The world has women priests. They aren't Roman Catholic priests, but there are women Episcopal priests and Anglican priests, and women serving as ministers among the Presbyterians, Methodists, and Disciples of Christ, among others. There are women rabbis.
I recently learned that a little girl who had gone to grammar school with my daughter when we lived in another state was just ordained an Episcopal priest. She went to Catholic school. I was at her first communion. I saw several congratulatory notes on her FB page from Catholics.
I am sure she is extraordinary.
Our community has an ecumenical Lenten luncheon prayer service each Monday. A guest preacher speaks at the host church, and Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, and Episcopalians participate. It is so refreshing to see and hear women's insights from the pulpit. It is a great gift.
Especially now, with services being livestreamed from almost everywhere, I sometimes tune in to catch a sermon of a minister whom I particularly like. He is a prophetic voice in a very conservative town, and he believes in building a better world, not just telling the suffering to carry their crosses until the afterlife. I believe our souls are eternal--and I believe that building a better world is part of our vocations. And when I need a prophetic lift, I tune in to our town's light shining in the darkness.
