wfn.org | Church Women from Japan Meet with N. American Women

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

Church Women from Japan Meet with North American Women
National Council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.
Internet: wendym@ncccusa.org

Contact: Wendy S. McDowell, NCC, 212-870-2227

NCC11/3/97  FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

CHURCH WOMEN FROM JAPAN FIND COMMON GROUND WITH
NORTH AMERICAN WOMEN IN TWO-WEEK SEMINAR

 NEW YORK, Nov. 3 ---- Fourteen clergy and laywomen from 
Japan recently spent two weeks in New York City discovering 
areas of common concern with North American women.

 The women from Japan met with women from the United 
States and Canada, including leaders from the National 
Council of Churches, during a two-week seminar held October 
14-24 and sponsored by the Japan-North America Commission on 
Cooperative Mission (JNAC).

JNAC is in its 25th year of existence as an ecumenical 
arena for cooperative mission among two Japanese 
denominations, two Canadian denominations and five U.S. 
denominations.

 "This visit was put together in connection with the 
1998 end of the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in 
Solidarity with Women," explained Patricia Patterson, JNAC 
Coordinator.  "Our goals were to strengthen and develop the 
leadership of women and to encourage interaction between 
women in Japan and North American women so they could share 
experiences and engage in theological reflection together."

 According to Ms. Patterson and participants in the 
seminars, these goals were met.  "Women have heard each 
other in completely new ways, both within the group and in 
dialogue with North American women," Ms. Patterson said.  
"Japanese women and Korean women in Japan have gained a new 
awareness of each other's pain and their constricted 
situations."

 "There was a real common bond around the issue of the 
churches not taking the ecumenical decade seriously," 
reported Karen Hessel, NCC Justice for Women Director, who 
sponsored a dialogue about issues related to the ecumenical 
decade at the Episcopal Church Center.  "The Japanese women 
were pleased to hear that women here in the U.S. still 
struggle in the church and were eager to hear what we have 
learned in our struggles.  They found they had a lot more in 
common with U.S. women than they thought they would have."

 Ms. Hessel noted one experience shared by the women 
from Japan.  They explained that the history of the 
Christian church in Japan was destroyed during World War II 
so had to be rewritten.  However, when a group of men 
rewrote it, they left out the history of women in the church 
completely.  Women had to go back to the men's version and 
write in the significant history of Japanese women in the 
churches.

 "I was impressed by the muti-national, multi-ethnic 
dialogue and worship and the intentional attempt to 
appreciate diversity," said the Rev. Yoshiko Isshiki, an 
ordained minister in the United Church of Christ in Japan 
and the first woman to serve as Secretary of her church's 
National General Assembly.  "In Japan, we have problems and 
discrimination, especially against Koreans in Japan, but 
they are not recognized."

 Rev. Isshiki also described struggles within her church 
for women to gain leadership positions and to gain better 
salaries.  During a session with elmira Nazombe, Director 
for the NCC's World Community office, who gave the women 
from Japan an overview of the situation of women in the 
U.S., women from Japan pointed out that the income gap 
between men and women in Japan is even greater than the gap 
in the U.S.

 During the session with Ms. Nazombe, women also 
resonated with the issue of violence against women, saying 
that Japanese women are often too ashamed to speak up about 
domestic violence.

"Women in Japan are not nearly as expressive in public 
settings as I have seen North American women be," Rev. 
Isshiki commented further.  "Women here seem more empowered 
and free to elegantly express themselves."

 "The Japanese Protestant churches are becoming quite 
conservative and avoiding social issues," said the Rev. 
Noriko Okada, also a UCC clergywoman in Japan.  Rev. Okada 
said it was therefore especially interesting for her to hear 
North American women discussing global economic issues in 
the context of theological discussions.

"The economic situation in Japan is changing quite 
rapidly, but Japan can be said to practice economic neo-
colonialism in countries like Korea and China," she said.  
"There are many economic issues for women, from the 
trafficking of women and children [in sex trades] to the 
place of women in this global economy, which the church 
needs to address," Rev. Okada said.

 The first week of the seminar enabled the Japanese 
women to meet with 17 church women who advocate at the 
United Nations and to meet with women who run local projects 
in prison and AIDS ministry.  They also visited a Korean 
Women's Crisis Center in Flushing.

The second week was built around a conference on "The 
Public Vocation of Women's Theologies" sponsored by five New 
York-area theological seminaries.  The conference included 
discussions about a wide range of issues as well as an 
opportunity to hear Alice Walker speak at Riverside Church.

 The second part of the JNAC visiting program will be 
held in August, 1998 in Canada, where another group of women 
from Japan will participate in a series of dialogues and the 
End of Decade Conference being planned by Canadian church 
women.

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