Feminist Studies in Liturgy
2005 Louisville, Kentucky
2005 | 2004 | 2003 | 2002
Convener 2005
June C. Goudey (pastor of the United Church of Christ in Simi Valley, CA)
Seminar Participants 2005
Janet Walton, Kathy Black, Linda Vogel, Susan Roll, Martha Whitmore-Hickman, Brigette Enzer-Probst, Marcia McFee, June Goudey, Deborah Sokolove
Visitors: Sylvia Sweeney, Rev. Kim Myung-Sil, Rev. Hwa-Young Chong
Seminar Report 2005
We discussed papers by Susan Roll, Janet Walton and Siobhan Garrigan, and by Christopher Grundy (see below). Kathy Black brought news that the book, Wising Up: Ritual Resources for Women of Faith in their Journey of Aging, edited by her and Heather Murray Elkins will be published this year by Pilgrim Press. Janet Walton announced that she and Marjorie Procter-Smith plan to branch off temporarily to head a new seminar on the performing arts. The plan is to focus on this for the next three years. Several of our group expressed an interest in joining these two in their new seminar endeavor and all expressed their ongoing support for our seminar.
Papers Presented
Susan Roll used the concept of women as persons to explore some aspects of sacramental theology. Defining women as juridical persons (a great landmark in Canadian history in 1929) and as moral agents can provide a new approach to two theological principles on which the sacraments rest, incarnation and resurrection. We discussed how the concept “what is not assumed is not redeemed” affects women’s relation to sacraments. When women act as agents of the sacraments, any element of sacrifice-theology in the Eucharist is relativized. The question “How big is your God?” highlights the cosmic dimensions of God and the weakness of human liturgical language in which the earth is still flat and God still looks like a very large human male. The resurrection can hardly function as a cornerstone of sacramental theology in feminist theology given its focus on the natural cycle of birth and death and, while artistic concepts of a crucified woman can easily be found, very few of us can visualize an image of a resurrected woman.
The paper presented by Janet Walton and Siobhan Garrigan was an edited transcript of a conversation between them, the subject of which was trying to name what lies at the heart of the practice known as “communion.” The paper had several strong foci. First, an argument that what one does in worship is “practicing” for what one does in life, and so how we “do” communion liturgically prepares us for situations of communion-making in life. Second, an exploration of a much-asserted need for “story” telling in constituting communion, with an accent on members of the assembly being able to tell their story. Third, an emphasis on hearing and a series of questions about the scope and nature of liturgical listening, especially as experienced in Eucharistic settings. The discussion in seminar highlighted those aspects of the paper that considered “sacramentality” as a useful interpretative category, as well as the authors’ shared interest in how the stories told and heard in communion affect the worshiper’s idea of God.
Christopher Grundy presented material related to his Ph.D. project: “Male Violence, Embodied Logic, and the Healing of Holy Communion,” which was also presented to the Liturgical Theology Seminar. Please refer to that seminar’s report for a more detailed presentation.
Regarding San Diego in 2006
Our primary focus will be “Prayers and Their Worlds of Meaning” in response to a challenge by our 2004 keynote speaker who asked Academy members to explore whether or not they are providing alternative worlds of meaning to the anti-redemptive cultural forces of TV programs such as The Sopranos. Because discussion of this year’s material demonstrated that our individual theological premises share differing nuances, we agreed that it would be helpful to explore these nuances in greater depth. All members will be asked to examine their own written prayers, individual and communal, and note the images they rely on. June Goudey agreed to send guidelines before we meet so we would all start from the same premise. We will also hear presentations by two of this year’s visitors: Sylvia Sweeney will offer “A Re-examination of Ash Wednesday in Light of a Feminist Hermeneutic of Death,” and Myung-Sil Kim will offer “An Examination of Female Imagery in Prayers of Lamentation for Sexually Abused Women.”