Malibu Priest Barbie
Yes, I am serious, Barbie is now an Episcopal Priest.
I 1st saw this yesterday afternoon on Fr. Z's blog. He did try & contact Sr. Joan Chittister for a comment. But as he reported "Sr. Joan Chittister, last seen rummaging through some of her old doll boxes, was unavailable for comment."
In his post on it, LarryD makes an excellent observation about how this priestess Barbie looks: "The doll is so unrealistic. Compare Barbie to any womynpreest, and you'll quickly notice there is no similarity whatsoever."
& here is the proof he is right:
(photo source: Bad Vestments "I'M GOING TO BLOW UP THE ARK, RENE!" )While this Barbie may be Episcopal, does anyone doubt that those rattling for women to be ordaining in the Catholic Church won't see this as a way to endoctrinate children by foisting Barbie off as Catholic? & yes, as LarryD said: "some soft-headed well-meaning aunt will buy one for her Catholic 5-year-old niece who will then bring it to Mass and complain loudly that the priest looks nothing like her doll."
Before we get to the actual article & a few of my own comments, I have to say that if LarryD decides to go after them for stealing this idea from him since he came up with this idea first, he has my full support.
Barbie gets ordained, and has the smells-and-bells wardrobe to match
By Leanne Larmondin
(RNS) With her careers as veterinarian, astronaut and U.S. president behind her, Barbie has at last found her true calling: as a second-career Episcopal priest.
The 11.5-inch-tall fictional graduate of Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., has donned a cassock and surplice and is rector at St. Barbara’s-by-the-Sea in (where else?) Malibu, Calif. Barbara - Barbie. Malibu ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This is way too cutesy & sacharin.
She arrived at the church fully accessorized, as is Barbie’s custom. Her impeccably tailored ecclesiastical vestments include various colored chasubles (the sleeveless vestments worn at Mass) for every liturgical season, black clergy shirt with white collar, neat skirt and heels, a laptop with prepared sermon and a miniature, genuine Bible. I suspect the Vicar of Dibley may be getting a bit jealous at how much better Barbie has it than she did.
Apparently a devotee of the “smells and bells” of High Church tradition, the Rev. Barbie even has a tiny thurible, a metal vessel used for sending clouds of incense wafting toward heaven. Can't be too High Church since those I know who are truly high Church wouldn't welcome her in the 1st place. (In fact a few are a part of the Traditional Anglican Church that left the Episcopal Church & are now looking to return to union with Rome.)
The Rev. Barbie, who in less than a week had drawn nearly 3,000 friends on her Facebook page, spends most of her time in the office of the Rev. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew, rector of Christ (Episcopal) Church, in Manlius, N.Y., near Syracuse.
The doll, her wardrobe and portable sacristy were a gift from Cleaver-Bartholomew’s friend, the Rev. Julie Blake Fisher, a priest in Kent, Ohio.
“I got a phone call from my husband who said a large package had arrived; Julie had told me that she was making something for me. She used to be a dressmaker and she makes gorgeous stoles, so I thought she was making me a stole,” said Cleaver-Bartholomew. “When I came home and there was this enormous box, I knew it wasn’t just a stole!”
Fisher had made Episcopal Priest Barbie and a few vestments two years ago for the children in her parish to dress.
“I thought the children would like to practice playing with the vestments and learning what they are,” said Fisher. The Rev. Barbie was a hit with both the children and a local group of women clergy, including Cleaver-Bartholomew.
When Cleaver-Bartholomew later got called to her parish in New York, Fisher knew the perfect gift for her friend.
“I thought, `I don’t have time to make her one of her own; I’ll just send her Episcopal Priest Barbie for her farewell gift,”’ said Fisher. “But then, when I sat down to start to package everything up, I thought `What if I added this? What if I added that? What if I made this? It would just take one more day.“‘
One more day turned into 100 hours of painstaking labor, and “before I knew it, it was Episcopal Church Barbie—High Church Edition,” Fisher said.
Barbie’s clergy garb is the real deal, made from dress patterns that were crafted or adapted by Fisher. Barbie’s collared blouse was cut down from the fabric of a genuine clergy shirt; the chasubles and alb are made from real silk and linens. Her capa nigra (black funeral cloak) sports pewter buttons. Her nearly-complete Bible was originally sold as a keychain. It must have left out the part where it talks about blasphemy. The thurible was crafted from a teeny tea ball.
Episcopal Church Barbie’s popularity exploded after she got a shout-out on the popular blog, BeautyTipsforMinisters.com. A “Friends of Episcopal Priest Barbie” Facebook group has grown exponentially since its March 31 inception.
Many of the Rev. Barbie’s online admirers asked about her career aspirations.
“How long till she is Bishop Barbie?”* asked one.
Fisher has found a calling of her own: She responded that her next project will be Episcopal Priest Barbie: Cathedral Edition. She promises an African-American Bishop Barbie, a Hispanic Ken doll who will be cathedral dean (rector) and his African-American friend, Stephen, will be a deacon. Do I make the obvious Ken is gay joke here? Or do I leave it to your imagination? Or do I borrow LarryD's comment. LarryD wins "But it wouldn't surprise me if someday, young girls across the country may have these dolls to play 'Church' with, to have pretend liturgies "marrying" their two Ken dolls." Me neither Larry. Barbie’s little sister, Kelly, will be an acolyte.
For her part, Cleaver-Bartholomew thinks Barbie could be a tool for evangelism for the Episcopal Church—particularly for conveying that “we have a sense of humor, we can be fun.
“Barbie’s very versatile that way,” said Cleaver-Bartholomew. “She’s open to new possibilities, so evangelism is definitely in her future.” Given that true evangelism means proclaiming the Gospel & calling people to repentance, I doubt that Barbie will be doing that. Helping to mislead girls into thinking they can be validly ordained as priests when they can't is another.
By Leanne Larmondin
(RNS) With her careers as veterinarian, astronaut and U.S. president behind her, Barbie has at last found her true calling: as a second-career Episcopal priest.
The 11.5-inch-tall fictional graduate of Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, Calif., has donned a cassock and surplice and is rector at St. Barbara’s-by-the-Sea in (where else?) Malibu, Calif. Barbara - Barbie. Malibu ARGHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!! This is way too cutesy & sacharin.
She arrived at the church fully accessorized, as is Barbie’s custom. Her impeccably tailored ecclesiastical vestments include various colored chasubles (the sleeveless vestments worn at Mass) for every liturgical season, black clergy shirt with white collar, neat skirt and heels, a laptop with prepared sermon and a miniature, genuine Bible. I suspect the Vicar of Dibley may be getting a bit jealous at how much better Barbie has it than she did.
Apparently a devotee of the “smells and bells” of High Church tradition, the Rev. Barbie even has a tiny thurible, a metal vessel used for sending clouds of incense wafting toward heaven. Can't be too High Church since those I know who are truly high Church wouldn't welcome her in the 1st place. (In fact a few are a part of the Traditional Anglican Church that left the Episcopal Church & are now looking to return to union with Rome.)
The Rev. Barbie, who in less than a week had drawn nearly 3,000 friends on her Facebook page, spends most of her time in the office of the Rev. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew, rector of Christ (Episcopal) Church, in Manlius, N.Y., near Syracuse.
The doll, her wardrobe and portable sacristy were a gift from Cleaver-Bartholomew’s friend, the Rev. Julie Blake Fisher, a priest in Kent, Ohio.
“I got a phone call from my husband who said a large package had arrived; Julie had told me that she was making something for me. She used to be a dressmaker and she makes gorgeous stoles, so I thought she was making me a stole,” said Cleaver-Bartholomew. “When I came home and there was this enormous box, I knew it wasn’t just a stole!”
Fisher had made Episcopal Priest Barbie and a few vestments two years ago for the children in her parish to dress.
“I thought the children would like to practice playing with the vestments and learning what they are,” said Fisher. The Rev. Barbie was a hit with both the children and a local group of women clergy, including Cleaver-Bartholomew.
When Cleaver-Bartholomew later got called to her parish in New York, Fisher knew the perfect gift for her friend.
“I thought, `I don’t have time to make her one of her own; I’ll just send her Episcopal Priest Barbie for her farewell gift,”’ said Fisher. “But then, when I sat down to start to package everything up, I thought `What if I added this? What if I added that? What if I made this? It would just take one more day.“‘
One more day turned into 100 hours of painstaking labor, and “before I knew it, it was Episcopal Church Barbie—High Church Edition,” Fisher said.
Barbie’s clergy garb is the real deal, made from dress patterns that were crafted or adapted by Fisher. Barbie’s collared blouse was cut down from the fabric of a genuine clergy shirt; the chasubles and alb are made from real silk and linens. Her capa nigra (black funeral cloak) sports pewter buttons. Her nearly-complete Bible was originally sold as a keychain. It must have left out the part where it talks about blasphemy. The thurible was crafted from a teeny tea ball.
Episcopal Church Barbie’s popularity exploded after she got a shout-out on the popular blog, BeautyTipsforMinisters.com. A “Friends of Episcopal Priest Barbie” Facebook group has grown exponentially since its March 31 inception.
Many of the Rev. Barbie’s online admirers asked about her career aspirations.
“How long till she is Bishop Barbie?”* asked one.
Fisher has found a calling of her own: She responded that her next project will be Episcopal Priest Barbie: Cathedral Edition. She promises an African-American Bishop Barbie, a Hispanic Ken doll who will be cathedral dean (rector) and his African-American friend, Stephen, will be a deacon. Do I make the obvious Ken is gay joke here? Or do I leave it to your imagination? Or do I borrow LarryD's comment. LarryD wins "But it wouldn't surprise me if someday, young girls across the country may have these dolls to play 'Church' with, to have pretend liturgies "marrying" their two Ken dolls." Me neither Larry. Barbie’s little sister, Kelly, will be an acolyte.
For her part, Cleaver-Bartholomew thinks Barbie could be a tool for evangelism for the Episcopal Church—particularly for conveying that “we have a sense of humor, we can be fun.
“Barbie’s very versatile that way,” said Cleaver-Bartholomew. “She’s open to new possibilities, so evangelism is definitely in her future.” Given that true evangelism means proclaiming the Gospel & calling people to repentance, I doubt that Barbie will be doing that. Helping to mislead girls into thinking they can be validly ordained as priests when they can't is another.
* Lets just hope that if they do, she more sartorial sense than Katharine Jefferts Schori (far right) has.
(Photo source: Bad Vestments REMEMBER THE OVEN MITT!!)
posted by Al @ 12:09 PM
1 Comments:
At 7/4/10 8:21 PM ,
Larry Denninger said...
Thanks for the link, Al!
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