Episcopal News Service Listening, Learning & Lent
Monday, March 6, 2006
Listening: Anglican women share hopes and concerns at U.N. forum
By Matthew Davies
[ENS] Celebrating the 50th anniversary of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), a forum sponsored by Anglican Women's Empowerment was held March 4 at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City, where Anglican women shared their hopes and concerns for a world in which Christian faith calls them to action.
Abagail Nelson, vice president of Episcopal Relief and Development, led a lively conversation with three Anglican delegates to the UNCSW on the theme "Transforming Vision into Action."
The panelists -- Lisbeth Barahona of the Diocese of El Salvador; the Rev. Joyce Kariuki of the Anglican Church of Kenya; and Dr. Jenny Te Paa, dean of the Anglican Theological College in Auckland, New Zealand -- brought perspectives from their individual contexts and highlighted some of the challenges of living in patriarchal societies.
A transcript of the conversation with Anglican delegates can be found below and online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_72657_ENG_HTM.htm.
Phoebe Griswold, founding member of AWE and wife of Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold, delivered a powerful address for which she received a standing ovation.
The Anglican delegation is the largest NGO at the United Nations this year, Griswold announced. "What a small group of women saw in 2002 by attending this meeting was an unmatched opportunity for resourcing women's empowerment around the world," she said. "There is no better resource of intelligent research [and] articulate conversation than the gathering of women at this meeting and to bring our dear, dear sisters from around the world to learn and to take things back to their own ministries is an unparalleled opportunity."
The full text of Griswold's speech can be found below and online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_72659_ENG_HTM.htm.
Archdeacon Taimalelagi Fagamalama Tuatagaloa-Matalavea, Anglican Observer at the United Nations, welcomed the delegates on behalf of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, president of the Anglican Consultative Council, and the 38 provinces and primates of the Anglican Communion.
In her role as Anglican Observer, Samoan-born Tuatagaloa-Matalavea is committed to sustainable development, global economic security, disarmament, freedom of faith and religion and environment, as well as peace in the Middle East, Sudan and other parts of the world.
She has been instrumental in ensuring the fullest participation at the UNCSW this year.
Tuatagaloa-Matalavea explained that she works very closely with ecumenical partners at the UN "because we need ... to have a stronger voice in what we are trying to promote."
Women's issues are a priority because "if you empower women, you empower a family, you empower a community, you empower your country and you empower the world," she said.
Barbara O'Sullivan from Jamaica, an executive member of the Mother's Union, read a prepared statement from Angela King, former assistant secretary general of the UN and special advisor on gender issues and the advancement of women, in which King said that it is "a time of celebration and a time of forward-looking strategies." King was unable to attend due to health reasons.
The UNCSW has been instrumental in setting international standards, she explained, highlighting CEDAW, the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, which was adopted by the UN general assembly in 1979. "It is often called the international bill of women's rights," she said.
The commission has also been able to create an enabling environment for women's advancement, the statement continued, "by gathering and analyzing data on which to base public policy, by offering workshops and training and by paying attention to urgent issues...such as HIV/ AIDS."
King's statement said that the UNCSW has brought the principal and perspective of gender equality into every sector and program, as well as other bodies within the UN. "It has also made the public more aware of the need of women to fully participate in all aspects of society if gender equality, peace and development are to be lasting."
Finally, King's statement urged all delegates of the UNCSW to make a commitment "to initiate and carry through at least one project to strengthen women's access to roles in the fields of education, health or employment, or one campaign to get women into positions of leadership or eradicate violence against women."
The Very Rev. James A. Kowalski, dean of the Cathedral, said that the Diocese of New York was honored to welcome the UNCSW delegation "as you claim the vision for all people that we be empowered for service to others and to the life of the world and especially as you transform that vision into reality."
Closing the conversation, Margaret Rose, director of women's ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, gave thanks for all the women who have participated in the UNCSW event and urged them to have the courage "to speak publicly in all the places we are, then we can begin to transform the vision that is within each of us into action that will claim women and men and abundant life for the world."
The full text of Rose's speech can be found below and online at http://www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_72658_ENG_HTM.htm.
Presiding Bishop Frank Griswold and Bishop Mark Sisk of New York also attended the event. Other distinguished guests included Carolyn Hannan, director of the division for the advancement of women at the United Nations, and Dr. Marcella Maxwell, former chair of the NYC Commission on Human Rights and on the Status of Women, and representatives of the United Nations and NGOs.
Organist Timothy Rumfield and singer Ana Hernandez provided musical accompaniment and a closing prayer was offered by Bishop Suffragan Catherine Roskam of New York.
The UNCSW began on February 24 and concludes on March 10. Throughout the two weeks, Anglican women have attended daily worship, U.N. briefings, plenary sessions and caucuses.
Further information about UNCSW can be found online at: http://www.episcopalchurch.org/uncsw.htm
-- Matthew Davies is international correspondent/multimedia manager for Episcopal News Service.
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Text of Phoebe Griswold's address:
The Anglicans' delegations are the largest NGO at the United Nations this year by triple. What a small group of women saw in 2002 by attending this meeting was an unmatched opportunity for resourcing women's empowerment around the world and out of that was born another small group of women which has grown, called Anglican Women's Empowerment, and our task was to bring Anglican women from around the world to this immense resource at the UN. There is no better resource of intelligent research [and] articulate conversation than the gathering of women at this meeting and to bring our dear, dear sisters from around the world to learn and to take things back to their own ministries is an unparalleled opportunity.
The small handful of women in 2003 has grown to 92 delegates at this meeting this year. It's an incredible, blossoming work that I know God is cherishing. For you all who are new to this work I want to tell you that it is huge and it is confusing because there is so much going on....
Two things I think are the greatest accomplishments that we have been able to achieve over the last year. One is a resolution that was submitted to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC), the executive committee of the Anglican Communion. The resolution was asking for gender equity and for them to promote that throughout the community. We were stunned and glad that that resolution was adopted. It is the first gender language [resolution] for our Anglican Communion. That is an immense seismic shift for our Communion. Let me read you one paragraph:
"All member churches are to work towards the realization of equal representation of women in decision-making at all levels of their own structures of governance."
Can you imagine what our church would look like, or maybe I should say what our church will look like when that is achieved? I think the second great achievement is a DVD that was made last year [called Shall We Gather]. It tells the story of this work of Anglican women at the UN. This is our way of helping us and you spread our story.
So where are we now? Over the last week and a half, 92 Anglican delegates have been attending the meeting at the UN and learning from these themes: 'an enhanced participation of women in development.' I love these next words: 'an enabling environment for gender equity and the advancement of women, taking into account the fields of education, health and work and equal participation of women and men in decision-making processes at all levels.' We have been meeting and learning from what the UN is teaching us, but one of the unanticipated gifts from God in this work by gathering at the UN is that we also as Anglican women gather together to talk about our work in the Communion and our work back home in our own diocese and we are building an immensely strong network of powerful women. This is the only opportunity that women in the Anglican Communion have to gather face to face. I think it's an historic occasion.
I've organized my thoughts for you around a gender agenda under three topics, which for us UN delegates is not new language: gaps, challenges and ways forward. I've chosen five areas.
What is the way forward for us as Anglican women to work towards the full flourishing of God's kingdom where women and men are equally at the decision-making tables?
The first area is equal representation-gaps. My experience over the last nine years traveling this country and the Anglican Communion is that men and women are not equally represented at the decision-making levels of our church. When I travel with my husband I have to make sure that I ask to see and talk with women if I am to see that happen. It seems obvious to us that well over 50 percent of our membership in the Anglican Communion is women, but if you want to talk to women you have to ask to talk to them. I have had incredible meetings with thousands of Anglican women, particularly in Africa through the Mothers' Union. I have met with smaller groups of women when I've asked for it, with Anglican Palestinian women in the Middle East. This Fall I had the great privilege of speaking with several small groups of women in Asia, in Japan and Taiwan.
One thing we have learned to count in our statistics and numbers is that the Anglican Communion has four instruments of unity: that is the Archbishop of Canterbury, the 38 primates, the 700-plus bishops and the ACC members. That adds up to over 800 people who sit at the decision-making tables of the Anglican Communion. Of those 800 people, 30 are women. I don't know why everyone doesn't gasp. Thirty are women. One of the challenges in equal representation is that there are practically no statistics on the status of women throughout the communion. We have no hard data to work with. We need this data in order to move forward intelligently. Moving forward means that a survey must be conducted in order for us as women to draw conclusions and make intelligent decisions about where we should be and how we should get there. Fortunately this survey is now in the works and thanks to the standing committee of the ACC we will have data. We learned at the UN that you have to have data to work with.
Another area that I would like to mention is a misconception about the word "gender." I learned this from my sister, the Rev. Joyce Kariuki from Kenya. [She] says gender is not about women. Gender is about women and men. Men have gender too. The challenge is to understand gender as a term that includes both men and women. We are together in this work in order to have a more just world and to bring all of God's gifts to the work.
I'd like to issue this challenge to both men and women. I think this is both a challenge and a way forward. What would happen if both men and women were to look around the decision-making tables of councils that represent both men and women and see if the table is 50/50? I would like to challenge men to fill just one half of the table and then to look for women to fill the other half and I'd like to challenge women to prepare themselves, their sisters, their girls, to move into leadership roles through education in schools, theological institutions and other places of learning. Women should be at these tables as these are the places where policy and funds are allocated. I would like to challenge women to think about how to strategize to get to these tables, to train and prepare women for leadership and particularly at all levels of our church. There are many ways to move forward on training. Certainly, one important place is theological education for women. Another way forward is a program of one of our delegates, Jolly [Babirukamu] from Uganda, who is a member of the ACC and who is training clergy wives in skills for leadership as that role is traditionally placed upon them. Another gap.
Global culture and context is a huge gap for us as Anglican women. How do we understand each other from different cultures and learn to work together? This challenges us on ways to stay connected and to understand our different issues. We are challenged to bring to the Anglican Communion our conviction that we as a family will stay together through these challenging times. We have moved forward on this by establishing an elected steering committee for the International Anglican Women's Network. I would like on behalf of all the women in the Anglican Communion to thank Alice Medcof for her central role in keeping the network alive during this process. We leave here with a strong and solid way forward for new leadership and for new constitution for women to talk with each other around the world.
I think a gap is the number of Anglican women's voices that we hear publicly. We don't hear women speaking out. The challenge is for us to claim our moral authority, those values that we hold up to our children about playing fairly, openly, sharing our resources, non- violent behavior-and bringing these values from the home to the center of the stage and speaking publicly with our own authority.
When I was in China, I asked the head of the China Christian Council- a woman-what were women's gifts in the current conversations and she said "candor and caring," and when I asked what impeded women from bringing these gifts to helping us move forward, she said "timidity." I recognize that trait in myself, if you can believe it or not. One way forward is for women to meet and to encourage one another. We gain clarity from meeting, from learning and being with each other. This gathering is just such a forum and we will continue to strategize on the very best way for us to meet and to get together and to build strong relationships. Ways forward are to put into practice what we are learning.
At the 50th session of the UNCSW we have seen our Anglican sisters choose to lead caucuses. I have been told that we have been the leaders in the caucuses in the United States, Asia, South America and Africa. Choosing to lead is a way forward.
The next to last gap that I would like to mention is the gap between women themselves and the lack of our own ability to find the common ground for us to all pull together. This is an enormous challenge for us, to claim that which unites us and to name the common agenda that will collect our common energy. We must capture the capacity to make a difference. We must cross difference and celebrate it and bond over our common energies to make this world a better place. Again, this meeting is a way forward. This gathering is a place where we can learn about our own particular callings and come away enriched for ministry.
The existence of the Anglican Observer appointed by the Archbishop of Canterbury and the resources of the CSW are ways forward. We as women do have a common agenda: it is for each one in our own way to answer God's call and to live into being Christ's body here in the world. The structures in the Anglican Communion can work for us to move forward. We exist in 165 countries. We have 75 million members. How many women is that? Maybe that is even 50 million women. We exist in both the hierarchy of governments and at the grassroots. We have an unmatched family of faith, which is very easy to connect around the world. The Anglican Communion is a precious gift to us all and we must use these connections in order that it stays together.
The last area that I think is a gap is our need to articulate our faith as women to each other and to the world. The challenge is to trust God in our own moving forward spiritually as women to voice our own experiences with God, to share these thoughts and most particularly to share our prayers with one another, to know and trust our Lord Jesus in this very hard work which becomes easier as we carry the weight of the world together with Him as a way forward. We must find more ways to pray together. I have discovered this in the International Anglican Women's Network as we pray for dire needs in the Congo and elsewhere where our sisters are in danger and need help. We need to look for new alliances. We are feminists in a new way. We are faith-based and we are a global family and we are fueled by love and joy. Faith and feminism is a new alliance that we must explore.
We have been given so much. We are a global family linked together by love. We are women who at this time in our history of the Anglican Communion are bringing gifts to the work of mission in the world that are unique and unmatched and precious. We must not lose this opportunity, but build on the work that we have done and will continue to do. Congratulations to us all for the hard work that is being done. Congratulations to the UNCSW for its 50th session. To God be the glory. Amen.
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Conversation with Anglican Delegates to the UNCSW
NELSON: To begin our conversation, it would be helpful for us to get a sense from each of you about the context of your countries and societies and how you would describe the impact that that cultural context has on women. Lisbeth, what is life like in El Salvador?
BARAHONA: El Salvador has been a very struggling and conflicted and polemic country. I was born in the middle of El Salvador when the movements of people looking for social justice were starting. It was hard for my family and that is part of my heritage.
NELSON: You're referring to the civil war in El Salvador?
BARAHONA: Exactly. Since we're talking about women, the movements started mostly with women, in the communities and in the churches. There was a need to do what God tells us to do. To have peace and to have equal opportunities and to have access to a better life. It's an honor for me to be here and say that, because I know many women died. They took their guns and they struggled. But we've moved on.
I was born an Anglican and got the opportunity to travel. I live part of my life in Panama and I went to an Episcopal school. Many people ask where I learned my English, well, it was at an Episcopal School, I became bilingual there. I remember my principal at the school. She was a very empowered and wonderful woman and was very strict about addressing important issues. Meanwhile, we were always in touch with our country. I studied there and graduated in chemical engineering in El Salvador and I encountered a different society. It was a broken society. Families were torn apart. People had traveled and moved to the United States. I was adapting to a whole new generation of young people adapting to the peace agreements. The tables were there. There were a lot of roundtable discussions ... It was a good example of how to bring peace and try to solve your problems. I think we still have scars in our country and it is a great challenge living there. Many women have always kept their organizations and have focused very strongly on empowering women and preventing violence against women, and they are very hard working and they keep on going and focus on areas in health. There are many programs relating to AIDS and the church is very active in that. El Salvador is a very crowded country. It is very difficult to deal with everyone because everyone has an opinion. We also have a very patriarchal tradition. We are mostly Roman Catholics in our country, but tradition says that men should be the ones who stand out in public positions and carry out the policies and have the highest corporate levels in companies. But there are a lot of professional women coming and I think it's a situation where gender is no longer an issue. Men respect me for being a chemical engineer. I decided to do projects by myself because it's the way you can move forward by taking initiatives and not doing things by the book. I have to be different and I use my skills and talents in order to develop projects to help El Salvador become a better country and there are many people in El Salvador who are doing great work and we are an example of an ongoing improvement society. When I hear my sisters from Africa and Asia and parts of the United States as well and South America about how women are desperate to just have a dignified life, I say I understand what's it's like to have a society where opportunities are not just there for you.
NELSON: Jenny, would you say that your own experience has also been similarly shaped by the context?
TE PAA: Indeed, it has been shaped by the context. As I listen to the stories that have been told this week, I sometimes tend to not want to participate as it seems that I come from an extraordinarily privileged context by comparison, but these things are all relative, I understand that. New Zealand is peace-filled, has had a lengthy experience of peace. I think the last war we participated in was the Vietnam War. We have a history of peacemaking. We are a country with 4 million people, primarily a Christian nation with a left-leaning liberal democracy.
A story I can never resist telling because it is about women: we are a country that is led by a woman prime minister who has just won her third term election.; we have a woman governor general; our chief justice is a woman; and our attorney general is a woman; and they are all fine, fine women.
So this is just a little something about context. There are three distinctions I would make. There is the political context, which embraces the population of New Zealand. Now I am an indigenous woman, and like all previously colonized indigenous people, that left- leaning liberal democracy has a history of formation and of oppression of indigenous people, and so there is a particular struggle for women in that context.
The second context is the ecclesial context. New Zealand is primarily an Anglican country. Most indigenous people, in fact maybe about 95 percent of us, are Anglican. So within our church and our experience that relates to our colonial history we have had, as indigenous women, a very particular struggle for our survival, and that struggle has been rendered more complicated by the ethnic politics that accompany our journey through the church. So there is the ethnic context as well, which is the third layer, and for us as indigenous women we suffer all the kinds of indignities that have arisen, not necessarily in New Zealand, but also replicated in Hawaii, Australia, Canada, this land, where as tribalism has reasserted itself as a reaction against the post-colonialist phase, there has arisen a new level of brutality and opposition to indigenous women's progress that was not previously there. So if I were to say what was the worst experience, it would have to be the ethnic experience of trying to overcome some of those prejudices and those determinations not to change that are held by indigenous men.
NELSON: Joyce, how do you find things in Kenya? Do you see common threads that you hear from your sisters here?
KARIUKI: Yes, I do. Kenya is a country in the eastern part of Africa and we have had independence for the last 40 years. We were a British colony and for the last many years Kenya has been a home to many of our African brothers and sisters whose countries have been involved in wars: Rwanda, Burundi, Uganda, Somalia, and recently the Sudan, and for that we have been the peacemakers of the region and it's a great privilege.
Kenya gained independence through the struggle of Mau Mau rebellion, and when the fight was going on, women were not left behind. The men went to the bush and women were sneaking food to take to men, because the soldiers would not ask the women, but if they did we would say we are going to the farms. So in order for Kenya to get liberation and freedom it was indeed a collective responsibility between men and women, and that continued even after independence, but basically Kenya is a patriarchal society and I believe that has a role to play in the position of women, because a lot of times women are in the lower positions. When it comes to the higher positions, women are not there. I want to give my own experience as a banker. I was working in the Central Bank of Kenya, one of the biggest and best institutions, and we couldn't even get house allowance, because you are supposed to be married and the man is supposed to be taking care of you. We could not get medical cover for ourselves or our children, because somebody somewhere is supposed to be taking care of you. We struggled with it and fought it. Now women can get their house allowances and benefits. That not withstanding, discrimination has continued. The struggle for women to be in leadership even today is still there.
We are glad to produce the Nobel Peace Prize winner, a woman, Professor Wangari Maathai. She went through a lot in order for her to have her voice heard, but out of that we have been able to at least gain a platform whereby women are starting to stand out and know they have a right. With the present government we have quite a good number of women in positions, we have a good number of women judges. Now the deputy governor of the Central Bank is a woman. She used to work with me. I celebrate with her. That goes down in history because it has never been seen. Now we have, for the first time in Kenya, the minister of constitutional affairs that deals with the law is a woman, and that is a big plus for us. We have many other portfolios that women are put in place. We see this government favoring women in many different ways and we are celebrating that.
NELSON: As a woman growing up in that patriarchal society in the midst of all that change and internal conflict and refugees coming in and our of the country, what was it that you felt in your life personally that enable you to be able to face the discrimination that you encountered as a woman.
KARIUKI: I grew up in the system: My father is polygamous, got married, moved and we were left with our mother and she struggled with us so, so much to where we are and that gave me a sense of struggling and fighting for the rights of women. And my mother was so kind because she used to let things go. As an African woman you cannot confront a man, so she would just let things go and I would tell her, 'Mom, I cannot be like you and will not be like you.' My mother was a Christian and she would take us to church and Sunday School, and that Christianity helped us and grounded us. At the same time, because of that, we got education. To me, education has been a turning point, because what I put on the table today and what has made me to have a voice and excel is because of education.
NELSON: Lisbeth, you were sharing similar points from your life. Do you feel that it was because of your mother and education that enabled you to take on some of the challenges?
BARAHONA: My best allies are my dad and my mother. I was brought up with very strong Christian values, as Joyce. I think that also people at some point of your life come to you and encourage you to move on and to go and do it. You have the ability and the capacity to do it, just don't let anyone or anything let you down. Those people are the ones that enable you to really step out and be able to share you gifts. Education has been one of the aspect of my life that ahs helped me overcome the difficulties you find. My family is the main support and being able to access good education in my country has made changes and also awareness. But my awareness comes mainly from my family and my church.
NELSON: What is your experience, Jenny? What enabled you to supersede the enormous strictures that were put on you as an indigenous woman?
TE PAA: There are two stories. One is that I am the fifth generation of the oldest daughter for each generation, which is very unusual. The second is a tribal story: the meeting house that my tribe owns and belongs to is one of the oldest in New Zealand, and all of the meeting houses in New Zealand are named after male ancestors and his name is usually carved in front of the meeting house. On our meeting house, there is in fact a man and a woman together and it is the only one in New Zealand, so my grandfather, who was the tribal leader, right from the time I was a small girl, would take great pride in explaining to the people that equality was in fact a vision of our people. From 1924-27, my grandfather attended the Anglican Theological College that I was at, so there's a connection.
NELSON: But it was the influence of your grandfather.
TE PAA: Sure, and all the very strong women in my family. He was a particularly gentle and feminist grandfather.
NELSON: It is interesting as we talk about making the world a better place for our sisters, or younger sisters coming up behind us, the themes that we keep discussing are family, church and education. Joyce, could you share a little bit about how you work with your family and immediate group to instill in them a sense of pride?
KARIUKI: One of the things that I have learned, and I am trying to pass it on, is the issue of faith and knowing who God is in your life, because once you know that, it gives you a source of identity and image and also promotes your self esteem. I have taken it upon myself to help my children to understand the word of God and those who are around me to influence the entire family and even the communities. It is important for us to ground ourselves in the world and know who God is, because when you walk with God it doesn't matter what happens in your life, you will still have something you can fall back to. The other aspect is the issue of education, the importance of having knowledge and that knowledge is power. Those two components and the unity together, being able to support one another as a family, those are the three things that I find very crucial and things that can help to make a difference in the lives of others, not only minding about themselves, but being accountable to their own citizens.
NELSON: Jenny, when you talk with your own family do you also share this core of faith as an essential avenue to moving forward and social change?
TE PAA: I suppose that as I've gotten older and got involved in the work that I have directly being employed by the church, I tend to take pride in that and I guess as my own example have tried to show what I mean by being a woman of faith. I tried to make the connection for my children about why it was important that we worshiped regularly. It wasn't just simply about building a routine in our lives, it was showing them why the other works that we did as a family in terms of supporting social services and food parcels and all those other kinds of things. It was more about trying to demonstrate how we ought to live our lives rather than making explicit connections. I was always, as a layperson, tentative about that. I guess as I've gotten more and more embedded in the institutional framework, I have found my own faith and my voice more explicitly and I hope that's a good thing.
NELSON: How would you describe it, Lisbeth?
BARAHONA: I would describe it by living it. Day by day trying to hold on to your principles, to have hope that there's always a way to have a better world and a better system, and in my field of work when I have to go to the small businesses and teach them and train them how to do their work better, I speak to them as a woman of faith. Most of them are single moms who have to take care of two or three children and here they are employees of small companies and they have to post regulations and I train them but I touch their spirit too. I tell them that they have to do this because they will enjoy their life more, not just do it because you have to do it. So that's my way of bringing my faith into what I do. I have learned that new businesses are emphasizing the human aspect. It's not about just doing your job, but doing it because you love it or because you are good at it, and you can improve yourself while you are doing it.
NELSON: One of the things I've also noticed, particularly when you're working with people who are coming behind you or engaged in a moment of suffering, that sometimes the only thing we have to offer is a sense of excellence and a sense that God has a plan, and in that moment the question of discerning what that plan is, is what enables us to move forward in the face of adversity and take the courage to move forward. In your life, Joyce, when you see people oppressed, women who are feeling that violence, that space of silence, how do you talk to them?
KARIUKI: That is very common in our set up, where women are oppressed. It's a daily occurrence. I deal with them first and foremost just being there for them, just knowing that they have someone they can rely on, a good heart, a smile, makes a whole lot of difference before we get into anything else. At the same time we share the Word of God and the courage of God and also, be practical. Is there anything else that I can do? Is it food that the woman does not have? Is it the children who are out of school? What is it, and what kind of aid can I give? So, apart from being there, apart from having faith and sharing the word of God, how practical can I be in as far as helping her to overcome her obstacles?
NELSON: Because at the end of the day, if we don't respond to people with that practical need, there is always going to be that need.
KARIUKI: Yes, if we don't respond to people in a practical way, even the faith we are trying to share doesn't hold water. It's irrelevant. So in order for the faith to be relevant it has got to be practiced practically. Then you'll be addressing the whole person.
NELSON: I think that is what we have seen in each life represented here, that there has been a practical response to the ongoing journey that we each have and somebody gave us something that was practical.
Margaret Rose, director of women's ministries at the Episcopal Church Center, closed the conversation:
ROSE: Your conversation put me in mind of something the wonderful Bella Abzug said quite some time ago about making a difference in the world. You talked about making your faith explicit. She talked about changing the shape of the river. We began today with the river and gathering there. Here's what she said: "Women do not want to be mainstreamed into the polluted stream. We want to clean the stream and transform it into a fresh flowing body; one that moves into a new direction: a world at peace that respects human rights for all, renders economic justice and provides a sound and healthy environment."
For women of faith, water is the right metaphor. In the ever-flowing stream is the stream of baptismal water, ever renewing our faith and giving us the courage to move from our private thoughts, our private vision into public action.
That public action is not a conversation about rights. That action is not about "my piece of the pie," but as each one of these women said, about changing the nature of the whole. Our work together is grounded in baptismal respect for every human being, and the Gospel promise that Jesus comes that all might have life and have it abundantly is the faith that gives us the courage to act. All of us gathered together with many differences claim the bond of communion, which gives us courage to change the shape of the river, make it clean.
So how do we do it? How do we transform vision into action? A couple of thoughts.
First, we have to do the work of discernment. We have to expose those cultural norms which deny the image of God in any one of us. We have to claim that house allowance when we need it. We have to ask the question whether or not women are the only ones to carry water. We have to discover whether or not it really isn't okay for women to become chemical engineers and also supervise other people.
Second, we have to pay attention to suffering. You heard tonight about scars, you heard about struggle. Suffering and struggle are familiar conversations in our faith. At its very root is a cross. Jesus knew a lot about the experience of suffering. The lives and work of the people here are filled with suffering. Whether it is the stories of rebel violence in the Congo or civil war in El Salvador or abuse in families in Warren, Rhode Island, the struggle has been there. But it is said, of course, that scar tissue is a lot stronger for the wearing. Our survival, then, comes out of suffering and it provides the memory, the imagination and the courage to move to action.
Thirdly, we have to claim sisterhood, rejoice in the solidarity that we have with one another in governments where we hear about five ministers being at the head. We celebrate new presidents in Liberia and Chile. We celebrate women who have come to places of power and then we create spaces for others to come beyond.
And then we have to continue to go public, to claim the Gospel of Jesus Christ with that conviction that abundant life is there for all, so that we may speak for what is good for the whole world for women and men alike, knowing that when women's leadership comes to the center, things will change.
When women and men alike are at the table together, the conversation will be different and we too will have countries that are filled with peace. We must know that women's leadership will be shaped by a commitment to seeking wisdom from one another rather than claiming intrigue and power and control as a way to action. Women's leadership also could claim solidarity with one another, claim each of our differences, know the other in new ways and move to a relationship of solidarity rather than hierarchy. When we can begin to do these things, to claim the Gospel as our modus operandi, to claim the Gospel that will give us courage to speak publicly in all the places we are, then we can begin to transform the vision that is within each of us into action that will claim women and men and abundant life for the world.
I give thanks for all the women who are here at this place, and especially for you who have spoken publicly today. I am grateful for that voice and know that as we send our voices forth from this place that they will make a difference in the Anglican Communion and in the world.
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