wfn.org | Episcopal Women's Caucus meets, reflects on "isms" in society

[Worldwide Faith News <wfn@wfn.org>]

The Episcopal Church
http://www.dfms.org/contents.html
Daphne Mack <dmack@dfms.org>

by Kathryn McCormick

	(ENS) Confronting questions of power and prejudice in 
society and how they hurt the church, the Episcopal Women's Caucus 
(EWC) used its annual gathering in Santa Fe, New Mexico, in early 
November to reflect on the "isms" in society and what women, and 
men, could do about them.
	Led by keynote speaker Katie Geneva Cannon, the first 
African-American woman to be ordained in the United Presbyterian 
Church and currently associate professor of religion at Temple 
University, the nearly 70 persons attending the meeting were 
challenged to think about racist, sexist and classist stereotypes 
and the damage they can do.
	Such stereotypes, Cannon said, have erected tremendous 
barriers. She recalled the story of Fannie Lou Hamer, an African-
American activist born in segregated Mississippi who defied 
authorities in her county by registering to vote. She was 
repeatedly jailed and while there was once beaten nearly to death 
by white sheriff's deputies. Yet she lived.
	Hamer, a God-fearing woman, learned to challenge society's 
stereotypes, to "keep on keeping on," by following the path of 
black women's ancient wisdom, Cannon said. 
	Too often, she said, stereotypes block the honest 
consideration of what each of us knows and has experienced, the 
"human archeological sites" that hold memories and their deep 
lessons. She cited the difficulties of African-American religious 
scholars who feel they must engage in abstract religious discourse 
rather than explore the liberation ethics that are much more 
connected with real life.
	This kind of discourse leaves out "the Fannie Lou Hamers of 
yesterday, the Fannie Lou Hamers of today and the Fannie Lou 
Hamers of tomorrow. This type of invisibility reinforces racist, 
sexist, classist stereotypes," she said.
Wisdom in experience
For the world outside the academy, Cannon said, the 
understanding that there is wisdom in the experience of people, 
especially those who have been victims of oppression, "emphasizes 
the need, as people of faith, to see our responsibility to work 
not merely through religious dimensions of contemporary issues but 
to dig down deep into the social milieu" to witness the chaos out 
of which we want to bring order.
In a workshop that filled much of the next day, Cannon and 
three others-the Rev. Dr. Renee Hill, an Episcopal priest and 
senior associate for justice and peace at All Saints Church in 
Pasadena, California; the Rev. Dr. Mary Foulke, a Presbyterian 
minister and senior associate for children's and family ministries 
at All Saints Church; and the Rev. Dr. Susan Harlow of the United 
Church of Christ, assistant professor of Christian education at 
Meadville-Lombard Theological School-worked with the 
predominantly middle-class, white audience to examine privilege 
and its effects. 
Hill suggested some actions that might be taken by 
individuals and congregations seeking to discern where they are in 
the hierarchy of oppression and where they want to be.
"Do power analysis. Understand who has the power, how is it used, 
what is my own role in the situation, how can I redirect or 
transform the power," she said. 
	Second, she said, recognize that one kind of oppression 
often is related to another, and knowing this will help in 
planning strategies to combat them. Third, acknowledge that "most 
of us are not only victims"-it is important that we each 
thoroughly understand our own power and use it to make justice. 
And last, she added, get away from the kind of thinking that can 
lead to rigid stereotypes and learn to look at situations and 
people in a way that allows for their complexities.
	Foulke added another dimension to the discussion by looking 
at matters "specific to white, class-privileged, heterosexually 
identified women's culture."
	The pressure to live up to the perfectionism many feel is 
demanded by society, as well as the self-denial often seen among 
this particular category of woman, often prevent them from seeing 
racism as it touches their lives and keeps them from acting on the 
problems connected with it. 

Perfectionism and racism
	"Perfectionism causes us to suppress any evidence that we 
have failed to achieve racial harmony," she explained. "Anyone 
who reveals imperfections is shamed." The white person who owns 
their own racism, she added, is therefore described as someone who 
is breaking down. People who are thus shamed tend then to focus on 
appearances, and tend to practice racial ignorance and spin 
control rather than meaningful change.
	Added to Hill's and Foulke's remarks was a charting of what 
women, and men, could do to transcend privilege, whether in race, 
class, gender, age, disability or many other categories, and find 
the connections and support that stereotypes don't allow people to 
see.
Harlow emphasized that any changes to be made in how the 
church responds to the inequalities in society and the damage that 
causes "will take the effort and abilities of all of us.and it 
will mean vigilance for our lifetimes."
This, she added, will require congregational study groups to 
begin with questions that each member must answer, at least to 
herself, including, How do race, class, gender and other 
differences affect me? How is my humanity impaired by others' 
oppression?
These groups then need to become educated by reading what 
others have said about these issues and by talking with people who 
have been victimized by discrimination and then these groups must 
confront what they can do in their own congregations.

The work of reconciliation
	The Women's Caucus ended with a Eucharist celebrated by 
Bishop Mary Adelia McLeod of  Vermont.
	In a sermon that focused on "the lie of full inclusion in 
our church," and the hard, constant, work of reconciliation, 
McLeod said, "When we stand before the judgment seat of God, the 
judge who died for us will not ask, `Did you understand the 
mystery of who I am and whip everybody else into shape?'
	"No, I think God's questions to us will be: `Did you love 
me above all else and show that love by loving your brothers and 
sisters as you love yourself?.Did you act for the benefit of 
others?"

--Kathryn McCormick is associate director of the Office of News 
and Information for the Episcopal Church.