Tuesday,
December 30, 2014
Association
of Roman Catholic Women Priests
Historic
Ordination of First Kansas City, Roman Catholic Woman Priest: Georgia Walker:
2PM Jan. 3rd, St. Mark Hope
and Peace Lutheran Church, Kansas City, MO
See:
Contact:
Janice Sevre-Duszynska, D.Min. (Media)
rhythmsofthedance1@gmail.com
859.684.4247
Bishop
Bridget Mary Meehan, sofiabmm@aol.com
703.505.0004
Georgia
Walker, gkwalker@juno.com 816.572.3453
Like
Pope Francis, Women Priests are calling for a radical renewal of the Catholic
Church to follow the heart of Jesus in the Gospels -- who stood on the margins with the marginalized,
including women.
Georgia
Walker will be ordained a woman priest by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan at 2 p.m. on January 3rd at St. Mark
Hope and Peace Lutheran Church, 3800 Troost Ave., Midtown Kansas City. All are
welcome.
Like
Pope Francis, we are leading the church into a new day of Gospel equality and
inclusivity: a radical discipleship of equals where the entire community of the
baptized celebrates sacrament and lives the call to witness Gospel compassion
and justice.
We
invite Pope Francis to read Georgia Walker’s position paper on women’s
ordination which includes the thoughts of our ARCWP community:
1. What is the reason that women are
seeking ordination despite the threat of excommunication?
The
Spirit’s call is strong and we are responding, “Yes.”
Ours
is a prophetic witness for justice. God is a God of justice.
We
are choosing not to continue in our own oppression by denying our call.
Joan
of Arc was declared a heretic, burned at the stake, and later declared a saint
by the church. Pope Benedict canonized two formerly excommunicated nuns, Mother
Theodore Guerin from the United States and Mother Mary MacKillop from
Australia. Therefore, you could say excommunication has become a new fast track
to canonization!
The
treatment of women in the Roman Catholic Church directly influences the
treatment of women everywhere. By answering God’s call to ordination even when
the Church has a law against women being ordained, we are empowering women
everywhere to follow their conscience by speaking truth to power and acting
upon it.
We
love the church, we are dedicated to serving the people of God, and
we preside at sacraments within inclusive communities.
Jesus
never ordained anyone but did travel with men and women who listened carefully
to his life-giving message. These men and women went to cities, towns and villages
to bring the Gospel message to all who would hear it, and the story continues
to the present day. We are from the line of Gospel bearers, and as
ordained women we are part of a long history of men and women who were ordained
to ministry in the early Church. We encourage our church leaders to
read the theologians of the 21st Century and open the door to
dialogue for a new model of church.
As
we looked back on our lives, this step into ordained priesthood was our
response to the Lover God who has been beckoning us into ever and deeper
relationship.
When
we realized that some close friends were recognizing our priestly vocation, we
also realized that this woman priest movement at this particular point in
history was carved out especially for us. The calling for us was twofold: the
priestly part and the justice part.
We
do not accept the legitimacy of excommunication of women
priests. God does not practice the art of patriarchy.
Why
would the hierarchy excommunicate priests who are following their call from God
to priesthood, while the hierarchy does not excommunicate bishops who protect
pedophile priests or priests who are pedophiles?
2. What
would the benefits to the Church (people of God) be if the hierarchy accepted
women’s ordination?
We
would bring forth and take forward our model of priesthood: non-clerical,
inclusive communities where all will be welcome and all will be co-equal in
their participation in liturgy, service and governance.
Inclusive
liturgies with feminine as well as masculine images of God (who is beyond
gender) would support girls’ and women’s images of themselves as being created
in God’s image, thus strengthening their psyches and souls. The benefits to men’s
souls and psyches would be that they would be more in touch with their own
feminine and be inclined to be more cooperative and less inclined to hubris,
competition and violence.
Women
at the table imaging the imago dei in our sacred bodies would
strengthen women’s images of themselves as coming from the Divine and perhaps
lessen femicide and the murder and violence toward girls and women. Perhaps
seeing women at the table would help men to reinforce their respect for women
and our sacred bodies.
The
people of God need to hear the Gospels interpreted from our (women’s) living
and dying. The Gospels are grounded in
social justice. Men and other women need to hear our stories of how justice-making
heals and how injustice causes suffering. Women’s voices need to be
heard in our families, local communities and our world community.
We
as women priests want to bring new life into a dying Church by making it a
place where diversity is welcome and all people have an equal voice.
There
is a connection between the oppression of women in religion and violence done
to women (and their children of all ages) in the world. We must see the
connections among sexism, racism, militarism, nationalism and capitalism.
God
does not practice patriarchy. Jesus teaches us liberation from the
domination/subordination pattern in any relationship. We are to empower each
other in healthy relationships.
The
Church could relieve male priests from their service overload to parishioners
so they would not have to serve multiple parishes simultaneously.
Fewer
local parishes would have to close when female priests and deacons could share
the service.
Sacraments
could be made available to more people on a more regular basis in prisons,
hospitals, nursing homes and other group living situations.
Maybe
many of the 33 million ex-Catholics in the United States would return to a more
inclusive and co-equal Church that empowers and liberates the people of God.
It
is time to open all the windows!
3. What is it about the hierarchy
(Church) that upsets women?
Women
have been caring for people in their families, in society and in their parish
without due equality in power (say-so) and wages.
We
are saddened and scandalized by doctrines and teachings that oppress, exclude
and diminish the lives of anyone. We are ashamed of a Church that is
unwelcoming to women, LGBTQ, divorced or anyone else who is living life in
dignity and love. We do not find Jesus in such exclusions.
When
the priesthood of women is rejected, the Church suggests that our God does not
want what we are longing to give, thereby warping the image of God for all who
accept that teaching, in a particularly pernicious way.
We
cannot believe that it is women priests who must be reconciled to the Church,
rather it is hierarchs who need to be reconciled to the people of God (the
Church).
We
are embarrassed by collectivities of men who meet behind closed doors and
develop positions and edicts that have devastating effects on the lives of
women, children and families without having women present to represent their
experience.
We
as women priests want to bring new life into a dying Church by making it a
place where diversity is welcome and all people have an equal voice.
