FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 30, 2008

Contact: Sr. Christine Schenk
216-228-0869; 216-513-3647 (cell)

Ms. Barbara Litrell (Sedona, AZ)
928-649-0135 (h) 928-300-5839 (cell)

Restore Deleted Biblical Women Say Magdalen Celebrators
Catholics Work to Put Women Back in Biblical Picture at 2008 Synod

CLEVELAND, OH: In mid-July thousands of Catholics are organizing to ask the Vatican and US and Canadian Bishops to restore women leaders such as Mary of Magdala and Phoebe the deacon to lectionary texts from which they have been deleted, and to invite female biblical scholars to the International Synod on the Word to be held in Rome October 5-26.

At over 250 international celebrations of the July 22 Feast of St. Mary of Magdala, special prayer services will bring to visibility biblical women leaders whose stories have been omitted or downgraded in lectionary texts. (Prayer service available at http://www.futurechurch.org/marym/index.htm) A fascinating 1996 analysis by Sr. Ruth Fox OSB found a disproportionate number of passages about women had been deleted from the lectionary, a book of biblical passages carefully chosen for church proclamation. (http://www.futurechurch.org/watw/womeninbibleandlectionary.htm)

Aside from the United States, celebrations will occur in Canada, Great Britain and Australia. They will engage between 30 and 300 people in parishes, convents, Catholic schools, Protestant churches, private homes and small faith communities.

“Unfortunately, for centuries, Mary of Magdala’s leadership and that of many other biblical women, has been minimized or excised from the official lectionary used in both Catholic and Protestant churches,” said Sr. Christine Schenk, FutureChurch Executive Director. “For example, even though all four gospels name Mary of Magdala as the first witness to the Resurrection, Jesus’ commission asking her to proclaim it to the male disciples is never read on Sunday, yet we hear about doubting Thomas every single year.”

“And Phoebe, an important leader and deacon at the Church of Cenchrae, is completely excised from the lectionary text of Paul’s letter to the Romans, as are Lois and Eunice from the letter to Timothy. We want Church officials to correct that,” said FutureChurch board member, Barbara Litrell.

Spearheaded by the Cleveland-based FutureChurch, Catholics are also asking synod leaders to devote more pastoral attention to Jesus and St. Paul’s inclusive practice and expand preaching opportunities for qualified women.

Mary of Magdala participants will join over 7000 others who have already sent paper and electronic postcards containing the four synod requests to church leaders and are asked to recruit family, friends and fellow church goers to do the same. (For more on the Woman and the Word: Synod 2008 campaign visit http://www.futurechurch.org/watw/index.htm)

A list of 23 female biblical scholars who are willing to be consultants has been compiled and is being submitted to synod leaders. Over the summer campaign activists are seeking personal meetings with synod Bishop delegates in the US and Canada to elicit their support.

FutureChurch director, Sr. Christine Schenk, will be in Rome while the synod is in process.

“The Church has gotten very restrictive about allowing lay people to preach, even those with degrees in scripture and homiletics,” said Schenk. “This is a great loss to the believing community.”

“We think it’s important for women and men to learn the contemporary scholarship about women leaders in the early Church and we are especially happy to have so many celebrations in which women can preside and preach at worship,” said Litrell.

For each of the past eleven years FutureChurch spearheaded between 200 and 300 special celebrations of the July 22 Feast of St. Mary of Magdala in the U.S. and worldwide. The prayer services always highlight biblical women leaders and women’s leadership in the Church.

Synod 2008 Campaign accomplishments to date:

• At least 7500 paper and electronic postcards have already been sent to US bishops, the Pope and Vatican officials asking for attention to women's biblical leadership and experience in church preaching and scripture proclamation at the October Synod. Many more will come from an ambitious internet campaign.
• In 2007 scores of organizers at approximately 250-270 Mary of Magdala celebrations in the US and Canada incorporated a special prayer service celebrating the hidden women of the lectionary and distributed hundreds of postcards and forwarded e-postcard appeals. Similar celebrations and actions are planned for this summer.
• Many leaders of men’s and women’s religious orders have spoken or written personal letters to their bishops asking for female biblical experts to serve as consultants at the Synod.
• Twenty Three female biblical scholars have agreed to have their names included on a list to be submitted to synod leaders.

For a list of 2008 celebration sites see http://www.futurechurch.org/marym/celebrations.htm

For a list of women and the word campaign local contacts see http://www.futurechurch.org/watw/localcontacts.htm

For more on the Woman and the Word: Synod 2008 campaign visit http://www.futurechurch.org/watw/index.htm

To contact a local organizer in your area call Sr. Chris Schenk at 216-228-0869 x 4 or Ms. Emily Holtel-Hoag at 216-228-0869 x 3

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FutureChurch, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a U.S. coalition of 5,000 parish centered
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 open ordination to all baptized persons who are called to priestly ministry by God and the people of God