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 Michele Birch-Conery 267 Mulberry Pl Parksville, BC V9P2S7 michelebirchconery@shaw.ca Phone: 250-586-3284 SHARE 
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My personal history is various as I was born in Vancouver ion 1939 and left Canada in 1963 to join the Religious Congregation of the Sisters of the Holy Names in Washington State. At the time I was an RN but I joined this congregation because of their intelligence and progressive vision evident to me when I met the College teaching sisters.They were very visionary women of prayer and compassion and social justice activism and I thrived in that environment though in the end, I hit an intellectual crisis when I went away to grad school and I could not think my way back in to the religious life as structured then.
Necessarily, I returned to nursing to support myself while accomplishing a PHD in English Literature at the University of Iowa. In 1985 I felt a genetic resonance, a strong pull to return to Canada. I had not realized I would ever return but when on a nursing assignment in Maine, the great Atlantic swept me back to the Pacific Coast of BC.
I lived in Victoria for a few years and then very happily acquired a rewarding and fulfilling teaching career at North Island College. For 20 years I taught English Literature and Women's Studies and loved every minute. I retired in 2007 though surprisingly I responded to the call to ordination in the Fall of 2003 and I was ordained a deacon on the Danube in June 2004. There were just 3 of us from North America, 2 women from the USA and me from Canada. We too were ordained on the Danube just as with those first 7 women. I was ordained a priest in 2005 in the St. Lawrence ordinations, a journey that began in Gananoque and headed into the Thousand Islands and international waters.
I was by then 65 years old. All of this has been a miraculous experience and continues to be.
I live in Parksville BC now and I teach on line at Catherine
of Siena Virtual College and as well I am completing a degree there myself, a Master;s in Gender Studies with an Honors in Theology.
My pastoral ministry is on the margins with quite disenfranchised people and alienated Catholics uncertain about their future with the RCChurch. Yet we are comitted to staying within the Church although excommunicated from the Sacraments, a conundrum since we are validly ordained and preside at Sacrament ourselves in an inclusive model of priesthood that is non-clericalist.
I am enjoying a new hobby of gardening, something I have never done and am I resuming my writing life now that I am retired. Ministry and the development of Roman Catholic Women Priests in Canada is urgently important to me. All of these interests converge very nicely along with my enjoyment of participating in new communities of friends and companions worldwide.
I am a member of the Green Party and concern myself with Elizabeth May and her success in bringing forward a political agenda relevant to the future of Canada and our survival here and on the planet.
I have to say that it is extraordinary that at this time of my life I should be involved in so many founding initiatives but it energizes my life beyond anything I ever imagined possible.
Naturally I love Literature (especially Candian. Our best writers are amongst the best in the world. I love Classical music and art of all kinds in a life of grace and spiritual riches. I am involve in the caretaking of my elderly mother
who is leading me to much unexpected wisdom, not always easy to sustain I acknowledge as caretaking these days is extremely challenging in the home.
My life is pretty much an open book I am happy to share.
http:www,romancatholicwomenprirests.org
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