9—10am
A showing of excerpts from Jules Hart film “Women of the Holy Road”—a draft of a film about RCWP. Imagine that morning how it felt walking into a building that was a Muslim meeting hall, seeing it already filled with 150 people, all watching the faces of Patricia Fresen, Jane Via, and others on a large screen in the front of the hall talking about their call to ordination in the Catholic Church! Yes it was in English, so only some of it was understood, but all enjoyed the visual education offered by the images from Jules wonderful film.
It is worthwhile to mention here that while waiting in the back of the meeting hall for the panel to begin, I was introduced to a transgender Muslim woman, Aria, wearing her hijab/jilbab and a full length robe. She was introduced to me as being on the evening panel about diversity and spirituality. Yes, it was clear at every turn in Yogya that the Women’s Coalition meant what they said --- a total commitment to pluralism in Indonesian society.
10:00—1:00p
A Public Discussion on “Women’s Leadership in Religion and Spirituality.” The panel:
Hindun Annisa director of a feminist educational school/seminary for young Muslim women, Wilis Rengganiasih a Buddhist scholar at the Indonesian Consortium for Religious Studies and myself. Once again I was most grateful for superb translators!
Hindun spoke of the importance of education for all young women, and how that education must be feminist. She spoke of the complete alignment between the Prophet’s life and the empowerment of women. Education, she said, was not only important, but the responsibility of young women and their families to seek out in order to become full members of society who know their rights, including religiously.
Wilis addressed this same idea in Buddhism focusing on the 13 women who were ordained as monks by the Buddha. And yet how women are still struggling today in some parts of Theravada Buddhism for recognition (hence the connection to my earlier meeting with Ven. Dhammananda).
Initially I began with the history of women’s ordination in the early church and then the contemporary movement. But following the lead of the other panelists, I went on to state that the problem with the Catholic women’s ordination movement is that we do not speak enough with our Protestant ordained sisters and other women in leadership in other religions. These women understand that getting ordained doesn’t change the hierarchical system or change patriarchal language. Just getting in the door doesn’t mean we get a seat at the table. Catholic women need to be realistic about what ordination means and the systemic nature of power. Therefore, alliances are crucial, so that we can learn from all those who are engaged in similar struggles. From there I went on to address sexuality. Because it’s so hard to get to the table, we who are LGBT are not supposed to talk about our sexuality. We are pressured to prove that we are good girls---mothers, with children and husbands—and so LGBT folks are pressured to stay in the closet. [I’ll address the rest of my lecture in other places, but for now that was the gist of it]
Questions that were asked during the discussion:
What are the challenges you’ve experienced as a woman spiritual leader? How are women spiritual leaders different? than male priests? Can the women’s movement for ordination be successful? Why not choose another church where you would be accepted? Can we be feminist without being lesbian? How do I face being a lesbian priest in my daily life?
I particularly liked this one: There is a paradigm shift going on from single voices of authority to multiple voices of power, a kind of de-sacralization of power and sacred texts---how do all three of you address this? Wilis, the Buddhist scholar answered it in this way: The Buddha taught not to be attached to doctrines, including those given by the Buddha.
It was a lively, thought-filled discussion. We all walked away from it deeper and more connected to each other’s struggles.
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