Here at St. Margaret of Scotland Parish in St. Louis, MO we hosted a St. Phoebe Day celebration on September 3, 2024. For our celebration, we hosted a prayer service with a reception and community dialogue to follow. Over one-hundred people attended, which to us, was a wonderful success! The music we shared was beautifully and intentionally curated to include songs like “God of the Women,” the Litany of Saints including all women saints and “Holy is Your Name,” which was sung immediately before the reading from Romans in which St. Phoebe is mentioned was proclaimed. 

We invited readers and liturgical ministers from diverse demographics, including a family of three generations of women, a grandmother, mother and daughter, to read the Prayers of the Faithful together. New Testament scholar, Lyn Osiek spoke during the reception and dialogue, and answered questions following. We also commissioned a member of our community, Aimee Wittman, before her journey to Rome for the final meeting of the Synod. Together, we blessed her and wrote intentions on paper angels that children from our community had previously cut out for her to carry on her journey. We also took time as a community to write the names of women who had inspired our own journeys of faith and presented them before the icon of St. Phoebe. 

Community leader, Krista Kutz, preached a positive and inclusive message at the prayer service that ended with the strong statement that St. Phoebe is in all the women and girls who minister in the Church, including those who sense a calling to the diaconate like she does. People were deeply moved by this message and ready to receive it. 

Awareness of St. Phoebe and the cause of women’s ordination to the permanent diaconate in our community went from 0 to 100. Few people had heard of St. Phoebe before or were aware of her story prior. After our celebration, people expressed their strong desire to keep the communal dialogue going, and to continue to uplift St. Phoebe in our community. 

Growing the devotion to St. Phoebe in our community was certainly a goal it felt like we were closer to achieving. Together, we also prayed for the Synod, and for our shared call to pay attention, pray and continue to discuss women’s leadership and ministry in the Church. We know this is just the beginning of our conversation together! 

As a community, we were deeply moved by our celebration, and are looking forward to our continued conversation. We also hope to continue to advocate for preaching by women and laity in liturgical settings in our parish, such as in contexts like evening prayer or prayer services, whenever possible.