| WOMEN’S VOICES AND VISIONS: BEING CHURCH
How to bring women's perspectives, revealed during the 1988-1998 Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women, on ways of being church, to the churches? How to move them to take account of these perspectives and respond to women's deepest aspirations for community, justice and solidarity? A reflection-action study - "Being church: women's voices and visions" - is making that happen.
With women and men around the world, the study is exploring:
what it means to be called by God to live in and for the world;
what forms of spirituality could nurture the life of the church as community;
how the ministry of the whole church could be renewed to include the gifts for service that God gives to both men and women; and
what structures would better equip the church for faithfulness in its task of witness and service in the world.
Women’s perspectives on being church are being explored by:
encouraging them to articulate how their communities of faith and struggle are for them life-giving;
asking if, how, and when the church helps heal the pain of violence and exclusion felt by some women;
listening to women's visions of what the church of the future might be;
documenting cases in which women are already experiencing new ways of being Christians together, and what this says about the church of the future;
reflecting theologically on women’s insights and experiences of being church.
The study is open so as to clarify positions that spring from mutual listening and questioning without moving too quickly to specific positions or propositions. It is being carried out in close cooperation with the WCC Faith and Order team.
Themes for theological research and reflection
1 Metaphors and models of the church: old and new
Exploration of the images of the church in scripture and tradition from the perspective of women; consideration of what understanding the basic reality of the church as koinonia implies; reflection on images emerging from women’s communities of faith and struggle.
2 Word, sacrament and liturgy
Investigation of whether, and how, traditional understandings of Word, sacrament and liturgy exclude women and their experience, whether there is something distinctive in the way women experience and interpret Word and sacrament, and of the role of ritual in women’s communities of faith and struggle.
3 Community, diversity and justice
Investigation of women’s perspectives on the work for unity and their insights into identity, diversity and community; reflection upon ways to overcome violence and other forms of injustice.
4 Partnership and the exercise of power
Investigation of how and by whom power and authority are exercised in the churches today, consideration of how women are represented at different levels in the churches, and envisioning different models of partnership and inclusiveness.
How you can be involved:
You - individual women, groups of women or women and men together - are invited to reflect on the following questions:
- Where do you find strength and healing in the church? How do you contribute to the life of the church? What hinders your participation in the church? What changes will improve the life of women in the church? What will enhance the gospel message in the church for women, men and creation?
- If not in the church, where do you find your source of strength and spirituality?
Please send your responses to:
Women’s Programme
Justice Peace and Creation Team
World Council of Churches
e-mail: WCC Contact
|
AFTER THE ECUMENICAL DECADE
OF CHURCHES IN SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN, A DECADE TO OVERCOME VIOLENCE
Violence against women continues! Women's perspectives
are thus vital for the relevance and effectiveness of the Decade
to Overcome Violence 2001-2010 (DOV). The Women's Programme is
contributing to the DOV via
The dossier "Streams of grace", produced by a WCC-related network of women theological teachers on violence against women (see below), lifts up examples from all materials received by the WCC to tell the world that the churches and communities of Christians and others do care and are acting with determination and conviction to overcome violence against women and children.
| ON
THE WINGS OF A DOVE
A worldwide campaign on overcoming violence against
women and children
During
the "16 days" (25 November - 10 December 2004), imaginative action by grassroots
organizations and women’s networks raised awareness
and inspired change to overcome different forms of violence
against women.
|
 |
Women from
conflict situations met in Geneva from 16-21 March 2002 for dialogue
and mutual support. The Consultation on Peace with Justice:
Women Speak Out! was organized jointly by the women’s
programmes of the WCC, Lutheran World Federation (LWF), World
Alliance of Reformed Churches (WARC) and Conference of European
Churches (CEC) in close cooperation with local and regional women’s
networks. (
Click here to read the women's
"MESSAGE OF PEACE WITH JUSTICE".)
"Women-to-Women"
solidarity visits to women and children in conflict situations:
In 1999 visits were organized to East Timor and Indonesia. In 2000,
two teams visited Liberia and Sierra Leone. The purpose of these
visits, jointly organized by the WCC, World YWCA and the LWF Women’s
Programme was to:
record
the violence that women experience as they describe it and
report this to the international community;
offer
international solidarity with the women and children in the
conflict;
ensure
that women are supported after conflict;
document
that rape of women in war and conflict continues, and campaign
to challenge this globally;
document
the increase in disabilities as an outcome of war and conflict;.
analyse
post-conflict traumatic effects of war and conflict on women
and children.
A network
of women theological teachers on violence against womenwas initiated.
A draft
statement of commitments and strategies to overcome violence against
women will challenge the churches to action by the next WCC
assembly in 2005. A dossier is under preparation to accompany
the statement, giving examples of "good practice" by churches
in different regions.
|
|
