Monday, March 12, 2012

Dying orders of lefty nuns

Five shrinking orders of Dominican sisters, aka EcoFeminist Democrats, are dressing up their need to pool their aging resources with the verbiage of "Committed Collaboration". The girls are really good at this kind of talk, as I have noted before. They live in a linguistic bubble of bloviation where ordinary English seems a dream. Electing one of them as prioress of their Leadership Team --they love that-- they parenthetically explained that prioress means "first among equals". Uh, no. Prioress, like Prior, means simply First. The girls, good feminists, are terrified of power-over.

This team gave shape and form to a process for committed collaboration. They identified groups already in collaboration, shared calendars of congregational events, nurtured the relationships that had been developing among sisters and associates by arranging gatherings, launched a grant application process for collaborative pilot projects, and initiated a search for a Promoter of Collaboration for the five congregations.

Ah, giving shape, identifying, sharing, nurturing, launching, initiating...They must have read How To Beef Up Your Resume and Mission Statement.

They found their Promoter and installed her:
The day began in the new office at the motherhouse, with the sisters standing together and blessing the five directions, and gifting Mary Ellen with congregational logos to decorate the new office.
In case you think that there are four directions, you silly Eurocentrist, China has five. These girls are as multicultural as Jesus was. (Oh, wait. Unless they approached him, he never worked with Gentiles. And only had male apostles. Sorry.)

Aaaand, since Kate Winslett got a Golden Globe for Mildred Pierce and part of the film was shot in that very office, --how cool-- Mary Ellen, Golden Among Equals, got her own little prize. Now that is what I call "sanctifying the culture."

Of course these Speak Truth To Power gals neglect to mention that they are forced into doing this because they are getting old, no one is joining and their numbers and resources are dwindling. That would be too plain and simple to admit. It's all dressed up as a New Initiative.

I look forward to their Committed Collaboration Cemetery Conference in a few years: "As a committed sign of unity in collaborative mission, all the Sisters will now be launched into burial in nurturing Mother Gaia at single and holistic cemetery site, which also serves as part of our Sustainable Living Earth Center for eco-justice and anti-racist knitting initiatives. The Passed-On Sisters look forward to diverse and inclusive ministries in the Next World, supporting the Damned in their efforts for peace and justice against the oppression of the Male-Supremacist God."

3 comments:

OreamnosAmericanus said...

A variation on the term Apostles. Paul refers to The Twelve, which is what I meant. Paul, of course, became an Apostle after the resurrection, by special appointment, as it were, and he used the word differently. I was referring to the pre-risen Jesus of the Gospels and the Twelve Apostles he chose.

Leah said...

Let em die off, but I'll keep the knitting.

Anonymous said...

For a group that's always "Welcoming the stranger" and "Celebrating our diversity", they've stayed about as vibrantly diverse as skim milk.
The Tea Party probably has more "members of color".

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