Called to Serve – Two Women’s Witness

Today we release a short introduction to two women seeking ordination to the diaconate in the Boston region: Philomėne Pèan and Kelly Meraw. Both of them are working in full time positions to serve members of their communities and churches, and feel a longing to be ordained as deacons. This would, they say, be a faithful restoration of ancient orders for women to the diaconate, a respected role women held for centuries before it fell out of practice.

“Called to Serve: Two Women’s Witness” is a short film worked on by documentary filmmakers Pilar Timpane and Andrea Patiño Contreras, and is part of a longer term film project that will look at women’s roles in the Church by Timpane and producer Christine Delp.

This Fall, Pope Francis invites the Church around the world to go on a journey of renewal by becoming a more listening, participatory, and inclusive Church. We hope stories like Kelly and Philomėne can have space to be heard within this inspiring process.

We seek to acknowledge these women’s work and dreams, and to hopefully reimagine how their gifts can be received within the Church. A seat at the table. Respect. To make visible what has so long been invisible. “Called to Serve” brings these women’s witness into full view.Called to Serve: Two Women’s Witness

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Witness
“I felt seen in my call to pastoral care, to teaching, to preaching—just as clearly as my ordained colleagues are seen in theirs. I felt valued. Not invisible. Not dismissed. I don’t know what the future holds—for me, or for the role of women in the Church. But I know this: I have hope.”
Jolaine M.J. Liupakka, PMin
Coordinator of Middle School & Confirmation, St. Thomas Becket, Eagan, MN
Witness
“If I were a deacon, I would have the support of other deacons and a community where I could draw strength through prayer and discernment. Women would have the privilege of speaking about Catholic social teaching from the ambo. I do believe women as deacons would renew the face of the Church.”
Beth Brinkmann Cianci
Volunteer with the Ignatian Spirituality Project, Boston, MA
Organization
“We are happy to be able to share about women in the Church who lead and are heard, especially for the youngest amongst us who need to hear this message.”
South Seattle Parish Family
Seattle, WA

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