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Barbie Gets Ordained, and Has the Smells-and-Bells Wardrobe to Match
Religion News Service ^ | 4/5/10 | Leanne Larmondin

Posted on 04/06/2010 7:01:28 AM PDT by marshmallow

(RNS) 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.

“I got a phone call from my husband who said a large package had arrived;Julie had told me that she was making something for me. She used to be a dressmaker and she makes gorgeous stoles, so I thought she was making me a stole,” said Cleaver-Bartholomew. “When I came home and there was this enormous box, I knew it wasn’t just a stole!”

Fisher had made Episcopal Priest Barbie and a few vestments two years ago for the children in her parish to dress.

“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.

When Cleaver-Bartholomew later got called to her parish in New York, Fisher knew the perfect gift for her friend.

“I thought, `I don’t have time to make her one of her own; I’ll just send her Episcopal Priest Barbie for her farewell gift,”’ said Fisher. “But then, when I sat down to start to package everything up, I thought `What if I added this? What if I added that? What if I made this? It would just take one more day.“‘

One more day turned into 100 hours of painstaking labor, and “before I knew it, it was Episcopal Church Barbie—High Church Edition,” Fisher said.

Barbie’s clergy garb is the real deal, made from dress patterns that were crafted or adapted by Fisher. Barbie’s collared blouse was cut down from the fabric of a genuine clergy shirt; the chasubles and alb are made from real silk and linens. Her capa nigra (black funeral cloak) sports pewter buttons. Her nearly-complete Bible was originally sold as a keychain. The thurible was crafted from a teeny tea ball.

Episcopal Church Barbie’s popularity exploded after she got a shout-out on the popular blog, BeautyTipsforMinisters.com. A “Friends of Episcopal Priest Barbie” Facebook group has grown exponentially since its March 31 inception.

Many of the Rev. Barbie’s online admirers asked about her career aspirations.

“How long till she is Bishop Barbie?” asked one.

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.

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.

“Barbie’s very versatile that way,” said Cleaver-Bartholomew. “She’s open to new possibilities, so evangelism is definitely in her future.”


TOPICS: Current Events; Theology
KEYWORDS: anglican; barbie; christian; episcopal; mattel; ordination; womenpriests
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1 posted on 04/06/2010 7:01:28 AM PDT by marshmallow
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To: marshmallow

I have NEVER liked Barbie and would not purchase anything to do with Barbie for my daughters. I was RIGHT!


2 posted on 04/06/2010 7:03:32 AM PDT by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))
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To: SumProVita

How about Butch Barbie???


3 posted on 04/06/2010 7:04:24 AM PDT by gov_bean_ counter (Obie Wan Nairobi from the 1/2 dark side. The farce is strong with this one, it is...)
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To: marshmallow

There’s only one thing that leads me to believe this isn’t true....

Barbie isn’t a Lesbian.


4 posted on 04/06/2010 7:06:14 AM PDT by PGR88 (I'm so open-minded, my brains fell out.)
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To: marshmallow

Can’t wait until she’s Obama. Barbie Obama who throws like a girl and wears soccer mom jeans.


5 posted on 04/06/2010 7:06:26 AM PDT by bgill (The framers of the US Constitution established an entire federal government in 18 pages.)
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To: marshmallow

Can Wiccan Barby be far behind?


6 posted on 04/06/2010 7:06:41 AM PDT by DManA
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To: PGR88

Really? You know Ken’s smooth down there, right?


7 posted on 04/06/2010 7:07:50 AM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: marshmallow

Burka Barbie:

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1229760/Its-Barbie-burka-World-famous-doll-gets-makeover-hammer-50th-anniversary.html


8 posted on 04/06/2010 7:08:04 AM PDT by DManA
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To: gov_bean_ counter

NOTHING that even smacks of Barbie!!

Barbie has always promoted a pop-culture image that is a distorted view of females.


9 posted on 04/06/2010 7:08:22 AM PDT by SumProVita (Cogito, ergo...Sum Pro Vita. (Modified Decartes))
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To: PGR88
Barbie isn’t a Lesbian.

It's the "in" thing now days to be bi so she'll just tell Ken she was trying to find herself and experimented. Maybe she kissed Midge and liked it.

10 posted on 04/06/2010 7:09:19 AM PDT by bgill (The framers of the US Constitution established an entire federal government in 18 pages.)
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To: PGR88
Barbie isn’t a Lesbian

"The Rev. Barbie...spends most of her time in the office of the Rev. Dena Cleaver-Bartholomew."

11 posted on 04/06/2010 7:10:03 AM PDT by laotzu
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To: marshmallow

How long until she receives a transfer so she can do fag “marriages” since the evil voters won’t allow it in Kalifornia?


12 posted on 04/06/2010 7:13:32 AM PDT by Repeat Offender (While the wicked stand confounded, call me with Thy Saints surrounded)
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To: PGR88

“Barbie isn’t a Lesbian.”

You need to qualify that - NOT YET!

Give them time ... Barbie will be a lesbian too!


13 posted on 04/06/2010 7:16:03 AM PDT by nmh (Intelligent people recognize Intelligent Design (God).)
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To: marshmallow

Let me know when she becomes a mohel.


14 posted on 04/06/2010 7:34:36 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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To: marshmallow

Great, now she can marry Midge and officiate over the ceremony herself.


15 posted on 04/06/2010 7:44:07 AM PDT by silverleaf (Karl Marx was NOT one of America's Founding Fathers)
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To: marshmallow
My dad, a graduate of Berkley Divinity, just rolled over in his grave.
16 posted on 04/06/2010 7:47:52 AM PDT by dblshot (Insanity - electing the same people over and over and expecting different results.)
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To: SumProVita

distorted? flat stomach and a chest... on a woman?! omg!! where are the rolls of fat?

i guess if she looked more like jaba the hut you’d think she was more realistic (which, in America, you would be right)


17 posted on 04/06/2010 7:53:14 AM PDT by sten
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To: sten

If scaled into real life proportions, she would be 5 feet, 9 inches, (1.75 m) measuring 36-18-33. According to research by the University Central Hospital in Helsinki, Finland, she would lack the requisite 17 to 22 percent of body fat required to menstruate.
Source(s):
Lord, M.G. Forever Barbie: The Unauthorized Biography of a Real Doll. New York: William Morrow and Company,
Inc., 1994.

O’Sickey, Ingeborg Majer. “Barbie Magazine and the Aesthetic Commodification of Girls’ Bodies.” On Fashion. Ed. Shari Benstock and Suzanne Ferriss. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers University Press, 1994.


18 posted on 04/06/2010 7:55:10 AM PDT by Hegewisch Dupa
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To: Hegewisch Dupa

the fact that she would have 36-18-33 measurements is freakin people out?

considering 36-24-34 would be ideal to many people. 6” on the waist? that’s the big deal?

then again, in America, 36-42-42 (or worse) would probably be more normal these days.

my guess, fatties are upset. tough beans. get off yer ass, go on a diet, and get some daily exercise. stop bitchin about a doll.


19 posted on 04/06/2010 8:18:38 AM PDT by sten
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To: marshmallow

I’ll stick up for Barbie a little.

When my daughter was little, we had the Nutcracker and Rapunzel and Swan Lake movies. They made good use of classical literature, music and ballet, and had wholesome moral messages about honesty, courage, perseverance, respect for parents.

Also, Barbie in regular form is a grown-up with a job and nice boyfriend. Do you realize how few toys there are for girls that actually mention how real people work and live? Many, many toys for girls are about fantasy characters or glamour. They don’t offer any view of a realistic future for a girl, where she can imagine what life will really be like when she grows up. Barbie does that. In the cesspool of decadent or overly saccharine offerings for kids, Barbie has become one of the good guys.

And hey, now, per the posted article, we know she’s a devout Christian. :)

(full disclosure: we do own a couple of shares of Mattel stock.)


20 posted on 04/06/2010 8:24:10 AM PDT by married21
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