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IRD Calls for the Resignation of the Head of the Episcopal Church Women’s Ministries Office Over Druid Rite Scandal
Contact: Diane Knippers
November 10, 2004
Washington, DC – The President of the Institute on Religion and Democracy today called for the resignation of the Rev. Margaret Rose, director of the Episcopal Church’s Office of Women’s Ministries, after that office posted a pagan rite on their website.
The rite, entitled A Women’s Eucharist: A Celebration of the Divine Feminine, was available on the Episcopal Church’s website as a resource “to be used by women, men, parishes, dioceses, small groups, within the context of a Sunday morning service, or any other appropriate setting.” A news story from the Episcopal News Service (ENS) on October 25 first drew attention to the rites offered on the website of the Office of Women’s Ministries.
The liturgy is explicitly focused on addressing a pagan goddess and celebrating women’s bodies as divine. It elevates women’s sexuality, water, blood (specifically menstrual blood), and breasts to divine status. The rite uses imagery from the Gospel of Matthew of flowers blooming and fading, but places it within a context of female eroticism. The liturgy declares that the flowers’ shape “evokes in us the unfolding of our own sexuality.”
The Office of Women’s Ministries removed the rite shortly after IRD staff members discovered it. Rather than acknowledging the rite’s pagan roots, the Women’s Ministry issued a statement saying that the rite was pulled from the website because of a copyright violation. The rite had originally appeared on a druid website.
The druid website was run by two Episcopal priests in the Diocese of Pennsylvania who have since repented for their participation in druidry in a public letter. One of those priests, the Reverend Glyn Lorraine Ruppe-Melnyk, was the author of the rite. The other, Ruppe-Melnyk’s husband, the Rev. Bill Melnyk, has since resigned from his parish. Since the author of the rite submitted it to the Women’s Ministry website, it is unclear how there was a copyright violation. The Women’s Ministry office has offered no further apology.
“The posting of this rite on the Episcopal Church’s official website calls into question the judgment of Margaret Rose and her leadership of the office of Women’s Ministries,” said IRD President Diane Knippers. “It is demeaning to Christian women to suggest that our worship needs can be met by pagan rituals.”
“There needs to be a more full accounting for why this druid rite was posted on the official website of the Episcopal Church,” said Knippers. “Also, an account needs to be made for other links and resources offered on the website which use ‘goddess’ language.”
The Women’s Ministry page also advertises and recommends books both on the Women’s Ministries web page, and through the Episcopal Church’s official bookstore, that celebrate goddess worship. Such titles include: Descent to the Goddess: A Way of Initiation for Women, The Book of the Goddess Past and Present, Goddesses Who Rule, and Beginner’s Guide to Wicca.
“It is bizarre to have to remind the Office of Women’s Ministry that the Episcopal Church is a Christian church,” said Knippers. “Margaret Rose’s judgment cannot be trusted to find authentically Christian resources for women. She should resign her position as director of this office.”
