Volume 25, Number 1    April 2003

 

Celebrating Women Witnesses brings hope to parish event

After a full year of planning, Cleveland area women used the Future- Church/CTA Celebrating Women Witnesses (CWW) resources in a creative all-day festival on March 1 that brought over 150 women (and a few men) to suburban Resurrection Parish in Solon, Ohio. The format can readily be imitated in other parishes.

Keynote speaker, Sr. Miriam Therese Winter, addressed "Women as Mystics and Prophets" by bringing to life the female characters often overlooked in the Gospel passion narratives. She invited the group to "take along one of those women witnesses" on their Lenten journey.

The day included small breakout sessions facilitated by local experts. Each shared insights about one woman witness. Artist Sr. Kathleen Burke spoke to her group about Hildegard of Bingen. John Carroll University professor Doris Donnelly discussed Catherine of Siena. FutureChurch executive director Sr. Chris Schenk spoke about Prisca and other women leaders in the early Christian communities. Educator Miriam Robinson shared the legacy of Sojourner Truth, along with activist Joan Southgate, who walked 300 miles of the Ohio Underground Railroad route in 2002.

Each small group also created a joint response which was shared during the closing prayer of the day. The Sojourner Truth group closed with a poem, "I am a black woman " The Prisca group redesigned the Pauline baptismal hymn - "You are no longer Jew or Greek, slave or free " to speak more directly in our day: "You are no longer Christian or Muslim, poor or rich, woman or man...but you are all one in Christ Jesus."

Artist Debra Wuliger contributed a series of seven silk banners that hung overhead in the worship space. Titled "Sophia Sings," each panel depicts God in feminine imagery authoring the seven days of creation.

Participants said the program helped them to imagine a future where both women and men bear equal authority for witnessing the Good News. Future events can also utilize Celebrating Women Witnesses, Part II, published last month. It contains essays and prayer services honoring Brigid of Kildare, Hildegard of Bingen, four U.S. Women Martyred in El Salvador, Phoebe, Perpetua and Felicity, Mary Ward, Our Lady of Guadalupe, Henriette Delille, Penny Lernoux, Joan of Arc, Edith Stein and a new category: Anonymous Women.