There is a photographic exhibition being shown around Australia which is worth taking the time to visit when it arrives in your area.

It’s a photo shoot of women, not from Vogue in New York or London, but from every Catholic Diocese in Australia. The reason for the shoot is not to show the latest fashion attire in church wear or a glimpse of what catholic women actually look like. It is an opportunity to look at the participation of women in the Australian Church, with a focus on two women from every diocese who have been deemed inspirational. The exhibition was planned to coincide with the 10th Anniversary of the report Woman and Man one in Christ Jesus.

I was fortunate enough to be at the opening of the exhibition in the Pt Pirie diocese, my home diocese. Even though it was significant to be able to read the stories alongside the photos, what touched me deeply were the hundred or so women who came out on a cold night to support this event.

This article first appeared in the Southern Cross, the official newspaper of the Catholic Archdiocese of Adelaide

As I looked around the room I felt moved by the goodness of these women who continually give so much. Their commitment runs deep, and they are always present to the needs of the local church. There were many memories for me in the faces that night. Special school friends, friends of parents and the familiar faces of the women who partook in all the church activities I attended throughout my childhood in Pt Pirie. I felt a deep gratitude toward them, as they had provided a constancy, familiarity and stability to my experience of church and being part of a church community.

I realised my experience as a young person in the church would be replicated all around Australia as women have continually and humbly ensured that the nurturing, the feeding and the organising of parish life is attended to. I say humbly, because so often women have found themselves having to submit to the authority of the church when it is often their wisdom that has informed that authority.

How would we describe this? Would this be about the women’s role in the church, women’s participation in the church or women’s contribution to the church?
This is a vexed area and it’s hard to find creative ways to move forward with this discussion when the road has not been defined without the risk of being destructive.  Women are co-contributors in the life of Christ within the church and it is important to discover ways of acknowledging this without being patronising, in order to build on the identity of women in the church.

This photographic exhibition was like a pictorial audit of women in the church, a chance to witness and be a witness, to see and realise what there is to discover, to share and realise how much more there is to know.

I am sure in Christ, that women have their rightful place in the church that is still, largely, undiscovered. If at times their role in the larger more powerful domain seems small, I am also sure that without women, the church would be lifeless.