Prayer Events

New Woman, New Church, New Priestly Ministry

Proceedings of the Second Conference on the Ordination of Roman Catholic Women
November 1978, Baltimore, U.S.A. pp 147-158.
Published on our website with permission of the Women's Ordination Conference

• The Liturgical Theme
• Harbor Event - Dolly Pomereau
• Eucharistic Liturgy
• Alternate Liturgy
• Rite of Departure (Your Daughters shall Prophesy - M.Shawn Copeland)

The Liturgical Theme

by Elaine Sonorsky

Elaine Sonosky, liturgical planner for the conference, sees “the People of God as sacraments to the world” and designs liturgical worship to reflect the priestly ministry that she believes all share. She has studied liturgy at the University of Notre Dame Center of Pastoral Liturgy, Georgetown University and Catholic University. She served as chairperson of planning for three years at Good Shepherd Church, Mt. Vernon, Virginia, where she, her husband Jerry and their children are founding members. She is a liturgical consultant with Family Learning Teams, Inc.

Liturgy was focal in the design of the Second Conference for the Ordination of Women. Yet, the liturgical design for the conference found itself in immediate conflict between the gospel of the day: the parable of the Ten Virgins (Matt. 25:1-13) and “her-story:” the story of woman-spirit rising with worldwide storehouses of lamp oil. For some months the pain and woundedness of this paradox was given space to emerge and to speak itself. Finally, a design was conceptualized: a design grounded in one of the Roman Catholic Church’s chief gifts to the world— the ability to celebrate the darkness of the moment, to transform the oppressive now by allowing “her-story” to break through. A symbol was not long emerging — chains, chains of the paradox which our baptism is for women: baptized into Jesus, priest, prophet and king, we as women are negated, we are told that we are incapable of imaging Christ. The Conference began.

We gathered by the waters of the harbor for a re-birth event. We celebrated our experience of chains, chains that oppress and bind and transformed them into chains that link and free. We raised the anchor cross, symbol of our hope, and linked together as sisters with all humanity. We marched to the site of the conference. There our chains were to hang as a sign of our mission to transform all bondage within the Church, within our world. This latter insight caused the designer to take a hard look at the ritual expression of celebrating the Sacrament of Word and Table. This particular liturgy had to be created out of the remembering and re-discovering of a very rich heritage which contained within it an undeniable hope. Although no official theme was stated, “her-story” suffices to describe the event, a commentary on the Word spun out of the lives of woman, everywoman who seeks to move from shadow into light-in-ministry.

Everywoman came forward, called the Spirit of ministry past, present and future. Everywoman spoke to us her-story as it is experienced in the West, the East, the Third World. In the diversity of cultures, the Word of God is recognized. We proclaimed that what God reveals, culture conceals, but more than that, for in Jesus, concealment bursts and gives way to a new creation. We were called to rid ourselves of yeast-gone-stale and to become fresh bread in the banquet of life. We shared the bread, drank the cup. Morning had indeed, broken.

Among the women and men at the Conference, a significant number saw no possibility of celebrating her story if the presider were male. Their celebration claimed, with its painful, moving sense of exclusion, that the reality of women as images of God was central to the Sacrament.

Sunday afternoon signified very poignantly the cost of transformed chains. Like the beginning prayer event at the harbor, it was presided over by women only. As every beginning has an ending, so every ending means a new beginning. We knew we must depart but we left in peace, realizing our true identity. Our Name is Waiting. We meditated on the passion according to Mary, as danced by Carla and Greg, and prayed, blessing and embracing each other. We left, not afraid, and took home pieces of the chain that had spoken so much to us, chains that had come to be a sign of an action of a people who have been called to link and to free.

Harbor Event

by Dolly Pomerleau

Dolly Pomerleau coordinator of the Second Conference, is a/so co-director of the Quixote Center in Washington, D.C. and co-author of Are Catholics Ready? a study of Catholic attitudes toward women in ministry and ordination. An award-winning journalist, she holds an M.A. in Women’s Studies from George Washington University and is active in Catholics Act for ERA.

Greetings

2000 years ago, a man from Galilee stood by a lake and invited the women and men in the crowd to be ministers—

—to go fishing
—to put out into the deep
—and to not be afraid.

He was talking of a new kind of fishing

—a new kind of deep
—and a new reason for being unafraid.

This man from Galilee used the symbol of water often.
He plunged into it at the start of his ministry

—he walked on it
—he spilled it from his side on the cross,
—he spoke of it —and —
he changed it into wine.

We stand by the water today in memory of him.
We stand by the water today in memory of the first women and men who heard this call.

We will put out into the deep.
We are not afraid, because we know that the invitation he spoke to the crowds extends to us.

We too must plunge into the water. . .
We too must preach by the lake . . .
We too must spill our lives. . .
And we too must change the water into wine.

Judith’s Song (Judy Collins)

Prayer

Holy Spirit of God, You breathed upon the chaos and brought forth our universe. You broke the chains of Egyptian bondage, sundered the waters of the Red Sea and led our forebears through the desert to a Promised Land.
When the chains of patriarchy and oppression lay heavy, you spoke forth Jesus. You called him through the waters of baptism, to run before us and sing the song of equality and freedom. He showed his friends how to dance the song, and forge bonds of solidarity to replace shackles of spirit.
Down the centuries, when seekers of power wove nightmares of human oppression and discrimination, the Spirit of Jesus has sung the song of freedom in our hearts and kept our dreams alive.
The voice of the Spirit has become a noisy turtle on our land, singing canticles of liberation in the hearts of oppressed women. From the ends of the earth, we come offering treasures of ministry.
The mighty shall be cast down. The humble shall be exalted. Our church will be turned upside down, until, like a renewed child, it shall welcome Jesus’ dream of freedom and equality for all.
Help us call our church to break the shackles which have enslaved our priesthood. Let neither hardened hearts nor frightened folk deter us from the road of freedom.
It is the road that Jesus walked, a path of suffering, a way of the cross. But it shall be strewn with empty tombs, broken chains and dancing hearts of people set free to be the good news of freedom for the women and men of our world.
It is Jesus’ promise. It is our destiny.

Celebration of the Ministry of Women

Let us remember our foremothers and pray that their wisdom and grace may be shared by women in our time.

MIRIAM, you were a prophet to your people and a liberator of the Exodus

JUDITH, you saved the Israelites through the courage of your spirit and the power of your body

MARY, you sang a canticle of thanksgiving, praising God who casts the mighty from their thrones and raises up the lowly

PRISCILLA, you tutored Apollos and accompanied Paul. Your leadership is now being discovered

JULIANNE OF NORWICH, you were a woman of prayer who knew that God was neither male nor female

JOAN OF ARC, you trusted your voices and followed your mission in spite of the opposition of the bishops

ELIZABETH CADY STANTON, you struggled for women’s freedom and your efforts lead you to compile “The Woman’s Bible”

HARRIET TUBMAN, you risked your life to free and educate your black sisters and brothers

SIMONE WEIL, you were a poet, philosopher and mystic who identified with all people and who refused to join a church that did not include everyone

ELISABETH KASEMANN, you were a young German woman whose work with the poor in Argentina in their struggle for liberation led you to be arrested, tortured and killed in 1977

THERESA OF AVI LA, you were a woman of undaunted faith, a doctor of the church who relentlessly pressed for reforms in the face of criticism and oppression

Reading: II Corinthians 4:1-10

Creator in the Chaos (Rose Ann Olmstead)

Ritual: BURSTING CHAINS, FORGING CHAINS* - Rosalie Muschal-Reinhardt

* Adapted from the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women

(Between stanzas, the verses to “Oh, Freedom” are sung)

All:

We have experienced chains —chains that oppress and bind
We have discovered chains —chains that link and free
We burst the chains that oppress and bind and forge the chains that link and free

All:

We have experienced Biblical chains —chains that oppress and bind
We have discovered Biblical chains —chains that link and free

Reader 1: God who is Father

Reader 2: God who is beyond God the Father

Reader 1: God who is static

Reader 2: God who is dynamic

Reader 1: God whose Word is completed

Reader 2: God whose Word is becoming

All: The Spirit guides us in our struggle, urging us to reach our goal.

All:

We have experienced traditional chains-
chains that oppress and bind
We have discovered traditional chains — chains that link and free

Reader 1: Limited power of women

Reader 2: Affirming leadership of women

Reader 1: Negative images of women

Reader 2: Re-imaging of women

Reader 1: Neglected history of women

Reader 2: Reviving lost feminine roots

All: The Spirit guides us in our struggle, urging us to reach our goal.

All:

We have experienced Experience chains-
chains that oppress and bind
We have discovered Experience chains — chains that link and free

Reader 1: Women’s experience unknown

Reader 2: Recovering stories of women

Reader 1: Women’s experience devalued

Reader 2: Trusting experience of women

Reader 1: Women separate from one another

Reader2: Women bonding in sisterhood

All: The Spirit guides us in our struggle, urging us to reach our goal.

All: Statement of Affirmation (Barbara Zanotti)

We believe in ourselves as women/We believe we are called by God/to minister to our world

We affirm the liberating movement of the Spirit/leading us to freedom both within our church/and within society

We acknowledge our creative power/We choose to extend this power/ in service to a world in need

We pledge ourselves/to eliminate the causes of human oppression/to support the efforts of the poor/to seek the liberation of all people/to affirm the equality of women in our church/to celebrate the presence of the Holy

We place our hope in collective struggle/strengthened by the power of the Spirit

May our lives be a blessing to one another/May our lives be bread of life to the world

Sing a New Song (Dan Schutte, SJ )

Reader 1: Maureen Dwyer
Reader2: Linda Chavez, SC
Many thanks to our musicians: Nancy Hack, Rose Ann Olmstead and Christina Ouimet

Eucharistic Liturgy

Simple Gifts — Opening Song (traditional)

Opening Prayer

O God, in Jesus you came among us as flesh of our flesh. You call us to become like him in all that we do, and to share the gift of your life, with all people. With the Spirit of Jesus we lift the yoke of oppression and smash the rod that would rob your children of freedom and life.

Bless us now as we pray. Help us to enable and encourage one another as we make your work our own.

Bring to completion the promise of Jesus, that indeed, all will be in all.

We make this prayer in the name of Jesus. Amen.

Call To Everywomen

Each hair on our head is counted! Each person proclaimed unique! Thankful for our differences we unite in our cry to be free! In our desire to fully realize our gifts! Come forward now, oh women! Representative of our major cultures, West, East, Third World. Tell us of your call, share with us your dreams.*

*At this juncture, representative women from the first, second and third worlds each come forward to tell ‘herstory.’ The people’s response after each story is ‘Amen, Alleluia.’

Proclamation

In the beginning, God! Creator of all that has been — is — or ever will be! A God who gave breath to man and woman, mutually as one and bestowed on them the gift to co-create. But what God revealed, culture concealed. Ignorance, limitation, sin eclipsed God’s gift of equality in humankind, what was in nature apparent, history managed to shroud in darkness. Jesus came — penetrating to the heart of darkness. Indeed, making all of creation new again. In him, God restored the dignity of all persons. The pristine vision of creation in harmony dawned in women and men. This new day of salvation breaks through the night of culture. In the ministry of service, women and men affirm the Christ, the sign of their co-creation. As shining images bursting through the cultural eclipse, we have Peter, but remember Magdalen, Augustine, but we remember Monica, Martin, but we remember Catherine, Ignatius, but we remember Theresa, Thomas More, but we remember Joan of Arc, John Carroll, but we remember Elizabeth Seton, Tom Dooley, but we remember Dorothy Day.

Reading: From the Prophet Isaiah 43:1-3

PEOPLE’S RESPONSE:

Yahweh, I know you are near,
Standing always at my side.
You guard me from the foe,
And you lead me in ways everlasting.

Reading: From John 21:18

PEOPLE’S RESPONSE:

O Lord, our God, we lift up our
hearts to you.
O Lord, our God, your people
Rejoice in you,

Proclamation: Isaiah 42:10-12 and Galatians 3:28

Sing a New Song (Dan Schutte, SJ )

Rite of Peace

Gospel Acclamation

All you nations sing out your joy to the Lord,
Alleluia, Alleluia

Gospel According to John 15:14-17

Homily

PRAYERS OF THE FAITHFUL

We call on the Spirit of Justice to aid us, to realize equality between rich and poor, to realize disarmament among oppressors and exploiters, to realize liberation for the mortgaged and manipulated street and ghetto people, to realize dignity and reverence for all classes, sexes and races of people.

We call on the Spirit of Peace to aid us to realize a global movement to end all war and promote a world of peace and liberation, to realize assistance to the wounded, to prisoners and exiles, and to all the persecuted, to realize a living memorial named “Never Again” for the victims of

— Birmingham and My Lai
— Dachau and Armenia
— Biafra and Wounded Knee
— Dresden, Coventry, Hiroshima
— Soweto and Chile

For all the victims of vicious oppression wherever they may reside [and] to realize dignity for all the rejected and for those addicted by drugs, alcohol, psychological and physical weaknesses.

We call on the Spirit of Love to aid us to realize a universal flow of love interactive among married couples, those who cherish their single preference, those vowed women and men of religious communities and those in ordained ministries, to realize appreciation and acceptance for all who are close to us here and in every other place, to realize affirmation for our reformers, prophets, preachers and poets, that we may raise them up in the places they are needed, to realize hospitality to everyone that enters our lives and give them the due reverence for the Christ that they bear, to realize a restored planet and full table for our children’s children.

Celebrant’s Conclusion

God our Mother and our Father, all things begin and end in you. Increase in us your spirits of Justice, Peace and Love, hear our prayers and bring us alive to truly call each of your people “friend.” We ask this through Jesus, Christ your Son. Amen.

MASS*

*There follows the Canon of the Mass, in which Eucharistic Rite Four was used, with inclusive rather than sexist language.

COMMUNION MEDITATlON- Betsie Hollants

My being proclaims the greatness of the Lord/My spirit finds joy in God my savior/For God has looked upon this servant in her lowliness. All ages to come shall call me blessed./God who is might has done great things for me./Holy is God’s Name.

BLESSING*

*Celebrant invites others seeking orders to join group around the altar, and the entire congregation blesses each other.

Alternative Liturgy

Early in the conference, some participants expressed a need to participate in a liturgy which for them grew organically out of the conference, and which was free from the patriarchal priesthood, a sharing of bread and wine free from relationships of domination and oppression. The following Alternative Liturgy was celebrated at the same time that the Eucharistic Liturgy occurred.

Song of My Soul (opening song — Chris Williamson)

Call to Worship
Penance Rite
Sharing of Peace

Spirit of the Living God (traditional)

Reading: from Isaiah 61:1-3

Reading: from John 20:11-18 (in Spanish)

Shared Reflection (in English and Spanish)

Yo te amo mucho........................ You know how much I love you
Yo me entrego ti..........................You know how much I care
O mi Dios tu me piste la vida........O my God you have given me
Y sanaste la herida.......................This life and sustained me with your life
Que el pecado me causo .............In my struggle and my strife.

Invocation of the Spirit (in English and Spanish)

Come Holy Spirit, we ask your blessing upon ourselves and upon the gifts we offer. Be among us, fill us with your strength, your wisdom and your understanding so that as women offering true meaning of bread that is broken and wine that is shared as we continue to strive to share our lives with those with whom we minister.

Reading: from Luke 22:14-20 (in English and Spanish)

Period of Silent Reflection

Statement of Affirmation*— Barbara Zanotti

Sing a New Song (Dan Schutte, SJ )

*For the text of the Statement of Affirmation, see the end of the Harbor Event Program (Walk to the Civic Center).

Rite of Departure

Your Daughters shall Prophesy

M. Shawn Copeland, O.P.

Shawn Copeland, OP,is an Instructor in Applied Theology at Harvard Divinity School and the former director of the National Black Sisters Conference. She is a member of the Adrian (MO Dominican congregation.

Peace, My Friends — Opening Song

Opening Prayer — Louise Dempsey, CSJ

Reflection Dance- ‘The Passion According to Mary"
Dancers: Carla De Sola and Greg Reynolds

Inspiration

I am a child born of the union of tradition and crisis. Sorrow is my grandmother; suffering and striving my aunts; begin a-new my great-grandmother. I am a daughter not a son: my name is waiting.

My name has lived my life under the whip, under the lash; my name has lived my life within walls, within bondage; my name has lived my life through exodus, through sojourn.

I have waited in the deserts of Syria, in the streets of Egypt, in the land of Babylon. I have waited in the cloisters of France, in the palace of the Oba of Benin, in the rice-paperhouses of Japan. I have waited in the Glens of Armagh, in the slave ships bound for hell, in the barrios of southern California.

I have waited in the tin shanties of Soweto, I have waited in the showers of Buchenwald; I have waited in the hills of the Dakotas.

I have waited in fields and vineyards, picking cotton and beans and grapes, cutting cane. I have brought down my hoe on hard ground; I have gripped the plow firmly; I have forced fruit from the earth.

I have waited in houses — washing, cooking, cleaning. I have sheltered the orphan, welcomed the stranger, embraced the lonely. I have lived alongside pain and disease, poverty and misery, anxiety and affliction. I have pleaded and hurt; I have known the coming of despair; I have given birth.

I have waited in the journey. My throat has grown parched thirsting for truth and justice. My feet have grown bloody cutting a path across the precipice, making a way where there is no way, coursing a road where there was no road. Righteousness was my guide. I have slept under gathering clouds with hope; I have rested near fresh water with faith; I have eaten and grown strong with love.

I have known blood and want and pain and joy. I have drunk water from the well; I have walked the threshing floor; I have been to the mountain top. I am waiting.

And the word of the Lord came to
Elijah saying,
Go forth, and stand upon the mount
before the Lord.
And behold, the Lord passed by,
and a great and strong wind rent the
mountains, and broke in pieces the rocks
before the Lord, but the Lord was not in the
wind: and after the wind an earthquake, but
the Lord was not in the earthquake: and
after the earthquake a fire, but the Lord
was not in the fire: and after the fire
a still, small breeze.
And when Elijah heard it, he wrapped his
face in his mantle and went out and
stood at the entrance of the cave.

The Lord God was not in the whirlwind.
The Lord God was not in the earthquake.
The Lord God was not in the fire.
The Lord God was in the gentle breeze.

This conference is convened and attended by those who believe that humankind, female and male, reflects the image of God. This conference is convened and attended by those who believe that the Holy Spirit is no respecter of persons, that that same Spirit breathes as it wills. This conference is convened and attended by those who believe that the ordination of women in the Roman Catholic Church is necessary for the Church’s ministry; is important for the Church’s future; is significant for the Church’s tradition.

The Convenors and Planners of this conference have asked me to speak a word. I do so reluctantly. The word I speak comes to me from my God, from my ancestors, from my sojourn; the word I speak surrounds me, becomes me, penetrates me. The word I speak is waiting.

Waiting. Waiting does not surrender the standard; waiting does not submit defeat; waiting does not suppress the call. Waiting is not retreat, waiting is the preparation for advance. Waiting is not cowardice, waiting is the courage to creation. Waiting is not acquiescence, waiting is the struggle for fidelity.

For some, waiting is an abomination, an embarrassment, an anachronism: still, I ask you wait.

Prepare. Be bold and assertive. Struggle.
Minister to God’s people. Listen. Be faithful to your call.
Be firm. Wait.

The whirlwind will not take Tradition. Tradition bars the doors, locks the windows, draws the drapes against the whirlwind.

The earthquake will not take tradition. Tradition reinforces the walls, secures the foundation, repairs the faults at the slightest tremors of the ground.

The fire will not take tradition. Tradition secures the house, surrounds it with a moat, eliminates the volatile.

The whirlwind, the earthquake, the fire: these three only destroy, evoke defense. None but the gentle breeze can take tradition.

The gentle breeze comes quietly under the door; the gentle breeze shakes the foundations; the gentle breeze fans the flame. The gentle breeze calls tradition to new life in every age, holing fast to what is essential; nuancing, shaping, interpreting for the present and future, enriching the past.

For the gentle breeze erodes the established disorder; the gentle breeze challenges the calloused comfort of clericalism; the gentle breeze confronts the complicity and silence of injustice.

The gentle breeze creates the new woman, the new man, the new humanity, the new Church: God is in the gentle breeze. Wait. Those who wait for God shall renew their strength, they shall mount up with wings like eagles, they shall run and not be weary, they shall walk upright and not faint. (Is. 41)

Wait. Waiting is for work, for preparation, for ministry, for dialogue, for building, for bonding.

Wait. Break old chains; discover new ties that bond. Under stand your oppression, and understand that you have oppressed. Understand your hunger, and understand that you have grown strong and well-fed on the backs of others. Understand your pain, and understand that you. have crippled and maimed others.

Break the old chains; discover new ties that bond. Wait and know that in the waiting comes the gracious sovereign love and mercy of our God.

Wait. Soon the very stones will cry out. Wait. But remember: Trouble is coming to any who build towns with blood and found cities on iniquity. Wait.

Wait for the gentle breeze.
Wait even under discomfort, dissatisfaction,
discontent. Wait.
Wait always within community, care, commitment.
Wait hopefully through struggle, sorrow, suffering.
Wait.

I am a child born of the union of tradition and crisis. Sorrow is my grandmother, suffering and striving my aunts, begin anew my great-grandmother. I am the daughter of the Church: my name is waiting.

People’s Acclamation

Sion Sing, Break into Song, For with you
is the Lord — with Saving Power

Matthew 10 passim — Louise Dempsey, CSJ

Response - Prayer of Embrace

Solo-"Bathe Her in Your Love"*

Rite of Goodbye

Be not Afraid - Closing Song

*Gestures by the congregation

(Minister of Music - James Burns

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