For Immediate Release 6/24/09
Contacts:
Emily Holtel-Hoag
FutureChurch
17307 Madison Avenue
Lakewood, Ohio 44107
216-228-0869 ext. 3
emily@futurechurch.org
On Wednesday, July 22th, a public lecture featuring Dr. Sheila McGinn, PhD will be held from 7:00-9:00 P.M. at Light of Hearts Villa, 283 Union Street Bedford, Ohio 44146. Dr. McGinn will speak on Remembering the Women Co-Workers of Paul as part of FutureChurch’s 13th Annual Celebration of St. Mary of Magdala.
A free will offering will be taken.
Dr. Sheila E. McGinn is a professor of biblical studies & early Christianity at John Carroll University. Sheila received her doctorate from Northwestern University. She teaches courses on a wide variety of New Testament topics, and her recent publications include studies of several of Paul’s letters, the women in Matthew’s passion and Resurrection story, The Acts of Thecla, and the Montanist Oracles.
The Vatican designated this past year as the Year of St. Paul and invited Catholics to more fully reflect on his important role in the church. Mary of Magdala celebrations this year coincide; they celebrate the women who ministered alongside of St. Paul. These women often go unnoticed and unappreciated because their roles are diminished or deleted from scripture proclamation. For example, the Romans 16 reading naming these important leaders in the early church is never proclaimed on a Sunday. Likewise, the accounts of women leaders in the Acts of the Apostles (Lydia, Prisca, Tabitha) are only read on the weekdays of Easter, so most Catholics never hear about their important ministry alongside Paul. (For more information, see “Women in the Bible and Lectionary” by Ruth Fox OSB, published in 1996 by Liturgy 90.)
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,” said Emily Holtel-Hoag, an organizer of the program.
“For centuries Mary of Magdala’s story, like those of the women leaders in the ministry of St. Paul, has been minimized or excised from the official lectionary used in both Catholic and Protestant churches,” said Sr. Christine Schenk of FutureChurch.
For the past two years, FutureChurch spearheaded a campaign to “put women back in the biblical picture” at last October’s Synod on the Word. For the first time in history Catholic bishops meeting in a synod “recognized and encouraged” the ministry of women of the Word, discussed the need to restore women's stories to the Lectionary, and invited the greatest number of women ever to participate as auditors and biblical experts.
Although the synod is over, the work to open an examination of the Lectionary as recommended by Synod Proposal 16 is not done. Participants at Mary of Magdala celebrations across the nation will be sending paper and electronic postcards to Cardinal Antionia Cañizares Llovera, Prefect for the Congregation for Divine Worship encouraging him and the synod committee to follow through on this proposal. Specifically, the postcards ask to:
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 1998. Each year between 200 and 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.
The presentation in Cleveland is one of over 200 international celebrations organized by FutureChurch for the July 22 Feast of St. Mary of Magdala in 2009.
“We think it’s important for women and men to learn the contemporary scholarship about women in the early Church and we are especially happy to have a celebration in which women can preside and preach at worship. One of the reasons the 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 Mary of Magdala, Joanna, Susanna and many other women accompanied him in Galilee. Since the Lukan reading is never read on a Sunday, the stories of Jesus' women disciples are rarely if ever the subject of homiletic attention,” says Chris Schenk, FutureChurch Executive Director.
Aside from the United States, celebrations will occur in Canada, Great Britain, Australia and Uganda. They will engage between 10 and 300 people in parishes, convents, Catholic schools, Protestant churches, private homes and small faith communities.
Sample electronic postcards and a list of celebrations nationwide are available at www.futurechurch.org
FutureChurch, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio, is a national 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 encourages widespread discussion of the need to open ordination to all baptized persons who are called to priestly ministry.
FutureChurch
17307 Madison Avenue, Lakewood, OH 44107
216-228-0869
www.futurechurch.org