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ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 9, 1999

ELCA WOMEN OPEN CONVENTION WITH WORSHIP, JUSTICE THEME
99-WO-03-JB

     ST. LOUIS (ELCA) -- Christians cannot proclaim God's peace if they
fail to seek justice for all people and live "God's justice," said Mercy
Oduyoye, a Ghanian theologian who delivered the sermon at the opening
worship at the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America
(ELCA) convention.
     The Fourth Triennial Convention of Women of the ELCA is meeting
July 8-11 here at the America's Center.  The organization's three-year
theme, "Live God's Justice," is unveiled at the convention amid Bible
study, keynote addresses, workshops, business sessions and elections.
     "We have talked but not walked," said Oduyoye. "We continue to
proclaim God's peace while failing to live God's justice.  We continue
to heal the hurts of God's people lightly, for justice is absent from
our lives."
     Oduyoye is founder of the Institute of Women in Religion and
Culture at Trinity Theological College, Legon, Ghana.  She said Africa
has been the site of several significant events cited in the Bible,
including a place of "refuge for the holy family," the place where the
Gospel of Mark was written, and the birthplace of the Coptic Church.
     "Since the days of Mark, people of good will from all over the
world have come, proclaiming the love of God and bringing the peace of
Christ," Oduyoye said.  But she said Africans had peace provided they
"acquiesced with slavery" and "cooperated with colonial exploitation."
     "We had peace, yes, but it was not God's peace," she said.  "We
have not lived the justice of God, so how can we experience the peace of
God?"  Through experience and study, Oduyoye said she learned that
Christians have spoken of "solidarity without acting out our
accountability to God."
     She told a story about two missionary wives serving in Ghana and
how they interacted with students in schools.  One consistently treated
young students with love and respect; the other didn't, voicing "insults
and veiled racism" toward students, alienating them, Oduyoue said.
     "It is the story of how we banish God's peace when we proclaim
peace without dealing justly and with compassion," Oduyoye said.  "We
banish peace, when we pretend to love, when deep down we are filled with
hatred and spite.  Oh how we banish peace, when we do not live out God's
compassion-filled justice."
     The challenge of living "God's justice" has never been easy,
Oduyoye said, who suggested peace with justice is "a question of faith."
She urged the convention's 4,000 participants to sow the seeds of peace
with justice and to bring health and healing "to all who are deprived of
these by unjust and uncaring systems and structures."
     The writings in Isaiah and the Psalms in the Bible suggest the
promise of God to fill the Earth with justice is already happening,
Oduyoye said.  "We are the ones to intensify its presence," she added.
Oduyoye urged the participants to help people in need and break "the
power of the oppressor."
     "We shall be and do all this and more only if we proclaim God's
peace by living God's justice," she concluded. "This should be our
pledge to the one who came, that we might have life, and left us the
peace that is beyond our understanding."

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