Congratulations to Dr Kathleen Rushton rsm on her contribution to a recently published book Reinterpreting the Eucharist: Explorations in Feminist Theology and Ethics.

Kath is one of three Mercy contributors to this major new text on the Eucharist by female scholars, launched in Melbourne on 28 February by Jan Gray rsm.

In Chapter 6 Rediscovering Forgotten Features: Scripture, Tradition and Whose Feet May Be Washed on Holy Thursday Night, Kath conducts a detailed investigation into this rite. Her concern is with “the little known history of the insertion of the word viri (men) into the rite, an innovation that departs from tradition which prior to our own time never excluded women formally”. She concludes that, “Both scripture and the history of the tradition of the foot washing critique the present rubric as ‘distorting’ and gendered.”

Click here to read more.