Dear Friends,

March 25th, the day with when the Church celebrates the feast of the Annunciation, has been designated as Worldwide Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination. The Spirit of Life Community will observe this special time of prayer at our liturgy this Sunday, March 29th at 5:00PM. One of our readings for this liturgy will be the poetic prayer inspired by Hildegard of Bingen by Mary Malone in "Praying with the Women Mystics":


I love the 'radical' imagery of the body as a 'container of joy', which surely Mary's body was as she carried her unborn child, Jesus. Sadly, our tradition has so often seen the body as something to be 'escaped' rather than celebrated. This 'temple of the Holy Spirit' that we learned of as children was actually primarily seen as the 'source of sin', and while none of us is without blemish... .neither physically nor spiritually... imagining the body as a 'container of joy' has hardly been a part of our Christian 'formation'.

For women, our bodies have long been viewed as the source of temptation... .ever since that fateful day when Adam hoisted Eve up on his shoulders to pick that apple! Beyond temptation, women have been viewed as ½ human or "an incomplete males" (St. Augustine) and our bodies throughout history have been used as receptacles of violence, sexual slavery, weapons of war in the worst cases, and surely 'less than' in many aspects of society, most notably the work-world (where considerable change has taken place in recent years) and the Church (where institutional change is seeking to take us backward rather than forward). Our lack of physical strength comparable to males has been misinterpreted as weakness, and our bodily rhythms which allow us to bear children are still viewed with suspicion and fear. It is not that many years ago that menstruating women were not to be 'touched' and I recall even in my high school days, a pregnant teacher needing to hide her pregnancy or she would have been fired... for bearing life! Our culture has gone another route, also, of exploiting the feminine and misguided women, young and old, have been led to sell themselves short by failing to respect themselves and to appreciate that their body is integrally connected to their spirit, and disassociating one from the other does grave harm to both.

We need our Church to be strong in addressing the beauty that is the feminine. We have the tragic example of Ruth Kolpack, a Pastoral Associate fired from her job because she refused to take an oath of obedience to the Bishop and refute her thesis (completed 6 years ago) which eloquently addressed the importance of inclusive language in our liturgy and life of prayer. We have a mother and a physician "excommunicated" for refusing to allow a 9 year old child to give birth to the twins she was impregnated with by her father. Notice, the offending father was not 'excommunicated'... What do these two examples say about our Church's value of the feminine? Nothing good... which is yet another compelling reason for the church to begin to honor the call of women to ordination. Whenever women are seen as "less than" it creates an atmosphere of permission to treat woman as "other" with severe and in many cases catastrophic consequences. It's a reason for us, women and men of integrity to refuse to let this continue. "They" need us... and heaven knows they don't know it yet! It truly is time to enact the theme of this year's World Day of Prayer for Women's Ordination: "Break the Silence. Shatter the Stained-Glass Ceiling!"

If you are seeking community where every voice is heard, and women and men are unafraid to acknowledge the equality of women and men and the feminine as well as masculine... and beyond... images of God, we invite you to join us at Spirit of Life. As a community, we try wholeheartedly to "be Christ" to one another, to tend to the needs of one another, and to those in need in our world. Together, we celebrate our belief that we are being transformed by God's grace as we gather together in prayer. We warmly invite you to come and gather with us at our Table, and join in our experience of the "kin-dom" of God. We are an inclusive, open, affirming and interactive community, deeply committed to being a people of "justice and joy."

Praying that you know the power of your voice, and hoping that you will nurture all that is feminine in your being and your life,

Find more about past weekly reflections and podcasts in our ARCHIVE PAGE.