Release date: September
15, 2015
From: The Association of
Roman Catholic Women Priests (See: www.arcwp.org)
Women Priests are rising
up for justice, changing the church one community at a time. We are building
inclusive communities of equals where justice is rising up for all people
especially the poor, marginalized women and children worldwide and in the
church. The good news is that the international women priests' movement has
grown from the Danube Seven in 2002 to 215 in 2015. We serve over 75
communities.
The Association of Roman
Catholic Women Priests welcomes Pope Francis to the United States and rejoices
in his work to save Mother Earth and to transform unjust structures that
marginalize the least and the last in our world. Until Pope Francis affirms the
full equality of women in the church – including women priests – and makes the
connection that poverty, violence and the abuse of women in the world are
connected to the second-class status of women in the church, justice will not
become a reality in the Catholic Church. “Women Priests are a holy shakeup,”
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan states, “changing the church one priest and one
community at a time. If Pope Francis were to open the way for women to be
ordained, he would be embracing inclusivity and equality for all of God’s
people. He would end injustice in the church which would significantly impact
the rampant abuse of women in the world.”
The Association of Roman
Catholic Women Priests is one of the international branches of this movement
that is experiencing a growth in vocations. We are ordaining three women bishops
to ordain priests to minister and serve alienated as well as progressive
Catholics in inclusive Eucharistic Communities where all are welcome at the
Banquet Table of God’s Love: Gays, lesbians, bisexuals, transgender, divorced
and remarried, and women who no longer feel at home in their own
church.
On Thursday, September
24th, 2015 at 2 p.m. the
Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests will ordain three women bishops.
They are Mary Eileen Collingwood of Boston Heights, a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio
USA ((216) 408-4657 mecreg6@yahoo.com; Michele Birch Conery
of Windsor, Ontario, Canada (519) 962-7016 liberata999@gmail.com and Olga Lucia Alvarez
of Medellin, Colombia olalbe@gmail.com (For English-speaking
information about Olga contact Silvia Brandon-Perez silviantonia@gmail.com (510)
294-8584.
The ordination will take
place on September 24th at 2 p.m. at Pendle
Hill Retreat and Conference Center, 338 Plush Mill Rd., Wallingford, PA 19086.
(610) 566-4507.
The ordaining bishops
are Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, author of 20 books, including Living Gospel
Equality Now. She serves as a pastoral member of Mary Mother of Jesus
Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, FL sofiabmm@aol.com. Bishop Sibyl Dana
Reynolds, RCWP, is author of Ink and Honey, a historic and spiritual
novel and founder of the Sisters of Belle Coeur, a contemporary, contemplative
spiritual community. dana@sacredlifelarts.com. Bishop Bernard
Callahan, a chaplain at Children’s Hospital in Philadelphia and a bishop with
the Ecumenical Catholic Ordinariate, will co-consecrate.
The Federation of
Christian Ministries (FCM) will be represented by its president, Thomas
Cusak.
The bishops-elect
are:
Mary E. Collingwood of
Hudson, OH has served for over 40 years in church ministry. With an MA in
Theology from St. Mary Seminary and Graduate School of Theology in Wickliffe,
OH, she served as Director of Religious Education, Coordinator for Marriage
Preparation, Pastoral Associate, Director of the Diocesan Pro-Life Office and on
various boards and councils. Mary and her husband, Rich, continue to be blessed
with seven children and are grandparents. Weekly celebration of Eucharist,
administering the sacraments, pastoral counseling, and supporting women in
ordained ministry is her calling and passion. Mary was ordained a priest in
Brecksville, OH on May 24, 2014.
Michele Birch Conery of
Windsor, ONT Canada celebrated her 10th anniversary as Canada’s
first woman priest on July 25th. Michele was ordained a
deacon in Passau, Germany in 2004 and a priest in 2005 on the St. Lawrence
Seaway. A retired professor of English Literature and Women’s Studies with a
focus on Women and Religion, she lived and ministered on Vancouver Island with
outreach to the LGBTQ Dignity Vancouver community. In 2013, she moved to Windsor
where she collaborates with priest Barbara Billey and their Heart of Compassion
Faith Communities in Ontario and Michigan.
Olga Lucia Alvarez of
Medellin-Colombia was educated by the Dominican Sisters of the Presentation. She
did USEMI Missionary work with indigenous and Afro-Colombian communities and was
secretary of CELAM Medellin in1968. Formation included religious studies,
pastoral ministry, higher catechesis Superior, liberation theology and an
emphasis on popular reading of the Bible. Olga was ordained a priest in
Sarasota, FL on December 11, 2010. She accompanies several communities and
strengthens the ecumenical base primarily of the itinerant. She works with women
ex-convicts and ASFADDES (Association of Families of the Disappeared), is author
of several books and articles in biblical-theological reflection and is a member
of the Collective of Ecumenical Bible Scholars (CEDEMI).
USEMI is Unión Seglar de
Misioneros, founded by Mgr. Gerardo Valencia Cano. It was a missionary group
that worked throughout the country supporting and defending the rights of the
poor and marginalized communities in Colombia, in particular indigenous and
Afro-Colombian communities.
