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SynodWatch Series Session Three

Written on . Posted in Justice In the Church, Synod on Synodality.

FutureChurch hosts a 3-part online series exploring the Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document) for the October 2023 Assembly of the Synod on Synodality which was released on June 20, 2023.

Session 3: Participation, Governance, and Authority

This third session covered the third priority in the working document – “Participation, Governance, and Authority” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, were joined by Sr. Lynn Jarrell, OSU; Ellie Hidalgo; and Rev. Joseph Healey, MM who offered their own insights and commentary from their experience and expertise.

  • Deborah Rose provides an overview of who will be attending and voting at the October Assembly.
  • Sr. Lynn Jarrell, OSU, a canon lawyer, addressed how canon law could be used to promote synodality.
  • Ellie Hidalgo, co-director of Discerning Deacons, will discussed her recent journey to the Amazon to learn how synodality is taking shape there.
  • Rev. Joseph Healey, MM spoke about synodality in the African context from his own decades-long experience as a Maryknoll missioner – mostly in Tanzania and Kenya – in a number of capacities.

View Deb’s Slides

 

Mary of Magdala Education Resource

Written on . Posted in Mary of Magdala, Women In Church Leadership.

Mary of Magdala is perhaps the most maligned and misunderstood figure in early Christianity. Since the fourth century, she has been portrayed as a prostitute and public sinner who, after encountering Jesus, repented and spent the rest of her life in private prayer and penitence. Yet, nowhere in scripture is Mary of Magdala identified as a public sinner or a prostitute. Instead, scripture shows her as the primary witness to the most central events of Christian faith, named in exactly the same way (Maria e Magdalena) in each of four gospels written for diverse communities throughout the Mediterranean world.

Thankfully, contemporary scholarship has rightfully restored our understanding of Mary of Magdala as an important early Christian leader. Now she becomes the same inspiring role model for twenty-first century disciples that she was for first century Christians.

Learn more about Mary Magdalene with our educational resource.

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Gender and the Role of Women in Our Liturgical Life

Written on . Posted in Women Erased, Women In Church Leadership.

FutureChurch is joined by Yale Divinity School Professor Teresa Berger, Ph.D. who has spent a lifetime examining both past and present liturgical developments from the perspective of women’s lives. In her presentation, Dr. Berger offer insights into the roles women played in Early Christianity, the history of women’s liturgical ministries, and the development of the calendar of saints and the uneven ways we have come to formally venerate women within the tradition.

Teresa Berger, Ph.D. is Professor of Liturgical Studies and Thomas E. Golden Jr. Professor of Catholic Theology at Yale Divinity School and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music.

Further Reading: 

SynodWatch Series Session Two

Written on . Posted in Justice In the Church, Synod on Synodality.

FutureChurch hosts a 3-part online series exploring the Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document) for the October 2023 Assembly of the Synod on Synodality which was released on June 20, 2023.

Session 2: Co-responsibility in Mission

This second session covers the second priority in the document – “Co-responsibility in Mission.” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, are joined by Kate McElwee and Luke Hansen, who will offer their insights and commentary.

  • Kate McElwee is the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue and prayerful witness to call for women’s ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church. Kate earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and a Certificate in Buddhist Studies from Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley Massachusetts, USA, and a Masters degree, with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies in (SOAS – University of London) in International Human Rights Law.
  • Luke Hansen is a campus minister and religious studies teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. He has a master’s degree in social philosophy from Loyola University Chicago, a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Luke has worked as a journalist, prison chaplain and advocate for social and ecclesial change. He is a former co-director of the Discerning Deacons project, which engages Catholics in the question of women and diaconate. He also worked as an editor for the Jesuit journals America and La Civiltà Cattolica. He has reported from the Vatican, Honduras, El Salvador and Guantánamo Bay, and he has won several awards from the Catholic Press Association for his writing.

View Deb’s Slides

SynodWatch Series on the Working Document

Written on . Posted in Justice In the Church, Synod on Synodality.

FutureChurch hosts a 3-part online series exploring the Instrumentum Laboris (Working Document) for the October 2023 Assembly of the Synod on Synodality which was released on June 20, 2023.

Jump to:

Session 1: A Communion that Radiates

This first session covers the overall structure of the document and discusses the first priority addressed in the document – “A Communion that Radiates.” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, are joined by:

Session 2: Co-responsibility in Mission

This second session covers the second priority in the document – “Co-responsibility in Mission.” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, are joined by Kate McElwee and Luke Hansen, who will offer their insights and commentary.

  • Kate McElwee is the executive director of the Women’s Ordination Conference, a grassroots-driven movement that promotes activism, dialogue and prayerful witness to call for women’s ordination and gender equity in the Roman Catholic Church. Kate earned a Bachelor of Arts in Religion and a Certificate in Buddhist Studies from Mount Holyoke College, in South Hadley Massachusetts, USA, and a Masters degree, with distinction from the School of Oriental and African Studies in (SOAS – University of London) in International Human Rights Law.
  • Luke Hansen is a campus minister and religious studies teacher at St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco. He has a master’s degree in social philosophy from Loyola University Chicago, a Master of Divinity degree from the Jesuit School of Theology in Berkeley, California, and a Licentiate in Sacred Theology from the Pontifical Gregorian University in Rome. Luke has worked as a journalist, prison chaplain and advocate for social and ecclesial change. He is a former co-director of the Discerning Deacons project, which engages Catholics in the question of women and diaconate. He also worked as an editor for the Jesuit journals America and La Civiltà Cattolica. He has reported from the Vatican, Honduras, El Salvador and Guantánamo Bay, and he has won several awards from the Catholic Press Association for his writing.

View Deb’s Slides

Session 3: Participation, Governance, and Authority

This third session covered the third priority in the working document – “Participation, Governance, and Authority” FutureChurch co-directors, Russ Petrus and Deborah Rose, were joined by Sr. Lynn Jarrell, OSU; Ellie Hidalgo; and Rev. Joseph Healey, MM who offered their own insights and commentary from their experience and expertise.

  • Deborah Rose provides an overview of who will be attending and voting at the October Assembly.
  • Sr. Lynn Jarrell, OSU, a canon lawyer, addressed how canon law could be used to promote synodality.
  • Ellie Hidalgo, co-director of Discerning Deacons, will discussed her recent journey to the Amazon to learn how synodality is taking shape there.
  • Rev. Joseph Healey, MM spoke about synodality in the African context from his own decades-long experience as a Maryknoll missioner – mostly in Tanzania and Kenya – in a number of capacities.

View Deb’s Slides

 

Is the eucharistic revival an exercise in cheap grace?

Written on . Posted in In the News.

Excerpt:

For FutureChurch co-director Russ Petrus, the eucharistic revival rings hollow. In emailed remarks he told me, “It’s a bit like Coca-Cola telling people to drink more Coke while simultaneously decommissioning vending machines across the country. Or wishing for more workers to make the Coke but turning away those ready, willing, and able …”

It is hopeful that lay and clerical leaders at October’s Synod on Synodality willactually discuss these long-avoided topics.  But Petrus is distressed that the two events are occurring simultaneously. In a trenchant critique, he sees U.S. prelates “trying to consolidate their ‘power’ by using the sacraments at the very time the global Church is figuring out how to redistribute it in a more Christ-like way.” 

Tell the Whole Story About Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday

Written on . Posted in Mary of Magdala, Women In Church Leadership.

Tell the Whole Story About Mary Magdalene on Easter Sunday

What is The Ask?

We, the undersigned, urge that John 20:1-18, the full Resurrection account – including the Risen Christ’s appearance to Mary Magdalene and commissioning of her to proclaim the Resurrection to the other disciples – be proclaimed on Easter Sunday. It is time to tell the story of Mary Magdalene’s apostolic witness to the Resurrection every Easter so that all Catholics can be inspired her faith, courage, and ministry. 

Why is this necessary? 

The upcoming Assemblies of the Synod on Synodality in October 2023 and October 2024 offer important opportunities to raise awareness about the “woman gaps” in the Lectionary, and advocate for a supplemental Lectionary that is more inclusive of women’s faith-filled witness. 

Telling the true story of Mary Magdalene can not only vindicate her memory, but also help reclaim the rightful role for women in the Church. 

For centuries, Mary Magdalene has been misrepresented as a contrite prostitute who, after encountering Jesus, repented and spent the rest of her life in private prayer and penance. This inaccurate portrayal damaged and dimiinished her true role as the "Apostle to the Apostles", the first to announce the Good News of the Resurrection.

This centuries-long slander has been harmful to women and to the Church.  According to distinguished theologian, Elizabeth Johnson, CSJ, “Making her a prostitute has allowed her leadership role among the disciples to be generally forgotten.” Sr. Johnson adds that even now, “for those who prefer a Church with an exclusively male hierarchy, it is easier to deal with her as a repentant sinner than as an apostolic woman who had a voice and used it.”

The truth is, there is no biblical or historical evidence Mary Magdalene was a prostitute. Rather, as New Testament Scholar, Sr. Sandra Schneiders, IHM points out, she is presented in scripture as “the premiere woman disciple of Jesus.” All four Gospels explicitly point out that Mary Magdalene was present at the tomb on Easter morning and in John’s account she alone is the first to encounter, be commissioned by, and proclaim the Risen Christ. For the earliest Christians, it was impossible to tell the Easter story without including the witness of Mary Magdalene, prompting early church Fathers to name her “the Apostle of the Apostles.”

Compare the Texts

Easter is the most sacred and important of all Sundays in the Church year. Yet, when Catholics gather for Mass on Easter Sunday, they do not hear the full story of the Resurrection. They do not hear the inspiring story of Mary Magdalene’s witness of the Risen Christ or Christ’s commission to Mary Magdalene to proclaim the Resurrection to the other disciples. Only John 20: 1 – 9 is proclaimed. The rest of the story, John 20: 11 - 18 is proclaimed on the Tuesday after Easter when very few Catholics will hear it. John 20:10, which is omitted on both Easter Sunday and Easter Tuesday, makes it clear that Mary Magdalene alone remained at the empty tomb.  

Respected scholars such as Dr. Eileen Schuler, OSU, Professor Emerita in the Department of Religious Studies at McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada know the value of including the full story of Mary Magdalene’s Easter witness and proclamation. Since the Canadian Lectionary allows for the longer reading of John 20: 1-18 on Easter, it has diminished the negative representations of Mary Magdalene [as a repentant prostitute] and been “very influential” in building an authentic and positive image of Mary Magdalene.  

Who will receive the petition signatures?

We will deliver the written request and petition signatures to

  1. The Dicastery for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments
  2. The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Committee on Divine Worship
In most cases, this is the continent where you reside.
(e.g. Professor, Pastor, Pastoral Associate, Campus Minister, DRE, Catechist, Cantor, Lector, etc.)
(e.g. school, parish, etc.)

2023 Mary of Magdala Celebration on Synodality

Written on . Posted in Downloads, Mary of Magdala, Synod on Synodality, Women In Church Leadership.

Thank you for your interest in celebrating the Feast of St. Mary Magdalene with us. Celebrating and lifting up Mary’s true role as Apostle of the Apostles is one of the most important things we can do for our Church and world.

For 2023, we have chosen to highlight synodality. We are grateful to Kelly Meraw, who developed and compiled this year’s prayer service. Kelly is Director of Liturgy, Music, and Pastoral Care for St. John – St. Paul Collaborative in Wellesley, Massachusetts. She is also the primary facilitator for her Collaborative’s Committee for Synodality.

Jesus himself practiced synodality and sought to teach it to his disciples – both women and men – through example: teaching through parables; seeking out those on the periphery, whose voices had been ignored or silenced; placing each person he encountered on his path at the center of his ministry.

Perhaps the greatest ‘miss’ in the history of Synodality was that of the courageous witness of Mary Magdalene, who was commissioned by Jesus to “go and tell” the good news. And we live with the wound of that ‘miss’ in our Church to this day. Through this prayer service, as we recover her witness and honor the impact it continues to make, we gather our prayers together for all women who continue to be ignored, discredited, and disbelieved.

The voices of Catholics around the world calling for greater equality for women in the Church in “Enlarge the Space of Our Tent” will guide us through our prayer service as we highlight women’s synodal encounters with Jesus, then, and the synodal encounters in the heartfelt sharing of the People of God, now.

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