Women's Ordination Conference

09/03/2026

"I commend you to our sister Phoebe, a deacon of the church at Cenchreae, so that you may welcome her in the Lord as is fitting for the saints and help her in whatever she may require from you." - Romans 16:1-2

Happy feast of St. Phoebe the deacon!

Written records show that rituals existed for bishops ordaining female deacons that included the liturgical elements of the laying on of hands, calling down the Holy Spirit (epiclesis), garbing with a stole, and being named a deacon—the same elements used in the ordination of male deacons.

Ordained female deacons assisted with baptisms, anointing ill women, bringing the Eucharist to ill women, and in at least one case, examining the evidence for an annulment.

Biblical and historical evidence cites several women leaders working alongside men in the early Church, including: St. Olympias, Dionysia, St. Radegund, St. Macrina, and Phoebe, who is specifically mentioned as a deacon in the community at Cenchreae in the Apostle Paul’s letter to the Romans.

At WOC, we urge the church to move from discernment to action. We know that reinstating the diaconate for women is an important but incomplete step for women’s full equality in the Church. We also know that women are called by God and their communities to the diaconate, called to preach, and called to visible liturgical roles. Only when women are equally included in all ordination rites—as deacons, priests, and bishops—and at all Church decision-making tables, can we begin to restore our Gospel values of equality.

09/03/2026

Rest in power, Gloria, and thank you for the indelible impact you have had on the movement for gender equality. 💜

09/02/2026

In preparation for the feast of St. Phoebe tomorrow, a quick biblical Greek lesson! TL,DR: She was a deacon. Full stop. 💜

08/26/2026

106 years ago today, the 19th amendment was ratified, granting women the right to vote in the U.S. (In reality, the amendment gave white women the right to vote, with voting rights for Black women, Latina women, AAPI women, and indigenous women barred until, in some cases, decades later. And, needless to say, voter suppression against BIPOC women perniciously continues to this day.)

Theologian Dr. Grace Ji-Sun Kim writes in Good Faith media about the need to recognize equality not just as a political matter, but as a "theological imperative." She writes: "true equality means not only equal rights but also the full recognition of women’s gifts, leadership, and humanity within the church and the wider world." (Read her full article at goodfaithmedia.org!)

At WOC, we proudly walk in the footsteps of the suffragists, drawing from their courage and (we hope) learning from their mistakes. Women deserve nothing less than what suffragist Alice Paul called "ordinary equality," from the ballot box to the church altar.

08/15/2026

Today is the solemnity of the of Mary, which marks the Church’s doctrine that Mary was taken to heaven, body and soul, at the end of her life. It’s a belief from the early Christian community, though it was only formally proclaimed a feast day by Pope Pius XII in 1950.

Though the day has often traditionally been used to highlight Mary's "perpetual virginity" and "purity," feminist theologians have challenged and nuanced those ideas to reclaim an empowering understanding of the Assumption for women.

Dr. Julia Feder, associate professor of systematic theology at Notre Dame, writes:

“.... [Korean feminist theologian] Chung [Hyun Kyung] argues that teachings concerning Mary’s virginity are best understood as statements about Mary’s independence, her refusal to derive her value exclusively from her relationships to men, and an inner integrity rooted in 'her true connectedness to her own self and to God.'"

And from "Mary, Mother of God, Mother of the Poor," by Ivone Gebara and Maria Bingemer:

"Mary's assumption brings a new and promising future for women... [it] restores and reintegrates woman's bodiliness into the very mystery of God. Starting with Mary, the dignity of women's condition is recognised and safeguarded by the creator of that very bodiliness. In Jesus Christ and Mary the feminine is respectively resurrected and assumed into heaven—definitively sharing in the glory of the Trinitarian mystery from which all proceeds and to which all returns."

Finally, Dr. Dorothy Ann Lee at University of Divinity in Australia sees the authority of Mary as a basis for the ordination of women as priests today: "If the world received the body of Christ from this woman, Mary, then women today should not be excluded from giving the body of Christ, as priests, to the faithful at Mass."

08/13/2026

At WOC50, we gave the Ada Maria Isasi Diaz Award for Pioneering Theological Scholarship to theologian Dr. Annie Selak. We love seeing her new book "The Wounded Church" reviewed in NCR! From the article:

"I think clericalism is a hell of a drug," she said. "It runs so deep."

The Wounded Church develops what Annie Selak describes as a "feminist ecclesiology of injury," an approach that begins with lived experiences of harm rather than idealized visions of what the church ought to be.

08/13/2026

"The church needs you, and all the diversity and richness of the forms of consecration and ministry that you represent," — Pope Leo to the 1,300 women religious and guests gathered for the LCWR assembly.

"For with your vitality, your witness of a life centered on Jesus, you can contribute to waking up the world," the pope told the 1,300 leaders of US Catholic sisters at their annual assembly.

08/11/2026

Happy feast of St. Clare of Assisi, a leader in her own right apart from (but alongside) St. Francis! We love what Joan Chittister, OSB, says about Clare in "A Passion for Life: Fragments of the Face of God":

"Chief among Francis' followers was a woman who was a leader in her own right. The young noblewoman Chiara Di Offreduccio, Clare, was an intelligent, educated, and pious person. Her own family castle had been sacked during the social upheavals in Assisi. She was well-bred, well-to-do, and meant for the better things in life. When she heard Francis preach, however, she knew that his call to radical poverty was hers as well.

To follow her own special call in life, she took steps unprecedented for women of the time. She rejected her family. After Francis' death, she contested with the men of the Franciscan movement in order to maintain the kind of sacramental and theological contact with the male branch that she felt was necessary to the ongoing spiritual development of a group of cloistered women. She refused special treatment as a woman. She wanted to live the Franciscan life without being subjected to mitigating circumstances. She refused as well the kind of economic "protection" in the form of dowries and property that the church mandated that being a woman required in order to institutionalize the life of penance and total renunciation to which they were committed.

She struggled with the pope and his assumptions about what women could and couldn't do in order to get the constitutions she wanted for the women's communities. She threw herself on the providence of God and the sense of obligation to others that cloistered orders without means of support bring to a society, by refusing the right for the the order to own anything whatsoever, legacies, endowments, or property."

Franciscan Action Network praises her egalitarianism, writing: "In a stark departure from what most other communities did, Clare specified that each sister–whatever her social class, age, or length of time in the community–would have an equal say in all decisions, such as whether to admit a new member or replace the abbess."

Here's to radical, norm-breaking women!

08/07/2026

💅🏼 it just comes naturally, you know?