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Sarasota News Leader January 10, 2014 Page 129 WOMEN TO BE ORDAINED AS CATHOLIC PRIESTS AND DEACONS On Saturday, Jan. 18, at 2 p.m., Maureen McGill of St. Petersburg and Marina Teresa Sanchez Majia of Cali, Colombia, will be ordained priests in the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests during a ceremony in Sarasota. Mary Bergan Blanchard of Albuquerque, NM, and Rita Lucey of Orlando will be ordained deacons, according to a news release from the association. The presiding bishop will be Bridget Mary Meehan of Sarasota, the release notes. The ceremony will take place at St. Andrew United Church of Christ, located at 6908 Beneva Road in Sarasota. Because Sanchez Majia speaks Spanish, part of the ordination rite will be in that language, the release points out. All are welcome, the release adds. McGill will lead inclusive liturgies at Mary Mother of Jesus Inclusive Catholic Community in Sarasota and provide pastoral care for residents of nursing homes in St. Petersburg, the release continues. Sanchez Mejia "is a dynamic community activist and married woman with two sons and a granddaughter," the release says. She has pursued the cause of human rights, including justice for women and for Colombians of African descent, her whole life, it adds. In the 1990s, she participated in global women's conferences in Brazil, Vienna and Beijing. She has worked with local priests in base communities and was a missionary to Ecuador for three years. There, she studied theology and served women, children and outcasts, the release explains. Since 2005, "she has animated, represented and served the large community of Afro-Colombians near Playa Reciente, near the Cauco River in Cali," the release notes. "The candidates are theologically prepared Blanchard will continue her work as a counand have many years of experience in minisselor, writer and teacher, the release says. try," the release says. "Her mission will be nurturing spiritual life McGill is a wife, mother, grandmother and by developing liturgies for inclusive home retired attorney in St. Petersburg, the release church celebrations." continues. She spent most of her professional career advocating for abused and neglected children as director of the Guardian ad Litem Program in Northwest Florida. "My call to priestly ministry arose from those years," she says in the release. "Women experience similar abuse and neglect in the church today. My call to priesthood will include advocacy to give women their rightful equality in the church." Lucey, a member of Pax Christi, has been married for 61 years, the release continues. She is a human rights activist who spent six months in federal prison because of her activism advocating the closure of the U.S. Army School of the Americas, the release points out. Because of her witness for justice issues and her experience in prison, she has advocated for women in prison and has also served as a Hospice volunteer for 25 years, the release adds. %