FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE 
July 13, 2010

Contact: Sr. Christine Schenk 216-228-0869 X 4 (W); 216-513-3647 (C)

Mary Louise Hartman 609-921-9134 (W) 609-915-2258 (C)

Catholics Organize 300 Worldwide Celebrations of

Early Women Leaders on St. Mary of Magdala Feast

CLEVELAND, OH: In mid-July, organizers around the world are joining together to expand awareness of women leaders in the early Church on the feast day of St. Mary of Magdala, the first witness the Resurrection. The project is spearheaded by FutureChurch, a Catholic church renewal organization,.

As of today, 303 celebrations are planned including at least 30 outside the US (12 in Canada, six in Ireland, five in New Zealand and one each in Australia, Columbia, Finland, Kenya, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, South Africa and Zambia).

“This is the largest number of international celebrations we have ever had, said Sr. Christine Schenk, FutureChurch Executive Director. “It is so heartening to see the growth in worldwide awareness of St. Mary of Magdala’s leadership and now all the other women leaders from the first to ninth centuries.”

“We are especially happy to have a prayer service in which women can preside and preach,” said FutureChurch Board member, Mary Louise Hartman. “Too often, women’s leadership is invisible in the Catholic context. We want to change that.”

“Twenty-first century women and men frequently believe women did not exercise leadership during Christianity’s formative centuries,” said Schenk. “However, recent archaeological evidence including inscriptions and images from papyri, tombstones, frescos and mosaics reveals that at least some women held leadership roles similar to those held by men. For example, several fourth-century catacomb frescos depict women leaders such as Veneranda, Petronilla and Vitalia with the same leadership symbols (biblical scrolls and gospel codices) used to depict male leaders such as Peter and Paul.”

A fourth century tombstone discovered in 1903 on the Mount of Olives contains this inscription: “Here lies the minister and bride of Christ, Sofia the deacon, a second Phoebe. She fell asleep in peace on the 21st of the month of March...” It is reasonable to conclude that a 4th century Christian community in Jerusalem understood Sofia’s ministry to be part of a three hundred-year-old tradition dating back to the Phoebe of Romans 16, whose ministry was validated by none other than the apostle Paul. It is notable that for both Phoebe and Sofia, the Greek word diakonos is used, the same word Paul used to describe his own ministry.

St. Mary of Magdala was a foremost leader in the early Church, led the group of women who accompanied Jesus at his death, and first proclaimed the good news of his Resurrection. She was not a prostitute as some believe. For centuries St. Mary of Magdala’s story, like those of the women leaders in early Christianity, has been minimized or excised from the official Lectionary used in both Catholic and Protestant churches as well as Catholic Church history textbooks.

To educate about women leaders and to model gender balance in scripture proclamation, FutureChurch began special international celebrations of the Feast of St. Mary of Magdala in 1997. Each year approximately 250-300 such events are held in mid July. Participants hear presentations by biblical scholars about early women leaders and experience prayer services at which competently prepared women preach and preside.

“One of the reasons the St. Mary of Magdala celebrations have proved so enduring is that Catholic women and men are edified to discover that Jesus included women in his Galilean discipleship. Most Catholics mistakenly believe that Jesus called only men, when in fact Luke 8:1-3 tells us St. Mary of Magdala, Joanna, Susanna and many other women accompanied him in Galilee. The celebrations this year will provide further knowledge that Jesus’ inclusive ministry was modeled in the early centuries of Christianity,” said Hartman.

For a list of national and international public celebrations: http://www.futurechurch.org/marym/celebrations.htm

For a copy of the 2010 St. Mary of Magdala prayer service: http://www.futurechurch.org/downloads/marym.htm

FutureChurch, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a U.S. coalition of 5,000 parish based Catholics striving to educate fellow Catholics about the seriousness of the priest shortage, the centrality of the Eucharist (the Mass), and the systemic inequality of women in the Catholic Church. FutureChurch makes presentations throughout the country, distributes educational and informational packets and recruits activists who call on Catholic leadership to discuss opening ordination to all baptized persons who are called to priestly ministry by God and the people of God.