July 19 Two interviews with Ven. Dhammananda

Hello All,
I am actually writing this from Cambodia, but wanted to write a brief summary of the interviews that I had with Dhammananda on 7/18 & 19 at Wat Songdhammakalyani.
We spoke together of the parallels between Roman Catholic Womenpriests and the movement she is part of in Theravada Buddhism for women's ordination as monks (bhikkunis).
Parallels (which I will elaborate on later):
1. The Thai Sangha does not accept her ordination done in Sri Lanka by male and female monks. The Vatican does not accept RCWP ordinations.
2. There is a clear history of women ordained by the Buddha. There is a clear history of women ordained in the early church.
3.According to the Thai Sangha (like the Vatican) the ordination of women monks died out in the 1100's and can't be returned. There were women priests, deacons and bishops in the early church historically, but the Vatican denies this and when pushed to it suggests that these women were married to male deacons,priests, bishops and that's perhaps why they had the same titles.
4.There is clear need for women monks in Thailand. There were 330,000 male monks and now there are 180,000--young men are not joining. The number of male priests globally are declining in the church.
5. There have been abusive behaviors of male priests and male monks.
6. Both women monks and women priests are working to balance keeping the tradition and adding something new (inclusive language, equalizing participation of all, re-imagining rituals.

These are just a few of the parallels---but you can begin to see why I want to write an article from this interview!

I left the Wat on the afternoon of 7/19 with a big hug from Dhammananda who said "you are one of our own."

Much love to all,
Victoria