wfn.org | PCT General Assembly reaches new heights on gender equality

["Taiwan Church News" <enews@pctpress.org>]

>Taiwan Church News

>3033 Edition

>April 12~18, 2010

PCT General Assembly reaches new heights on gender equality

>Reported by Lin Yi-ying

>Written by Lydia Ma

The 55th PCT General Assembly Meeting began its session on gender  inequality 
with a skit.

On the night of April 6, Rev. Lai Te-ching directed a short skit  featuring 
domestic violence,

garnering generous applause from more than 500 pastors attending the  annual 
General

>Assembly Meeting.

The skit featured Rev. Huang Shien-kuang playing the role of a husband  abusing 
his wife

verbally and physically and Rev. Chuang Shu-Jen playing the role of a  pastor 
giving wrong

advice on domestic abuse. In the skit, a pastor counseled a woman in an  
abusive marriage to

be more patient by quoting the Bible out of context, and advising her  that if 
she endured to the

end she would be saved. The pastor went on to encourage the woman to  submit to 
her

husband because God had made husbands the head of the family.

The purpose of the skit was to help pastors understand regulations  concerning 
domestic abuse

and what pastors can do to reach out to victims of domestic violence. It  also 
served to remind

them not to sweep incidents of domestic abuse under the carpet because  victims 
need the

>church’s protection and care.

In related news, delegates revisited gender equality within PCT  organizations 
on April 8 and

agreed to change PCT regulations regarding the gender composition of  board 
members in all

PCT affiliated organizations. After some discussions, the original ratio  of 
5:1 or higher for men

versus women board members was raised to 3:1 or higher, but for either  gender 
(i.e. men

versus women or women versus men). In the end, 196 delegates of 320  delegates 
present at

the meeting voted in favor of this motion and the amendment was passed.

During discussions about whether to increase the gender ratio from 5:1  to 3:1, 
some male

delegates expressed concern that it was an unrealistic target as it was  
already next to

impossible trying to reach 5:1 in some organizations. But some female  
delegates insisted the

change was necessary, and added that many government offices had already  
imposed a 3:1

ratio. They felt that, as members of PCT, pastors should be more  progressive 
than government

>officials.

For more information on PCT 55th General Assembly Meeting, refer to:

http://www.pct.org.tw/english/enNews_pct.htm?strBlockID=B00176&strConte 
ntID=C2010041300001&strCTID=&strDesc=Y&strPub=&strASP=enNews_pc t

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