At the WOW conference��. many voices

At the First International WOW Conference in Dublin (2001), Joan Chittister stated that Christian discipleship will change a church that is now more ecclesiastical than communal. Real discipleship changes things."

Chittister invited participants to reflect upon the quality of our discipleship, that "attitude of mind, quality of soul, and way of living that takes Jesus the Christ as model and seeks the wisdom of God to build a better society, a better church, a better world."

Where there are disciples, there are leaders. So the 'Second International Ecumenical WOW Conference focused on how a different model of leadership might change things.

We invited keynote speakers to share their vision and their experience of leadership in a discipleship of equals, a church where all share in the "royal priesthood" of the faithful.

Elisabeth Schussler Fiorenza called us to joyfully stand up and be ordained by the Spirit- Sophia Wisdom into what she termed the "variegated ministries" needed to build the kindom of God : political and grassroots organizers, educators, mentors and writers, performers of religious art, liturgists, preachers, mystics, Eucharist presiders, faith-sharers and peace-makers, counsellors and protectors of creation. Rosemary Radford Ruether called us to reject patriarchy and clericalism by generously sharing rather than hoarding knowledge, redemptive power and the Spirit's gifts. Mary Hunt, Teresia Hinga, Kirsten Pedersen and Myra Poole painted a picture of how women have been deploying those gifts in myriad ways all over the world.

What has been etched in my memory is the powerful breaking of silence on a broad range of subjects covered in workshops and prayer services. Our closing liturgy was a powerful, celebratory and nourishing breaking of Word and Bread for the journey ahead.

The first objective of Women's Ordination Worldwide is to open dialogue with the Roman Catholic hierarchy on the subject of the admission of women to ordained ministries.

My prayer is that, contrary to the disciples in the story of the Samaritan Woman, the men who currently lead the Roman Catholic Church will ask women, "What do you want?", honestly and humbly, ask Christ why he is speaking with women (John 4:27), then listen very closely to the answers.

Marie Evans Bouclin of Sudbury is co-ordinator of Women's Ordination Worldwide.

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