Over the past year, members of the Catholic Network for Women’s Equality (CNWE) have experienced and studied the New Roman Missal and its process of development. We are dissatisfied with the New Missal because of its inherent pre-Vatican II theology (overemphasizing human sinfulness and unworthiness before a monarchical God rather than God’s unconditional love for us as a “pilgrim” people made in God’s image), its awkward translation from Latin into English and its rejection of the use of inclusive language. We have also learned that the process of development of the Missal was overridden by a small committee of the Vatican that made 10 000 changes to a widely accepted 1998 draft Missal produced by the International Commission on English in the Liturgy (ICEL).

We hope that you will join us in expressing our dissatisfaction with the New Roman Missal by signing our petition at www. cnwe.org . The petition will be delivered in person to Archbishop Prendergast of Ottawa on December 5, 2012.  Four CNWE members will meet with Archbishop Prendergast to express CNWE’s concerns with the New Roman Missal and to offer him an opportunity to respond. The petition will also be copied to all the bishops of Canada after the meeting.

This week is your last chance to sign CNWE’s petition!
We invite you to share this petition with family and friends.
The petition will close on December 3, 2012. Sign on with the orange button to your right on the screen!

(Also please be sure to reply to the one email that asks you to confirm your signature by clicking on the link provided in the email.)

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Reaching Out is the name we have given to the project affirmed by CNWE’s
2012 AGM.  The project envisions visits/conversations taking place in Spring 2013 in Canadian locations where our membership is sparse or non-existent.  To prepare for
this outreach a team of five CNWE members has begun to meet through conference calls to lay out the infrastructure that will allow the visits to take place, i.e. locations, help on the ground, financing . . . These are challenging times.  Needs are greater than ever.  How are we as CNWE members called to be of service in these times?
After 30 years of supporting the giftedness of women and gathering in circles of
prayer, learning, and action, our call may well be to reach out and offer the same possibilities to women who may not know what is available to them.  Holding visits where we have few members, listening to concerns, and offering what we have to offer is the goal of CNWE Reaching Out. A strengthened voice for change is worth reaching for.
Making this work from coast to coast to coast will require the minds and hearts and hands of us all.  Ours are the hands that reach out to pray, to bless, to invite, to initiate, to support, to hold.  How would you and your local group like to participate?  Here are a few suggestions:
*  contact a member/members of the Reaching Out team, hold a conversation, offer
ideas,
*  if you are a member of a local CNWE group, explore ideas for ways for your group to participate,
*  give a gift subscription of The Seed Keepers to someone you know who lives in an
area of sparse CNWE membership,
*  if you have daughters or granddaughters, invite them to a conversation, hear their
issues, share yours.

Reaching Out…
For the lives of women,
For a church that is just and accountable,
For the earth, its health and future.

On October 13, 2012, CNWE members gathering in Sault Ste. Marie, ON enjoyed an afternoon discovering, through archaeological finds, the role of women in the early Christian church.  Dr. Dorothy Irvin, Ph.D, delighted a group of 30, including some from Elliot Lake, ON with her extensive knowledge, humour and scholarly presentation.  She shared several of her interesting experiences.  Through a slide presentation, she enlightened many with her factual and visual evidence of women’s faith  and lived experience as Deacons, Priests and Bishops in the early Christian church.

Dorothy holds a Doctorate in Catholic theology, with specialization in the Bible, ancient near eastern studies, and archaeology.  She is also a published author, and a lecturer.  Dorothy  had been an active field archaeologist for 18 years on the staff of an ongoing excavation in the country of Jordan.   All this, and she is a mother and grandmother! We were honored and thrilled to have her here in Sault Ste. Marie.

As in previous years, a contingent of CNWE members attended the Call to Action Conference “Justice Rising” in Louisville, Kentucky November 8-11, 2012.

We heard from civil rights activist Dianne Nash and her concept of “agapic energy” (non-violent resistance and work for change. Nash spoke of her experience in 1960 of staging sit-ins at segregated lunch counters in Nashville that led to equal rights for African Americans. Matthew Fox challenged us on Saturday to see how the Holy Spirit, in these dark times, is calling elders and young alike to connect with one another and to find creative ways of going forward – with fire in our bellies! On Saturday evening Imam Mohamed Abdul-Azeez addressed Call to Action and urged us to challenge our negative sterotypes about Islam and rather to see, especially in the ‘Arab Spring’ the common ground of a desire for democracy and freedom in the Middle East. And on Sunday, Patricia Fresen in her address “Less Pope, More Jesus” pointed to the growing desire for reform in the church and an end to clericalism, hierarchical authoritarianism, restorationism and misogyny. There were many other enlightening workshops and as always, the conversations in between are rich with emails exchanged and encouragement shared. The closing Eucharist among a discipleship of equals was wonder-full!!