Mary Magdalene Goes to the Synod: Educational Packet for Synod members
Thank you for your efforts to build a synodal church. We are grateful for your generous, faithful contributions to this process.
As you know, the Synod Synthesis calls the entire Church to dialogue and discernment with a particular “urgent” focus on the role of women in the Church.
As a participant in synodal discernment, we ask you to consider focusing on Proposal “q” in Part II, Section 9 entitled, “Women in the Life and Mission of the Church” where participants suggested that liturgical texts be more inclusive of women’s narratives:
There is a need to ensure that liturgical texts and Church documents are more attentive to the use of language that takes into equal consideration both men and women, and also includes a range of words, images and narratives that draw more widely on women’s experience (q).
As the faithful work together to bring forth a synodal church, we hope renewed dialogue and discernment will lead to an expansion of the lectionary, especially the Sunday lectionary, so that the inspiring stories of our foremothers in faith will be better represented and proclaimed to all Catholics.As a participant in this vitally important synodal process, we ask you to:
- Review the scholarship on our foremothers in faith who omitted from the Sunday Lectionary (contained in this packet).
- Dialogue with other synod participants about the gifts of our foremothers in faith and ways we can improve our Sunday lectionary to include more of their inspiring stories.
- Recommend action be taken to make the lectionary more inclusive so that all Catholics, but especially women and girls will see themselves more clearly in the life, faith, leadership, and ministry of the Church and be inspired to be ministers of the Gospel for our world today.
- Explore a supplemental lectionary or some other interim path until an examination of the entire lectionary can be taken up.
I have included with this letter:
- A short overview on the need to include more women in the lectionary
- Foundational support statements in the Synod Synthesis
- A short list of prominent omissions
- Our request
- Academic resources
Thank you for considering this request.
Russ Petrus, Executive Director
FutureChurch
