wfn.org | Adair, Rogers challenge crowd to transform church, society

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01-July-1996 
 
GA96029 
 
    Adair, Rogers challenge crowd to transform church, society 
 
ALBUQUERQUE--A sell out crowd of 250 heard former moderators Dr. Thelma 
C.D. Adair and Isabel Rogers challenge them to be a part of the 
transformation of society and the church.  Adair and Rogers spoke at the 
"Voices of Sophia" breakfast Monday morning. 
 
    Claiming that she had been to "more General Assemblies than most of you 
have lived life," Dr. Adair spoke of the "good news" that women have been a 
part of transforming society.  She noted that in the last three years, 
there has been more change than in all of recorded history.  Women "have 
already reached a critical mass," she said.  "Keep in mind that the 
transformation has started; the revolution is there." 
 
    Adair noted that health and the world of work are changing because of 
the impact of women.  She cited statistics indicating that while 46,000 
women die each year from breast cancer, more than 500,000 die of heart 
attacks and strokes.  "When women more than 50 went to their doctors with 
chest pain, they were told to take antacids and go home to die," she 
lamented. Women must "value our own temples," she said. 
 
    More than 53 per cent of the work force already is women, Adair 
continued.  Women "have changed already the managerial style," she noted. 
Women are beginning to demand "the friendly workplace."  Adair further 
noted that "families are back in style.  Not the Dick and Jane families of 
yesteryear" but a movement back toward the "idealized family, that of 
collaboration," such as used to exist on the farm.  Adair noted that 18 per 
cent of white children and 33 per cent of Black children were being raised 
by grandparents. 
 
    It is important, Adair said, to "change from creating pictures of 
pessimism to creating knowledge that will give us the opportunity to seek 
and to implement change."  That is the job of "every single individual 
here," she said.  She told of attending her daughter's graduation from 
Harvard this June, where her daughter received a Ph.D, making her a third 
generation doctor.  One of the honorees was Osceola McCarthy, the 
86-year-old Mississippi housekeeper who gave all her life's savings to the 
University of Mississippi so that "her people might be all they want to 
be."  As they draped the hood over Miss McCarthy's shoulders, Adair 
recalled, 20,000 people stood and applauded for five minutes.  As the 
applause died down, the noon bells began ringing.  "I was reminded of the 
legend that the bells in a certain French cathedral rang only when one 
dared to give a great gift.  May your gifts of yourselves . . . be like the 
gift of Osceola McCarthy." 
 
    Rogers affirmed that "in the past 20 years we have certainly seen a 
revolution in opportunities for women and in the way women look at 
ourselves.  The church has not exactly been in the vanguard."  She cited as 
gains that women have moved into positions of leadership in the church, and 
that inclusive language "is the order of the day in our official 
documents."  But the "church has resisted all of our attempts to broaden 
the images used in worship," she noted. 
 
    "We are here because we believe the church has not taken with full 
seriousness the revolution that is taking place all around us, and in fact 
has condemned us" for seeking it, Rogers asserted.  Women should take the 
position "of Her Majesty's loyal opposition," she said.  Women should adopt 
Miriam Therese Winters' position of "defecting in place," she said.  Such 
women are those who "remain loyal and active in the church, who find in 
their heads and hearts that they have moved way beyond where the church is, 
and seek an alternative group" for nurture. 
 
    "We have got to give ourselves to the discipline of study and careful 
thinking," Rogers challenged her listeners.  Women must "wrestle with 
theological tradition and its critics, and ask how it relates to our 
lives."  "We have got to seek out those women who want to be faithful but 
feel lonely and draw them into groups and try new things." 
 
    "I believe the Voices of Sophia ought to be not just individuals but a 
network of little groups all around the church who gather together to 
encourage one another and share the faith,"Rogers said.  Citing Isaiah 
42--"Remember not the things of old . . . Behold, I am doing a new thing. 
Now it springs forth; do you not perceive it?"--she challenged the audience 
to "be attentive to what God is doing and join in on God's work." 
 
    Adair was moderator of the 1976 General Assembly of the former United 
Presbyterian Church in the United States of America.  Rogers was moderator 
of the 1987 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    Voices of Sophia is a community of women and men within the 
Presbyterian Church that seeks to be "a forthright voice for women in the 
church."  It was formed in the spring of 1995.  Its goal is to help 
transform the church "into a discipleship community of equals."  Its 
purpose is "calling the church to responsible theology, reclaiming the 
fullness of God's image, embracing the diversity of the world, and 
welcoming the voices of women as we enter the 21st century." 
 
 
Peggy Rounseville 

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