In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

  • Women-Church:Feminist Concept, Religious Commitment, Women's Movement
  • Mary E. Hunt (bio)

Women-church is a movement of autonomous groups seeking to actualize "a discipleship of equals." It is an example of how a feminist concept, coupled with religious commitment, animates a women's movement. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is an integral part of women-church, a theologian whose ideas and dedication have sparked, guided, and sustained the movement. This essay explores the roots of the women-church movement, its impact on the larger world of religion, and its contribution to the future of religious feminism. This critical analysis honors Elisabeth's contribution and invites more feminist participation in shaping justice-seeking communities. Women-church is a living example of the fact that feminist studies in religion are dangerous to those who seek to preserve kyriarchy and liberating to those who envision change.

Lots of feminist theology is in print but less of it is in action. Women-church is an exception to the rule, an example of how a feminist concept, coupled with religious commitment, animates a women's movement. Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza is an integral part of women-church, a theologian whose ideas and dedication have sparked, guided, and sustained the movement. This essay honors her contribution and invites more critical feminist participation in shaping justice-seeking communities.

A typical women-church group, if such a thing exists, meets periodically in the homes of its members for a meal and a ritual. Members lead the group in worship and activity, but there is no fixed leadership. While the group may include clergy (ordained in certain denominations), women-church groups do not typically ordain anyone and do not recognize lay/clergy distinctions in essence [End Page 85] or function. Rather, the groups strive to be a "discipleship of equals," a democratic assembly in which the various talents of the members are put to the service of the community. Each group is autonomous though all are welcome to be part of the Women-Church Convergence, a coalition of such groups that meets annually for education and networking.

How did women-church come into being, what impact is it having, and what does it contribute to the future of religious feminism? I will answer these questions with special reference to Elisabeth's work. There are other sources of inspiration for women-church, including the work of Rosemary Radford Ruether, Diann L. Neu, and myself.1 But Elisabeth's groundbreaking analysis and steadfast accompaniment of the movement over nearly thirty years is what I celebrate in this writing.

The Development of Women-Church

Women-church is a feminist concept that arose in a Catholic context but has since spread well beyond it. From the late 1950s, when Swedish Lutheran women were ordained to the priesthood, to the mid-1970s, when Episcopal women in the United States were ordained, Catholic women named the injustice of being prohibited from ordination and vowed to right it. Their efforts, initiated by Mary B. Lynch in the United States, resulted in a conference in 1975 in Detroit, Michigan, "Women in Future Priesthood Now—A Call for Action," at which women declared the right to test their priestly vocations and to develop a renewed priestly ministry.

At that meeting, Elisabeth reiterated a suggestion she made in an early book on ministry that women must become bishops first and only then priests and deacons so as not to be cast into subservient roles.2 This was sage advice, although she was clear even in 1975 that "the ordination of women can not simply mean their addition and integration into the clergy but implies a psychological, structural and theological transformation of the church" (100).

In the same lecture, Elisabeth called for a "New Christian Sisterhood" (fore-shadowing women-church, perhaps) that would unite women, especially those in religious congregations and those who do not belong to such groups (what later became known as the nun-woman/laywoman split). She was prescient in her view that the kyriarchy would be happy to pit women against women, ordained [End Page 86] against lay, and in so doing maintain its hierarchal structure with a few token women in key places. While...

pdf

Share