Dec_2018 final4:Layout 1 28/11/2018 17:02 Page 1

Remember Us in Your Will! Ask for Our Legacy Pack Regular donations help us, but leaving us a communio n legacy is also extremely valuable. Make The Official International Newsletter for The Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research Dec 2018 sure that your commitment to see a re - formed – with women In this issue > P1+2 : Dr Ally Kateusz P3 :Women & Synod P4 : Legacy Giving ordained as priests and individuals en - joying liberated consciences – will live Discovering the world of ancient women deacons after you !

The best legacy is to leave us part of what you own, of your assets. It is known as a Religion changes lives. We change reli - Residuary Bequest . This is the gift of all or gion . And the reforms we are working part of the residue of your estate. The for can improve the lives of millions . residue is what is left after all debts, taxes, Consider just two of the areas we work on: costs and specific and pecuniary bequests have been paid. You can also leave us a • Catholic Women – more than 50% of the specific sum of money, a Pecuniary Catholic Church! – are still barred from Legacy , or a defined item such as a work priestly ordination and most decision- of art, which is called a Specific Bequest . Ally Kateusz PhD (pictured above) is a historian making roles , depriving communities of with a particular intest in the roles of women in early Both sculptors portrayed a liturgical scene with spiritual leaders and leading to parish clo - If you are considering leaving us a legacy, Christianity, and is Research Associate at the Wijn - men and women flanking the altar in parallel , sures. See www.womenpriests.org please contact: gaards Institute for Catholic Research with men on the left and women on the right. I pub - I have been working on several projects this year lished my research about these two artifacts in the Spring 2017 Journal of Feminist Studies in Reli - • related to early Christian women clergy, and re - About 25% of health care facilities Ms Michelle Saaf cently I realized I had missed something important. gion , which won the March 2018 Feminae article Housetop worldwide are Catholic and therefore What I realized is that there does not appear to of the month. cannot, by statute, offer so called “arti - 111a High Street be any surviving Christian art up to at least the ficial” contraceptives for the purpose of Rickmansworth, WD3 1AN middle of the sixth century that depicts a Not only are these two the very oldest surviving family planning . This results in higher Tel.: +44 (0)1923 779446 Christian man at the altar in a real church with - artifacts to depict people at the altar in a real rates of unintended pregnancies, abortions, Email: out a woman also with him . There are, however, church, they apparently survived only because they were buried. The ivory reliquary box was infant as well as maternal deaths, and HIV [email protected] two artifacts that depict men and women flanking the altar in parallel , and these are the two very buried below an altar in Roman era church near infections. Our research and educational oldest surviving iconographic artifacts to depict modern Pola, Croatia, and the sarcophagus in a material helps Catholics overcome religion- and we will send you our Legacy Pack. people at the altar in a real church. hypogeum adjacent the Theodosian walls in Is - based prejudices against modern methods tanbul. Both were excavated in the twentieth cen - of family planning. Send or email your letters to us at: B o t h o f t h e s e a r t i f a c t s a r e s c u l p t u r e s u s u a l l y d a t e d t u r y . F r om this sample of two we can surmise that other similar artifacts must have existed, but none 111A High Street, to the decades around 430 CE. One is a large sar - Rickmansworth, cophagus front, which depicts the sanctuary of aboveground survived, suggesting that this gen - To touch the lives of more people, to re - Herts WD3 1AN, UK the second Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, and der parallel liturgy may have been censored email: [email protected] spond daily to new demands, to drive the other is the Pola ivory reliquary box, which de - later . essential religious change, we need picts the sanctuary of Old Saint Peter’s in . more resources . Website :www.wijngaardsinstitute.com P a t r o n s | U K : D r S h e i l a C a s s i d y , P r o f M a r y G r e y , L o r d H y l t o n , P r o f M ic h a e l H o r n s b y - S m i t h , If you move and change your address, please let us know if you wish to continue to receive your copy of Founder : Dr John Wijngaards, LSS, DD Baroness Kennedy QC, Christina Rees, Baroness Richardson and Dr Pauline Webb (RIP) Director : Luca Badini Confalonieri, MA, PhD | Australia: Prof Marie-Rose Joyce Communion. An electronic version on www.womenpriests.org/news/newslet.asp Pastoral Outreach : Colette Joyce, MA | Belgium: Baroness Holvoet | France: Dr Suzanne Tunc | Japan: Sister Naoko Iyori Communications : Miriam Duignan | Netherlands: Prof Rene van Eyden, Prof Eric Jurgens and Prof Joris Vercammen Administrator : [email protected] | USA: Prof Leonard Swidler

111A High Street, Rickmansworth, Herts WD3 1AN, UK Registered as Housetop Care Limited Charity no. 1053251 YouTube : Housetopwomenpriests FaceBook : womenpriests.org Website : www.wijngaardsinstitute.com t: 01923 779 446 e: [email protected] Company no. 3153215 w: www.wijngaardsinstitute.com Dec_2018 final4:Layout 1 28/11/2018 17:02 Page 2

The idea that the gender parallel liturgy was cen - Palestine. Pure discrimination! ble, and I wondered whether religious women sored is not far-fetched given the evidence of cen - We thus see early Christian artists por - would finally be drawn in more. Why women should be given a voice sorship of early liturgical manuscripts, which was traying women in the very oldest surviving art even more pervasive than with literary manu - at the Synod During my theology studies in Rome, I had sat that depicts anyone at the Christian altar. We by Alina Oehler, theologian and journalist scripts. According to Paul Bradshaw at the begin - see women in the liturgy both paralleled with next to many of them in the lecture hall; moreover, ning of his magisterial The Search for the Origins men and without men. We see these women in - German original we were taught by a Dominican nun. To this day, of Christian Worship , almost no liturgical manu - side the sanctuaries of some of the most im - first appeared in I’m still impressed by the expertise and intelli - scripts, neither Christian nor Jewish, have sur - portant orthodox basilicas in Christendom . To Christ & Welt, 5 gence of these pious women. Had their hour now vived from the first seven centuries CE. Instead, al - my knowledge these artifacts are older than any October 2018. ET come? most all of the oldest liturgical manuscripts date to surviving art to depict a Christian man alone at an by the Wijngaards Institute, repro - the early eighth century, and are written on similar altar in a real church. duced with permis - But the disillusionment came with the press con - writing materials in similar scripts, an apparent at - sion ference at the beginning of the Synod on Young tempt to legitimize the liturgical practices of that People. Bishop Fabio Fabene, Undersecretary of day by presenting them as from an older tradition. the Synod of Bishops, confirmed that it was now possible for the Superiors General of male reli - The biggest revelation for me, however, came dur - gious orders to designate anyone of their mem - ing dinner with Miriam Duignan, Wijngaards Insti - bers as a participant to the Synod, even those tute Communications Director, who asked whether who were not ordained. However, this does not there was evidence in art of women clergy offici - Often I catch myself believing that the Church is apply to the religious orders of women, he said, ating without men. In fact, the very oldest sur - taking tentative steps forward. Then I look closer, since they are already present as observers and viving artifact to depict Christians of only one and I’m startled to see a great jump backwards. in other functions and have the right to speak. sex at the altar of a real church depicts only Take for instance the latest Apostolic Constitution women . This scene is on an ivory pyx dated to the of . It is called ‘ Episcopalis commu - 500s, which today is in the Metropolitan Museum nio ’ – which means ‘episcopal communion’. “I suffer under the fact that women are of - of Art in New York. Most scholars agree it depicts Through it, the Pope sets out guidelines on how ten not taken seriously in the Church and the altar in the rotunda or basilica of the Anastasis to reorganise the international synods of bish - that the most important and most visible Women carrying censors flanking an Church in Jerusalem, also known as the Church of ops. leadership positions are still connected the Holy Sepulchre, although other scholars sug - altar table with .” gest perhaps some other church in Palestine. As I read it, what I thought initially was that Fran - cis wants to strengthen the voice of the whole The round shape of the pyx evokes the famous ro - ‘People of God’. Broad polls on the topic of the Up to his clarification, the doctrine of the Church tunda church, and the Metropolitan Museum of Synod – as in the run-up to the Synod on Young had at least been consistent: no ordination, no Art in New York titles it “Pyx with the Women at People, which took place in October 2018 – vote. Now this has been changed, by giving vot - Christ’s Tomb,” suggesting this identification. Other should become the rule in the future. Also, pre- ing rights to two religious brothers representing art depicts the two Marys approaching the shrine synodal meetings would be possible, such as the the Union of Superiors General. And yet women over Christ’s tomb, which was inside the rotunda. one that took place last Spring in anticipation of continue to be marginalized. I can no longer plau - The pyx , however, does not depict the tomb. It de - the Synod on Young People. In March I attended sibly find a reasonable defence. This is pure dis - picts five women in what appears to be a litur - the women's initiative ‘ Voices of Faith ’, and I was crimination! The Sisters I have talked to so far are gical procession to the altar table , a book set amazed by one of its achievements: namely, a horrified. On the internet, members of Catholic upon it, a lamp hanging above it, and a ciborium document which gathered the concerns of 300 women's groups are sharing photos of them - with twisted columns and curtains arching over it. young people from all over the world and which selves facing the camera and holding a poster The two women closest to the altar carry was then presented to the bishops as a working with the words "Votes for Women". If Rome does censers; the three others have raised arms . paper. So far so good. not come up with a convincing explanation as to Then I read article 2 of ‘Episcopalis communio ’, why women continue to be discriminated against, A search of the Princeton Index of Christian Art in - which affirms that I too will make and hold such a poster. dicates that a church mosaic in Qasr el Lebya that Back view of pyx with three women in depicts a woman with a censer dated 539–540CE procession ‘according to the theme and the circum - is the very oldest dated representation in art of a stances, certain others who are not bishops’ Send or email your letters to us at: Christian with a censer. The ivory pyx, which can - “I feel the vocation of a Priest! With what love, can also be delegated to the Synod’ . 111A High Street, not be dated more closely than the 500s, is the my Jesus, would I bear You in my hands, Rickmansworth, oldest to depict a Christian with a censer at an when my words brought You down from This is not entirely new: at the last international Herts WD3 1AN, UK email: [email protected] altar. Heaven! With what love would I give You to synod of bishops in 2015, the Pope for the first souls! …” time approved the vote of a non-ordained (!) man, In addition, it is by far the oldest to depict the St Therese of Lisieux a religious brother. The connection between or - liturgy in what was probably the Anastasis in dination and voting no longer seemed insepara - Jerusalem - or for that matter, in any church in