Abstract

Part one. The Christian church is in crisis, attested to by declining membership and a lack of perceived relevance to contemporary culture. It is a crisis of power-over: of men over women, clergy over parishioners, humans over the earth. Worse, the crisis is enshrined within our very liturgies. The Eucharist needs to change. With the aid of feminist theologians, we look at Power-over in the church's liturgy; Power-over in the church's theology; Christology and the Abdication of power; and Power-over in the church's government. ;Part two. It is natural for the Eucharist to change to meet people's needs. The Eucharist has changed every time the church has met with crisis throughout her long history, creating various threads of different meanings for the Eucharist, "re-mythologizations." This section includes a history of such threads leading to the current day. ;Part three. How must the Eucharist change today to help us meet our crisis? Several ways ahead are explored, with discussions of inclusive language and contemporary threads of Eucharistic interpretation. Justice concerns are discussed taking each part of the Mass in turn. ;Conclusion. A dream of an egalitarian church where each community decides for themselves what the elements represent for them, and where all take responsibility for creating and performing liturgies in consensus communities