wfn.org | Clergywomen rediscover, reclaim Sabbath

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 16, 2002 News media contact: Linda Green7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
10-71BP{010}

NOTE: Photographs are available. For related coverage, see UMNS story #011.

By Linda Green*

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) - God's commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is often
difficult for pastors working in a tradition that observes its day of rest
on Sunday.

Sunday is the busiest day of the week for pastors, who are ensuring that
their congregations are spiritually fed. They fill the rest of the week
responding to the demands of others so much that they often neglect their
own spiritual needs and fail to set aside a time of rest for themselves.

Jesus encourages everyone to get away to a deserted place and rest a while,
but people are too busy to respond, said Bishop Charlene Kammerer, who leads
the church's Charlotte (N.C.) Area. 
"Most of us live in such a whirlwind of activity that we don't always hear
the voice of Jesus."
 
The Sabbath is a time to rest in Jesus' presence, she said. "Jesus says to
us to come away by ourselves, and I will be there to renew you, heal you,
hold you and bless you. This is an invitation we should not refuse," she
said.

More than 1,185 clergywomen from across the globe gathered Jan. 7-11 in San
Diego to rediscover and reclaim the Sabbath while responding to the
challenge to change the world.   
Meeting for the 2002 International United Methodist Clergywomen's
Consultation, the women focused on the theme of "Creating a Woman's Sabbath:
Come Away and Rest Away." Each day began and ended with worship, and
participants had opportunities to explore what it means to rest in God.
Thirty-three workshops addressed such diverse topics as "Painting of the
Soul," "Jesus in the Movies," "Sacraments and Liturgy" and "the 'Gospel' of
Music."  

The United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry had held the
consultations every four years since 1975, but the 2002 event was six and a
half years in the making. The Rev. Marion Jackson, director of continuing
education for ministry at the board in Nashville, Tenn., speculated that the
time frame was extended in order for the 2006 consultation to coincide with
the clergywomen's jubilee. The jubilee will mark the 50th year since General
Conference voted to give women full clergy rights, she said. Those rights
were reaffirmed in 1968 at the uniting conference of the Methodist and
Evangelical United Brethren churches. 

Clergy with full rights are ordained to a lifetime ministry of service, word
and sacrament, according to the United Methodist Book of Discipline. They
are authorized to preach and teach the word of God, to administer the
sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion, and to order the life of the
church for mission and ministry.

The consultation's 17-member design team came up with the theme of Sabbath
after discussing the fact that many clergywomen are suffering from burnout,
taking leaves of absence and struggling to stay connected to God amid myriad
daily responsibilities, Jackson said. "The more we talked, the more it
seemed that the world is becoming too fast and we all had difficulties in
finding time for our own prayer life."  

The consultation had two goals, Jackson said. "I wanted everyone who
attended-men, spouses, laity as well as the clergywomen-to experience
Sabbath, to really let go. I also wanted to give them the tools and skills
to take home and incorporate Sabbath into their everyday lives."

The event drew clergywomen from across the United States as well as
Bulgaria, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Korea,
Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, South Africa,
Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

The clergywomen were encouraged to take time for consecrated holy leisure.
They were told to take time to rest in God and be healed, reformed and
re-created by divine love. Speakers emphasized that allocating an
unstructured day - without meetings, projects, tasks, agendas or scheduled
time with others - provides time for visioning, discernment, listening to
the inner self and acquiring a relaxed alertness about life.

"There was no confusion. We were all here to learn about one thing:
Sabbath," said Joaquina Nhanala from Maputo, Mozambique. Every aspect of the
event - the theme, the speakers, the worship - reinforced the importance of
Sabbath, she noted. "I will go back and tell my people they need to keep the
Sabbath holy."

The western concept of Sabbath is not a reality for clergywomen in Africa,
according to many representatives from the continent.   

The Rev. Kabamba Kiboko of Prairie View, Texas, a native of the Democratic
Republic of Congo, said her understanding of Sabbath has been influenced by
the traditions of the Sanga tribe, of which she is a member. The closest
word to Sabbath in her native language is "kisungu," which means education
-- but not in the western sense of the word. By definition, kisungu is
holistic, involving the whole being, and it refers to learning about being,
she said.

Many clergywomen described feeling constant stress from heavy work loads,
pay equity concerns and sexism, particularly from congregations that don't
want women in the pulpit.

"The Holy Spirit is getting ready to do something and is preparing
clergywomen to follow God's lead," Jackson said. "The energy coming from the
clergywomen has reached a point where they realize that they no longer have
to be victims.

"We have not reached the point of being equally accepted, but more and more
eyes are opening ... and in these 50 years, we've been strengthened.  It
hasn't been easy nor pleasant, but we've used them to build our spiritual
muscle," Jackson said.

The Rev. Minerva Carcano of Portland, Ore., agreed. "I know my sisters, it
is not easy even now. The cold stares of the world have not stopped. The
struggle continues, but God is still in charge and has the last word," she
said.

In the Bible, the widow who gave her last two coins at the temple knew that
the only way to respond to the loving grace of God was to give all she had,
Carcano said. The story is a reminder of those women of faith and courage
who, in spite of all, saw what God was doing in their lives and were
inspired to give all.

But is giving all worth it? That is the question the Rev. Lydia Jackson
Waters, Compton, Calif., asked as she spoke of the divergent expectations
held against clergywomen and described their struggle to be superwomen and
twice as good as men.  

In order to meet the vast expectations placed on them, clergywomen are
succumbing to high blood pressure, strokes, burnout, chronic fatigue and
other maladies, Waters said. "The church rewards us, and we get a thumbs up
for killings ourselves, she said. "Jesus did not die on the cross to turn
around and watch us kill ourselves nor allow anyone else to do it. ... Is
all of this labor really worth it?"

Life is a gift from God, she said. "As often as you can, stop, take a break,
and get away to allow the spirit of God to breathe into you a breath of
life." She urged the clergywomen to "stop taking this call so seriously and
get a life."

The admonishment resonated with the Rev. Soome Kim of San Fernando, Calif.
During a reflective time, she said she recognized that her busyness and
total involvement in ministry created barriers to the Holy Spirit
ministering to her. "I realized that cleaning house is not my day off. ...
Sabbath is not a doing time. It is a being time," she said. "It is a time to
enjoy God."

During the Jan. 7 opening worship service, clergywomen were invited to write
down their burdens and place them in Sabbath boxes. The denomination's 13
women bishops took the burdens and put them away in a symbolic ceremony. The
next night, at the Sabbath banquet, participants were given a box to take
home as a reminder to put away their burdens and honor Sabbath time.

Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy "is not an option," said Bishop
Linda Lee of the Michigan Area. "That is a commandment from God." It is not
to be taken lightly, she said.  

"If God, who is omniscient, the alpha and omega, put aside a day at the end
of her busy week, a day to be still, a day to bask and rest in her own
presence and just be, surely we can find a day to give to God," she said.
"We give days to Caesar but not to God."

Lee invited the clergywomen to go to "that place" where they can touch the
holy inside. The place to begin, she said, is at the "still place," the
inner self that most people want to avoid. "It is the place where we meet
the demons," she said. "It is a hurtful place that gets us to the holy place
where we meet God."

It is at the bottom of "that place where there is peace," she said. Each
time a person goes deeply inward and gives herself to God, she gets to that
place and is touched by the presence of the living God and becomes stronger.

That was the message the Rev. Gwen Purushotham of Holden, Mass., needed to
hear. "I'm by nature an introvert and going outward and inward is important
to me."

Participating in the consultation changed her view of Sabbath slightly, she
said. "I would not have thought of going to the zoo as Sabbath," she said.
She found that Sabbath has a more inclusive definition than she had thought.
"It is not that time apart, a retreat. It is being with other women for
fun." Her understanding of Sabbath also was confirmed, she said. "It becomes
more than time off. It is a time of being."

People in the church talk more about the Sabbath than keep it, Purushotham
said. Taking the Sabbath seriously would be the most "radical thing"
Christians could do to transform the church and the world, she said.

The consultation's worship services reflected the diversity of the
clergywomen. Participants had opportunities to worship in Hispanic,
African-American, African, Korean and Native American traditions, as well as
in a Taize service.

During a service renewing their baptism, some clergywomen staged a silent
protest in support of their lesbian colleagues. As the women bishops stood
around the meeting room with bowls of water for the participants to sprinkle
themselves and take a seashell in remembrance, they were flanked by hooded
women holding placards that said: "We were baptized too." As the symbolic
renewal service concluded, the clergywomen surrounded the black-shrouded
participants and enveloped them in a ring of solidarity.

The weeklong consultation drew strong affirmations from many of the
clergywomen, including the Rev. Evelene "Tweedy" Sombrero of Glendale, Ariz.
"We have heard the word and experienced God's spirit. Now it is time to go
and to do."
# # #
*Green is news director of United Methodist News Service's Nashville, Tenn.,
office.

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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