Presenting The Vagina Monologues - in church
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BCP The Dedication and Consecration of a Church
Through the ages, Almighty God has moved his people to build houses of prayer and praise, and to set apart places for the ministry of his holy Word and Sacraments. With gratitude for the building (rebuilding, or adornment) of (name of church), we are now gathered to dedicate and consecrate it in God’s Name.
Someone needs to remind these women who call themselves priests of that fact. Like maybe a bishop???
Reverend Pamela Guyatt calls it the Virgin Mary complex.
The idea that women should sensor their words and temper discussions about female sexual issues. Especially if they’re in a church.
So Guyatt, along with six other female clergy members from the Anglican Diocese of Niagara, plan to address the issue — four letter words and all — from the most holiest of places. The altar.
They’re staging a production of the Vagina Monologues at St. George’s Anglican Church on Feb. 14. All proceeds from the event will go to Bethlehem Housing and Support Services and the Sexual Assault Hotline.
“The language in the play, 90% of us women have said it or thought it,” she said, while sitting in a pew inside St. George’s. Three of the other priests performing sat nearby. “It’s about being what we are and being it in a church.”
The production features a series of monologues recited by different women. Each scene tells a story related to the vagina — some comical, others dealing with heavier issues.
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19 comments
Hope they plan to re-consecrate the Church.
I can think of a lot of perfectly natural things that one would not think of doing in a Church sanctuary. Have these women no sense of the sacred?
[1] Posted by Br. Michael on 2-13-2012 at 06:55 AM · [top]
I’m afraid that Bishop Bird is in no position to be reminding people about anything.
There’s something about dirty language that appeals to Niagara liberals. Those with long memories may remember the…um…scatological issue ofthe Niagara Journal.
P.S. Link goes to bcponline, not story. But I know what’s in the story because it was posted on my church’s bulletin board. It wasn’t an advertisement.
[2] Posted by Real Toral on 2-13-2012 at 06:58 AM · [top]
How very cutting edge of them! How Shocking!
These women are just tacky, and unimaginative. It’s actually quite depressing knowing that these people passed through some Episcopalian seminary, and this is the best they could come up with.
I can’t help but think of the movie “Fried Green Tomatoes”.
[3] Posted by Looking for Leaders on 2-13-2012 at 06:59 AM · [top]
For these women, I’m pretty sure this sort of this IS the sacred.
That said, there are far worse things one can do in a church: “Who is the liar but the one who denies that Jesus is the Christ? This is the antichrist, the one who denies the Father and the Son” - 1 John 2:22
Compared with denying Christ, which is about par for Episcopal clergy these days, talking about vaginas seems positively tame.
[4] Posted by LDW1988 on 2-13-2012 at 07:49 AM · [top]
This has been the trendy thing to do on Valentine’s Day now for several years—perform the Vagina Monologues play (which approves of lesbian sex) and donate the proceeds to domestic or sex abuse shelters, because we aren’t supposed to honor and appreciate the romantic relationships between men and women on that day. We’re supposed to contemplate how dangerous and bad most men are and recoil from them in fright, just like these ladies are doing:
[5] Posted by Branford on 2-13-2012 at 07:55 AM · [top]
Apparently, the stories in the Bible aren’t timeless enough, are meaningful enough for this bunch.
I’ve told this story before, but years ago, I was in charge of the catechesis program at our local Ep. church. Most of the children went to either the local Presbyterian School, or the local Ep. School. I was totally blown away at the almost complete lack of knowledge of the Bible stories by the children that went to Ep. school. The Pres. children answered all the questions I asked, because they had been taught the stories.
At the beginning of the semester, I asked the class of 25 to write down what religion Jesus was born into. The 12 Pres. children all got it right that he was Jewish. The other 12 had various answers including Muslim, Christian, and the Rectors son wrote down “Catholic”. I think 1 or 2 of the Ep. children got it right.
This told me all I needed to know about the state of Religous edcuation in the Ep. church.
These women would be better off teaching the basic stories of the Bible to children in their parish, rather than some lame attempt to push something they perceive to be cutting edge to the adults.
[6] Posted by Looking for Leaders on 2-13-2012 at 08:11 AM · [top]
They’d be better off performing this sacrilege in the gutter, where it belongs.
[7] Posted by cennydd13 on 2-13-2012 at 09:33 AM · [top]
Washing the altar afterwards would be a good idea too.
[8] Posted by Undergroundpewster on 2-13-2012 at 10:15 AM · [top]
I would be concerned about the church being struck by lightning or spontaneously combusting…geeez.
[9] Posted by B. Hunter on 2-13-2012 at 10:39 AM · [top]
And the topic of revisiting women’s ordination is off the table, yet the priestesses of the church can do this. Really!
[10] Posted by Sacerdotal451 on 2-13-2012 at 11:07 AM · [top]
This, tragically, is typical of the Diocese of Niagara, and such look-at-how-relevant-and-cutting-edge-we-are behaviour has been going on for decades. These stunts have not prevented the Diocese from having to ‘amalgamate’ parishes (never close, just amalgamate), sell redundant buildings, and bail out the Cathedral parish from near-bankruptcy a few years ago.
[11] Posted by pilgrim kate on 2-13-2012 at 11:21 AM · [top]
Look for this to make an appearance in the next revision of the Prayer Book.
[12] Posted by Pigeon on 2-13-2012 at 11:42 AM · [top]
How enlightened. So what’s next? A temple to Aphrodite complete with cult prostitution? Now that would be a real fundraiser. It would certainly get more men involvement in church activities. We might even get away with it by an appeal to freedom of religion principles.
[13] Posted by Ross Gill on 2-13-2012 at 11:56 AM · [top]
Well, I see from this [emphasis added]
that our friends to the North are keeping pace, at least educationally, with us in the U.S.
Is the author unaware that the word sensor, which she has used as a verb, is in reality a noun. She presumes to consider herself a journalist. The basic tools of the journalistic profession are logic and language. In the case of a journalist writing in an English language publication, that would more specifically be logic and English!
Secondarily, the correct spelling of the word is extravert, with an “a” not an “o.” The term was first used to describe personality types by the Swiss psychiatrist, Carl Gustav Jung, along with its opposite introvert. But perhaps it was the speaker, also presumably a product of the Canadian educational system, who mispronounced the latter word. As to the first error, I am afraid the author is still on the hook for that misstep.
As for the general topic, it hardly qualifies as news, IMHO, and certainly not a topic for general conversation.
The apocalypse (or at least a miniature version) looms ever closer in our future.
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
[14] Posted by H. Potter (aka Martial Artist) on 2-13-2012 at 03:00 PM · [top]
[6] Looking for Leaders,
You wrote
Not to be snarky, but how does one even begin to contemplate the state of something in an organization when that something is not present in the organization, other than to say it is (actually or virtually) nonexistent?
Pax et bonum,
Keith Töpfer
[15] Posted by H. Potter (aka Martial Artist) on 2-13-2012 at 03:04 PM · [top]
Looking for Leaders, don’t be too depressed. I’m the one that should be depressed. They’re Canadians so presumably they would have passed through a Canadian Anglican theological college. One woman said she was from Trinity College in Toronto about which maybe the best thing that can be said is the wonderful view it has of Wycliffe College across the street.
[16] Posted by Ross Gill on 2-13-2012 at 03:23 PM · [top]
“perform the Vagina Monologues play (which approves of lesbian sex)”
If memory serves it approves of what can best be described as lesbian rape of an underaged victim.
[17] Posted by Paula Loughlin on 2-13-2012 at 06:51 PM · [top]
The daughter of one of the women who presented this thing was present? And when she remarked on mama’s use of a 4-letter word, mama laughed and made light of it? Are these people nuts or evil or both?
[18] Posted by Nellie on 2-14-2012 at 12:07 AM · [top]
The purpose of theater is to suspend your disbelief for a short time while telling a story.
I have been a part of several theatrical productions done in churches. Mostly Christmas shows or Godspell (repeatedly Godspell…), however, one year we did do Superstar…
This was theater. What is being done in Niagara is not risque, cutting edge, trendy, or fashionable; it is smut.
I viewed this exhibition sometime back, on TV. Saw 10 minutes of it and turned it off. If I had been in a theater, I would have walked out.
This is shameful, absolutely shameful.
[19] Posted by bdino on 2-16-2012 at 10:57 AM · [top]
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