Book Launch: AWAKENING CATHOLIC WOMEN'S ORDINATION FROM THE PUBLIC SQUARE
by Pippa Bonner and Myra Poole
London, England on Saturday February 6, 2016 at St. Andrew's Short Steel SE1 8LJ (across from the Young Vic) Waterloo 2pm to 4 pm
Please come and forward the invitation to your friends! This book is the fruit of 20 years of CWO's prayer, campaign, and comradeship. Myra and Pippa hope to see you there! Read on!
At the Piazza of Westminster on Vocations Sunday in 1994, a group representing CWO (Catholic Womens Ordination) gathered in quiet protest. Purple is the chosen colour of the organisation to denote mourning for the lost gifts of the women of the Roman Catholic Church and as a sign of the dignity of the royal priesthood of women, This liturgy of covering the door of Westminster Cathedral with apurple cloth and a purple iris was to cleanse the RC Church from its all male control. This was further emphasised during this liturgy by 7 minutes of silence to signify the exclusion of women from adminstering publicly all seven sacraments.
Our protest continues!
Pippa and Myra hope to see as many of you as possible there as we want this book to be widely read and discussed
And there will be a book launch in Leeds, Saturday 12th March, at Holy Trinity Church Upper Room, Boar Lane, LS1 6HW, very close to Leeds railway station. 2.00—4.00pm
Again, followed by going for a meal nearby for those who wish.
This book is not like other books that have been written on this topic. We’re hoping it will stimulate fresh interest. We are urging members to set up discussion groups, with both CWO members and non-members and let us know people’s responses. There are discussion points at the end of each chapter.
We also hope to arrange book launches and discussions in other parts of the country – e.g. Birmingham, South West and Wales, and any other part of the country that asks us.
The book is based on over 20 years’ experience of bringing this topic to public notice and the hazards this entails. It is written in six chapters (152 pages) and does not need to be read chronologically. The Chapter headings speak for themselves as they open up different vistas on the root of the problem. The authors are committed to remaining within the Catholic Church, but recognise that women’s ministry, in its fullest inclusive sense, will only happen in a renewed Church. The book includes contributions from CWO members. It is written primarily for the general educated reader who is interested in a deeper understanding of this struggle and the important part it plays in highlighting the present theology on women, in the Catholic Church, that underpins the reasons for violence against women and their worldwide poverty.
Chapter 1: Awakening to Public Action
Chapter 2: Awakening from Loss towards Resilience.
Chapter 3: Awakening to Spiritual Growth.
Chapter 4: Awakening to the ‘Defective’ Tradition on Women
Chapter 5: Awakening to ‘Symbolic Shifts’ in Feminist Theology.
Chapter 6: Awakening to New Visions of Church
'A remarkable contribution to solving women's inequality as one of the biggest problems within the Catholic Church today.' - Luca Badini Confalonieri, PhD in Theology (Dunelm), Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research
'Lively, informative and accessibly written, it offers a resource to thoughtful Catholics seeking tools to rethink the renewal of the Church and women's transformed role and place within it.' Alana Harris, Teaching Fellow in Modern British History, King's College, London.
'I warmly commend this book to all who are engaged in current discussions about the role of women and men, clerical and lay, in the Church's mission to the world.' Una Kroll, author and formerly Church of England priest, now an urban solitary in life vows, dedicated to the sacred heart of Jesus.
