Oppression must be confronted to achieve communion, transformation, Sheryl

By Mary Frances Schjonberg

[Episcopal News Service] Despite having their vocations discounted and stymied, "one of the great legacies of Episcopal women throughout history was their ability to be persistent, to hold the church accountable to the people that constitute it," the Rev. Dr. Sheryl A. Kujawa-Holbrook told the fourth annual St. Margaret's Lecture October 12 at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific (http://www.cdsp.edu) (CDSP) in Berkeley, California.

"For all the attempts to diminish or dismiss their vocations, women still managed to profoundly impact those around them precisely because their lives had so much meaning," said Kujawa-Holbrook, academic dean and the Suzanne Radley Hiatt Professor of Feminist Pastoral Theology and Church History at the Episcopal Divinity School (http://www.eds.edu) in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

Her lecture, titled "Deeper Joy: Women and Vocation in the 20th Century Episcopal Church," stemmed from reflections on the research into vocational formation and women's history which resulted in a book of the same name that Kujawa-Holbrook recently co-edited.

"The study of women and vocation outside the institutional church, reminds us that indeed most Christians are not called to work for the church professionally. Rather, they are called.to exercise their ministry in daily life," Kujawa-Holbrook told more than 100 people in attendance.

Full story: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_90993_ENG_HTM.htm