by Christine Schenk
"What is needed now . . . is a gospel-inspired boldness that refuses to be silent and speaks out in a strong, loving voice to call the church to justice."
So spoke Sheila Peiffer quoting the late Bill Callahan when she introduced a panel presentation Survivor Justice and Ending Violence Against Women, at the Women's Ordination Worldwide conference last month.
Peiffer is a former pastoral minister and current board member with the Women's Ordination Conference, the organization that hosted the international event held in Philadelphia September 18-20.
One of the goals of the WOW 2015 conference, Peiffer said, was "to demonstrate the interconnection between the exclusion of women in ministry and the global damage the church does to the status and treatment of women and girls."