturday, July 25, 2015, at 2 p.m., the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) will ordain Barbara Billey a priest. The ordaining bishop will be Bridget Mary Meehan.  The ceremony will be held in the Chapel of Cardinal Smart Retirement Living, 3140 Peter St., Windsor, ON.  Parking at St. Michael’s School.  A dinner will follow at 6:30 pm, 140 Bridge Ave., Penthouse (Buzz #6).  Street parking only. more information   All are welcome.

Three Women Priests in Minnesota

7/8/2015

 
From Minneapolis St. Paul magazine - Called Out: The Vatican is doling out its harshest punishment to some of Minnesota’s most devoted Catholics. by Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl.

The stories of three Women Priests in Minnesota…
On May 17, Josie Petermeier took to the altar to be ordained as a Catholic priest. As ceremonies go, it was uneventful. Her small congregation gathered where it always does, in a modest Craftsman-style Methodist church below the Witch’s Hat Tower in Prospect Park, to watch Petermeier receive the sacrament of Holy Orders from a bishop who flew in from Indiana.

As Petermeier took part in a tradition said to trace an unbroken line to the original apostles, she promised to carry out the work of Christ on Earth. At that moment, she was excommunicated from the church. By order of the pope, she no longer can be buried in sacred ground. She cannot go to confession or receive the Eucharist.  continue

If christianity doesn’t change, it will die.

7/7/2015

 
From The San Diego Union-Tribune Nothing is Preordained about her push for big changes By Fred Dickey.  Roman Catholic Womenpriest, Jane Via discusses her call to be ordained and serve all as a pastor. 

Episcopal church to divest from fossil fuels

7/6/2015

 
From The Guardian Episcopal church votes to divest from fossil fuels: 'This is a moral issue'
by Suzanne Goldenberg, US environment correspondent
The leadership of the Episcopal church has voted to withdraw from fossil fuel holdings as a means of fighting climate change, delivering an important symbolic victory to environmental campaigners.

Two weeks after the pope’s pastoral letter on the environment, the divestment decision by a major US Protestant denomination underscored that climate change is increasingly seen by religious leaders as a deeply moral issue.  continue
We call on Pope Francis to instruct all Catholic Institutions worldwide to divest from fossil fuel investments and to redirect those funds to renewable energy development.  Coal, oil and gas must be left in the ground unused.

Catholics support marriage

7/6/2015

 
From Philly.com: Catholic voice speaks out for same-sex marriage By Christa Kerber
As a faithful Catholic in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia, I cannot in good conscience allow Archbishop Charles Chaput’s June 26 response to the Supreme Court ruling on marriage equality to be the final word. His message does not reflect the Catholic voice of inclusion and equality. The Church is made up of all the baptized, and the majority of Catholics in the United States support same-sex marriage.

The archbishop is right that the truth of God’s word does not change. Our understanding of it, however, has, does, and should. Our understanding of God’s word has changed on slavery, capital punishment, war, and now, on marriage. It is not in spite of my Catholicism that I support marriage equality, but because of it.  continue

Episcopalians Vote To Celebrate Gay Marriage In Churches

7/3/2015

 
From Huffington Post: Episcopalians Vote To Celebrate Gay Marriage In Churches
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Episcopal Church has completed its embrace of gay rights, changing church law to allow same-sex religious marriages throughout the denomination, just days after the U.S. Supreme Court legalized gay marriage nationwide.

The new policy won overwhelming approval from the top Episcopal legislative body Wednesday, following decades of debate and conflict. It came 12 years after the denomination blazed a trail by electing the first openly gay bishop.  continue


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