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99-183

Council for Women's Ministries adopts a new, unified vision

by Marcy Darin

     (ENS) The Council for Women's Ministries, an umbrella 
organization of more than 30 Episcopal women's groups, has 
approved a dramatic restructuring that would open its gatherings 
to all Episcopal women, regardless of organizational affiliation.

     The far-reaching decision came at the group's 25th meeting 
held November 18-21 at the Duncan Conference Center in Delray 
Beach, Florida, where 44 women leaders affirmed the new vision 
for CWM, founded in 1983 to provide a support network and advance 
women's ministries in the Episcopal Church.

     Since its first meeting, CWM has invited two or three 
representatives of each group, including presidents, to 
participate in the now-annual gatherings. 

     "Now all Episcopal women can be part of one body," said Ann 
Smith, director of the national office of Women in Mission and 
Ministry, which has provided financial and organizational support 
for CWM. "We're doing real Gospel-based organizing, guided by the 
Holy Spirit. We have no idea what our structure will look like--
our structure will follow our function." 

     The move came a year and a half after leaders of six 
different women's organizations began meeting to find ways to 
unify their ministries. 

     Before leaving the November gathering, CWM participants 
began laying groundwork for its first gathering of the new 
millennium, "Episcopal Women Uniting in Christ," to be held 
November 30 through December 3, 2000, at Kanuga Conference Center 
in Hendersonville, North Carolina. The center can accommodate up 
to 450 women, Smith said.

A 'resurrection'

     Sue Schlanbush, national president of the 18,000-member 
Daughters of the King (USA), called the open-invitation CWM a 

"resurrection." "Women in the 21st century will be given new 
opportunities for growth. Things that are dying are reborn again, 
and we need to celebrate the rebirth."

     Jane Banning, national president of the Episcopal Church 
Women, praised CWM members for living into "its promise to be one 
body in Christ," a reference to the First Corinthians passage 
that was the focus of a bible study by conference participants.

     "It's nice to have a dinner where everyone is invited," said 
Banning, one of several presidents of women's organizations who 
have sought to construct a unified vision for women's ministries, 
which leaders concede had become fragmented. 

     The new vision came in response to a question posed by Ginny 
Doctor, a WIMM consultant from the Diocese of Alaska, who 
challenged the gathering, "We're only 44 of the 1.5 million women 
in the Episcopal Church. How do we reach the others?"

     After endorsing the new CWM format, participants organized 
themselves in groups around common interests, or "passions."

     Among the most popular was "Global Home Economics," which 
explored ways in which U.S. women and men can support efforts to 
improve the status of workers in poor countries through 
responsible consumerism and advocacy. 

     "How do you justify paying $100 for Nike shoes when workers 
are getting just pennies a day?" asked Gerry Sweeting, a DOK 
member from Carol City, Florida.

Responsible consumerism

     Organizers are preparing a resource packet to be made 
available through WIMM that provides a theological perspective, 
as well as suggestions for practicing responsible consumerism. 
Included in the package is the video "Disney Goes to Haiti," 
which examines working conditions and pay of workers employed by 
Disney in Haitian factories. 

     "A nightgown with a design of Pocahontas will cost you $9 in 
this country, while someone in Haiti is making only 28 cents a 
day to produce nine of these," explained Pauline Muchina, a WIMM 
consultant on economic justice issues from Kenya who is also a 
doctoral candidate at Union Theological Seminary in New York 
City.  

     The discussion took place just one week after an ecumenical 
coalition of U.S. churches successfully moved major debt relief 
agreements through the budget negotiations of a reluctant 

Congress. The Episcopal Church was instrumental in the effort that 
is hoped will provide about $90 billion in debt forgiveness 
to poor countries.

     Several passion groups concentrated on efforts to support a 
unified vision of women's ministries, among these, the 
development of "Every Woman Counts," a database of all Episcopal 
women, and a computerized volunteer network. Efforts are also 
under way to improve the WIMM web page (www.dfms.org/women), 
which will offer links to all CWM organizations.

New magazine on spirituality

     Participants also heard of preliminary efforts to launch a 
new magazine on spirituality for all Episcopal women, which will 
merge the existing Journal of Women's Ministries and the ECW 
Communique. The premier issue will be distributed at the General 
Convention in July, 2000.

     Participants also drafted a marketing plan for a collection 
of prayers and meditations by Episcopal women published by 
Morehouse, which will be available at the convention. Proceeds 
from the sale of Women's Uncommon Prayers: Our Lives Revealed, 
Nurtured, Celebrated will benefit programs that assist victims 
and survivors of domestic violence.

     An integral part of the new unified vision for women's 
ministries is the adoption of a fund-raising plan in which CWM 
participants were asked to transfer their phone service to Excel 
Communications/Teleglobe. In return, the Episcopal Women's 
Foundation, a non-profit organization funding programs for women 
and girls, would receive donations generated by the Seedlings 
Foundation, a non-profit organized in February, 1999, that has 
benefited such groups as the Special Olympics and Youth 
Basketball Association of America.

     Schlanbush, who asked CWM participants to transfer their 
service and encourage their networks to do the same, said the 
plan would generate funds for leadership training programs and 
other ministries undertaken by existing women's church 
organizations.

     "This is a wonderful program that will enable women to raise 
monies the likes of which we've never seen as Episcopal women," 
she said. "We're just asking women to redirect monies they are 
already spending for communication services." Those interested in 
learning more about the Seedlings plan or in signing on were 
encouraged to phone the Seedlings Foundation at (888) 718-3297, 
ext. 999.

Reaching younger women

     Reflecting the group's intent to incorporate younger women, 
a passion group focused on women seminarians. 

     "Our focus is so academic, we don't learn about women's 
models of leadership at seminary," observed Vanessa Glass, a 27-
year-old student at Church Divinity School of the Pacific, where 
women make up 70 percent of the student body. Glass, who said she 
didn't see women preside at the altar until she was in college, 
proposed that a WIMM representative be named for each seminary 
class.

     "I'm afraid that women will forget the stories--the work 
that our foremothers did in this church."

     Asserting that a funding reduction and loss of status 
threatens to "disempower the place of women's ministry within the 
Episcopal Church," CWM participants signed a letter to Presiding 
Bishop Frank Griswold requesting that funding for the national 
women's office be restored as well as its status as a separate 
program entity. The office, established in 1984 as an executive-
level program, has lost funding for a second staff position and 
has operated since 1995 as part of the Congregational Development 
Cluster at the Episcopal Church Center in New York City.

     "Women's voices are not being heard at decision-making 
levels," explained Marge Burke, chair of the national Committee 
on the Status of Women and a former ECW national president. "In 
the secular world, generalists are not acceptable. Why then 
should we become generalists at the Episcopal Church Center?"

     As participants retrieved personal mementos they had placed 
on the center altar at the beginning of the meeting--photos of 
loved ones, sea shells, a painted hoop--there seemed to be 
infusion of hope at the conclusion of the gathering. 

     "The richness and vastness of all these leaders in one room 
has been a blessing for me," observed Ning Bonoan, who 
represented the Asian Women's Convocation as a first-time 
participant. Bonoan, who lives in Tampa, Florida, but was raised 
in the Philippines, hopes to present workshops in her diocese on 
global home economics.

     "This has given me insight into what I am called to do," she 
said.

--Marcy Darin, a freelance writer, is editor of the Journal of 
Women's Ministries.