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Anglican Women Theological Educators meet in Canterbury, England

Posted On : March 3, 2009 4:15 PM | Posted By : Admin ACO
Related Categories: ACO - Theological

ACNS: http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/3/3/ACNS4584

'It is an injustice to deprive women of the possibility of theological
education.' Meeting at the International Study Centre, Canterbury,
England, 23 February - 2 March 2009, as a group of about 35 Anglican
women theological educators, we received the challenge that our task was
to help 'change the world'. Mindful of the comment of Max Warren that,
'It takes the whole world to know the whole Gospel', we affirm that it
is essential that women's theological perspectives are explored and
shared as part of our commitment to proclaim 'the whole Gospel'. Women
were present from Aotearoa/New Zealand, Argentina, Brazil, China, Fiji,
Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Kenya, Mexico, Myanmar, Philippines, South
Africa, Uganda, United Kingdom, United States of America and Zambia. We
were sorry that last minute visa problems prevented women from Pakistan
and Tanzania being with us. We were also joined throughout the
consultation by Bishop Duleep de Chickera of Colombo, Sri Lanka.

We were honoured by a number of guests who spent time with us, and spoke
to us. These included the Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams, Dr
Jane Williams, Canon Kenneth Kearon, Secretary-General of the Anglican
Communion and Canon Phil Groves, Facilitator for the Listening Process.
On Thursday 26 February we welcomed representatives of a number of
United Kingdom based institutions to hear and reflect with us on the
opportunities and problems that women may encounter in their roles as
theological educators.

As women together we shared our varied personal, geographical,
institutional and theological contexts. We participated daily in common
prayer and the Eucharist. We listened to each other speaking of the joys
and sorrows, issues and concerns, that face women in different parts of
the world as theological educators, as women in ministry and as those
seeking to further their own theological education. In spite of such
differences we discovered, through our shared passion for theological
education in our own lives and in the life of the Church, a strong
commitment to work together to develop and improve theological education
for women in the Anglican Communion. This commitment is concretely
expressed by the work we have already achieved at this consultation and
the work we will continue to engage with in the months ahead. .

We were richly nourished by various inputs that we received during our
week together. This included:

-Our Bible studies where together we explored significant passages in
the Gospel of John, taking seriously our varied cultural and regional
perspectives. The passages we studied, and the names of the Bible study
leaders were: John 2.1-11, the wedding at Cana (Clare Amos); John 4.5-42
, the woman of Samaria (Dr Kwok Pui Lan); John 11.1-44, the raising of
Lazarus (Revd Irene Ayallo); John 12.1-8, the anointing at Bethany (Revd
Sally Sue Hernandez Garcia); John 20.1-18, the resurrection encounter
between Mary Magdalene and Jesus (Revd Natalie Simons-Arendse).

-A joint session by Dr Esther Mombo and Dr Jenny Te Paa in which we were
encouraged to think strategically and politically about how to develop
women as theological educators and how to increase their numbers.

-A presentation by Bishop Duleep de Chickera on 'Power and Gender in the
life of Church and Society', in which he reminded us that if those in
power are to lift others up, they need first of all to bend down.

-A challenge offered by Dr Jane Williams to ensure that the varieties of
modes of theological education offered by the Church are valued.
Sometimes the forms of theological education which, for practical
reasons, are more readily available to women, appear to be less esteemed
or restrict their future ministry. Dr Williams also spoke to us of our
vocation to ensure that we did not collude with structures that
encouraged us to keep to ourselves the 'table' at which we were
privileged already to be sitting.

-An interaction with the Archbishop of Canterbury in which he spoke of
the human need and right to 'sing with the Spirit but also to sing with
understanding'. The Archbishop commented that theology is not a luxury
in the Christian community, and that if women were, because of their
gender, deprived of theological education this constituted an injustice.
One of the major tasks of Christian leadership needs to be the
nourishing of Christian intelligence. Archbishop Rowan also addressed
the issue of 'tribalism' in the Church. He reminded us that the
fundamental New Testament paradigm for Christians is that, above all
else, we belong to the new creation.

For a substantial part of our week together we worked in task groups to
take forward a number of suggestions that had arisen out of the
discussion of our concerns. We will do the following:

> 1.Mentoring

Develop principles and protocols for the practice of mentoring, and
guidelines both for those who could offer themselves as mentors and
those who could benefit from such assistance.

> 2.Network

Establish a network for Anglican women who are theological educators to
offer support and encouragement to each other, and to promote the role
of women as theological educators.

3.Standards and Goals in theological education

Gather information from around the Provinces in order to educate
ourselves on this topic and to stimulate thinking and response on the
part of others. On the basis of the information received we will propose
competencies needed by theological educators.

> 4.Pedagogical issues

In view of the marginal status of women in church and society in most
parts of the Anglican Communion, seek to mainstream women's issues and
perspectives in all theological education courses and encourage the
development of specific courses in women's studies.

> 5.The Latin American region

Address specifically Latin American needs and concerns identified by
members of the consultation from the Latin American region. As a
consultation we affirm that this is a valuable part of our total work,
and illustrates the importance of the contextual dimension in
theological education.

6.Global Anglican Theological Academy for Women in Leadership

Establish a specific structure for helping in the development of a
number of younger women from the two-thirds world as academic leaders
for the future global Anglican Communion.

More details about each of these proposals will shortly be available on
the Theological Studies section of the Anglican Communion website. TEAC,
the Anglican Communion Working Party on Theological Education, which
organised this consultation, and its Secretary, Clare Amos, will work
with each of the task groups as appropriate to facilitate further work
and implementation of these proposals. In particular there will be a
report about the consultation presented to the forthcoming meeting of
the Anglican Consultative Council in Jamaica.

We are immensely grateful to the Dean and Chapter of Canterbury
Cathedral, the cathedral congregation as a whole and the staff of the
International Study Centre, for the warm and hospitable way in which
they facilitated our stay in Canterbury. We appreciate the work done by
Revd Terrie Robinson of the Anglican Communion Office in preparing our
worship. We wish to express particular thanks to Venerable Sheila
Watson, Archdeacon of Canterbury. Her helpful chairing of many of our
sessions gave the group the confidence to move efficiently from ideas
towards tasks and action.

When Archbishop Rowan Williams spoke about the work of TEAC at ACC 13 in
2006 he said, alluding to words of George Herbert, 'The gospel overflows
in theology... Theology is perhaps first and foremost a celebration - a
celebration that helps us find a way, or a truth that leads us into a
life.' Meeting at Canterbury in a week that includes the traditional
date for the commemoration of George Herbert (February 27) we discovered
how true these words were for us as a group of Anglican women committed
to the importance of theological education for all the people of God.

For more information contact Clare Amos, Director of Theological
Studies, at the Anglican Communion Office. Email:
clare.amos@anglicancommunion.org. For a photograph of the participants
please visit:
http://www.anglicancommunion.org/acns/news.cfm/2009/3/3/ACNS4584

> Participants in the consultation

> Justine Allain-Chapman, England
> Clare Amos, TEAC
> Irene Ayallo, Kenya
> Hnin Hnin Aye, Myanmar
> Judith Berling, USA
> Amy Chambers, Fiji
> Duleep de Chickera, Sri Lanka
> Jayachitra, India
> Beverley Haddad, South Africa
> Helen-Ann Hartley, England
> Sally Sue Hernandez Garcia, Mexico and TEAC Regional Associate
> Jennifer Jamias, Philippines
> Vivette Jennings, Jamaica, West Indies
> Kwok Pui Lan, US/Hong Kong
> Gloria Mapangdol, Philippines
> Omana Mathew, India
> Yin Yin Maw, Myanmar
> Judith McDaniel USA
> Esther Mombo, Kenya
> Olivia Nassaka Banja, Uganda
> Emily Onyango, Kenya
> Sue Parks, TEAC
> Mariefe Revollido, Philippines
> Terrie Robinson, Anglican Communion Office
> Vera Lucia Simões de Oliveira, Brazil
> Natalie Simons Arendse, South Africa
> Ivy Singh, India
> Leslie Steffensen, USA
> Jenny Te Paa, Aotearoa /New Zealand
> Monica Tompkins, Argentina
> Janet Trisk, South Africa
> Olga Tulapona, Zambia
> Joanna Udal, UK/Sudan
> Jiawei Wang, China
> Sheila Watson, Canterbury

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