Welcome to Eureka Street

back to site
Forgot your password?
Subscribe

Keywords: Female Deacons

  • RELIGION

    Women deacons: Is it time?

    • Elizabeth Young
    • 15 August 2024

      Copious research has demonstrated the historical existence of women deacons, including St Phoebe, the only person in scripture with the descriptor Deacon. So how far off is Australia from ordaining women deacons? 

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Women deacons: A closed book?

    • Bill Uren
    • 11 June 2024

    In a 60 Minutes interview, Pope Francis was asked whether there would ever be the prospect within the Catholic Church of a woman being ordained as a deacon. The Pope’s reply was a blunt ‘No’. This negative response came as a surprise to many Vatican watchers. 

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    A Church for everyone: In conversation with Phyllis Zagano

    • Michele Frankeni
    • 26 May 2023
    3 Comments

    In a discussion with Michele Frankeni, Catholic scholar Dr Phyllis Zagano explores the question of whether there is a need for increased recognition of women in the Catholic Church, particularly regarding their potential in the diaconate. She investigates both the historical evidence for ordained female deacons and the modern arguments for their re-introduction.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Catholic, female and struggling: Survey reveals women's desire for Church reform

    • David Halliday
    • 17 March 2023
    8 Comments

    Over 17,000 women worldwide have called for Church reform in a newly published survey by Catholic Women Speak Network. Respondents from 104 countries expressed dissatisfaction with a lack of transparency in governance and voiced the need to be seen, heard and valued. 

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Original synodality: Consultation in the early Church

    • Constant Mews
    • 22 February 2023
    2 Comments

    Words get tired, and need to be reinvented, to recapture their original meaning. Synodality is simply the most recent way of regenerating traditions of consultation that go back to the earliest days of the Church. 

    READ MORE
  • AUSTRALIA

    Speaking truth to power: In conversation with Tim Costello

    • Barry Gittins, Tim Costello
    • 07 October 2022
    1 Comment

    Reverend Tim Costello's informal status as a nagging conscience to many Australian governments, including the Howard government in which his brother Peter served as federal treasurer, was formally acknowledged when the National Trust of Australia chose him as a ‘National Living Treasure’. Barry Gittins speaks to Tim Costello about the nature of power, and its place and exercise in public life.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Should women be deacons? The stories behind Motion 54

    • Elizabeth Young
    • 15 June 2022
    3 Comments

      Should women be considered for ministry as deacon? Should Pope Francis authorise such ministry? This topic often raises emotions, and strong views either for or against. This is one of the questions posed by Motion 54 to the Church’s July Plenary Council session, where members will amend and vote on 105 motions, prompted by the question, ‘What do you think God is asking of us in Australia at this time?’ Motion 54 is one to watch.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Women deacons the solution to priestly power problem

    • Phyllis Zagano
    • 11 May 2016
    21 Comments

      Pope Francis may be interested in better situating women within Church governance and ministry, and there is sufficient theological evidence to readmit women to the order of deacon. Even so, significant curial roadblocks keep him from moving in the obvious direction. 

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Radical Pope's gender flaws

    • Megan Graham
    • 13 March 2014
    47 Comments

    The broad support Francis receives from progressives, despite his unwillingness to even consider female ordination, demonstrates how marginalised women's issues really are in our society. He may have changed the game in terms of the Church's engagement with the poor, but this does not diminish the significance of his oppressive and outdated views on gender roles.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    The inhospitality of Bendigo Anglicans snub

    • Andrew Hamilton
    • 15 December 2009
    34 Comments

    Christmas is a time for hospitality, and hospitality is central in the Christian tradition. You may not have thought this was so when, recently, the Anglican Church in Bendigo, Vic., was denied the use of a Catholic cathedral for the ordination of four female deacons.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Female bishop sets Church on wider path

    • Charles Sherlock
    • 16 April 2008
    7 Comments

    In May, the Rev. Canon Kay Goldsworthy will become Australia's first female bishop. The role will entail pressures from those opposed to having a woman as bishop, and those who have been waiting for this moment for decades.

    READ MORE
  • RELIGION

    Ecumenical sensitivity meets church law on women bishops

    • Charles Sherlock
    • 03 October 2007
    2 Comments

    The last pane of the 'stained glass ceiling' was removed last week for most Australian Anglicans. It turns out that a decision made for ecumenical and post-colonial reasons has enabled the change.

    READ MORE