Just in time for the Apostolic Visitation!
From the Religion News Service: Barbie Gets Ordained, and Has the Smells & Bells Wardrobe to Match
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.
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.
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.
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.
The doll is so unrealistic. Compare Barbie to any womynpreest, and you'll quickly notice there is no similarity whatsoever. A bit more of the article:
Fisher had made Episcopal Priest Barbie and a few vestments two years ago for the children in her parish to dress.
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. Barbie’s little sister, Kelly, will be an acolyte.“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.
Okay, so it's not a Mattel product. Yet. 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. Or 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.
And let me go on record that I've come up with this idea first. It may be time to get my patent pending.
Be honest - mine would be a lot more fun!
s/s Overheard In The Sacristy
