Servant Cross
|
RCWP
Canada Monthly Review
-- August 2018 - 2
- Roman Catholic Women Priests movement at it’s core a commitment to adopt the mind of Jesus the Christ
- Dancing My Life, Dancing My God
- Binding The Strong Man
- Comments to the Editor
- RCWP Canada Bishop's Message
- Catholic Women Called - Elena Garcia
- Catholic Women Preach now in podcast form
- Other Media Coverage before and after Episcopal Ordination
- Bishops committed to inclusivity and community in responses at public presentation
- Episcopal Ordination Photo Gallery and Commentary
- Free pdf
down loadable books
- First pastoral visits of new bishop
- Francis,
the comic strip
RCWP
Canada Bishop's Message
|
I'm
back in
Regina following the whirlwind of the past two weeks! Today
has
been a day settling down and living with the question of "What on earth
has happened?"
It
will take
me some time to put thoughts on paper about everything but I do hope,
over time, to share some of my reflections. I hope to spend the next
weeks connecting with you, pulling together the loose ends of the
Retreat and Ordination, and cherishing and writing about some memories.
My
first
pastoral visit to our RCWP Canada priest, Vikki Marie and her community
at Samaritan House (a Catholic Worker community) and Our Lady of
Guadalupe Tonatzin, Vancouver, BC, was grace filled and especially
poignant as it was the 6th Anniversary of her ordination.
Saturday afternoon we attended their book study along with sharing
stories and goodies. They are currently using the Spring
issue of
INTOTEMAK, Quest for Respect: The Church and Indigenous Spirituality,
which contains a variety of articles and reflections on the subject.
This Journal is published by the Mennonite Church of Canada and is one
I recommend highly.
On
Sunday
afternoon we celebrated Eucharist and the Anointing of the Sick with
Vikki and the community. Also of interest was that the Gospel of the
day was about the "loaves and fishes" one that was especially
meaningful to Dorothy Day, the founder of the Catholic Worker Movement.
OLGT
Community member, Jan, was most generous and gracious with her
hospitality for my husband and me. Besides housing and
feeding
us, she was 'one to hang on to' navigating the downtown bus system from
the west side to the east side of Vancouver when we went to the
Samaritan House for the book study, and also to the harbour front
streetscape on Saturday night following the "Festival of Lights"
fireworks. We held hands weaving our way among the throngs as they left
the waterfront. A friend of hers invited us to view the
fireworks
from his apartment a few blocks from hers which faces English Bay -- so
we had box seating for a spectacular display.
We
also had
the opportunity to visit Karen, RCWP Canada Associate, and her family,
availing ourselves of their hospitality on Friday night and again on
Sunday night. On Monday we celebrated the Baptism of their
second
child with a lovely community gathering of Karen's parents and the
families of the godparents. A lively and spirited group of
people
to embrace the newly baptized child as she finds her way of growth in
the love of Abba God, the Christ, and Sophia.
I
thank all
for your prayerful presence, whether in person or spirit, during the
recent events of the public presentation and the Episcopal Ordination
held in Calgary, AB. I will do my best to live up to the
trust placed in me.
With
every grace and blessing,
+Jane
[Jane
Kryzanowski, Regina, SK, was ordained bishop for RCWP Canada, July 21,
2018]
Catholic
Women Called - Elena Garcia
Catholic Women Called, Youtube video | August 3, 2018
In
this week's Catholic Women Called series, Elena Garcia shares how her
call deepens her sense of union with the Spirit and draws her to serve
people on the margins.
[Elena Garcia is a priest of ARCWP USA, serving Mary Mother of Jesus Catholic Community, Sarasota, Florida.]
Catholic
Women Preach now in podcast form
Click on any of these for podcast:
and
still on video and text -- click here.
Other
Media Coverage before and after Episcopal Ordination
CBC
Saskathewan Radio interview with Shauna Powers
CBC Saskatchewan News web
article by Chelsea Laskowski
Star
Metro, Calgary, article by Evan Radford
Toronto Star, Toronto, article by Evan
Radford
News Talk 770 (CHQR) - Calgary - Global
News, interview with Danielle Smith
Radio-Canada Saskatchewan - L'animatrice Raluca Tomulescu en parle avec Marie Bouclin
Media Kit sent to 70 media outlets across
Canada
Bishops
committed to inclusivity and community in responses at public
presentation
Wayne A. Holst, Colleagues List | July
29th, 2018
The
evening before the episcopal ordination I attended a presentation at the University
of Calgary in which three existing North American bishops
- Nancy Meyer, Jane Via and Marie Bouclin - were
interviewed and responded to the following three concerns:
1. Why I'm still Roman Catholic
2. My migration from exile to living the Gospel (and)
3. What keeps me going
I
sensed a profound desire to remain true to the essence of the Gospel, and a commitment to
inclusivity and community in all of the responses. I also sensed
these women were in it for the long haul, and were working on
"tent-making" activities in the spirit of St. Paul, to support
their ministries.
While
the Roman Catholic Church is clearly hierarchical in structure, the model for their
ministries was an early church form that was circular and
"bottom-up" in nature.
The
comments were intelligent, thoughtful, and grounded in much prayer and spiritual
discipline.
Their
preaching and teaching styles were not confrontational but inclusive and inviting in
nature. All of the speakers had had bad experiences in their past,
but they were committed to respond with peaceful and
resolute conviction in the spirit of Christ.
I was
also impressed with their commitment to sound, contemporary ecumenical
theology and spirituality.
A
total of 267 woman-priests now serve in many nations, world-wide.
As in
the past, I was impressed by the authenticity of their testimony.
[Wayne
A. Holst is editor of Colleagues List, and welcomes subscribers.
Contact: wholst@telus.net]
Episcopal
Ordination Photo Gallery and Commentary
Click
her for photos and commentary relating to the Episcopal Ordination of
Jane Kryzanowski as Bishop for RCWP Canada.
First pastoral visits of new bishop
Vikki Marie, OLGT Community | July 29, 2018
The Vancouver Catholic Worker and the Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonantzin
(OLGT) Community were fortunate to be the first pastoral stops for the
new bishop for Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP) Canada, Bishop Jane
Kryzanowski.
Bishop Jane and husband Felix joined last Saturday's session of the
OLGT study of the book, “Quest for Respect: The Church and Indigenous
Spirituality.” The session was led by Sarah Bjorknas at the Vancouver
Catholic Worker. It was filled with lively and meaningful discussion
among the participants over potluck snacks. Conversation, socializing
and snacks were enjoyed by all well past the allotted book study time.
Bishop Jane served as celebrant of the Eucharistic Liturgy for the OLGT
Community on Sunday, July 29th, 2018. This was especially significant
to the Community as this was the 6th anniversary of the priestly
ordination of OLGT's priest/pastor, Victoria Marie. Bishop Jane
included the Sacrament of Anointing in the liturgy. Four people were
anointed including Vikki, who is currently recovering from major
surgery. Mass was followed by socializing and snacks.
As a community, OLGT is grateful and so pleased to have had the
opportunity to get to know Bishop Jane over these past two days. We
thank our sister, Jan Constantinescu, for her hospitality in opening
her home to Jane and Felix. We also send our prayers and
congratulations to the Leedens, who hosted Bishop Jane for the first
part and the last part of her Vancouver visit. Bishop Jane will be
baptizing their daughter, Asha, on Monday.
Thank you to Bishop Jane and Felix for coming to visit us and thank you
to the wider OLGT community for making her visit a welcoming and loving
experience.
[Rev. Dr. Victoria Marie is priest/pastor of Our Lady of Guadalupe Tonantzin Community, Vancouver, BC]
|
|
|
|
|
Roman Catholic Women Priests movement at it’s core a commitment to
adopt the mind of Jesus the Christ
|
The laying on of hands |
Marie
Bouclin, RCWP
Canada Bishop
Emerita | July 21, 2018
“Mary
stood up and, addressing her brothers and sisters, said, ‘Do not weep
and be distressed nor let your hearts be irresolute. For the grace (of
Christ) will be with you all and will protect you’”. I
commend Jane
for choosing a gospel reading from the Gospel of Mary, the Magdalene,
for this celebration today, the vigil of her feast day. Mary Magdalene
is both model and patron of women who accept a ministry of leadership,
in prophetic obedience to Christ and the Holy Spirit.
We
thank God for calling you to be the bishop for RCWP Canada, Jane, and
as the church, companion disciples of Jesus and People of God, we thank
you for answering that call. |
Mary stood up. She
greeted
the disciples, and then invited them and us to use Paul’s words, to “be
united in our convictions and united in our love with a common purpose
and a common mind”. We too must stand up: for justice and equality and
we must “be of the same mind as Christ Jesus”.
Our Roman Catholic Women Priests movement is at it’s very core, a
commitment to adopt the mind of Jesus the Christ:
- to follow Jesus
where the Spirit of God leads us;
- to provide a
Christ-like model of leadership within our church;
- to build communities
of equal companions;
- to empower one
another so that together we explore and deepen our relationship with
the Divine;
- to be of the same
mind as Christ Jesus is;
- to
do what Jesus tells us to do -- stand with the oppressed, reach out to
the broken-hearted, feed the hungry, welcome refugees, free captives of
all kinds, care for the sick and comfort those who mourn.
But
we Roman Catholic Women Priests are also an instrument of reform and
renewal within our church. And this means urging it forward,
courageously forging ahead. It also means, as many of you heard last
evening, migrating. We are on a migrational faith journey as a movement
for reform within our Church, even if we’ve been marginalized by its
authorities and deemed to have excluded ourselves.
As a movement, we are deeply aware of some “mind places” we have left
behind.
First,
we have had to move out of our comfort zone in a church that gave us
moral and spiritual certainty, comforting rituals, and for many of us
fulfilling and gratifying employment. We seek a
Christ-centered
spirituality with new rituals still to be created. The future at times
may look uncertain, but as we journey we are been blessed with the
solidarity of a small and very diverse company of friends and
supporters. We are truly grateful to you all.
We have also
migrated from an institutional mindset that excludes women and LGBTQ2+
and divorced persons and all heretics (defined as those who think
differently) to a community spirit which is inclusive and accepting of
differences. This is symbolized in our all-are-welcome communion table.
We have migrated from imposed, infallible doctrine to
asking questions and “doing” theology, liturgy and pastoral practice
based on our Baptismal priesthood, our personal experience of life and
prayer, and our listening to voice of the Spirit speaking
both within
and through the People of God.
We have migrated from a
narrow Roman Catholic Christianity to authentic ecumenism, finding
support and learning from other Christian churches and their prophetic
voices.
We have moved away from pyramids of governance
based on descending domination to circles of leadership which strive to
model transparency, accountability and collegiality.
We
have moved from dogma to dialogue, engaging in conversation with people
of other faiths or of no faith because we don’t preach about how to get
to heaven but rather the Hebrew Tikum Olan or healing of this world,
and we honour all wisdom paths because they too, to quote the book of
Proverbs, “are blessed with insight and
understanding.”
You
will have already noticed that we have migrated from all-male
God-language, along with calcified and repetitious rituals, to
inclusive language, re-discovered biblical metaphors and a multitude of
ways of naming the Divine. We try to breathe life into our worship by
making space for both silent reverence and joyous spontaneity.
We
are also moving away from a religion of sacrifice and “suffering for”
(called atonement theology) to a religion of gratitude, compassion,
non-violence and “suffering with” (called Eucharistic theology),
meaning a religion of thanksgiving.
To follow Jesus the
Christ, we have let ourselves be instructed by Scripture scholars and
liberation theologians and mystics and pastoral exemplars.
We have simply chosen – or more aptly, been chosen -- to put the Gospel
of Jesus above Canon Law.
This is our call to prophetic obedience to Christ and the Spirit.
Of
course we know that prophetic obedience comes at a price. Where Jesus
has gone, we too must go. But rather than dwell on the risk of being
badly treated by our church and deeply disappointed by its leadership,
we put our trust in God whose Word reassures us: “With Wisdom your
journey will be secure and your feet will not stumble. You will not be
afraid.”
The gift our Women Priests’ movement is offering
our church is to call upon an institution built on
force and fear to
become a community built on courage and hope.
Our mission
as women priests and bishops within the church is to give hope because
we believe the promise of Jesus to be with us always.
Today,
with Jane as our spiritual leader, we re-commit to doing justice,
loving tenderly and walking humbly with our God even as we wait in
JOYFUL hope.
This is the day our God has made. Let us rejoice and be glad. AMEN!
[Homily
given by presiding bishop, Marie Bouclin, on
July 21, 2018, in Calgary, AB, on the eve of the feast of St. Mary of
Magdala during the Eucharistic Celebration before the Episcopal
Ordination of Jane
Kryzanowki as bishop for RCWP Canada.]
|
 |
Judith
Pellerin's Dancing My
Life, Dancing My God uses the metaphor of dance to
describe how life can be lived joyously and with fulfillment.
The concept of dance as prayer, as communication between self and God,
is introduced in an engaging and accepting way for those seeking to
discover deeper meaning in their communion with the Divine. |
Balanceing
information on the history of dance as Spirit-led
communication with more personal anecdotes of the meaning of dance for
people today, Dancing
My Life, Dancing My God offers a starting place for
discussion and discovery of dancing a Spirit-filled life.
[Judith
Pellerin, Regina, SK. has given permission to serialize her book.
Click
here to read up to and including Chapter 2.]
 |
Binding
The
Strong
Man |
Radical
Discipleship, radicaldiscipleship.net | August 1, 2018
As
we transition into the summer months of Ordinary Time, we are
celebrating the 30th anniversary of Binding The Strong Man,
Ched Myers’ extraordinary
political reading of Mark’s Gospel.
[For
each Sunday of the Ordinary Time, RCWP
Canada Monthly Review will post links
to Myers’ comments on the
lectionary readings of the Sunday.]
10th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Binding the
strong man - Jesus master metaphor
11th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Like a
mustard seed
12th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Other Side
13th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Healing two
daughters
14th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Strategies of
a Subversive Movement
15th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Parody
Exposing Power
16th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Sheep Without
a Shepherd
17th Sunday in Ordinary Time - Theology in
Pharoah’s Household
18th Sunday in Ordinary Time - The Battle
for the Bible
Wow! Perhaps best
ever issue!! [RCWP Canada Monthly Review,
August, 2018]
[Supportive
Catholic, Saskatchewan]
While
I was present in person to hear Jane's comments both at the end of the
ordination ceremony and also at the banquet afterwards, I found myself
reading these over and over again in this issue of RCWP
Canada Monthly Review [August 2018].
They warmed my heart, and filled me with joy and with a deeper
dedication to spread the "good news" of RCWP. Sometimes I feel as if we
are preaching to the converted, and so I would encourage everyone who
reads the monthly news to forward it to friends, family, pastors,
bishops - - choose one or two articles and pass them
on.
[Judith
Pellerin, Regina, SK]
Thanks for being such a wise curator of information. This takes a lot
of work and commitment. Thanks for bringing in academic relevance, and
Spirit-filled articles. The Vatican's persistence in it's refusal to
ordain women does not surprise me. Those who have power want to hold
onto their power.
[Anonymous]
This past weekend, while on her trip to Vancouver, newly ordained RCWP
Canada Bishop, Jane Kryzanowski, stayed with Karen and Austen and took
the opportunity to preside over their second child’s Baptism and
Blessing ceremony.
It was a beautiful event full of love and support from family and
friends gathered together to embrace their young girl as she begins to
find her way of growth in the love of Abba
God, the Christ and Sophia.
[Karen
Leeden, RCWP Canada Associate, Burnaby, BC]
When I read this quote [RCWP Canada Monthly Review,
August 2018]:
"I wish to leave you with this familiar quote from Albert Camus:
Don't walk behind me; I may not
lead.
Don't walk in front of me; I
may not follow.
Just walk beside me and be my
friend",
it
reminded me of another quote.
It is
said that on
one of his Marches, Gandhi stopped to talk to some people.
The
March went on. He said: “There goes my people. I must follow
them, for I am their leader.”
Or
another version: “There go my people: I have to go and run
and catch up because I am their leader.”
[David
Jackson, Edinburg, TX]
What is your organization’s
stand on divorced and remarried individuals becoming full congregants?
[Anonymous]
[Editor's
note: Part of our ministry is to be available to those who
are
marginalized by the Church. We believe your conscience should
discern whether you can become a full congregant of one of our faith
communities. For more information, please write to rcwpcanada@outlook.com.]
As
a pretty regular reader of this site, it occurs to me that other
readers may be interested in my latest blog post about my account of
the campaign for the revival of ordination of female deacons in the
Orthodox Church. I blog under the title, "What am I doing here?"
about my experience in the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of Canada
(celebrating its 100th anniversary in 2019). I know a deaconess is not
a - heaven forbid - priest and the women recently "ordained" in
Alexandria are probably only subdeaconesses but one lives in hope.
[Myrna
Kostash, Edmonton]
|
|
August
2018 - 2
