THE MAGDALA CONCILIARY

By Emily VanBerkum

INVITATION

During a speech to a room full of Italian bishops in May 2015, Pope Francis issued both a challenge and a request. Though the audience predominantly featured clerics, it had enormous impact for Catholic women. Though many men and women alike have wrestled with the beginnings of a theology of women for decades, Francis’ invitation was three-fold: develop a profound theology of women, cultivate a deeper understanding of the feminine dimension of the Church, and, importantly, advance women’s participation in all levels of Church and society.

Theological inquiry is perhaps best articulated when accompanied by a practical, pastoral application. And so, “Magdala” was officially founded in July 2015 by parishioners and pastoral staff of St. Basil’s Parish, Toronto, Canada, as a direct, lay response to this invitation. St. Basil’s is a diverse, downtown Collegiate parish on the University of St. Michael’s College campus (a Roman Catholic liberal arts college fully affiliated with the University of Toronto, and s also home to a Roman Catholic Faculty of Theology within the Toronto School of Theology). Within the backdrop of this unique intellectual and spiritual environment, and rooted in prayer and love for Jesus Christ, Magdala was conceived.

Magdala found its namesake in Mary Magdalene, a key female disciple of Christ, Apostle to the Apostles, an archetype of the feminine, and arguably one of the most important women in Christianity. Magdala was envisioned as a conciliary: a place to gather and listen to God’s Word from the lips of God’s people. The word conciliary captures the spirit of Magdala’s purpose as a forum meant to offer discussion, education, relationship, and community. The conciliary’s mission was to explore the feminine genius through collegiality and conversation that fostered, promoted, and shared feminine sanctity and wisdom through prayer and love for Jesus Christ and the communion of saints.

Pastoral staff put great thought into comprising the conciliary of both women and men from various age brackets, educational, and professional backgrounds. Some members had theological degrees- or were pursuing them- while others were engaged in the fields of business, ethics, art, philosophy, science, education, and law. Beginning on October 15, 2015 (providentially, St. Teresa of Ávila’s feast day), twelve members gathered in a St. Michael’s College meeting room for the first time. It was determined that the conciliary would gather monthly and share subjects and themes that naturally emerged in conversation, such as awareness and knowledge of feminine principles, influences from scripture and culture, working definitions of feminine genius as well as Sophiology and natural/spiritual maternity, among many other topics. Over time, due to the vulnerable nature of persona and faith sharing, an atmosphere of trust and companionship blossomed amongst Magdala’s members.

We were especially cognizant with our original members of doing - and being - as much in the feminine as we could, recognizing that it required us to break down some assumptions of organizing meetings and sharing subject matter. This required us to be careful not to use military terms and other patriarchal associations for example, using timeline instead of “deadline” and making sure we did not use sports language either, like ‘teams” or “goal” or thinking in desires of winning, or achieving, or having merit or being rewarded. We sided always on being generous and kind, open to others, yet clear about sharing from the heart.

RESPONSE

Initially, as it existed as a group within St. Basil’s Parish, Magdala also sponsored an international series of seminars in Rome from 2016-2018 entitled Towards an Intrinsic Feminine Theology. Theologians, teachers, writers, religious and clergy from all continents of the world met for three years to explore and discover a feminine theology emerging from St. Catherine of Siena’s Dialogue, under the themes of Heart, Tears and Fruits. Many of the presentation papers will be available here on our website in the future.

Following the international seminars, a sister conciliary called the ‘Round Table on the Feminine Dimension,’ was formed in Rome in March 2019.

INFLUENCE

Magdala not only influenced at the international level but also at the local level in the parish ministries and community engagement at St. Basil’s Parish. In conjunction with the Pastor, staff created more non-Eucharistic, lay-lead liturgies like Christian Meditation, contemplative prayer and study communities such as The Contemplative Women of St Anne, Lauds and Vespers. Leaders of the Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults program began the weekly sessions with prayer- such as Vespers, recitation of the Rosary, Litany of the Saints, dramatic monologue, silence, poetry, Adoration, imaginative prayer, and Ignatian Meditation (among others). Even at Mass, the Prayers of the Faithful were drawn from parishioners themselves as the prayers were written based on the ones recorded and left in a designated basket kept in the narthex of the church.

With these experiences at the parish and international levels it became clear that there was a need to dialogue with the greater Church with what we had studied, researched and experienced. As a result, Magdala members, as well as St. Basil’s Parish, agreed to sponsor a colloquy in Assisi, Italy called WITH ONE ACCORD: Learning and living the Feminine Dimension as Church, scheduled to take place in September 2020. Due to the spread of Covid.19 and its subsequent limitations on travel and conferencing, we decided to turn what we had planned into a forum and online journal by the same name

Magdala, now a publisher, also continues dialogue, prayer, study and sharing on the feminine dimension and feminine theology through its ongoing Conciliary, as well as in parish ministry and community engagement.

Interested in developing a Magdala Conciliary at your parish, school, college or community? Please contact Emily VanBerkum for details and introductory booklet.