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

Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza (1938– ) From In Memory of Her [The ekklēsia of women] I n the greek old testament ekklēsia means the ‘‘assembly of the people of Israel before God.’’ In the New Testament ekklēsia comes through the agency of the Spirit to visible, tangible expression in and through the gathering of God’s people around the table, eating together a meal, breaking the bread, and sharing the cup in memory of Christ’s passion and resurrection. Christian spirituality means eating together, sharing together, drinking together, talking with each other, receiving each other, experiencing God’s presence through each other, and, in doing so, proclaiming the gospel as God’s alternative vision for everyone, especially for those who are poor, outcast, and battered. As long as women Christians are excluded from breaking the bread and deciding their own spiritual welfare and commitment, ekklēsia as the discipleship of equals is not realized and the power of the gospel is greatly diminished. The true spiritual person is according to Paul the one who walks in the Spirit, she who brings about this new world and family of God over and against the resistance and pull of all oppressive powers of this world’s enslaving patriarchal structures. A feminist Christian spirituality, therefore, calls us to gather together the ekklēsia of women who, in the angry power of the Spirit, are sent forth to feed, heal, and liberate our own people who are women. It unmasks and sets us free from the structural sin and alienation of sexism and propels us to become children and spokeswomen of God. It rejects the idolatrous worship of maleness and articulates the divine image in female human existence and language. It sets us free from the internalization of false altruism and self-sacrifice that is concerned with the welfare and work of men first to the detriment of our own and other women’s welfare and calling. It enables us to live ‘‘for one another’’ and to experience the presence of God in the ekklēsia as the gathering of women. Those of us who have heard this calling respond by committing ourselves to the liberation struggle of women and all peoples, by being accountable to women 185 186 Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza and their future, and by nurturing solidarity within the ekklēsia of women. Commitment, accountability, and solidarity in community are the hallmarks of our calling and struggle. Two major objections are usually raised at this point. The first is that the church of women does not share in the fullness of church. This is correct, but neither do exclusive male hierarchical assemblies. Women’s religious communities have always existed within the Catholic tradition. They were generated as soon as the local structures became patriarchal and hierarchical and therefore had to relegate women to subordinate roles or to eliminate them from church office altogether. The male hierarchical church in turn has always sought to control these communities by colonizing them through male theology, liturgy, law, and spirituality, but was never quite able to do so. By abolishing these religious communities of women the Protestant Reformation has strengthened patriarchal church structures and intensified male clerical control of Roman Catholic women’s communities in modern times. In the past centuries, however , women founders and leaders of their people have arisen again and again who sought to gather communities of women free from clerical and monastic control. A Christian feminist spirituality claims these communities of women and their history as our heritage and history and seeks to transform them into the ekklēsia of women by claiming our own spiritual powers and gifts, by deciding our own welfare, by standing accountable for our decisions, in short, by rejecting the patriarchal structures of laywomen and nun-women, of laywomen and clergywomen, which deeply divide us along patriarchal lines. The second objection made is the charge of ‘‘reverse sexism’’ and the appeal to ‘‘mutuality with men’’ whenever we gather together as the ekklēsia of women in Her name. However, such an objection does not face sufficiently the issues of patriarchal oppression and power. It looks too quickly for easy grace, having paid lip service to the structural sin of sexism. Do we call it ‘‘reverse imperialism ’’ if the poor of South and Central America gather together as a people? Or do we call it ‘‘reverse colonialism’’ whenever Africans or Asians gather together as a people? We do not do so because we know too...

Share