Early this Saturday morning we flew to Yogyakarta, an hour’s flight from Jakarta.
We were met at the airport by members of the Yogyakarta Women’s Coalition, twenty four organizations that presented our stay in Yogya. The range of issues that each of these organizations represents should give you some idea of their pluralism: reproductive rights, literacy for Muslim youth, women in kampung areas, industrialized women workers, a theatre group working on trafficking in women issues, Ahmadiyya Muslims [In 2008, many far-right Muslims in Indonesia protested against Ahmadiyya and its followers. With violence and large demonstrations, these religious conservatives worked to pressure the government to pressure, monitor, and harrass the Ahmadiyya community in Indonesia], two LGBT organizations, domestic workers, an inter-faith university graduate program ICRS, women and media, budget advocacy, women’s rights advocacy.
Yes! An amazing group of women and supportive men came together to present us!
After a wonderful traditional Indonesian breakfast, we were taken to what I thought would be a liturgy meeting for the Mass that would take place the next day, Sunday.
There were fifteen people gathered from the Yogyakarta International Church [YIC] which is a home to Protestants and Catholics. It has no ordained clergy but instead creates worship from among its members. It has oversight given to it by a board. As we began the meeting, Martin arrived. He seemed embarrassed as he began to speak. He told all of us that the night before the board had met and had had a difficult discussion concerning the Mass. Unfortunately, he said, I had been dis-invited from presiding at a Roman Catholic Mass the next day by the board. Later I learned that a Catholic board member had been pressured by conservative Catholic “friends” to dis-invite me. Martin wanted to know if we could still use the liturgy I had prepared but just not celebrate the Eucharist part. I immediately said no to that thought since the Mass liturgy is for me one entire fabric, one whole piece that could not be cut up in parts. Well....you might imagine that I was stunned, and so were the organizers who had set up the Mass with the YIC. At first I was confused and angry and tried to clarify what I had heard from Martin. Then I felt Kathryn’s knowing hand on my back. Her hand was saying slow down. Calm down. Breath. What a blessing my partner Kathryn is in my life!
And so, with new breath I responded that this was an important “educational moment” for all concerned, and that we might all take the time to discuss it thoroughly and perhaps then come up with a solution. For the next twenty minutes, there was a lot of discussion in Bahasa Indonesia [the language of the country].....so it is impossible to relate the content here. However, at the end of it, piece by piece people suggested in English what might be created instead. And so what transpired was a group decision on how to save the situation and thus “save face” by essentially inviting me to participate as guest homilist in what would be a Protestant service. Martin was still embarrassed saying this was not how he personally felt. He offered the added thought, this was indeed an educational moment for this church group. And hopefully this was the first step in learning about women priests. And hopefully there would be a second step, a second invitation that would be offered next year to invite me back to preside at a Catholic Mass.
And so it was that I agreed to bless the children, give a shared homily, and give the final benediction [which, the way I lead it, is also a shared benediction done by everyone]. We all left the meeting realizing that a most difficult moment for all had been struggled with by the entire group and a good solution had been arrived at. Perhaps even a solution that was both educational and also seeded a future.
That evening we were invited to a potluck welcome dinner hosted by all of the 24 organizations that were sponsoring our visit. And it was here that I once again was reminded of the power of coalitions, across issues, across sexualities, across genders and ethnicities. It is truly my hope that the movement for Roman Catholic women priests can learn from these Indonesian women and men in the power that is harnessed in building alliances. RCWP needs to form alliances and join networks with other activists who are working on other progressive causes. We need to be at all of those tables, not just the Eucharistic table. We need to do this for the good of our movement and the good of the planet.
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