Introduction: Today
we rejoice as the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) ordains Phoebe
Joan and Edmund John as priests and Lindy Sanford and Abigail Eltzroth as
deacons.
Not only do we celebrate the New Story of original blessing, wholeness and holiness, each of us is a new story.
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| On right, Lindy Sanford, Abigail Eltzroth, on left Bridget Mary, Kathie Ryan, Lynn and Bernie Kinlan at podium |
And
together we are a new story of mutual partnership and spiritual equality with
the community of the baptized! Like Jesus. Like Phoebe Joan and Edmund John,
like Lindy and Abigail, like the Upper Room, Like ARCWP, like everyone in this
gathering, this is our vision!
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| Bridget Mary lays hands on Lindy Sanford ARCWP |
We are
all a part of the dance of life, moving and growing, within and
without, in the embrace of the Holy One who loves us. We are the beloved!
We rejoice that we are loved infinitely, boundlessly, beyond anything we could
ever imagine or dream! This is a moment for dancing!
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| Bridget Mary lays hands on Abigail Eltzroth ARCWP |
So
lift up your hearts and feet as the Holy One dances within us energizing us to
take a giant leap forward today to break through injustices that discriminate
against women and men called to ordination in an inclusive church.
Our
story is Jesus’s story, spiritual power for us, in us, and moving through us
always healing, transforming, loving, empowering , drawing us into deeper
wholeness and oneness in the Holy One. Our mission, like Jesus’ mission
is to celebrate our oneness with others in a circle of compassion that welcomes
everyone to the feast including the voiceless, the demonized, and the
marginalized.
Theologians
today are rediscovering the wisdom tradition as a resource for speaking
about the mission of Jesus. As Elizabeth Johnson writes in Abounding in
Kindness, p. 205
"The
gospel can be proclaimed as the good news of Jesus, a prophet and child of
Sophia sent to announce that God is the God of all inclusive love
who wills the wholeness and humanity of everyone, especially the poor and heavy
burdened.
Again
and again in imaginative parables, compassionate healings, startling
exorcisms and festive meals he spells out the reality of the renewing power of
the reign of Sophia-God drawing near. New possibilities of relationships flower
among women and men who respond and join his circle. They form a community of
the discipleship of equals.”
So we
gather today, movers and shakers in a dance of liberating empowerment, changing
the Catholic Church, one inclusive community of equals at a time, one ARCWP
priest and deacon at a time. Like the prophet, Miriam who “took up tambourine
and all the women joined in with her with tambourines and with dancing”, we are
leading a new Exodus dance of praise out of patriarchal domination into Gospel
inclusivity in our church today.
Now Phoebe Joan and Edmund John will continue our homily.
Edmund John:
“We are all hungry for wisdom.” In our
scripture reading, we encounter the divine feminine in Sophia, holy wisdom,
present in every phase of our spiritual development and challenging us to move out
of our comfort zones.
“She cares about justice for she is
also a "friend of the prophets," and the prophets were summoned to
see justice replace injustice.”
Where are the prophets of today? You
are here in this room for Wisdom calls us to be disciples of Jesus, disciples
of justice and equality.
By our holy baptism we are
commissioned to live out the mission and ministry of Jesus. And it was a simple
mission but also a dangerous one. It was seeing the face of God in all
people no matter who they are, what their race, what their sexual orientation,
what their religion. It is a call for dignity and respect for all of God’s
people, as well as all of God’s creation.
Bridget Mary reminds us that we are
part of the dance of life. “That we are loved infinitely, boundlessly,
beyond anything we could ever imagine or dream.” Imagine that you are
loved and have been loved since first conceived. Now look around you, and
see all who share this same love.
Our challenge is to embrace the love
we have been given, and then to share that love and recognize that love in all
those with whom we come in contact.
The further challenge is to speak
that message when we see injustice occurring. It is not always the popular
stance to take, as it wasn’t for Jesus. But as his followers, as those
who profess belief in him, we are called to be the prophets of today speaking
against inequality and injustice in all their forms.
The good news is that we have
guidance in this regard, and it is the Beatitudes that we read for our
Gospel. I’m sure you noticed that each phrase did not begin with the
usual, “Blessed are” but rather “You’re in the right place”. Scripture
scholars have determined that this is really the more appropriate
interpretation, denoting where we should stand and with whom we should
stand. We stand with the meek, those mourning, the peacemakers, those
hungry and thirsty, the persecuted. We are not standing aside them, we
are entering the dance of life with them, entwining our lives with theirs,
bringing the love and compassion of our God into our shared human experience,
the experience that is filled with both joy and sorrow, hope and longing, love
and peace.
The dance calls us to share the love of the divine, to recognize in ourselves and help others to recognize in themselves the spark of the divine. It is this spark that energizes the dance and propels us forward to a more just and equal world.
Phoebe Joan:
In June of 2015, as we were ordained
deacons, I remember saying:
“There is no end to our work.
The wind comes among us and stirs
our souls to respond in new ways, unforged ways, and yet ancient ways as well.
Each of us here on the altar and
with us in our community, responds as best we can to the call of our human
beingness, and to the knowing of our spirit.
In our space together, we create
this momentous occasion; we share the sacred here in our midst.”
Our work then, is to know the joy
and love of this place where we find ourselves, and to reflect it to the world.
We see that reflection of love in
each of you as a mirror of divine presence wholeness. and compassion.
We know that we are in the right
place when we see the face of God everywhere.
As human beings on this path, with
all of the wonderful gifts that we have been given, and that we can choose to
share, we say to each of you:
Come join us!
Come – Go – into your day with us,
and be joyful in the Love that you create and that you witness.
Know that you – each of you – is a
dancer in this wonderful Dance of Life!
Bridget Mary: Conclusion:
Today we celebrate the New Story,
that each of us and our world is
full of God. Like Jesus in the Gospels, we know that we are in the right place
when we care about and for others by living compassion in practical ways each
day. Standing in solidarity with all those who are exiled and oppressed in our
church, we welcome all to the Sacred Banquet where there is room at the table
for everyone. Today, as we ordain Phoebe Joan, Edmund John, Lindy, and Abigail, we walk
in the footsteps of prophets Miriam and Jeremiah, leading God’s people to
justice and equality “as we go forth with joy and with tambourines in the dance
of the merrymakers.” (Jeremiah 31:3-4)
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