Mrs Murphy's Arising from the Pew - feminist theology

Ecumenical Review, The, Jan, 2001 by Ninna Edgardh Beckman

The debate is an excellent example of what happens when issues of Christian and feminist identity are confronted without an integrating perspective. It is my conviction that conflicts over the feminist liturgical movement will never be solved on the level of discussions about how Christians may, or may not, speak of and to God. I want to argue instead for the benefit of a hitherto neglected feminist ecclesiological perspective. Churches, as well as other human communities, are dependant on discourses where meaning is constructed through dialectical relationships among linguistic and social communities. The feminist liturgical movement is a challenge from Christian feminists against the Christian discourses dominant in the churches today, and this challenge cannot be adequately met if it is restricted to the level of "inclusive language", or "right or wrong" beliefs.

My argument is that the challenge will be better met on the level of ecclesiology, precisely because it is a challenge to the patterns of authority expressed in the heart of the matter called "church", that is, the Christian community gathering to celebrate and to pray to the God we know through Jesus Christ. The feminist liturgical movement is multiple "Mrs Murphys" coming together to be the church and claiming authority as church, though seldom in a restrictive way, but rather from a vision that Christian faith may be manifested in manifold ways.

The feminist liturgical movement is a growing feminist ecclesiological praxis. By that I mean neither a practice without theoretical implications, nor abstract theoretical constructions without consequences for real people's real lives. A feminist ecclesiological praxis is primary theology in the meaning referred to by liturgical theologians, but also expanded to mean theology constructed "from below", with room for both spontaneous expressions of experience and tradition, and for reflection on these expressions.

Deep theological challenges are coming to the surface in the liturgies which I have studied. Patterns which minimize the role of the human being are consequently being rejected: instead women throughout history are reconstructed as mature spiritual agents, persons willing to listen to God's call for transformation of both the individual, and human community as a community of justice. The liturgical life of the Church of Sweden has, during the latter part of the 20th century, been largely influenced by the same liturgical movement which has influenced also Roman Catholic and Anglican traditions.(18) The Swedish variant of the feminist liturgical movement has, according to my study, challenged the church to extend this influence to include feminist perspectives.

One advantage of an ecclesiological perspective is that it calls women, as agents of the feminist liturgical movement, to be responsible for what, and how, they as church interpret and hand on Christian tradition through liturgy. Women as agents of the church must see the risks inherent in their actions -- but also the creative potential in what they are doing.