ordination of women

Image via RNS/Reuters/Osservatore Romano

Even by this pope’s standards it was a bold move.

Francis, the spiritual leader of more than a billion Roman Catholics across the globe, this week traveled to Sweden, one of the most secularized countries in Europe, to take part in events marking 500 years since Martin Luther kickstarted the Protestant Reformation.

Image via REUTERS/Tony Gentile/RNS

Pope Francis has changed the rules so that a priest may wash the feet of women and others in the community and not just men, as church law had previously decreed. The change, announced Jan. 20, reflects Francis’ own groundbreaking gesture when, just a month after his election in 2013, he washed the feet of young people — including women and Muslims — at a youth detention center outside Rome.

the Web Editors 9-14-2015
YouTube / Salt and Light

Photo via YouTube / Salt and Light

While the celebrity comedian’s great love for the Catholic Church is well documented, Stephen Colbert has always pushed the boundaries of his faith.

In his latest interview with Salt and Light, Colbert shared a powerful story about the importance of female priests.

Cathleen Falsani 2-14-2012

Chocolate fountain in the baptismal font at House For All, the church pastored by Nadia Bolz-Weber. Via www.houseforall.org.

The Vicar of Dibley's Mother Geraldine is one of my all-time favorite television characters. Apart from her various entertaining antics, she also has a beautiful pastoral touch and way of communicating the grace and mercy of the gospel with honesty, passion and great humor — not unlike many of the women clergy I am blessed to know and have known over the years.

While women clergy are a given part of the life of the church for many of us, their presence in the Great Conversation remains a point of contention and controversy for not a few of our brothers and sisters in Christ. I was reminded of this Monday while reading the latest blog entry from our God's Politics contributor Nadia Bolz-Weber, pastor of the House for All Saints and Sinners church in Denver.

On Sunday, Nadia, an ordained minister of the Evangelical Lutheran Churchin America, received an email inquiry from a friend of a friend informing her of some less-than-love coming her way from her more conservative cousins in the Lutheran Church (Missouri Synod) who are aghast at something that went down at House for All's post-Easter Vigil party a while back.

As part of their celebration of Jesus' resurrection, House for All's Easter party included a three-tiered chocolate fountain set up in the church's baptismal font.

Theresa Cho 11-29-2010

In 2004, I was the 40th Korean-American clergywomen to be ordained in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. denomination. Forty seems like such a small number when you consider that in 2011, Korean-American Clergywomen (KACW) will be celebrating their 20th anniversary. However, many Korean-American women are still wandering the desert of the ordination process without a rock, well, pitcher, or even a drop of water in sight to quench their thirst to serve as God has called them. There have been times when we wished there was a Moses to break the rock or the obstacle so that freedom and the ability to serve as a minister of the word and sacrament would gush abundantly, but the reality is that many Korean-American women cannot find calls or find the support they need to find a call.

Eugene Cho 1-15-2010
Nicolas Kristof had a recent article in The New York Times titled, "Religion and Women," t
Nadia Bolz-Weber 3-11-2009

I don't honestly think about "women in ministry issues" a whole lot. I guess I just go about my work not thinking of myself as a female pastor, just a pastor. I have almost never felt directly discounted for being a woman in my work.

Kaitlin Barker 11-18-2008

"I know you know what you're doing," Janice Sevre-Duszynska told Father Roy Bourgeois when he agreed to co-preside and give the homily at her ordination Mass, "but do you know what you're doing?" About a month ago I shared Janice's story of ordination, spotlighting her struggle for justice in the Catholic church and the long road she'd walked for years leading up to August 9, 2008, the day of her ordination Mass.

Kaitlin Barker 10-07-2008

Near the Vatican in October 2001, Janice Sevre-Duszynska and fellow advocates hung a banner calling in seven different languages for the ordination of women. Almost seven years later, the fruit of that action and many others like it was realized. Janice's long-awaited and hard-fought ordination Mass took place Aug. 9, 2008, in Lexington, Kentucky.