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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 Are We Asking For?

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 diminished 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 signatures?

We will deliver the written request and 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.

Download

Martha Jane Chisley Tolton

Written on . Posted in Women Witnesses for Racial Justice.

While the life of pioneering priest Father Augustus Tolton is rightly being elevated such that he is on track for sainthood, his brave, stalwart mother, Martha Jane Chisley has received little recognition. A courageous and tenacious woman, she saved her son and her other two children from a life of slavery and fought her whole life to create the opportunities Augustus needed to pursue his vocation as the first recognized African American priest. She did it for him. She did it for the people in her community.

To learn more, download our resource packet. Women Witnesses for Racial Justice resource packets include:

  • Biography/Essay
  • Questions for reflection and conversation
  • Original art by Chloe Becker
  • Prayer Service
  • Suggestions for taking action in your community

Download

Artist: Chloe Becker. Comissioned by FutureChurch.  

FutureChurch Welcomes Working Document as a Hopeful Foundation for Progress at October Assembly

Written on . Posted in Press Releases.

For Immediate Release

Contacts:
Russ Petrus, Co-Director of FutureChurch, russ@futurechurch.org
Deborah Rose, Co-Director of FutureChurch, 1.513.673.1401, debrose@futureChurch.org

FutureChurch is hopeful that the Instrumentum Laboris – or working document – which will guide conversations at the October 2023 Assembly of the Synod on Communion, Participation, and Mission lays a strong foundation for achieving real progress on much needed reforms in the Church.

Unlike working documents for previous synods, this new document signals a break from the old formula, where consultation with the People of God was overshadowed by hierarchical concerns, and instead poses three overarching questions to be discerned by assembly members – including lay women and men who will have full voting privileges for the first time:

  1. Communion: How can we be more fully a sign and instrument of union with God and of the unity of all humanity?
  2. Mission: How can we better share gifts and tasks in the service of the Gospel?
  3. Participation: What processes, structures and institutions in a missionary synodal church?

“Perhaps the most unique and inspired aspect of this working document is the format itself,” said Russ Petrus, Co-Director for FutureChurch. “By posing questions for synodal discernment, the document continues to invite the wisdom and insight of the People of God. And, as we have seen in previous phases of the synod, when the People of God are at the table, their Spirited calls for reform ring loud and clear.”

Each question is expanded upon by worksheets that will guide working groups in further reflection and consideration of concrete actions. Urgently needed conversations about women and the Church are woven throughout and the question of ordaining women deacons is explicitly raised. As is ordaining male priests who are married. FutureChurch has long advocated for both.

“It is a sign of hope that the Instrumentum Laboris reflects the wider call within the Church for women’s ordination to the diaconate and for the ordination of married men to the priesthood, but it is troubling to find that women’s ordination to the priesthood has not found a place in this working document,” said Deborah Rose, Co-Director for FutureChurch.  “The Continental Discernment Document specifically included it as an issue of concern for Catholics worldwide and, given the diversity of opinions on the topic and the fact that our discernment has historically been constrained by male clerics, it is just the kind of issue deserving of synodal conversation.”

Proper formation for synodality and reevaluating institutions and structures that overly privilege authority and hierarchy are also addressed in the worksheets on participation. “Clericalism and Canon Law are real barriers to true synodality,” said FutureChurch Board Chair, Todd Ray. “It gives us great hope that the working document recognizes this reality and seeks to correct it by asking for input on both seminary education and reform to Canon Law.”

FutureChurch has been working in solidarity with Catholics around the country and globe to ensure that the voices of those who have been ignored, scorned, and excluded are included in every phase of the synodal process: from our report, “In Our Own Words” to our most recent letters to bishops and other members of the synod committees urging them to include a diverse group of Catholics as members of the October 2023 Synod Assembly. We invite all to join us on Wednesdays, June 28th, July 5th, and July 12th at 7pm ET for “Synod Watch: Unpacking the Working Document” as guest experts and activists join FutureChurch to help us gain a better understanding of the working document. Visit https://futurechurch.org/synodality to learn more about our Synod work and to sign up for these sessions.

End

The Women of Acts with Teresa Calpino, Ph.D.

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

Teresa Calpino, Ph.D. joins FutureChurch for this “Women Erased” series presentation, discussing the women who led and ministered in The Acts of the Apostles, with a particular focus on Tabitha (Acts 9:36–42) and Lydia (Acts 16:11–15). The women in Acts of the Apostles have routinely been ignored by scholars or mentioned only in praising the male apostle associated with their story. As a result, these important characters have been obscured.

Dr. Calpino received her BS from Northwestern University in Communications. She received an MA in Biblical Languages and Literature in 2005 and her PhD in New Testament and Early Christianity in 2012 both from Loyola University Chicago. Her interests include Acts of the Apostles, Women and Gender, The Greco-Roman Social Context of early Christian literature, The Church Fathers, and Letter, Inscriptions and Artifacts of the early Christian world.

Dr. Calpino’s book Women, Work and Leadership in Acts was published in 2014 by Mohr-Siebeck. (WUNT II, 361; Tübingen: Mohr Siebeck, 2014) She has also published articles in Biblical Review and Annali di Storia dell’Esegesi. Her book chapter, “Mary Magdalene in Modern Scholarship,” was published in late 2014 in the scholarly anthology Maria Magdalena. She has also presented numerous papers at conferences on both the local and national level. She is a member of The Society of Biblical Literature, The Chicago Society of Biblical Research and The Catholic Biblical Association. She is currently the chair of the “Teaching the Bible” section for the Midwest Society of Biblical Literature.

Resource

Dr. Calpino’s Dissertation: The Lord Opened Her Heart: Women, Work, and Leadership in Acts of the Apostles