June 12, 2006
June is Ordination Month for Women!
Thank you for taking action during our May Ordination Month Email Awareness Campaign! (Click here for more information) We are continuing our awareness-raising effort as we publicize the stories of women and men working for church renewal and announce the ordinations of women in June and July.
Our vision is to reclaim the Roman Catholic Church’s early tradition of a discipleship of equals. We want to return the church we love back to the community that Jesus modeled for us, where women are empowered and included in all aspects of ministry.
Please send this action alert to everyone you know who is interested in women’s justice and equality!
This action alert features:
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Fundraising Update
To date, WOC has raised nearly $6,500 in June! Many of you have responded generously, and we thank you very much.
If you have not yet given, please send WOC the most generous contribution you can afford. Every dollar counts and will be used wisely.
Please help us reach our goal of raising $20,000 in June – we need to raise $13,500 in the next 18 days!
We have a long way to go, and we need your help! Please forward this to others you know who would be interested in bringing about justice for women in the Catholic Church.
Giving is easy! You can call (703) 352-1006 or donate on-line now! Thank you for your support in prayer, action and financial contributions!
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Action Alerts
1. Participate in a 48-hour vigil during the bishop’s meeting in Los Angeles, Calif.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB) will meet in downtown Los Angeles at the Millennium Biltmore Hotel THIS WEEK, June 15-17.
WOC’s Ministry of Irritation has joined A Coalition for Truth in organizing a vigil to express our concerns about clergy sexual abuse and the need for structural change in our Church.
The vigil will be held from Thursday, June 15 th at 2:00pm until Saturday, June 17th at 2:00pm at Pershing Square Park (5th and Hope in Downtown Los Angeles at the Olive Street entrance).
WOC's Actions: WOC Board Member, Janice Sevre-Duszynska, will begin witnessing at 9:00am on Thursday, June 15th. She will also organize a liturgy to witness specifically for women’s ordination, which will take place Friday, June 16th at 6:00pm during the bishop's Mass in the Pershing Square Park. For more information, contact Nidza Vazquez at (703) 352-1006 or nvazquez@womensordination.org.
If you live in southern California, join us as we make our voices heard to the bishops on June 15, 16 and 17! If you do not, please join us in prayer!
Schedule of Events:
Thursday
9:00: WOC to begin witnessing in Pershing Square Park
2:00 – 4:00 pm: Set Up
4:00 –10:00 pm: Picnic, Music, Quilt viewing, Speakers, Documentary viewing
~ Vigil through the night at Pershing Square
Friday
10:00 am – 4:00 pm: Picnic, Music, Quilt Viewing, Speakers
5:00 pm - 9:00 pm: March to Cathedral (555 S. Temple) vigil during Bishops’ Mass and dinner
6:00: WOC Liturgy for Women’s Ordination into a Renewing Priesthood
~ Vigil through the night at Pershing Square
Saturday
10:00 am – 2:00 pm: Music and Speakers
A Coalition for Truth members: Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests (SNAP), Call to Action (CTA), Voices of the Faithful (VOTF), and Women's Ordination Conference (WOC)
For more information contact Mary Pitcher (714) 222-4789 mmpitcher@charter.net.
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2. Send a letter to Bishop Patrick McGrath of the San Jose Diocese, supporting Victoria Rue’s community
*** new sample letter ***
We featured the story of Victoria Rue’s community three weeks ago (click here to view action alert), and two weeks ago, we asked you to send Bishop McGrath, who wrote the letter that publicly condemned Rue, letters supporting Rue’s community. Thank you to those of you who sent letters!
If you have not yet done so, please send a letter to Bishop McGrath. We need to let him know that there is a nation-wide community that supports Rue and hundreds of women called to priesthood! It is time to show your support!
Below, you will find a letter that was sent to Bishop McGrath from a WOC member last week to serve as an example for you. Please edit and personalize it as appropriate, and send to:
Patrick J. McGrath
900 Lafayette Street, Suite 301
Santa Clara , CA 95050-4966
** SAMPLE LETTER (sent from a WOC member last week) **
Dear Bishop McGrath,
As a member of the Women's Ordination Conference, I am asking that you not be so hasty as to dismiss Reverend Victoria Rue as a Roman Catholic priest. I saw her ordained, and I have witnessed other Roman Catholic ordinations of men throughout the years. As a witness, I can attest to there having been no difference in these ordinations–except that one took place involving males and one took place involving females.
Of necessity, these ordinations of women must be done away from cathedrals. However, for those of us who worship a God that does not reject women and who calls them to the priesthood, these women priests are seen by us Catholics as having a special favor with God. They are the stones “that the builders rejected” who will be the new cornerstones of our future Church–true persona Christi.
Be on the right side of history, Bishop McGrath. Would you have been one of those who denied black men places in U.S. seminaries in the 19 th century for their perceived unworthiness? Would you place institutional obedience before what Jesus taught about the call to serve God’s people? If in your heart, you know that God makes no distinction in worthiness for you and Victoria, then please take more time to think and pray about your position regarding her community.
We who recognize the priesthood of Reverend Victoria Rue – and the priesthood of Reverend Ludmila Javorova of the Czech Republic before her – will keep you in our prayers for your continued enlightenment. If there is one thing you can safely do for us in the meantime, please have the courage during the upcoming USCCB meeting and your next ad limina visit to Rome to stand before your brother-bishops to say that this issue will not go away–is not going away–and that generations of Catholics appear poised to validate these ordinations.
Yours in Christ,
(Your name and diocese)
Please send a copy of your letter to your bishop as well, and to the WOC office, so we can keep them in our records to show the People of God are standing up for women’s ordination! Please send your letter to nvazquez@womensordination.org or WOC, P.O. Box 2693 or fax it to (703) 352-5181.
To find the contact information of your bishop, you can search the following link by diocese, by state, or by name in alphabetical order:
http://www.usccb.org/bishops.shtml
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Women's Ordination News
1. Our “Minister of Irritation,” Janice Sevre-Duszynska, featured in Kentucky newspaper!
Posted on Sat, Jun. 03, 2006 for Lexington Herald-Leader
'Minister of irritation'
Activist heeds her calling to rock the boat
By Frank Lockwood
HERALD-LEADER RELIGION WRITER
Over the millennia, Christendom has had popes and priests, deacons and disciples, presbyters and prophets.
Now it has a Minister of Irritation, too.
Technically, Janice Sevre-Duszynska is co-chair of the Ministry of Irritation of the Women's Ordination Conference -- a group that supports female priests in the Catholic Church.
It's a title that other WOC activists dreamed up, but Sevre-Duszynska has embraced it. "That clam has to be tickled and gently nudged and have a little irritant before it turns into a pearl," she said.
To read the entire story, please click here.
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2. Bishop Peter Hickman featured in Los Angeles Times
From the Los Angeles Times
Faithful, Yet Not Traditional Catholics
Doctrinal differences, social issues, scandals lead congregations away from church hierarchy.
By David Haldane
Times Staff Writer
June 4, 2006
Like Catholic priests everywhere, Bishop Peter Hickman dons a white tunic each Sunday to celebrate Mass in a sanctuary laden with incense and crosses.
Unlike most, he'll often have lunch with his wife and children afterward.
“Marriage promotes growth,” says Hickman, 50, who has fathered five children, been married three times and divorced twice. “People who've never been married have a hard time knowing themselves.”
Marriage and children aren't the only things separating Hickman from nearly all Roman Catholic clergy. The church he has pastored for more than 20 years, St. Matthew in Orange, operates much like any other Catholic church, and offers what appear to be the same sacraments. Yet it ordains female, married and openly gay priests, recognizes divorce, accepts birth control and premarital sex, blesses same-sex unions and, most important, rejects the authority of the pope.
To read the entire story, please click here.
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Upcoming Ordinations
June 24, 2006 – Lake Constance , Switzerland : Four women will be ordained, three as priests, one as a deacon.
July 31, 2006 – The Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa.: Twelve women will be ordained, eight as priests and four as deacons.
To attend the Pittsburgh ordinations, please contact Joan M. Houk (724) 612-3842 or jhoukmdiv@eathlink.net.
To post your upcoming ordination or your story about being called to a renewing priestly ministry on future action alerts, please contact Nidza Vazquez at (703)352-1006 or nvazquez@womensordination.org.
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"Dreams come a size too big so that
we may grow into them."
~ Josie Bisset
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*** This ACTION ALERT email is from the Women's Ordination Conference. Send comments, e-mail address changes, or information for future ACTION ALERTS to Nidza Vazquez, at nvazquez@womensordination.org ***
*** Founded in 1975, Women's Ordination Conference (WOC) is the oldest and largest national organization working solely for women to be ordained as deacons, priests and bishops into a continually renewing Catholic Church. For more information about WOC and how to become a WOC member, visit http://www.womensordination.org ***
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