HOPE, HOLY GRUMBLING, AND HIERARCHY
Now available: Our interim synod report
In keeping with our commitment to the synodal process, which we have engaged with wholeheartedly and with integrity from the beginning, we hosted two virtual listening sessions for the WOC community during March 2024. The sensus fidelium that arose from our listening sessions come under three categories: Hope, “Holy Grumbling,” and Hierarchy. All experience a deep prayer for belonging, healing, and uncomplicated equality.
Read our full report here:
Synod on Synodality
What does the Synod Mean for Ordination Justice Advocates?
This multi-year process will explore what it means to “journey together” as the People of God in a local and global Church. Pope Francis is inviting us to what he describes as an inclusive, participative process of engaging all voices in the Church, including those that have been marginalized.
This is an opportunity to use our unique position to raise our voices, amplify our ministries, and call for the changes we long to see in our Church.
Download the ResourceDownload a Synodality Examen
Throughout the entire process, we commit to:
Amplifying the voices of the People of God who long for and support women’s ordination and gender equity in all ministries of the Church.
Providing tools, guides, and lay-led spaces to engage with the Synodal process in a way that feels authentic to you.
Holding the bishops and Vatican accountable to inclusive vision of the working document of the Synod.
Calling it like it is. We know and share the pain of hopes raised and dashed, and like you, share a well-earned distrust of Vatican processes.
From Spring 2023: Our Synod Report
We believe in the inclusive promise of the synodal process, and have actively encouraged our members to engage in authentic ways, both in their parishes and in our listening sessions. The integrity and impact of the synod will depend on the radical inclusion and welcome of often marginalized voices into courageous conversations, just like ours.
Read our synod reportWith your help, we will insist at every level that ordination justice is a vital part of the conversation and the future of the global Church.
Together, we will ensure that there will be no synod about us without us.
WOC in Rome 2023
The Women’s Ordination Conference was in Rome throughout the month of October for the Synod on Synodality. Our witness is essential to ensure women’s voices, experiences, stories, and vocations are not erased or silenced in the synodal process. We will work for accountability to the grassroots, and be an uncompromising voice for equitable inclusion of women at every level of the church.
More photos from our time in Rome
Let Her Voice Carry Prayer Vigil, October 3, 2023
On the eve of the Synod, WOC gathered to lift up the voices, prayers, and experiences of women from around the world at the Bascilica of St. Praxedis in Rome.
Watch the video
Enlarge the Space of your Tent Witness, October 4, 2023
We pray that the synodal tent is large enough to include all voices and vocations. WOC and WOW unfurled a 12 meter long banner during the opening of the Synod’s sessions.
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Walk with Women, March through Rome, October 6, 2023
We urge the church to journey with women and take seriously their baptismal equality.
Watch the video