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.
Please can I plead with folks to be disciplined on this thread in terms of the comments, otherwise I will close them.
Thank you.
I don’t mind Episcopalians being themselves as long as Catholics are free. (Put another way, most of them don’t have the same belief about priesthood as I do.) On one hand it’s mainliners having good-natured fun but on the other, as somebody with roots in Anglo-Catholicism, to me some of it feels like somebody not so good-naturedly mocking all that.
Not too may years ago, this would have provoked outrage. I think this reflects the generally low regard in which the church is held.
I have no problem with women priests and think this is neat! What a great way to introduce little girls to ministry!
I saw this item on a friend’s Facebook profile, and refrained from commenting. Rather than have my humble opinion deleted I will merely agree wholeheartedly with numbers two and three, above, and the second sentence of number four. As regards the last mentioned, I could not see a better way of both trivilizing the ordained ministry, mocking it, and ensuring that young ladies will NOT try it on themselves. That the Barbie version graduated from CDSP speaks for itself.
I’m not a fan of the whole barbie doll thing …. that said, Barbie has become a doctor, an astronaut so why not a priest?
Some kids will learn what a cassock is, how that is different from a surplice and a chausible, the reasons for the different colored garments, and even what a thurible is used for.
I’ve been to a lot of Episcopal churches (even “high” ones) where nobody but the priest and the upper-echelons of the Altar Guild has any idea what those things are.
Good for St. Barbara’s-by-the-Sea.
Senior Priest,
Clearly, you were never a little girl, LOL. I loved playing with dolls, loved playing house and school and having tea parties for my dolls and stuffed animals. My Barbies were doctors, models, cowgirls, housewives, and they even went on rescue missions with GI Joe! It would have been wonderful to extend that to playing church, too.
blasphemy…would we accept action man dressed as the Virgin Mary?
My experience is that members of Anglo-Catholic parishes know about these things in detail (the world of spikery and sacristy rats); middle-of-the-road ones may have some of them but don’t know what they mean or at least they don’t understand them the way ACs do. See my comment above on many Episcopalians’ idea of priesthood being different from Catholicism’s. I once read somewhere that most lay Episcopalians identify as Protestant but most Episcopal priests don’t (but that doesn’t mean they’re AC).
[Comment deleted by Elf]
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I’m dicey about the whole Barbie thing, but there are some clergy in TEC that could take some fashion advice from this particular one.
http://www.catholiccompany.com/catholic-catalog/127/Children-Educational-Resources/
The Catholics can’t object too much to this. I give you exhibit A. And frankly, I can’t tell you how many parish festivals I’ve been to where they have had dolls for sale that are dressed up like Catholic nuns. Barbie is neither the first nor the last “doll” expression of ordained (or Religious) ministry.
I was hoping that this was an April Fool’s joke, since that’s when I first saw it. ‘guess not.
Having loved playing with dolls of all kinds as a little girl, I agree with #8. One of my Roman Catholic friends had a nun doll, which was always treated with great respect by those of us gathered in play on the back porch. One of my favorite board games back then was something called “Going to Jerusalem”, where disciples would race around the board, using NT verses along the way. IMHO, I don’t think any disrespect to God or the church is meant by developing this line of Barbies.
Eh. I don’t see the big deal. If your going to “ordain” women why not dolls too? Same effect from my POV.
ICXC NIKA
John
I am sorry, I don’t think this is cute or harmless and although I may be showing my protestant bias, it seems to me that this is just another step toward idolatry in the Episcopal Church. I am afraid that many young girls will idolize these dolls and aspire to the priesthood for all the wrong reasons. The danger to the church is that they will yearn to wear the robes of authority without understanding the religion they represent. But that is nothing new is it?
I’ll say something funny, so I don’t get deleted. Barbie is just plain wrong in any outfit.
I’m not buyin’ till it’s BISHOP Barbie – wait a minute, we’ve already had one of them ….
Although “Barbie” isn’t married to “Ken”, can she still become a priest
if she and “Ken” are in a “committed relationship”, even if it’s not
monogamous ?
If you read it carefully you’ll see that this is not a new “line” of Barbies. One person hand-sewed one set of outfits as a gift for another person. Little girls across the nation are not going to be playing with Episcopal Priest Barbie, because there’s only one of them.
If you want a Reverent Barbie, you’ll need one of these:
http://www.planestupid.com/blogs/2008/05/8/archbishop-canterbury-backs-make-noise-demo
Ross is right here. One priest made the outfits for another as a gift.
It seems to me that a “Salvation Army Barbie” might actually work. SA has included women in its ministry (no priests there) since way back when. After doing a little web search, I learned that folks seeking vintage Barbie dolls often look in SA thrift shops. Indeed, to celebrate its opening, a thrift shop in Lubbock, Texas actually had a live model dressed as Barbie (or something of the sort).
I don’t think you need to worry about a market flood of Piskie Barbies. The minimum production run for Mattel would be more than the total number of children attending TEC churches.
In any case, Mattel would never produce an Episcopal Barbie, since under the Dennis Canon, this would cede all of Mattel’s assets to the Episcopal Church, regardless of how the shareholders voted. And the chairman would be deposed.
tjmcmahon,
Your gentle wit in your #25 commentary reminds me of another great humorist, Will Rogers. Whether we agree or not on other matters, thanks for the smiles your words brought.
21: I couldn’t resist. Given Episcopalianism, Mo. Barbie jolly well may have left Ken years ago for Sindy or Tuesday Taylor.
“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. ”
Really? I mean really? PECUSA becomes self caricaturing. Patronizingly multi-racial, and then Dean Ken’s “friend” …
Fr Yousuf
Now if we can just figure a way to get TEC in the new Niki/Tiger commercials……we will have arrived……
[blockquote]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.[/blockquote]A tool for evangelism? Because “we have a sense of humor, we can be fun”? This kind of evangelism probably would be a disappointment for those who live in a culture which has satiated its desires for worldly fun and humorous activity, it is just more of the same worldly fun that children get every where else when, at the same time, their real need is for simple Bible study and Christian education.