June 27, 2006
June is Ordination Month for Women!
Our Ordination Month Email Awareness Campaign continues (click here for more information) as we announce the ordinations of women in June and July and publicize the stories of women and men working to renew the Catholic Church.
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 $14,000 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 6,000 in the next 4 days!
We are closing in on our goal, 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. There are four ways to help us today:
1. Give a special contribution: Giving is easy! You can call (703) 352-1006 or donate on-line now!
2. Join WOC as a member: if you are not a member and have enjoyed these action alerts, please join today!
3. Give your friends and family WOC gift memberships: A one-year WOC membership entitles you to four issues of NewWomen, NewChurch, access to WOC’s Activist Network and much more!
4. Send a letter asking your friends and family to become WOC members: Contact Nidza Vazquez or call 703-352-1006 for a sample letter you can personalize and edit to send your family & friends.
Thank you for your support in prayer, action and financial contributions!
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Action Alert
1. Help the Women’s Justice Coalition gather information about women in your diocese!
Rating the U.S. Dioceses: A Report Card on the Status of Women
Who are we? WOC has joined many other renewal organizations in forming the Women’s Justice Coalition, working for women’s equality and justice in the Roman Catholic Church. We agreed to take one joint action each year, and we need your help for our 2006 action!
What are we doing? We are preparing a report card on the status of women in U.S. dioceses. Please help us gather information about women in your diocese! Knowing the current status of women in our church is a critical first step to showing Catholics, clergy and the media, the type and extent of oppression that women experience.
What do we need? We need one leader from each diocese in the U.S. to coordinate the research for the report card. There is a worksheet to fill out, and we can send you background information on the project. This will require two or three hours a month from June through November. You would be asked to inform local church reform groups about this project and work with them to contact appropriate personnel in your diocese for the report card information. Please consider volunteering a small amount of time for women’s justice! Contact Nidza Vázquez at 703 352-1006.
The website will be active soon, so visit www.womensjusticecoalition.org in the future!
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Women's Ordination News
1. Regina Nicolosi, Vice President of WOC’s Board, featured in a Minnesota monthly publication!
Regina was also ordained in Switzerland this past weekend. If you would like to send her a note of support, her email is crnicolosi@yahoo.com.
Call Waiting: How a Minnesota grandmother is pressing the Catholic church to ordain women as priests
By John Rosengren
Published June 2006
Regina Nicolosi has wanted to be a priest since she was a small girl pretending to consecrate gooseberries. In her family, life centered around the Catholic church. Two of her uncles were priests; one of her cousins and her older brother would become priests. So why couldn’t she? The 5-year-old didn’t yet know that canon law prohibited the ordination of women; her desire ran against the rules. The girl grew up, but the dream didn’t go away…
To read the entire story, please click here.
2. Janice Sevre-Duszynska, WOC Board Member, featured in two newspapers while witnessing to the bishops in Los Angeles.
In the picture printed in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and the Miami Herald on Friday June 16th, Janice is holding WOC’s poster that says “Ordain Women” in five languages. It accompanies the article about the new English translation for the Mass, which US Catholic Bishops voted for at its biannual meeting in Los Angeles.
An article about the demonstration at the bishops meeting will be featured in the next edition of NewWomen, NewChurch. If you would like to send Janice a note of support and congratulations, her email is rhythmsofthedance@msn.com.
3. WOC supports the four women ordained in Switzerland on Lake Constance, June 24, 2006.
WOC sends its blessings and prayers to Roman Catholic Womenpriests Regina Nicolosi, Jane Via, and Monika Wyss, and to the womandeacon from the USA. CONGRATULATIONS!!! May your ministries be blessed!
To read more about these ordinations, click here.
To read a news article about the ordinations, click here .
4. Congratulations to Michelle Chava Redonnet, the winner of the 2006 Bishop Murphy Scholarship for Women in Graduate Ministry!
Chava Redonnet has been a member of the Corpus/Spiritus Christi Community in Rochester, NY since 1980. She has served as a Parish Community Forum Facilitator, Lector and Eucharistic Minister, and she helped initiate the Spiritus Committee Against the War in Iraq. A mother of three, she works as a laboratory technician at the University of Rochester while attending Colgate Rochester Crozer Divinity School, where she expects to graduate in May 2008. She is also a part of the Rochester Catholic Worker community, where she sees her work primarily as nurturing and building the community, as well as working for peace and justice. The question she carries as she prepares for priesthood is, “What is the role of leadership in a community of equals?”
Chava is the author of two books: Standing in the Light, an account of the 1998 upheaval at Corpus Christi that led to the formation of Spiritus, and Don’t Forget to Breathe Glory, a collection of essays on being in community, and is currently working on a third.
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Upcoming Ordinations
1. July 29, 2006 – Kae Madden of the Ecumenical Catholic Communion in Longmont, Colo.
Bishop Peter Hickman of Calif., will be in Longmont, Colo. for the celebration of the Mass at Light of Christ Ecumenical Catholic Church at 5 p.m. July 29. During the Mass, Bishop Peter Hickman will ordain Deacon Kae Madden into the priesthood. Kae Madden will be the first woman from Colorado to be ordained a priest in the Ecumenical Catholic Communion.
Woman priest, Sheila Dierks, will be the Mistress of Ceremonies for Kae Madden's priestly ordination. Sheila Dierks ordination ceremony was celebrated recently on the vigil of Pentecost. To read Sheila Dierks full story of her ordination, see our next edition of NewWomen, NewChurch.
2. July 31, 2006: Twelve women of the Roman Catholic Womenpriests on the Three Rivers in Pittsburgh, Pa.
To read more about these ordinations, please click here: http://www.womensordination.org/pages/press_pages/PressWOCRCWP.htm
To attend the Pittsburgh ordinations, please contact Joan M. Houk (724) 612-3842 or rcwpinfo@comcast.net.
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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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"Please know that I am quite aware of the hazards… I want to do it because I want to do it. Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be but a challenge to others. "
~ Amelia Earhart
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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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