LWF Latin American Consultation Calls for Gender Integration in All Church Work Lutheran Seminaries Urged to Include Gender in Curricula
SAO LEOPOLDO, Brazil/GENEVA, 11 October 2006 (LWI) * Participants in a Lutheran World Federation (LWF) consultation for member churches in Latin America have called for the integration of gender issues in all aspects of church work in the Lutheran communion.
During the consultation on "Gender and Power," in Sao Leopoldo, Brazil, the 37 women, men and youth leaders from the member churches in Latin America noted that although the LWF had over recent decades developed several programs and documents on gender, the issue was still far from being an integral part of the ministry of the church. The LWF desk for Women in Church and Society (WICAS) in the Department for Mission and Development organized the 6 to 10 September gathering.
Indian theologian Priscilla Singh, WICAS executive secretary, said, "We've always spoken of gender as an issue for women. Now is the time to listen to what men and young people have to say."
Singh in her introductory remarks said that gender as a concept and commitment was high on the LWF agenda and that a number of programs have been conducted in seminaries and churches to further develop the issue. "Time has come to have a reality check on how far we have come and how applicable it is in the LWF member churches at present," she told Lutheran World Information (LWI) in an interview.
The consultation's aim was to gather theologians, men, youth and women leaders in the church to deliberate further on the gender practice that should be encouraged in churches. The meeting also provided a forum for participants to share and learn from the deliberations of a second regional congress on gender organized by the theological college, Escola Superior de Teologia (EST) in Brazil.
The participants also contributed to a draft gender document prepared by a team appointed by the Latin American Church Leadership Conference (Conferencia de Liderazgo - COL) in April 2006, which will be presented to the April 2007 COL meeting. The regional church leaders' body adopted its current name last year to better reflect the inclusive character of the church leaders' gathering.
Singh also expressed the hope that the deliberations from the consultation and the gender 'document in the making' would provide valuable contents for discussion as the LWF celebrates its 60th anniversary in Lund, Sweden, in March 2007. She hoped that the COL document would become a valuable contribution from the Latin American region to the LWF, as a model and a discussion starter that WICAS could use in other continents over the next two years.
She noted that the LWF decided to open the discussion in Latin America also because the EST had conducted a number of studies and organized two international conferences on gender, thus accumulating a great amount of expertise in the field.
One of the participants, Brazilian theologian and EST lecturer, Elaine Gleci Neuenfeldt, pointed out that gender issues need to "make the leap" from being the exclusive domain of female pastors and women's departments and groups, to being integrated into every aspect of the church's work - mission, counseling and lay ministry.
The consultation also dealt with the issue of violence against women. Violence, said Singh, must be confronted at a structural level. The fact that it was restricted to the home simply allowed it to continue in silence.
An analysis of the meeting indicated a need for men and youth to discuss gender issues as well in order to promote other models of masculinity beyond that of patriarchal hegemony. The participants encouraged Lutheran seminaries in Latin America to include courses on gender and feminist theology in their curricula.
Participants came from churches in Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Nicaragua, Paraguay, Peru, and Venezuela. (637 words)
(Edelberto Behs, from the Latin American and Caribbean Communication Agency - ALC, contributed to this article.)
* * *
[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF?s information service. Unless specifically noted, material presented does not represent positions or opinions of the LWF or of its various units. Where the dateline of an article contains the notation (LWI), the material may be freely reproduced with acknowledgment.]
* * *
LWI news online: http://www.lutheranworld.org/News/Welcome.EN.html
LUTHERAN WORLD INFORMATION P. O. Box 2100 CH-1211 Geneva 2 Switzerland
Tel.: +41/22-791 63 69 Fax: +41/22-791 66 30 Editor?s E-Mail: pmu@lutheranworld.org