ABSTRACT
This introduction presents an overview of the key concepts discussed in the subsequent chapters of this book. The book explores the ways in which women are using liturgy and ritual to mark and construct transitions in their lives. It shows that rituals not only marks what has happened retrospectively, but plays a part in the construction of meaning and theology—not only expressing, but creating story and transformative action. The book looks at the roots of women's ritual in what Teresa Berger has called 'the Women's Liturgical Movement', the creating of liturgy by women's groups, shaped by feminist theology. It examines the nature and process of the transitions which the women are experiencing, set in the context of rites of passage theory as it has been developed by Arnold van Gennep and Victor Turner. The book explores the communal dimension of women's ritual, and reflects on the tension between private and public.
