In this edited version of her acceptance speech for the 2004 U.S. Catholic Award, author Joyce Rupp describes herself as a spiritual midwife, aiding the birth of a more balanced and inclusive church.

A medical midwife has to be knowledgeable about the birthing process. She informs and helps the one giving birth. She cheers the mother on but cannot do the birthing for her. So, too, with a spiritual midwife.

The common factor I find in all the circles I’ve entered is that women are listening to a voice deep within that calls them to spiritual transformation. They are willing to invest a lot of time and energy into heeding this voice, and they support one another in that process.

I realize there are also men who are attentive to their inner voice. Some of my good friends who are men respect the feminine and feel as badly as I do about how women have been treated by the institutional church. I have received wonderfully affirming letters from men about my writing. These men are obviously not afraid of the feminine and welcome it as integral to their spirituality-but it is mainly to women that I feel called to minister.

There are two central approaches to faith formation and spiritual growth in church ministry. One favors yang energy and the other yin energy. A yang, or masculine, approach, is organized, structural, and concrete: "Here is the information. I have found the facts. Take them in. Believe them." The yin, or feminine, approach, is to look at a theme or topic from many angles, reflect upon it from one's lived experience, and then present it to the group: "Here, I've reflected a lot about this theme and have come to believe this from my life and from others. Take a look and see how it fits, or does not fit, into your views and lived experience."

A yin approach always allows for more to be discovered and for others to do their own reflection for greater clarity. It never acts like it has the final answer. Healthy yin energy is comfortable with mystery and not having it all together.

We need both yin and yang, a balance of both lived experience and information, for good spiritual growth. We need facts and foundational information. We also need room to let this information dance around in us. If we let it dance in us, we'll know whether or not it is meant to become a part of us.

There is such a predominance of yang energy in church leadership right now. Governance is through doctrines and moral imperatives. There's not much room to let these things breathe and dance inside of one's self. They are proclaimed as ultimate truth and pronounced as the final word. Yin energy has almost been snuffed out, but I see women refusing to let this yin energy go to the church's graveyard.

Yang energy is definitive and assertive. It's about structural organization, the detail of rubrics, defending the doctrine. Yin energy is reflective, embryonic energy. It is pastoral, relational, compassionate, able to live with veiled mystery and essential diversity. This is where I see women bringing vital gifts to the church. I admire women for continuing to try to share their gifts even when these gifts are refused or challenged. The current church leadership is dying of an overabundance of yang energy. The life of the future church depends on whether or not the yang of church leadership will become balanced with yin energy-which is where we find Christ-like pastoral leadership.

A long time ago I read a quote from the wonderfully integrated theologian Karl Rahner. He said that good religious education means to draw faith out of those we teach, rather than to pour it in. Rahner believed that people have the ability to think for themselves, that they have a lot of inherent wisdom. He knew that facts and doctrine alone do not lead to spiritual transformation. They remain in the head and do not flow into the heart and into life until they are connected with one's own lived experience. A good spiritual teacher will give just enough information to lead the student into her or his own heart to make connections with what has been offered.

Apparently some in the official church do not see it this way. For them, one's lived experience is seen as suspect and an enemy of dogma rather than as a valuable tool for the spiritual integration of doctrinal concepts.

Last year a dedicated Catholic publishing company announced that it was suspending publication of its high school religion textbooks. The Ad Hoc Committee to Oversee the Use of the Catechism directed the publishing company to remove questions for student reflection, especially questions that invite students to offer their personal opinion on some matters. The company was also directed to remove references to typical teenage experiences out of a concern that such references could imply that experiences of this nature are condoned by the church. So much for attempting to help students draw out their own faith and wisdom to understand and integrate church doctrine.

In the past women did not trust their own lived experience. They looked to outside authority to tell them what to think and to believe, but this is changing. Everywhere I go women are growing in their self-esteem and in their ability to trust that they know what is best for their spiritual growth and for their participation in the church. That is why U.S. CATHOLIC writers like Kathy Coffey, Alice Camille, and Dolores Curran are such important resources for readers. They present valuable information for spiritual growth but always integrate it into life.

Life experience is vital. That's why it scares me when the recent Vatican document On the Collaboration of Men and Women in the Church and in the World starts out with "The church, expert in humanity..." Really? Which church? The institutional church? Or all those people with life experience who form the Christian community? If the official church were expert in humanity, would its leaders not value life experience and see it as an essential aspect of spiritual growth? Would they not also see the essential need to incorporate the feminine into the worship, doctrine, and church governance?