Birdwoman:

Memoir of a Migrant Mystic 


Authored by Michele Birch-Conery, Ph.D.

Transcribed by Marg McCaffery Piche, M.A., M.Div.

Edited by Barbara Billey, D.Min.


Copyright Edited by Nori Kieran-Meridith, M.Div. (Ch 1-9)

and Joanna Novosedlik, B.Mus.A., B.Ed. (Ch 10-22)


Birdwoman: Memoir of a Migrant Mystic is a captivating memoir of the life of Rev. Dr. Michele Birch-Conery. A visionary mystic, companion, and activist for women's equality in the Roman Catholic Church, Michele’s earthly life spun around charisms connected to language, storytelling, prayer, and serving others as a nurse, nun, teacher, musician, writer, and bishop.

Michele was born in 1939 on August 3rd, the feast day of St. Lydia, who made her living dyeing, spinning and selling rare and expensive royal purple cloth. In a similar fashion, Michele created a rich tapestry out of the pain and beauty of her life’s challenges and circumstances.

Michele possessed the rare gift of waiting on the soul and of transforming its wisdom into words, into the royal purple cloth of a radical hospitality for diversity, and compassionate action for change in systems of oppression and injustice. Her faith and spiritually were well-honed and, as you will see, she had the flare of a truly inspired writer.


Rev. Dr. Michele Birch-Conery

Born in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Michele Mirch-Conery was fostered and eventually adopted in early childhood. In her forties, Michele was reunited with her birth mother, Rose.

Michele received an exemplar high school education in boarding schools under the auspices of two different orders of women religious. From 1963-1974, she was a member of the Sisters of the Holy Name of Jesus and Mary.

A skilled writer, Michele was invited by the Creative Writing Department at the University of Montana to pursue a Masters of Fine Arts degree in the genres of poetry, fiction, and drama. She majored in poetry and completed the degree in 1973. 

The following year Michele attended the University of Iowa where she worked on a Ph.D. in English literature. Throughout the ten years of study to complete her doctorate, she supported herself as a nurse, including several years with Flying Nurses, an organization that provided temporary assignments to under-staffed hospitals in the USA.

In 1985, Michele completed her Ph.D. and returned to British Columbia. Two years later, she became a professor of English literature and women’s studies at North Island College in Port Alberni on Vancouver Island and, after a fulfilling career, retired from that position in august 2007.  

In 2004, Michele was ordained a deacon in Germany on the Danube River through an initiative known as Roman Catholic Women Priests (RCWP). In July 2005, she was the first Canadian woman to be ordained a priest on the St. Lawrence Seaway in Gananoque Ontario, Canada.

Despite challenges with chronic illness, Michele established, with ordained members of RCWP, three faith communities on Vancouver Island. She companioned numerous candidates in the program of preparation for priesthood. Michele joined the Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests (ARCWP) in 2013.

In 2014, Michele moved to Windsor, Ontario where she ministered with ARCWP priest Barbara Billey in the Heart of Compassion International Faith Community, and in 2015 she was ordained a bishop within the same association. 

Michele passed into eternal life on the Canadian Thanksgiving weekend in the early evening of October 11, 2020.


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