WOW Presentation: Breaking Boundaries through Ministry:
Diversity in the Women’s Ordination Movement
Presented by Joy Barnes, former WOC Executive Director July 24, 2005
| Introduction | Ministry of Prophetic Obedience |
| Ministry of Irritation | Diversity of Age, Race, & Geographic Origin |
| Ministry of Walking with Women Called | Questions |
Workshop Description: As the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) approached our 30th Anniversary, we saw a need to develop a new focus for our work around women’s ordination — one that helped us cope with the growing diversity in our movement. After struggling with conflicts over staying within or leaving the church, reforming structures or creating new communities, we developed the “Three Ministries” to address the wide range of thought in our movement today. The Ministry of Irritation challenges the church’s policies regarding women through our grassroots efforts; the Ministry of Walking with Women Called identifies women called to priesthood offering them support, community, and resources as they discern what to do with this call; and the Ministry of Prophetic Obedience identifies women and communities wanting to move forward with alternative ordinations and offer support to push these ideas into dramatic action. Although WOC was able to address the diversity of thought through our ministries, we are still lacking in diversity of demographics — particularly with women of color and young women. Joy Barnes, WOC’s Executive Director, shared the basis of WOC’s Three Ministries and discussed the struggles and successes with addressing diversity through these ministries. She then led participants through a group exercise and discussion about how to better work for a more inclusive movement — one that is accepting of a diversity of opinions, color, and age.
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As we are learning and experiencing here at the conference this weekend, there are many different paths we could take towards reaching our goal of women’s ordination. I’m hearing a healthy dialogue in the movement around some very important questions…
- How do we proceed when there’s no give and take from the hierarchy?
- How can we support women called to ordination in a church that doesn’t accept their call?
- Even the fundamental question of “What is the priesthood?” is a key question we need to examine.
There, of course, are any number of answers to these questions; each of which should help shape the future of the church that we want to create.
Some women are moving forward with ordination, while others think it is necessary to stay within Roman Catholic Church structures to work for change. Still more feel they don’t need ordination to live out their call to service. Then there are some women who focus their efforts on publicly protesting to call attention to the issue of women’s ordination.
All of these approaches represent a diversity of thought and action within our movement- some which we may personally support or personally object to. However, we need to come together as a united movement to push the issue of women’s ordination in the Roman Catholic Church.
I’d like to share with you today, the approach of the Women’s Ordination Conference on how we are becoming unified despite differing views on ordination. A few years back we had a pretty significant conflict within the organization when Mary Ramerman, an American woman whom many of you probably know, was ordained as an Old Catholic Priest. Her situation at Corpus Christi Catholic Church (and now Spiritus Christi) in Rochester, NY was widely known in church reform circles… in fact Mary is speaking here today too.
WOC came out in support of her ordination, saying it was one of the many paths women could take to live out their priestly call. Many of our members were not happy about this stance and we received letters from them saying things like:
“Mary is a schismatic and has rejected papal authority.”
“WOC’s support of Mary’s ordination disregards those who are working within the Roman Catholic Church”
Yet WOC stood by our support believing there is more than one approach to transforming the Catholic Church. We take the same stand for the Danube Ordinations and Monday’s ordination on the St. Lawrence.
When faced with these types of conflicts within our organization, and within WOW- especially in light of the differing views over Monday’s ordinations, we struggle to stay viable as an organization pushing women’s ordination forward. We must learn how to bridge the gap of different ideals about ordination…
It is with this in mind that the leadership of the Women’s Ordination Conference (WOC) established our “Three Ministries”. It incorporates the diversity of thought and establishes a place for everyone in our movement. The three ministries are- the Ministry of Irritation, the Ministry of Walking with Women Called, and the Ministry of Prophetic Obedience. I hope to take some time now to explain each of these to you- to explain their purpose and how we expect them to lead us to the next stage of the women’s ordination movement. Following this, I’d like to spend some time talking about more than just a “diversity of thought” but also about larger diversity in the movement. Then I’d like to reserve time to seek your involvement in some discussion- I’m very excited to hear your international perspectives.
First, the Ministry of Irritation is probably the ministry that most people already associate with WOC- it’s our protest ministry. The purpose of this ministry is to challenge the Church’s policies regarding women through public prayerful protests. To explain the ministry of irritation, we use the analogy of the sand in the oyster, which creates the pearl. We are the grain of sand, irritating the Catholic hierarchy to create a pearl of wisdom! (In fact, at one of our protests last fall we all wore our pearls to demonstrate this point.) This ministry includes the witnessing events that have always been a meaningful part of WOC’s history…Actions that include the following…
- Protest liturgies at the US bishops’ two annual meetings, local ordinations, and Holy Thursday masses . This year with the papal transition and conclave, we had even more creative opportunities to witness publicly for ordination. As the Vatican sent up black and white smoke during the conclave, women’s ordination supporters through out the US sent up “Pink Smoke” in protest of the lack of women’s voices in the church! It is creative events like this that get us the most media coverage- it helps us get our message out. This event was even featured on CNN International.
- The successful billboard campaign that went global in 2001- this started in Chicago as a response to the Archdiocese’s multi-million dollar ad campaign encouraging vocations. The Archdiocese signs said “Waiting for a sign from God? Consider the priesthood.” The WOC billboard played on their theme and said “Waiting for a sign from God? THIS IS IT… Ordain Women!!” It started in Chicago but went to about a dozen different cities around the US, Ireland and even in Rome for the last Bishop’s Synod. It was a clever way to publicize our issue and it too, generated a great deal of media and public response.
- Another act of irritation, probably the biggest annual action of “Irritation” is the World Day of Prayer for Women’s Ordination. It is a significant time to join with the global movement for one large action. For us, in the US, local WOC groups use this day, March 25, to organize public liturgies outside cathedrals, panel discussions, or even small faith community services… basically it’s a time to spiritually reflect and share with others the issue of women’s ordination.
So, now with our new Ministry of Irritation we are beefing up our grassroots efforts. Primarily in the past our focus has been the bishops and hierarchy. WOC has tried dialoguing with the bishops for years and we are finally realizing they do not want to talk with us and they certainly are not listening. Instead of walking away with our heads down, the Ministry of Irritation helps us stand tall. We will continue to witness to the hierarchy because- frankly- they need to know we’re not going away! However, we are also now using these public actions to reach the laity in the pews. Holding prayerful protests outside Holy Thursday masses, for example, allows Catholics in the pew to see, there are women called to ordination and there are people working to change this issue in the church.
One of our hopes with this ministry is that we’re not just irritating outsiders about the issue of women’s ordination. We also need to do some irritation within the movement. It isn’t just meant for the hierarchy- it is meant to push all Catholics, to irritate all Catholics- whether we are bishops, married priests, women called to ordination, or “ordinary lay people” out of our comfort zone to speak about women’s ordination and church reform.
Ministry of Walking with Women Called
While the public actions of the Ministry of Irritation are essential to keep the issue of women’s ordination in the public eye, WOC also saw the need to renew our commitment to support individual women called to ordination. That leads me to speak now about the ministry of Walking with Women Called.
We often receive calls and e-mails at our office from women called to ordination. Women who are gifted and willing to serve, yet have no place to go. It is such a sad state of our church- we have an ever growing priest shortage, but there are thousands of women willing to serve, yet the church is willing to ignore them. It’s sinful on the side of the heirarchy.
The purpose of the Ministry of Walking with Women called is to support women called to ordination, help them find arenas where they can minister, and connect them with other women in their same situation. Some of these women are already in active parish ministry- some are Directors of Religious Education, some serve as campus ministers or hospital chaplains, some are even parish administrators- where they run the church, they do marriage preparation, they hold communion services during the week and then Sunday morning the priest comes in to say mass. All of these women serve as excellent examples of women in ministry.
WOC is offering support for these women by:
- Preparing resources about certification programs and connecting them to groups like FCM where they can be certified to minister, without necessarily leaving Roman Catholic structures
- Offering the Bishop Frank Murphy Scholarship for Women in Ministry- we have this to encourage education and preparation for ministry especially for young women.
- Connecting women with spiritual directors to help them with their discernment process
- And coordinating an on-line community where women called to ordination can share their experiences with other women in similar situations.
We hope this gives them the courage and hope to persevere in the church that can be so disheartening to them. The purpose of this ministry is not only to provide them support and create networks, but it is also preparing a base of women who are skilled, who are in active ministry, and who will be prepared once the hierarchy allows the ordination of women.
For years WOC has focused our efforts on these women… women who are waiting for the hierarchy to overturn Canon 1023 which prohibits the ordination of women… women waiting for a Roman Catholic Bishop to ordain them with the approval of the official church structures. This is really the heart of the Ministry of Walking with Women Called.
However, many women are moving forward with prophetic ordinations outside the Roman Catholic Church. This is causing a growing dialogue around the questions of, “What type of ordination should I support? And what type of ordinations should WOC support?” This is also a debate within WOW. This is a healthy dialogue that helps deal with some serious issues of maintaining integrity to our Catholic traditions yet being open to the new possibilities with the Holy Spirit. The powerful examples of women like Mary Ramerman, Denise Donato, the Danube Seven, and countless others who are moving ahead with prophetic ordinations led WOC to develop our third Ministry, the Ministry of Prophetic Obedience.
Ministry of Prophetic Obedience
I assume that many of you are familiar with these women. They are just a few of the examples of women who have moved forward with ordination.
Still there are other lesser-known women like Judy Heffernan of Philadelphia who are being ordained by their small faith communities. In fact, Judy just celebrated her 20 th Anniversary as a priest this summer. These women have been called by their communities and have been ordained by their communities, without a bishop. This is done in the tradition of early Christianity and goes back to the roots of our Christian priesthood. I think this is a remarkable model of priesthood — one where women are called and anointed by their communities.
As a side note, reporters often ask me the question, “Will you see women ordained in your lifetime?” To which I love to reply, “I already have!” These women are ordained Catholic women. I was there to witness both Mary Ramerman and Denise Donato’s ordinations and I still believe that even the staunchest critic present could not walk away and deny the spirit’s presence there. It was a joyful, spirit-filled occasion and I anticipate the same for this Monday’s ordination.
As demonstrated in just these few examples, WOC is currently seeing a groundswell of women living out their call to priesthood through ordinations by their community, by the Old Catholic Church, and by other alternative bishops. These are the women who cannot wait another century while the church officials drag their feet on this issue of women’s ordination. Now more than ever before, we are seeing that the ordination of women will come and is coming from the bottom up, rather than from the hierarchy down. WOC developed the Ministry of Prophetic Obedience to help women determine what options they have for ordination and to support these women on their individual journeys- in whatever path they choose.
This really is a revolutionary approach. When the WOC board was considering names for this ministry, they originally called it “The Ministry of Ecclesiastical Disobedience.” But after more consideration they realized this ministry is about more than just butting heads with the ecclesiastical hierarchy. It is about listening to and encouraging the prophetic voices of our time- those women taking prophetic steps to live out their call to ordination. So, this ministry is not about “disobeying the hierarchy;” rather, it is about obeying God’s call to serve.
In the Ministry of Prophetic Obedience WOC is not only providing women with resources and networks of support like the Ministry of Walking with Women Called, we are also connecting women to communities and alternative bishops willing to take dramatic steps to ordain them.
Those are the three ministries- the Ministry of Irritation, The Ministry of Walking with Women Called, and the Ministry of Prophetic Obedience. They create our new three-pronged approach to incorporate the diversity of thought within the movement. WOC is moving forward with our Three Ministries in hopes of creating a movement for all people- one that accepts and supports women no matter where they are on their spiritual journeys.
We came to the conclusion that we need a continuum of actions in the movement… We need some women who can stay within the Roman Church and share the example of women in ministry, and we need women who are willing to move outside the church structures to show the example of women as priests. Both groups of people are essential to the movement.
As we move forward we must keep one very important ideal at the forefront of what we do. This ideal is to maintain integrity to our Catholic roots and traditions, yet we must also be open to new possibilities where the Holy Spirit leads us. This is probably the most difficult struggle WOC faces right now. What are the elements that we hold on to- what is essential to our being Catholic? Then on the flip side- what prophetic examples and what prophetic actions is the Holy Spirit leading us to do? Right now, I see our biggest mission is to hold these two questions in tension.
Diversity of Age, Race and Geographic Origin
I’d like to switch gears a bit and move past just a “diversity of thought” with in the movement and really talk about larger diversity.
While we have done, in my humble opinion, an excellent job of incorporating different perspectives and thought within our movement, we are still lacking tremendously when it comes to a diversity of demographics- particularly in regards to women of color/ women from the developing world and with young women!
At the Women’s Ordination Conference our mission is to “work for women’s ordination to a renewed priestly ministry.” The second part of our mission “ordained to a renewed priestly ministry” is just as important as the first. It is what pushes reform past simply ordination and charges us with an even more important duty. It means that we can’t add women to this mess of hierarchy, sexism, and oppression and think that all our problems will be solved. Genevieve Chavez, our former Executive Director whom some of you may remember from Dublin, would always say, “You can’t simply add women and stir!” We need to reform a number of structures in our Church to make sure it is inclusive, welcoming, and supportive of all Catholics. Just the same, it also means we need to look within ourselves as a movement to make sure our organizations are inclusive, welcoming and supportive to all Catholics.
We can look around the room and see who is currently in our movement. We are comprised of primarily Western, white, women, over the age of 50 and 60. Is not our liberation as white Catholic women wrapped in with the liberation of all Catholic people? If we just worked for ordination the way our movement is today, over time some sexism in the Church would disappear, but we would still end up with an oppressive priesthood that excludes homosexual women, married women, black women, and more.
Actually, our Church teachings tell us about the necessity of integrating anti-oppression work in our work for reform. Vatican II called the whole church to reform and renewal and it calls us to work for the transformation of society. Vatican II says : "every type of discrimination is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God’s intent." How much more clear can we get?!
"Every type of discrimination is to be overcome and eradicated as contrary to God’s intent."
However, it is easy to get caught up in one issue. In my five years on staff at WOC I’ve heard sentiments such as…
- “We need to dialogue with the bishops. They don’t care if we have a brown face in the crowd.”
- “We only have so many resources… we don’t have time to talk about racism and homophobia”
I always like to come back to a quote from Audre Lorde, an American Black, Lesbian Poet. She reminds me to continue pressing the need to link oppressions.
- “You can’t dismantle the master’s house, using the master’s tools.”
This quote reminds us to connect the multiple oppressions in our church otherwise we are creating the same hierarchical, oppressive structures.
In fact, Gloria Steinem insists that where there is one oppression present, we should suspect others!
We need to be aware of racism (for example) in our struggle for women’s ordination. Women’s ordination includes ALL WOMEN- white, black, Latina, Aisain, poor, lesbian, celibate, married, all women. We need to make sure that our reform movement includes all of these people. That means, we need to evaluate in ourselves how to be more inclusive and work to dismantle the inherent racism and white privilege visible in our groups.
By now, we can all recognize where we are oppressed in our church. Whether it is because of our sexuality, our gender, our age, or even just because of the more progressive views we hold, we are marginalized in some way. We are even marginalized in our own movement — here too because of our age or our sexual orientation, and maybe because we are more liberal or more conservative. So, as people working for our own liberation, we must be aware of how we oppress and exclude others.
I’d like to Challenge WOW as an institution: what do we need to do to create an inclusive church? I believe we need to start within ourselves … by creating more inclusive movement. And, we do this by creating relationships… that means more than just inviting women of color to speak at the conference… it is truly knowing them and getting to know the issues they face.
I need to note that the diversity of thought and of demographics aren’t exclusive of each other… our personal diversity shapes our differing views. When we have more diversity we will likely have more differing views. This is wonderful for the movement… it is what makes us grow wider and stronger to reach more people and to ultimately reach our goal of women’s ordination to a renewed priestly ministry.
I’ve left this portion a little underdeveloped because I’d like to take the rest of our time to discuss this concept together. I’d like for us to discuss HOW we can move toward integrating diversity into our work for reform and renewal in the church. I believe we need to give dignity the to lived experiences so I’ve prepared a few questions for you to talk in small groups of 4-5 people.
Basically, I’d like us to examine in ourselves how our own identity shapes our views about ordination. For example, as a young woman, up until this spring, JPII was the only pope I’ve ever known. I haven’t experienced life pre-Vatican II and don’t know what it was like in the hopeful days around Vatican II. So, my experience is colored by my age- in some aspects I have a fresh approach without seeing the doors close for women. I only have experienced the oppressive nature of JPII’s papacy and the beginnings of Benedict XVI.
Next, I’d like us to examine how we would like others to acknowledge our perspectives, and then how we can relate that to better acknowledge the perspectives of others.
I’d like to discuss questions in small groups for about 30 minutes, then come back and share thoughts with the larger group.
How does our identity shape our views about ordination?
How would I like the movement to acknowledge my perspective?
How can we better support those in the movement with different perspectives?