Called to Be a Nuisance

As the Spirit works in our human history, one change now taking place is the awakening of vast numbers of lay people to the realization that they, too, are church. And among those people are many women. In a patriarchal church, the fact that women are finding their voices after millennia of silence has often caused difficulty. Many in authority long for "the good old days," when the laity only paid, prayed, and obeyed. This can no longer be. Lay women now recognize and accept the call to the common priesthood of all the baptized and know that in order to be true to this calling they must continue in their search to find ways of becoming full partners in the life and ministry of the church.