wfn.org | Decade Festival Points Way Forward

[CAROL_FOUKE.parti@ecunet.org (CAROL FOUKE)]

National Council of the Churches of Christ in the 
U.S.A.
Internet: news@ncccusa.org

124NCC12/1/98FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
By Carol J. Fouke, NCC Communication Department, 212-
870-2227

Additional Stories on the Decade Festival:
 http://www.ncccusa.org (Link to News Service)
 http://www.wcc-coe.org (Link to Decade Festival)

AS DECADE OF THE CHURCHES IN SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN 
"ENDS," PARTICIPANTS POINT THE WAY FORWARD FOR 
CONTINUING TO WORK
Letter to WCC's 8th Assembly Addresses Priorities, 
Divisive Issues of Human Sexuality

 HARARE, Zimbabwe, Nov. 30 - Even as a four-day 
festival here marked the end of the World Council of 
Churches' Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in 
Solidarity with Women 1988-98, delegates reached 
consensus on a forward-looking challenge that builds on 
the Decade's four major themes: economic justice, 
women's participation in the church, racism and 
violence against women.

 The 1,200 delegates from around the world, 
including 125 from the United States, spoke clearly: We 
are celebrating the end of the Decade but we can't 
accept being dismissed.  

 Participants in the Nov. 27-30 Decade Festival, 
held on the campus of Harare's Belvedere Technical 
Teachers' Training College, celebrated the Decade 
program's broad reach into grassroots church 
communities, increased participation of women in church 
leadership and a heightened awareness in both church 
and society of women's strengths and struggles.  

 "The Decade opened things up for women around the 
world," said Karen Hessel, Director of the Justice for 
Women Program in the National Council of the Churches 
of Christ in the U.S.A., New York City.  Reports from 
75 "Living Letters" team visits to 330 churches, 68 
national councils and some 650 women's groups during 
the course of the Decade revealed that "much education 
and advocacy happened," she said.

 Nevertheless, Festival participants acknowledged 
that many churches ignored or resisted the program, a 
framework within which churches could look at their 
structures, teachings and practices with a commitment 
to the full participation of women.

 As the Decade ends, "women have expressed a real 
anxiety that the churches will heave a sigh of relief 
that the women have stopped talking," commented Dr. 
Aruna Gnanadason, Program Executive, WCC Women's 
Program, Geneva, Switzerland, addressing the "Decade 
Festival: Visions Beyond 1998."

 "In many places, there has been a reduction in 
funding and staff for work supporting women," she said.  
"The challenge is to ensure that the solidarity we seek 
is sustained.  It is important that we ask the churches 
to recommit themselves to the issues the Decade has 
raised.
"We now have to emphasize that issues such as the 
economic exclusion of millions of women and the demands 
that somehow women have to keep themselves and their 
families alive; violence against women that tears the 
fabric of our families, our societies and even our 
churches, or racism and xenophobia that keeps even us 
as women divided, are in fact ecclesiological 
challenges. What we need to emphasize here is that 
these are all concerns that threaten the unity of the 
churches - the very being of the church," Dr. 
Gnanadason said.

 The delegates - mostly women but including a few 
men - pressed for a clear framework for follow up, with 
a "checkpoint" in four to five years.  The Ecumenical 
Decade will be the theme of one of three main plenaries 
during the WCC's Eighth Assembly, meeting Dec. 3-14 at 
the University of Zimbabwe in Harare, and the challenge 
adopted during the Decade Festival will be put to the 
leaders of the 330-plus WCC member churches there.

 "I believe the document provides a strong stimulus 
for action, thoughtful theology and a bold middle 
ground where we don't agree," commented Dr. Kathleen 
Hurty of New York City, a member of the Evangelical 
Lutheran Church in America who heads Church Women 
United.  "Let's commit ourselves as this part of the 
church to work toward accountability on the significant 
principles."

LETTER ADDRESSES VIOLENCE, INCLUDING VIOLENCE IN THE 
CHURCH

 Festival participants' challenge, framed as a 
letter to the WCC Assembly, implores the world's 
churches to declare that violence against women is a 
sin, urges them to commit resources to "restore (women) 
to their rightful place in God's household," and urges 
them to work to end economic injustice and racism.  
"The world is not yet a safe space for us," said Thoko 
Mphumlwana of South Africa, among presiders.

 The tightly packed document - six pages, single 
spaced in its English version - presses more than a 
dozen specific initiatives. Particularly strong wording 
demands the elimination of all violence in various 
forms, giving pointed attention to violence in the 
church as "a heresy, an offense against God, humanity 
and the earth."

 The Decade Festival on its second day had held 
what is believed to have been a global "first" - a 
special hearing, incorporated into a liturgy, on the 
issue of violence against women in the church.  During 
an emotion-filled morning, church women from five 
nations offered harrowing personal testimonies of 
violence and abuse.  The statements included stories of 
rape, domestic beatings, sexual trafficking, abusive 
employment practices and exclusion by church 
institutions.  

 But the hearing also featured four positive 
testimonials on efforts to confront the issue, and four 
statements of commitment to continue working on the 
problem.  "My first commitment is to not cover up the 
sickness of our church," said the Rev. Dr. Konrad 
Raiser, WCC General Secretary.  "We must share these 
stories and continue to break the silence of violence 
against women."

 The Festival challenge letter responded with a 
series of demands, including the exposing of all sexual 
abuse, especially by those in positions of church 
leadership; the creation of restorative justice 
processes where both the victims of violence and the 
perpetrators can experience, in the light of truth 
telling, the power of effective repentance, forgiveness 
and reconciliation; the critical examination of all use 
of Bible and theology that seek to sanction the spirit 
and presence of violence, and the denouncement of all 
initiatives of war.

CONSENSUS TESTED AROUND ISSUES OF HUMAN SEXUALITY

 One paragraph in the six-page document was a test 
of how to reach consensus when delegates are polarized 
on a key point of content.  Getting careful attention 
was a paragraph reflecting the difficulty on 
discussions around human sexuality, a subject also 
expected to simmer at the WCC Assembly.

 While the document put before the delegates at no 
time included the words "homosexual," "gay" or 
"lesbian," these clearly were at issue, as debate 
centered on wording about "human sexuality in all of 
its diversity."  One delegate, from Africa, asked that 
the phrase "in all of its diversity" be struck, 
another, from the Netherlands, spoke up for its 
inclusion.

 An Orthodox woman asked that the document say, 
"For some men and women in our midst, addressing this 
issue is not legitimate."  She explained, "Our church 
has taken a very serious stance on the topic and we 
aren't in a position to change it here."  A delegate 
from the Netherlands, identifying herself as a lesbian, 
said, "My church has been discussing sexuality for 20 
years and I can be open about my sexuality in my 
church."

 At the Festival, most discussions around 
homosexuality took place informally around tables or in 
Issue Huts scattered across the college's lawn, and in 
meetings arranged during the breaks and not on the 
formal agenda.  (At one point Dr. Gnanadason offered 
lesbian participants a personal apology, in particular 
for not including attention in the hearing to violence 
against gays and lesbians.)

 Regular "Listeners Reports" reflected some of that 
conversation back to the plenaries, revealing a range 
of strong feelings, from "It's probably our only chance 
to discuss these issues" to "There shouldn't have been 
any space given.  Some of us weren't prepared to 
discuss this.  We weren't mandated by our churches to 
talk about it."

 A member of Gays and Lesbians of Zimbabwe (GALZ) 
spoke during debate on the document, saying, "I haven't 
been in church for 10 years.  I have been discriminated 
since people found out I was lesbian.  I am also 
created in the image of God."

 The Rev. Bertice Wood, a United Church of Christ 
pastor from Cleveland, Ohio, serving as moderator for 
the debate on the letter, said, "People are here from 
churches that have different stands on this issue.  The 
test for us now is can we find a way to incorporate the 
diversity of perspectives transparently in the 
document?"  

 This was in keeping with her original mandate to 
the delegates to aim for a document that "reflects the 
Festival and the spirit that is here. Don't ask, 'Is 
this how I would have written it?' but rather 'Have I 
and others been heard?'"

 The drafting committee came back from a tea break 
with wording that was accepted by the delegates by 
consensus.  In its final form, the paragraph simply 
acknowledged the differences around issues of human 
sexuality.  It read:

 "We recognize that there are a number of ethical 
and theological issues such as abortion, divorce, human 
sexuality in all of its diversity, that have 
implications for participation, and are difficult to 
address in the church community.  During the decade we 
acknowledge that human sexuality in all of its 
diversity has emerged with particular significance.  We 
condemn the violence perpetrated due to differences on 
this matter.  We wrestled with this issue aware of the 
anguish we all endure because of the potential to 
create further divisions.  We acknowledge that there is 
divided opinion as women and men on this particular 
issue.  In fact, for some women and men in our midst, 
the issue has no legitimacy.  We seek the wisdom and 
the guidance of the Holy Spirit that we may continue 
the conversation in order that justice may prevail."

DISCUSSIONS, LETTER EMPHASIZE INTERRELATEDNESS OF 
ISSUES

 The Decade Festival was far from dominated by 
issues of human sexuality.  Rather, the 
interrelatedness of a wide range of issues was 
stressed.  

 This was illustrated during debate on the 
challenge letter, during which delegates asked 
strengthening of language on racism, environmental 
justice, war and the arms trade, and attention to 
fundamental needs such as those for literacy, clean 
water, sewage systems, vocational training for income 
generating, and health care.  

 These and other amendments grew out of the 
specific contexts of delegates: concern about the 
particular impact of religious fundamentalism and 
discriminatory law on women, the need to recognize 
indigenous women's identity and culture, the evil of 
sex tourism.

 During the Festival, participants also joined in 
worship and Bible study, heard from young women and 
from African women, celebrated Africa's strengths and 
explored its problems, and encountered each other and a 
wide spectrum of concerns in the Issues Huts, where 
they also shared information and resources on racism, 
ecology, theology, peace, uprooted women, violence 
against women, health, the global economy and other 
issues.

 The Rev. Dr. Musimbi Kanyoro, preaching at the 
Festival's opening worship, challenged participants to 
"engage in actions that move us from solidarity to 
accountability" and to learn from Africans "a 
spirituality of not giving up," of facing poverty, 
disease and disaster with "living hope."  Africa "knows 
death, but we are not a dying continent.  We refuse to 
give up on God, ourselves or the church.  We celebrate 
jubilee every day.

 "Sometimes during this Decade the church didn't 
stand in solidarity with us," she said.  "But this 
Decade has made us stronger and gave us courage.  We 
are stronger together."

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