Ekklesia of Women
February 11, 2016
Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza describes the Ekklesia as “an assembly of free citizens gathering for deciding their own spiritual-political affairs.” Continuing on, she writes of early Christianity as “a set of relationships, the experience of God’s presence among one another and through one another.” A long history of patriarchy follows the early roots shaping the Catholic Church, of which Fiorenza is a part. In order to become an Ekklesia of women, patriarchal structures that place women as homemakers and nuns need to be reconsidered. Not only men, but women must reclaim themselves from the possession of patriarchal dominance. As feminists, we must gather for the purpose of God’s movement in and through us, coming together as an Ekklesia of women. The dualism of patriarchy in the church have introjected religious dualism among ourselves. We are mothers and CEOs, married and single, Catholic and Protestant, lesbian and heterosexual, younger and older. As women we would do well to reject the barriers that arise between us, and instead, come together in community to experience the relationships that God intends for all humankind.
Susan A. Ross is another Catholic Feminist. She writes about the exclusion of women in the sacraments as they are administered only through the priest. Women in the Catholic tradition are not allowed to be ordained priests. Ross introduces us to the feminist wisdom of Women Church, a sacred space for women to create their own sacraments that celebrate and mourn women’s real life victories and struggles in relationship with other women. Ross points out how many theological theories rely only on men. Is a sacramental theology that relies only on women any different? She invites us as feminists to go deeper. Deeper into the cycles of life, of nature, deeper into ourselves, and our own processes, deeper into the developmental task of conversion. Conversion is not a onetime occurrence, but a lifelong process that all are invited into by God through the Spirit. Ross proposes that recognizing “women’s relationship to the sacred and to the everyday would broaden and deepen sacramental theology, acting as a criticism and a corrective to the sacramental tradition.”
Meeting in our reading pod this week we discussed our ordinary sacramental lives as mothers, (four of us) as wives, (three of us), as sisters, friends, and students. As child bearers we embody baptism in the process of giving birth. We recognize the need for reconciliation and how we practice this in our relationships. As parents it is our sacred work to model reconciliation to our children, even if sometimes we feel forced to exchange our compassionate and understanding hat for our bat-shit crazy mama hat. It is both needed and necessary for our children to experience our real emotions, even in rupture, in order to learn repair. This is reconciliation, the work of the gospel. We experience communion everyday as we prepare food for others and eat in order to sustain our bodies. Mindful eating invites gratitude for what God has provided us, for how God nourishes us both spiritually and physically, for how God gives and sustains life. We anoint the sick and are ordained into our vocation, our calling. In this we ARE priests, living the work that God has called us to. Having been raised Catholic, I feel sensitive to the need for the church to recognize women in their fullness, their glory, by honoring ordinary sacraments.
As our discussion unfolded I noticed a leaning in and towards that was occurring. We talked about the judgments that keep women separate from each other. Our human need for safety in relationship and how our hurt sometimes causes us to reject belonging. Earlier in class, we listened to one of my heroes, Brene’ Brown, on vulnerability. Chelle then invited us to consider what it is like to bring our fleshiness to church. The messiness of self, in both vulnerability and fleshiness, can feel contrary to the prettiness of the sacramental church. We talked about our lives as the messiness that is sacrament, the offering we have. Here, in the depth of our human messiness, the Spirit hovers. On Tuesday, I felt the Spirit hovering over our Feminist pod, bringing us into a church that I think I could attend regularly, an Ekklesia of Women.
Image: Hellebores; “Lenten Rose” taken Ash Wednesday outside Zuliy Starbucks.
Schüssler-Fiorenza, Elisabeth. “Toward a Feminist Biblical Spirituality: The Ekklesia of Women,” in In Memory of Her: A Feminist Theological Reconstruction of Christian Origins, 10th ed., Crossroads Publishing Company, 2000, 343–351.
Ross, Susan A. “God’s Embodiment and Women,” in Freeing Theology: The Essentials of Theology in Feminist Perspective, Ed. Catherine Mowry Laguna, HarperSanFrancisco, 1993.
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