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Friday, December 13, 2013

A Sacred Journey - Conversations with a Contemporary Mystic: Dr Adele Jones, ARCWP


This week I have been blessed by my visit with Dr. Adele Jones, a Roman Catholic Woman Priest, and a mystic who lives in San Antonio, Texas. Here are a few of her spiritual insights:
Adele Jones and Bridget Mary Meehan, left to right
at Villa San Antonio

 First, Adele who lives in joyful solitude in a senior living community, believes that we are all called to be mystics and prophets.

She is grateful that she lives in San Antonio, a sacred place among people who descend from Latin American indigenous people who provide a rich cultural and spiritual heritage.
Dancers at Our Lady of Guadalupe Liturgy in San Antonio

She credits institutions such as Incarnate Word, a Catholic University here, for leading the way in presenting in depth spiritual programs on topics like the new cosmology.

River Walk, San Antonio

Adele believes that there is a convergence that is happening now among people from diverse religious traditions who are coming together to share and to celebrate their experiences of Indwelling Presence in this world and beyond. "What could be more mystical than gazing at the stars," Adele said. She feels God's presence everywhere and is never bored.  


A devotee of the Feminine Divine,  Dr. Jones shared these thoughts from her workshop: "Sophia, the Breath of God: An Invitation to Wisdom":
"...Sophia is nearly unknown in the twenty-first century but her presence in the world can be experienced as she again calls out amid the chaos, confusion and violence of our times. Once she is heard and her wisdom penetrates the human heart and mind, wise solutions to problems will be discovered, both individually and collectively...As more and more groups develop in wisely solving situations, whole cultures and societies will be influenced. It begins with one. It begins with me. It begins with you. A small beginning but a start. The idea of learning to live more wisely as an individual with the potential for that to spread to others is the most exciting adventure I can imagine..."

Adele Jones in her home in Villa San Antonio
We concluded our time together by celebrating Eucharist. As we prepared the altar, we prayed:
"Nurturing God, we are united in the sacrament by the love of Jesus Christ in communion with Mary, who proclaimed God's power and mercy for the lowly and oppressed. Like Mary, First Disciple, may we live as prophetic witnesses in the Gospel. Like Mary May we discover the liberating power of Woman-Spirit in our midst. We ask this through Jesus, our brother, the cosmic Christ of the ages."

Our Lady of Guadalupe at Cathedral in San Antonio

On Dec. 12th, the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe, I attended a festival of dance, song, and liturgy celebrating the liberating presence of Mary, who appeared to Juan Diego in Mexico in the 1500's and who is a powerful symbol of divine solidarity with the oppressed, poor, and marginalized people of the Americas.  I was deeply touched by the drumming, chanting, dancing, singing, and ritual. It unites you with Spirit Energy and Sacred Power that is beyond words or description. I believe that Our Lady of Guadalupe is calling us into a deeper consciousness of our own spiritual power that can do more than we imagine to live compassionately and to do justice. We are one holy people of God and we are called to go deeper into the Mysteries of Faith and to evolve beyond our wildest dreams or greatest hopes. Now this is the spiritual adventure of a lifetime. We are witnessing the birthing of a new creation in which justice is rising up to embrace all in infinite love!

3. At the showing of "Pink Smoke Over the Vatican" in San Antonio on Dec. 12th, I met several interfaith leaders who expressed support for the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. Each of them shared that as people of faith we are on a journey into a deeper  mystical journey of oneness in the Indwelling Presence of a God who is in all and beyond all. Incarnational spirituality is making a resurgence among people from different faith traditions and denominations. One Presbyterian minister wondered if this might now lead someday to one "catholic" church. Other signs of hope that these leaders observed are the world wide movement for gender equality, and Pope Francis's stance in solidarity with the poor and critique of economic injustice and global inequality.

As I prepare to leave San Antonio, I am grateful for the hospitality of all whom I met especially Dr. Adele Jones, a sister priest and joyous contemplative, an energetic nun and priest, and  the interfaith spiritual leaders from the Presbyterian, Baptist and Episcopalian Churches.
I pray that one day I will return to this warm and vibrant city!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
www.arcwp.org

Thursday, December 12, 2013

Nine Civil Resisters, Including Male and Female Priests to Put Nuclear Weapons on Trial on Dec. 13th

For immediate release: Dec. 9, 2013    
Attached: Lauren Logan under arrest, photo by Chris Zebuyak
Contact: Jane Stoever, 913-206-4088, janepstoever@yahoo.com
 
Nine civil resisters to put nuclear weapons on trial Dec. 13, 1:30 pm
Join civil resisters on Friday, Dec. 13, at their Municipal Court trial in KC, Mo. The nine defendants were among 24 line-crossers July 13 at KC’s new nuclear weapons parts plant, which Honeywell will manage at Botts Road and Mo. Hwy. 150. At the courthouse entry at 12:45 pm on Dec. 13, the defendants will each make a statement before stepping through a door marked, “Open the door to a nuclear-weapons-free future!” In court, they will say why they oppose nuclear weapons, why they’re working to free the Earth from these WMDs. Specifics:
Noon rally at a restaurant west of 11th and Oak, KCMO—light lunch, then a march past City Hall to Municipal Court between 12:30 and 12:45 pm.
1:30 pm trial, Courtroom B, with Judge Ardie Bland
Defendants: Local resisters Cele Breen (a Sister of Charity of Leavenworth), Lauren Logan, Jane Stoever, Georgia Walker; other resisters Carl Kabat, OMI, of St. Louis; Bill “Bix” Bichsel, SJ, of Tacoma, Wash.; Betsy Keenan of Lamoy, Iowa; Janice Sevre-Duszynska of Lexington, Ky.; and Jerry Zawada, OFM, of Burlington, Wis.
 
Among the defendants, Lauren Logan spent more than 24 hours in a holding cell July 13-14 before being released. An administrative specialist in integrated communications for the Community of Christ, based in Independence, Mo., Lauren says she will plead not guilty by reason of sanity. Every creature is by nature loving, peaceful, oriented to community, says Lauren. The new plant will contribute to the destruction of our environment and of people, and therefore is illegal, she says. “We are law-abiding. We shouldn’t be criminalized or punished” for objecting to the plant. She is Buddhist, and the Buddhist beliefs in the sanctity of each living being and in opposition to violence are basic to all world religions, she says.
Another defendant, Georgia Walker, is a community organizer helping provide homes to the homeless and build understanding among midtown KCMO apartment residents. Georgia says the word “trespassing” usually involves laws to protect property, and the line-crossers did no damage to the land and had no weapons. “I am outraged,” she says, that the city of Kansas City arranged for the acquisition of the property, a good beanfield, and now it has five buildings on it for making WMD parts. Two of Georgia’s aunts worked for the IRS at Bannister Federal Complex, home to the current KC Plant, and the family believes their deaths from cancer at ages 62 and 63 were caused by exposure to contaminants from the KC Plant, which has made parts for nuclear weapons since 1949 at the complex.
Defendant Cele Breen says that since she’s a native of Kansas City, what KC does matters to her. Her father was a patriot—her Dad went to World War I and served under Capt. Harry Truman, Truman asked Cele’s Dad and others in Battery D to walk beside his car in the celebration of his election, and Truman came to her Dad’s funeral. Cele remembers how shocked she was to find out that the Japanese wanted to surrender earlier in the summer of 1945, but Truman wanted to test the bomb and proceeded with doing that, as shown in the movie “The Hidden Bomb.” Cele says that during the trial, she plans to refer to the word “property” in the municipal ordinance and discuss the city’s approval of plans that financed the new nuclear weapons plant.
Defendant Janice Sevre-Duszynska reflects, “We come from the Holy Mystery, from our Loving God who is about abundance and blessing, not suffering. We are to make life-giving choices, not those that bring about suffering to ourselves and others. To act otherwise is blasphemous of the Spirit that lives through us. We are making so-called security our idolatry ... and it is insatiable. We are contaminating our Holy Mother Earth, causing suffering and death from cancer and the breakdown of the body from the handling of these chemicals. We are also taking away from our community and federal budgets the funds needed by the people in their communities. Again, this weapons plant brings death and suffering.”
Defendant Betsy Keenan says that since the end of the cold war and the moratorium on nuclear explosive testing, the KC Plant’s mission has shifted from making and procuring parts for new nuclear weapons to supplying new components for current weapons in support of their “life extension programs.” In contrast, says Keenan, the International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons is calling for people everywhere to open the door to a nuclear-weapons-free world.  The defendants symbolically stepped through that door July 13, into territory controlled by the National Nuclear Security Administration and operated by Honeywell for the death-dealing work of nuclear destruction. On Dec. 13, the defendants will call for disarming these ecocidal weapons and creating healthy, worthwhile alternatives, says Keenan. “We will take the call from the street to the courtroom. I grieve that the nation I live in is the only nation to have used these weapons in war, and has not repented. It seemed fitting to me—since these weapons are being enabled and their “life extended” relatively close to my Catholic Worker home in southern Iowa—that I should join in this effort to open the door to a new, safer world, by opposing the KC Plant.”
##

Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests : Olga Lucia Alvarez Presides at Sacraments in Colombia, South America

EL CAMBIO CLIMÁTICO DEL AMOR SE HACE PRESENTE. CIUDAD DEL CAMPO, PUERTO MALLARINO,
HOSPITAL S.JUAN DE DIOS,LOS POLVORINES,CENTRO MELENDEZ-CALI-VALLE
     
Aunque no nos lo creamos, Adviento se siente, cada año viene con hermosas novedades y sus vientos de cambio son más fuertes. Su cambio climático de Amor, contagia y se siente. Se aprecia la humildad de la Esencia Divina, abrazándonos, protegiéndonos y haciéndose UNO de nosotras/os en medio de la humanidad.
MANIFESTACIONES DE ADVIENTO
 
Ciudad del Campo 1
Bautismo de una adolescente Daniela, padrinos Marina Teresa y Henry
Bautismo de una adolescente: Daniela, padrinos Marina Teresa y Henry
Renovación de los Votos Matrimoniales de Marina Teresa y Henry
Renovación de los Votos Matrimoniales de Marina Teresa y Henry
Un reconciliación fraterna dentro de la Eucaristía
Un reconciliación fraterna dentro de la Eucaristía
La Comunidad concelebrando.La Comunidad concelebrando.
Delante de la Comunidad recibiendo la bendición de la Sabiduría matriarcal
Delante de la Comunidad recibiendo la bendición matriarcal de la Sabiduria. 
Puerto Mallarino 
En el Centro Cultural Playa Renaciente, con los niños del sector.
En el Centro Cultural Playa Renaciente, con algunos  niños del sector.
Dando la unción de la Salud y la Vida a la Señora Leonia
Dando la unción de la Salud y la Vida a la Señora Leonia. En el Hospital San Juan de Dios-Cali
Celebración Eucaristía en Sororidad Centro Cultural Melendez 
Preparando las lecturas para la Liturgia
Preparando las lecturas para la Liturgia, con las mujeres del Barrio El Jordán
Aspecto de la Eucaristía en el Centro Cultural Melendez
Aspecto de la Eucaristía en el Centro Cultural Melendez
Preparando la mesa en compañía de Valentina (indigena paez)
Preparando la mesa en compañía de Valentina (indigena paez) del B. Los Polvorines
 
Atendiendo  las preguntas surgidas entre las participantes
Atendiendo las preguntas surgidas sobre el Movimiento ARCWP  entre las participantes, después de la Eucaristía.
Las mujeres del Barrio Jordán, se hacen presentes con un fraternal saludo.
Las mujeres del Barrio Los Polvorines, se hacen presentes con un fraternal saludo.

Deacon Denise Davis Shares a Reflection About the Laying on of Hands During Ordination on Dec. 8, 2013 in Louisville, KY.

I just have to thank everyone for all the work and love all of you put into our Louisville ordination! Even just traveling to and around our city, one that saw maybe two flakes of snow all last winter, proved to be quite the experience. Truly, it was a powerful experience, one so hard to express through words alone. One moment, though, did stand out. 

As a group of you beautiful and amazing women priests gathered around me to bless me with your love, prayers and support, I couldn't help but feel the differences among you in that moment as your hands pressed upon me. Hot hands - I think Dottie's - were warming the right side of my face while a pair of much cooler ones gently cradled my left side. Aware of both, I cherished the gifts of both while understanding the tension to be held within. Bonded to each other by our blessed call, we carry different gifts, different charisms all the same. I am so very, very grateful to be among a group of loving souls who know what it is to accept all differences, to allow each full expression, rather than attempting to define and limit too narrowly what it is to be a called woman priest of God's. Is that an easy thing to do, to be so open and accepting? Our church's history teaches us it isn't. But yet, but yet, we who trust so fully in the loving guidance of Christ Sophia know it is not only possible, but quite attainable if only.... if only we do what you do so well already.... Love gently, love mercifully, love fully, knowing that only in love will we experience the peace and joy of the kin-dom! Thank you again... and again.... and again......



Our Lady of Guadalupe Celebration at St. Henry's Church in San Antonio, Texas

First I heard the powerful beat of drums, then melodious singing that touched my soul.
Before dawn today, a large crowd of people gathered at an outside grotto to celebrate the feast of Our Lady of Guadalupe at St. Henry Church in San Antonio. They sang and danced then, moved into the church for a joyous celebration of the Eucharist. I was moved by their deep faith and devotion to Our Lady of Guadalupe, who is for all of us, a model of solidarity with the oppressed and an example of justice rising up for the marginalized people of all times.   Our Lady of Guadalupe, pray for the people of God, especially those who suffer from poverty and oppression. Let us work together in solidarity to bless our sisters and brothers and to bring about justice including immigration reform in our country. Bridget Mary Meehan, www.arcwp.org



 
altar at Cathedral in San Antonio on Dec. 12, 2013

Wednesday, December 11, 2013

Hints that Pope Francis Will Change Mandatory Celibacy Rule for Priests

Sex and the Single Priest - NYTimes.com

Dec 1, 2013 - There are hints that Pope Francis may take up the issue of a celibate, and lonely, clergy.
 

"Praising God with Drums, Dancing and the Woman Clothed with the Sun"

 
A few hundred matachines dancers gathered before 7 a.m. in freezing weather at Mission Concepción on Sunday, Dec. 8, 2013 – the feast day of the mission.  An image of a woman pregnant with love allures people to hope and leads them into dances of joy. A few million people will gather in Mexico City, Dec. 12, at the shrine with the image of Our Lady of Guadalupe.
Many more will be dancing in various places in San Antonio before dawn on Dec. 12 and throughout this season.

Sunday, December 8, 2013

Kentucky Courier Journal Article on Ordination of Women Priests and Deacons in Louisville on Dec. 8, 2013

http://www.courier-journal.com/article/20131208/NEWS01/312080047/Women-named-priest-deaconsWritten by Charlie White The Courier-JouralNews
   
"Mary Sue Barnett lay prostrate Sunday before members of the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests and others laid their hands on her in solemn reverence and prayer.
They had a clear message for the Vatican on Sunday, ordaining Barnett as its latest woman priest.
“The time has come for a holy shake­up that will bring new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond,” the Rev. Bridget Mary Meehan, the ordaining bishop, said during the ceremony.
More than 200 people attended the afternoon ceremony for Barnett at Central Presbyterian Church in Old Louisville.
Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan ordains Betty smith a deacon, Mary Weber on right
was also ordained a deacon.

Four other women were ordained as deacons: Denise Menard Davis and Betty Smith of Louisville, Mary Weber of Indianapolis and Ann Harrington of Greenville, N.C.
It was the second such ceremony in Louisville in the past year.
“It’s a very natural next step for me, a joy-filled step,” Barnett, 51, said after the ceremony, adding there are “women of all ages who need to be visible and need to be heard.”
Mary 'Sue Barnett in middle in red, next to Bridget Mary
newly ordained deacons, left to right
Denise Smith, Ann Harrington, Betty Smith and Mary Weber

She will give her first liturgies at First Unitarian Church on Fourth Street at 5 p.m. Dec. 21.
Barnett, who is married, has two sons and lives in the Lyndon area, was born and raised in the traditional Roman Catholic Church, attending St. Athanasius, Mother of Good Counsel and Church of Epiphany in Louisville. She also has taught at Catholic institutions, including Presentation Academy, Assumption High School, Spalding University and St. Catharine College."


"There are now more than 160 women priests in the association, said Meehan, of Mother Mary of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Fla.
The association’s first seven women were ordained as priests in 2002 on the Danube River in Europe, and a dozen more were ordained in the first U.S. ordination in Pittsburgh in 2006.
Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Louisville officials have said Catholics should not support or participate in events held by the association, maintaining it has no connection to the Roman Catholic Church.
Some association supporters who attended Sunday’s ceremony sat on the upper level to avoid having their photos taken because they said they would be excommunicated if they were seen at the ceremony.
Pope Francis, like other pontiffs before him, has rejected the idea of women priests, although he is trying to include them more in the church.
The Rev. Janice Savre-Duszynska, an association member, said priesthood “goes beyond gender.”
She’s among those who say frescoes the Vatican recently restored in the Catacomb of Priscilla — including one that appears to show a woman being ordained by a bishop — are evidence of women deacons and priests.
But the Vatican has a different interpretation.
“This is an elaboration that has no foundation in reality,” Barbara Mazzei of the Pontifical Commission on Sacred Archaeology told Reuters last month."
Reach Charlie White at (812) 949-4026
 





    Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Ordination in Louisville, KY on Dec. 8th, 2013

    Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests' Ordination on Dec. 8, 2013
    Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan ordains Betty Smith a deacon in Louisville, KY on Dec. 8, 2013


     

    Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests Ordains Five Women in Louisivlle, KY. on Dec. 8th/ Homily by Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP



    Homily: “Christ Sophia Calls Us to be Emissaries of Equality”
    By Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP
    Today we rejoice because 5 women will be ordained in Louisville, Kentucky in the second ordination in this city in less than 1 year.

    Who says there is a vocation shortage in the Catholic Church?

    Women are saying “Yes, we will follow Christ as deacons, priests and bishops in a community of equals.”

    Yes, like Peter, we are stepping out of the boat and walking on water, trusting that God is leading the way!

    Believe me, it is quite a spiritual adventure and rocking the boat sure is fun!

    As a woman priest, Mary Sue Barnett, like the female disciples of Jesus, will be living her dream of Gospel equality.  Mary Sue writes poetry and develops Wisdom Retreats, she mentors an ecumenical young adult activist group called Revealing Sophia's Truth and she assists in pastoring at Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community in Louisville. 

    Like deacon Phoebe, whom St. Paul praised as an outstanding leader in Romans 16, our newly ordained deacons will be serving the needs of their faith communities.

    As a deacon, Betty Smith,  spouse of Dr. Amory C. Smith, mother of four and grandmother of 13, will be ministering in local nursing homes to families  of  residents whose loved ones have had strokes, head trauma injuries, or dementia.  Betty has served as a Catholic school educator for 18 years. She will continue to serve in ministry here at Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community.

    In claiming her role as a deacon, Denise Menard Davis seeks to give her fullest self to all she meets. Bringing to them experience gained from years of teaching in high school and university, volunteering in many capacities and mothering, she intends to deepen her knowledge and abilities to serve ever more fully God’s creation and to work with her sisters here at Christ Sophia Inclusive Catholic Community.

    Deacon Ann Harrington from North Carolina will focus on growing her spiritual direction ministry on those recovering from mental illness, especially clinical depression.  Free Spirit Inclusive Catholic Community of Greenville NC began celebrating liturgies on Pentecost 2013 and has formed a Founders Circle to guide this infant community in the renewed model of priestly ministry.
    Deacon Mary Weber from Indianapolis has been nurtured in the faith by the Sisters of Providence. She has served as a pastoral associate, social worker and hospital administrator. She will form a home church and minister to the sick, dying and grieving as a nursing home chaplain

    In our Gospel, Mark 5 :21-43, Jesus touches a dead girl, and the woman touches Jesus- both making him ritually unclean (Numbers 19:11-13). The twelve –year-old girl, just the age to begin menstruation, like the hemorrhaging woman receives new life.

    In Jesus’ time these two stories were shocking. “In a world where girls were chattel and where menstruating women were forbidden access to the well and the marketplace,” comments Rose Sallberg Kam, “ Jesus matter of factly summons two “dead” women to fullness of life.”

    Like the hemorrhaging woman, Jairus has exhausted all his resources. Unlike the daughter whose father acts for her benefit, the risk-taking  woman takes responsibility for her own life and breaks the paternalistic barriers imposed by her religious tradition. Her journey to wholeness challenges her society’s blood taboo and reveals a woman’s dignity as a person in the face of religious and social discrimination.

     In a world where pornography is a big business and women’s and girl’s bodies are exploited daily, this Gospel story affirms the beauty and power of women’s bodies as reflections of the Holy One. Like the woman in the story and Jesus, women are emissaries of Spirit freedom.   

    Surely, this woman’s story is repeated in women’s stories across the globe. So few of the world’s resources are being spent on women’s health, education, employment and well-being. Yet, women are taking matters into their own hands in micro-businesses where they are generating income and serving their communities. Women and children still suffer the brunt of world poverty and wars.  Young girls, like Nobel Prize Nominee Malala, who was seriously wounded by the Taliban for her efforts on behalf of education for girls, have inspired a world-wide movement of support for education of girls in war-torn areas.

    So too, a man-made canon law prohibits the ordination of women in the Catholic Church. But, the good news is that women priests are taking responsibility to create an inclusive church where all are welcome to receive sacraments and where women are spiritual equals.

    I hope Pope Francis is listening!

    Much to my surprise and delight, the Vatican has restored beautiful frescoes in the Catacomb of Priscilla that provide evidence of the ancient tradition of women deacons, and priests. 
     
    On Nov. 19th, Google Street View announced a stunning “see inside” option to explore the catacombs so anyone can see these frescoes via the internet.

    Dr. Dorothy Irvin, a prominent archaeologist and Catholic theologian has spent years researching the archaeology of women’s traditional ministries in the church.(irvincalendar@hotmail.com) She has published a treasure trove of scholarship in calendars that include maps, tombstone inscriptions, frescoes, mosaics and articles. Let me share a brief glimpse into St. Priscilla’s catacomb from the powerful lense of Dr. Irvin’s scholarship .

    The first fresco "depicts a woman deacon in the center vested in a dalmatic, her arms raised in the orans position for public worship."
     
     In the same fresco there is a "a woman being ordained a priest by a bishop seated in a chair. She is vested in an alb, chasuble, and amice, and holding a gospel scroll."
     
     The third woman in this fresco is wearing the same robe as the bishop and is sitting on the same chair.  She is holding a child on her lap. Some scholars believe that this image of Mary Mother of Jesus shows her connection to women liturgical leaders in the early church.
     
    Another fresco in St. Priscilla’s catacomb depicts women celebrating a Eucharistic Banquet.
    The Vatican ‘s response to our claim that this provides evidence of women in liturgical ministry in early Christianity was given by Fabrizio Bisconti, superintendent of religious heritage archeological sites owned by the Vatican.   He told Reuters: “This is a fairy tale, a legend... sensationlist and absolutely not reliable.”
     
    Once again, sisters and brothers, the Vatican is the gift that keeps on giving!
    And now I would like to share a brief overview of the Roman Catholic Women Priests Movement. Roman Catholic Women Priests are ordained in apostolic succession because a male bishop with apostolic succession and in communion with the pope ordained our first women bishops!

    In 2002, 7 women were ordained on the Danube, in 2006, 12 women were ordained in the first U.S. Ordination in Pittsburgh. Now there are approximately 165 in the international Women Priests Movement in Europe, U.S. Canada, and  Latin America. We serve more than 60 inclusive faith communities in 30 states in the U.S.

     
    As part of an international initiative the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests claims equality as a human right.  Our vision is justice for all, justice for the poor, justice for women, and justice for women in the church including ordination. 

      Like Rosa Parks, whose refusal to sit in the back of the bus helped to ignite the civil rights movement, the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests is renewing and reforming the church. We women priests in ARCWP stand in solidarity with all the baptized who love our church and want to make Jesus’ vision of partnership and equality a reality today.
     
    I believe that on a deep spiritual, mystical level women priests are beginning a healing process of centuries-old misogyny in which spiritual power was invested exclusively in men. For some like the Catholic hierarchy, women priests are a spiritual uprising. For millions of people the time has come for a holy shakeup that will bring new life, creativity and justice to the church and beyond.

     Now we ordain our beloved Sisters, Mary Sue, Betty, Denise, Ann and Mary who like the woman and girl whom Jesus set free in the Gospel, will share God’s liberating, healing love with all those they encounter in their ministry. Like the woman and the girl,we too are taking responsibility for the liberation of women in our church. Thank you for your support of our movement for justice and equality in the community of the baptized.  Together, we are emissaries for equality, walking on water and rocking the church!
     
    Bridget Mary Meehan, D.Min., a Sister for Christian Community, was ordained a Roman Catholic priest in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on July 31, 2006. She was ordained a bishop on April 19, 2009.  Dr. Meehan is currently Dean of the Doctor of Ministry Program for Global Ministries University, and is the author of 20 books, including   Living Gospel Equality Now: Loving in the Heart of God, The Healing Power of Prayer and Praying with Women of the Bible . She presides at liturgies in Mary, Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota, Florida.  Dr. Meehan can be reached at sofiabmm@aol.com and  www.arcwp.org