WOW conference: How radical shall we be?
by Sheila Spaeth Daley


Dismantling patriarchy and creating a radical democratic catholic church inspired by Vatican II.

This is how keynote speakers, Elizabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and Rosemary Radford Ruether, described the vision of the feminist movement in the Church. Most of the 500 attending WOW (Women’s Ordination Worldwide) in Ottawa seemed to share that goal.

Yet the WOW agenda didn't even mention the ordinations scheduled to take place on the St. Lawrence River the following day. Laura Singer, a leader in the Women’s Ordination Conference from Chicago, posed the question at the business meeting: “Why aren’t we celebrating these women at this conference?”

Excluding discussion of the ordinations from the official agenda crystalized the tensions arising from the variety of perspectives among both organizers and attendees. Some saw the ordinations as having the potential of co-opting women into the patriarchal structure rather than being a strategy for transforming it. Some were concerned that it is not a strategy which will be effective. Others, currently employed by the church in some capacity, were apprehensive about associating with the ordinations because it might threaten their own ministries.

Most attendees seemed to want to show support for the individual women being ordained and to respect the variety of perspectives present. They found the discussion it generated challenging and energizing, if at times painful.

Perhaps the very intensity of the discussion of this variety of perspectives most clearly manifested the growing confidence of the movement in its ability to live in the kind of diverse church community it desires for the Roman Catholic Church. As Schüssler Fiorenza put it, “We must insist on our intellectual and spiritual freedom to articulate ekklesial, i.e. radical democratic paradigms of how to live in diversity, tolerance and respect for those who are not like us.”

The vision is indeed radical. For Schüssler Fiorenza this catholicity entails:
1. both inclusiveness and openness to all peoples, cultures and religions and opposition to sectarianism and religious individualism;
2. openness to truth and values wherever they are encountered;
3. ability to bridge divisions, generations and historical chasms;
4. the recognition that Divine Spirit-Wisdom creates solidarity in diversity.

Both the women at WOW and the women ordained on the St. Lawrence are pioneers living out this radical vision, however imperfect it may feel. They model for all of us working for reform the kind of open systems and networks we must create and the spiritual stamina we will need to live within them. We must take a challenging spiritual journey. These women have long been on this journey and have much wisdom to share.

At CTA in November, Ruether will speak about the Goddess and feminism. Schenk will address priesthood and Eucharist. Barnes will assess the personal and the political dimensions of women's ordination.

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