Category: Ministry of Prophetic Obedience

Thursday, my writing day, I celebrated my eightieth birthday. Without any alcohol but after the presence of dear friends and colleagues, I am feeling very mellow and so will write only briefly. Southeastern Pennsylvania Women’s Ordination Conference has celebrated Ordination Day outside the Cathedral for forty-three years, which is an odd referent to the year…
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La Croix International has August off, so every day they post a few articles from earlier this year. Sometimes I remember that I’ve read them and even used them, but sometimes I don’t. One issue I didn’t address is raised in “Why Celibacy?” by Chris McDonnell, a headteacher in England. It’s inspired by a reflection…
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Tradition, as we know only too well, has been wielded – um, traditionally, actually – throughout the ages as a cudgel to keep us from engendering deep and meaningful change in our Church. I won’t name all who have been harmed, but women and LBGTQI? particularly stand out today. As recently as June 2019, however,…
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A central task of the priest. I use the gerund (remember them?) to suggest that pastoring is something that priests do, not just a role that they play. Lots about pastoring this week. “A pastor at heart,” Episcopal Bishop John Shelby Spong died last Monday at 90. Bob Smietana of Religion News Service has a…
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[Editors’ note: Anne Tropeano is a 2020 awardee of the Lucile Murray Durkin Scholarship. This is the second of three in a series of reflections from our 2020 awardees on how the scholarship impacted their journey over the academic year. WOC will also be hosting a “Meet Fr. Anne” Zoom event on Thursday, September 2,…
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Having met Tony Flannery, the Irish Redemptorist priest, in 2014 when he toured the United States, I mourn for his current situation. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has asked him to assent to four statements, and he has declined. NCR and other outlets broke the news on September 15, and later…
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Step by step the longest march can be won, can be won Many stones can form an arch, singly none, singly none And by union what we will can be accomplished still Drops of water turn a mill, singly none singly none https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CnRlNfpCt8o This labor song by Waldemar Hille and Pete Seeger uses lyrics from…
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Way back in the 1990s when John Paul II issued his order not to discuss women’s ordination, very soon the debate shifted to whether it was infallible. While subsequent popes seem to be treating it as if it is, plenty of theologians demonstrated that it isn’t. I use this to introduce what’s happening this week…
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Last week I turned in my MDiv thesis, the culmination of three years of graduate work at Union Theological Seminary. This obviously happened under strange and unforeseen circumstances. I have been living with my parents in Vermont rather than in my Manhattan dorm, for one, and my cats have been unexpected writing partners over the…
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Today is the Feast of the Conversion of Saint Paul. Paul is a conflicting figure for many feminist women of faith because his letters have often been used to reinforce gender roles and stereotypes. Be that as it may, today I want to consider what Paul’s conversion story has to offer women fighting for ordination. …
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