Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey by Alla Renee Bozarth

Copyright 1978

Published by Paulist Press, U.S.

Review of a Memoir by Jenny Forrester

I'm often confused by women's willingness to serve the church when the has brutalized women viciously and without restraint. I see a lack of solidarity and sisterhood among women and wish for a women's church that would restore balance by being completely different than the church of the last 2000+ years. I am curious and furious. Alla Renee Bozarth offers insight.

Eleven women in 1974 were ordained as priests in the Episcopal Church. Alla Renee Bozarth was one of these women. She know as a young teen that she was called to a religious life. The ordination was controversial to say the least. "Womanpriest: A Personal Odyssey" is about Alla's path to the priesthood. It is political, social, personal, and spiritual and she is an unapologetic feminist. And she somehow successfully walks the razor's edge between revolution for women witthin the church and the revolting realities of patriarchal religion. She says, "Loyal rebels are given to speaking their own truth within the community, challenging others to do likewise, until the authentic word is restored to the whole..."

While I do not believe that being an Episcopal priest is radical, Alla does. Her belief in a radical message within the church and within Christianity is clear, almost convincing. More importantly, however, is her practice of offering comfort rather than judgment. This is valuable beyond measure to women's spiritual health regardless of her creed. She writes, "The main point is that we need each other. No one can change the world by herself. In fact, survival, that most basic factor, depends on staying in touch with others who can heal us when we have forgotten how to heal ourselves". Therein lies the radical message for women's spiritual sisterhood as spoken by a Womanpriest.