Women and the Word
Put Women Back in the Biblical Picture!
- Overview of the Campaign
- Background on the Project
- Historic Outcomes of Synod Work
- Next Steps and How You Can Get Involved
Background on the Project
FutureChurch provided concrete suggestions to leaders of the International Synod on the Word (October, 2008) of ways to listen to women's voices, particularly in preaching and proclaiming the Word. The suggestions were:
- Invite women biblical experts. No women theologians were included in the 2005 Synod.
- Devote more pastoral attention to Jesus' and St. Paul's inclusion of women leaders.
- Expand opportunities for women preachers so both women and men can hear the Word through the lens of Christian women.
- Restore biblical women leaders to lectionary readings in which their witness was diminished or deleted. (See "Women in the Bible and the Lectionary" by Sr. Ruth Fox from May/June issue of LITURGY 90, © 1996.)
In the two years leading up to the Synod, nearly 20,000 paper and electronic postcards were sent to church leaders and synod delegates. These proved instrumental in assuring that FutureChurch requests would be discussed at the Synod.
Also influential were the packets of materials containing lists of women biblical scholars and extensive documentation of the “amnesia in the Lectionary” about biblical women leaders sent to twenty-five English-speaking bishop delegates from the U.S. the U.K., Ireland, Australia, the Philippines, Canada, India and Africa. This comprehensive information seeded the discussion of the hidden women of the lectionary that we were told took place in “a number” of the twelve small groups where the main work of the synod was accomplished. Packets were also sent to Archbishop Nicola Eterovic general secretary of the Synod of Bishops, Cardinal William J. Levada at the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, who was one of the synod presiders, and Pope Benedict XVI.
Daily reports from Rome during the month of October were emailed to various FutureChurch lists and posted on the website. We were gratified to discover than at least 300 people per day opened the email containing the reports.
Additional Links
Vatican Synod 2008 “Lineamenta” Document
Analysis: Synod To Address Unfinished Work of Vatican II
Synod Outline Refreshingly Accessible (Analysis)
Women scholars belong at synod on the Word NCR 4/18/2008
Historic Outcomes of Synod Work
Here are the historic outcomes of our synod work:
- Twenty-five women were invited to participate, the most women to ever attend any Catholic synod. Six female “experts,” and 19 female auditors provided female perspectives to this historic gathering that universally affirmed Dei Verbum, the Vatican II document on the Bible.
- For the first time in history, Catholic bishops meeting in a synod discussed the need to restore women’s stories to the lectionary. Surprisingly, Proposition 16 recommended “that an examination of the Roman lectionary be opened to see if the actual selection and ordering of the reading are truly adequate to the mission of the Church in this historic moment.”
- Synod proposition 17 “recognized and encouraged” the ministry of women of the Word affirming the work of women “delegates of the Word” who are leading base communities all over the developing world.
- Sr. Chris Schenk met, or communicated personally via telephone and email, with six synod bishop-delegates, including Ireland’s Cardinal Sean Brady. She also met three female synod “experts,” who thanked us for making their synod presence possible. She gave substantive interviews to John Allen of the National Catholic Reporter, Vatican Radio, Robert Mickens of The Tablet, Religion News Service and Spanish and Italian print media.
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