Nevertheless, Festival participants acknowledged that many churches ignored or resisted the programme, 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 Aruna Gnanadason of the WCC women's programme. "In many places, there has been a reduction in funding and staff for work supporting women. 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." These issues, she explained, include the economic exclusion of millions of women, violence against women, racism and xenophobia. "What we need to emphasize is that these are all concerns which threaten the unity of the churches -- the very being of the church."

On its second day the Decade Festival held what is thought to have been a global "first" -- a special hearing, incorporated into a liturgy, on 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 WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser. "We must share these stories and continue to break the silence about violence against women."

"I have made a handprint, a sacred one, for I am imago Dei, made in the image of God" -- mural created during the hearing on violence against women at the Decade Festival Photo by Chris Black/WCC Click on the photo to order (ref. 7022-28a)

A challenge letter drafted during the Festival responded with a series of demands, including the exposing of all sexual abuse, especially by those in positions of church leadership; the creation of processes of restorative justice in which both the victims and the perpetrators of violence can experience, in the light of truth telling, the power of effective repentance, forgiveness and reconciliation; the critical examination of any use of Bible and theology that seeks to sanction the spirit and presence of violence; and the denunciation of all initiatives of war. While at no point did the document put before the delegates include the words "homosexual", "gay" or "lesbian", these issues were clearly at the centre of a debate on wording about "human sexuality in all of its diversity". In its final form, the paper simply acknowledged the differences around issues of human sexuality and condemned violence perpetrated because of these differences. 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. They encountered each other and a wide spectrum of concerns in the "Issue 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. World YWCA general secretary Musimbi Kanyoro of Kenya, 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". "Sometimes during this Decade the church did not stand in solidarity with us," Kanyoro said. "But this Decade has made us stronger and given us courage."