Off to Rome for final part of course on spirituality and leadership

Sad that it's the last time for now that I shall take the night train to Rome
Here's a taster of a tiny (and bloggable) bit of what I have written so far:

Surf the Volcano, Visit the Circus: A Liturgical and Feminist Reflection on Organisations and Leadership

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Reflecting on issues of management and leadership, I have realised that some of the models for reflecting on these categories are set, if not by an overtly patriarchal discourse, then at least by a discourse which sometimes forces women leaders into models that they have not always had the chance to develop. One of my concerns as an ordained woman is to see what models for women's leadership may be possible, could be developed, might be taken up by the churches and church organisations. How can I as a woman, how can women more generally find their voice?

Recent reading of Grace Jantzen's work also helps me to see that often simply by being and by having their own voice, women are putting a spanner in the works of the way things have always been done. This is a challenge and a responsibility for women involved in leadership, and something that male and female leaders in the church need to become more aware of to have a more holistic approach to understanding some of the dynamics at work in their organisations. In what ways do I / we as wo(men) leaders support and conform to systems which so often work against us? What does surfing the volcano and visiting the circus mean for women with leadership responsibilities today? In churches, such as mine, where women have been ordained for several generations (the first woman in my tradition was ordained in 1917) there is also the question of how we support one another as women leaders at a time when the clergy in many protestant denominations is being feminised.

Luce Irigaray and the potential to become divine

"Love of God ... shows the way. God forces us to do nothing except become. The only task, the only obligation laid upon us is: to become divine men and women, to become perfectly, to refuse to allow parts of ourselves to shrivel and die that have the potential for growth and fulfilment."

Luce Irigaray, Sexes and Genealogies

"According to Irigaray the wisdom that women and men in the postmodern world most require is the wisdom of becoming divine, without which we 'shrivel and die'."
Grace Jantzen, Becoming Divine.

Can death overcome death?

This morning Father Daniel Buda led our prayers in the chapel and we began by lighting candles and passing the light of Christ's resurrection from one to another in this symbolic way.
There were powerful prayers and songs as we contined to affirm Christ is risen! Christ is risen indeed!
There are several lines in the liturgy which say:
trampling down death by death …Christ has destroyed death by death.
On the bus in the morning I'd begun reading Becoming Divine by Grace Jantzen and was as I walked into the chapel trying to get my head around her idea of natality rather than mortality. I suppose it's not really surprising given those circumstances that I found the idea of death triumphing over death or death destroying death a discontinuity.
For me it is Christ's love, Christ's giving, Christ's following and faithfulness that triumph over death. If I had not heard and read the words the order of service this morning I'm not sure I would have so quickly understood what it is Grace Jantzen is driving at in her development of a feminist philosophy of religion.
Life, love and hope tramples down death but then I suppose my mystical meta-narrative would discern and fashion things in such a way.
Anyway despite these thoughts triggered by stray words in the liturgy I still felt connected rather than disconnected through worship and prayer, the message of the resurrection held things together for me.