Author: Ellie Harty

I took this picture from inside the ruins of a dwelling in Qumran where they discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls. It haunts me because it is like the caves we are in today, staying in but staring out.  It also haunts me because the outer world in the picture looks the same as the inner:…
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Here we are, Regina and Ellie, two of your Catholic Feminists, Women’s Ordination champions, faithful WOC bloggers. What on earth – or heaven? – happened? In order to enter a mosque in Jordan for a tour and talk on Islam (part of our Israel/Jordan trip experience), the men in our group had to remove their…
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In this first Tuesday after Easter, we still have that haunting question: who rolled away the stone? And why is it important to seek the answer? The poet poses the question below and reflects on it in verse. I add a thought at the end. Easter What I want to know is simply this:Who rolled…
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I’ve been taking some of the pertinent highlights of our trip to Israel and Jordan and trying to discern how they relate to understandings of women in the Church and, more importantly, how those perceptions of women may have changed. (She says hopefully!) The Basilica of the Annunciation in Nazareth may have some hope filled…
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As I mentioned before, my WOC companion and sister writer for The Table, Regina Bannan, and I went on a Road Scholar trip to Israel and Jordan this February. The goal of the tour was to help us understand what is involved – culturally, historically, artistically, spiritually – in a land where three dynamic cultures…
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A week ago now, I received one of many emails you have probably been receiving, too, canceling an event or gathering we were so looking forward to attending. The stab of disappointment came on so quickly I almost did not finish reading the entire text of one I had received. Our dear artist friends, Carey…
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Picking up on Regina Bannan’s (my cherished companion on the trip to Israel and Jordan a week and a half ago) Table post for March 14, I would like to add my brief reflection and observation about our experience by the Western or Wailing Wall of the Temple in Jerusalem. (I did miss the rabbis…
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I was so struck by the diversity and energy and possibilities all genders could bring to our staid old Church when I read the poem – believe it or not – titled “Elvis Week” in the February 17 & 24 New Yorker that I had to pass it on. Substitute “God” for “Elvis” and the…
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Evocative or inspiring? Edgy or lofty? Both/And? These are sometimes tough choices to sort through for all of us who want to get our messages of equality, justice, fairness, and inclusion across. What will resonate and how? I struggle with this problem all of the time. I suspect you might, too. I found two examples…
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At the Mass of the Presentation of Jesus in the Temple this past Sunday, the priest began by calling forth two African-American female elders. Then he knelt before them as they silently bestowed their prayers and blessing upon him. It is an African tradition, he explained, for a younger person to receive the blessing of…
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