March 25, 2006

"Good Catholic Girls Stand Up for Women's Ordination"

Long Island, New York

By Eileen McMahon

On Saturday, March 25th, members of the Long Island Women's Ordination Conference, having completed three decades of work for women's equality in church and society, met to celebrate the World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination.  We viewed the DVD of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza's keynote address at the Women's Ordination Worldwide conference held in Ottawa, Canada, last summer.  Then we shared our thoughts and reactions to her presentation. Schüssler Fiorenza had spoken of certain key experiences she had, particularly at a Women-Church Conference and a WOC anniversary in Washington, D.C. and some of us shared our recollections of those herstoric events as well. 

We used the prayer service prepared for the day by WOC and WOC’s Young Feminist Network that called for sharing of our early memories of involvement in these issues. For two of us, not being able to be altar servers was a sharp and keen experience of discrimination at a young age.  Others shared the impact the Second Vatican Council had on their thinking.  We were happy that the World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination is celebrated around the world and is growing each year. It speaks to how each local group can be connected to groups elsewhere and how we all are having an effect on how we think about and take action for women's ordination and related issues.

We left recommitted to continued prayer and action to make women's ordination and justice in the church and world a reality.

Eileen McMahon lives in Long Island, and has recently joined WOC's Local Leaders Network.

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