I am in Love with the 21st Century

I recently was in NYC for the week attending the 52nd United Nations Commission on the Status of Women and as per last year found it to be inspiring politically, socially and fashionably. I had the privilege to see Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon speak during the launch of his Campaign to End Violence Against Women. He took a very powerful stand against violence towards women. The following passage from his speech truly resonated with me:

Today, we come together to launch a global campaign to end violence against women. I am counting on you — advocates from Government, civil society and the UN — to carry our message around the world.

Violence against women is an issue that cannot wait. A brief look at the statistics makes it clear. At least one out of every three women is likely to be beaten, coerced into sex or otherwise abused in her lifetime. Through the practice of prenatal sex selection, countless others are denied the right even to exist. No country, no culture, no woman young or old is immune to this scourge. Far too often, the crimes go unpunished, the perpetrators walk free.

War has always been devastating, but now, women and girls are themselves targets in the war zone. Today’s weapons of armed conflict include rape, sexual violence, and the abduction of children conscripted as soldiers or forced into sexual slavery.

On my visits to conflict-torn areas around the world, I have spoken with women who have endured horrific forms of violence. I will forever be haunted by their suffering — but equally, I will always be inspired by their courage. These mothers, sisters, daughters and friends are determined to reclaim their lives.

This is a campaign for them. It is a campaign for the women and girls who have the right to live free of violence, today and in the future. It is a campaign to stop the untold cost that violence against women inflicts on all humankind.

Please click here to view Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon’s entire statement and more on the campaign.

Additionally, I attended a gathering in which Gloria Steinem, founder of Ms. Magazine, Dr. Jean Shinoda Bolen, author of “Urgent Message from Mother: Gather the Women. Save the World” and Nancy Gruver, Publisher & Founder of New Moon Magazine for girls, spoke on “Envisioning a 5th UN Women’s World Conference (5WWC)“. This is significant as the the last UN sponsored World Wide Women’s Conference was held in Beijing in 1995. It is supposed to happen every decade and this decade is nearly over and the UN is so far not willing to support the 5th Women’s World Conference.

At every previous conference, women came from all over the world, talked and bonded, learned from each other, and formed a network of friendship and political alliances on behalf of women. Most significantly, women’s rights were recognized as human rights in the Beijing Platform for Action. Until this conference women were considered passive victims in an unequal world. The conference addressed gender relations rather than women’s issues, recognizing that women’s roles and status are equal in relation to men.

-Excerpt taken from http://www.5wwc.org/origins/index.html where you can find more information on the need for a 5WWC

Of course one does not go to NYC without allowing some time for shopping and tourism. I have fallen madly and deeply in love with Century 21, a TJMaxx flavored department store that is a) huge, b) specializes in all designer goods, c) amazingly priced and d) probably my new most favorite place to shop (next to thrift shops of course…oh the joy of treasure hunting). Accordingly, when in NYC you need to make a stop at Century 21; official mandate from me.

Talking Points Shared with Diocese of Western MA ECW Board Meeting

The following are some talking points I used to speak to the Diocese of Western Massachusetts’ Episcopal Church Women (ECW) Board Meeting. They are in bullet format based on some questions Susan Howland, President of the ECW here posed to me to guide a presentation and dialogue I lead at the board meeting. Pieces of Susan’s note to me are used so as to offer structure to my talking points:

“Dear Virginia,

So glad you can come on the 29th!  Let me tell you a little about our diocesan ECW board….which is a dedicated, but small and evolving group.  Historically the ECW  was a very mission  minded group, and we still are.  Our place as diocesan leaders is really educational and support….financial and otherwise.  Our current mission statement is “to become a cornerstone of community, learning and ministry that seeks to invite all women into fellowship.”    We follow the guidance of the National ECW…if you haven’t been to the website it is here: http://www.nationalecw.org   The national ECW oversees a granting initiative called “Women to Woman” providing small grants of seed money to women.   This triennium the National ECW is suggesting a focus of millennium development goal # 3 To promote gender equality and empower women.

 I have just gotten an ECW web page on the diocesan website and it is here: http://www.diocesewma.org/ecw.html We are not an ultra formal group and you will be meeting with maybe 5 to 10 women…so we will probably  just sit around the table.  I think those present would like to hear:

- Something about you…your story.”

                -grew up in Minnesota

                -Active in church              

                                *acolyte

                                * youth member of vestry

                                *youth rep to convention

                                *active in regional youth events

                                *started youth group

-Graduated from Skidmore College with a double Major in Political Science and Spanish, with a focus on International Affairs & Women’s Studies

-Wrote my Honors Thesis on Female Circumcision, Through a Global Feminist Perspective. Which attempts to understand the issue by looking at how it lines up to the UN agreed conclusions of the basic human rights and by trying to understand the cultural significance and value in the practice.

“-Something about AWE, the history, the mission, and how you happened to become involved”

                -AWE – Anglican Women’s Empowerment

-Currently undergoing an identity evaluation.  NYC based and not looking to expand, but open to those outside of NYC coming to meetings every third Thursday of the month at the Episcopal Church Center

-have been very active in getting women to attend and have an active presence at the UN

-work closely with IAWN – International Anglican Women’s Network (who is funded partly by the United Thank Offering) to bring Anglican’s from around the world (India, Seychelles, parts of Africa, UK, Canada and beyond) to the UN Commission on the Status of Women

-I got involved because the office of Women’s Ministry in conjunction with AWE sent out an announcement soliciting applicants to be Delegates to the UN Commission on the Status of Women.

“- Share your experience as a delegate to the UN…what was it like…..talk about anything you are passionate about….I think people are always inspired by passion about an issue”

-The first year I went was focused on the topic of “Ending all forms of violence against the girl child”. My Honors Thesis and Women’s studies background were both very useful in providing me significant background knowledge on the topic but also in allowing me to be selected as a Delegate.

-There are a couple of approaches a Delegate can take to attending the UN CSW. They can participate as active lobbyists or they can attend the numerous parallel events sponsored by the various Non-Governmental Organizations present at the UN CSW.

-The main objective of the various countries meeting at the UN CSW is to work on what is called the Draft Agreed Conclusions. They spend the two weeks of the event debating the language in the conclusions that all countries are supposed to follow to improve the status of women worldwide.

- In that first year, I worked very actively in the lobbying role. I worked with several other North American NGO’s to draft our own suggested changes to the Draft Agreed Conclusions and to submit those to as many countries as possible.

-This year’s topic was “Financing for gender equality and the empowerment of women: Women’s participation in conflict prevention, management, conflict resolution and in post-conflict peace-building.”

-As this is not a topic I have significant knowledge base in, I chose to attend the parallel events and try to learn as much as I could about this topic and how to employ it in my community and environment

-It seems one of the “Women to Woman” granting program truly encompasses this topic and the goals of the UN in relation to this topic.

“-Then you might say how, from what you have learned,  we might take action to support women.”

-The “Women to Woman” granting program seems like an excellent action to take to support women. In some of the presentations I attended both years, the idea that economically empowering women is good for the economy and the society as a whole, came up quite often

-Amongst the group of women from the International Anglican Communion (both domestic and outside of the US) there are many women with very valuable projects occurring that could use support in many ways. Some could use economic support, some could use womanpower to spread the word, others could use materials and supplies.

-I have this ‘vision’ of sorts to create a database of the numerous initiatives going on amongst the group of Anglican UN Delegates so that we may support each other in any way we can.

“- We could also ask you some questions, and then informally talk about some of the topics you address. (if it seems appropriate)

I will use the press release and the corrections below to put together a little something for publicity…it is a little short notice to get the word out but we might get a few extra people to the meeting

I hope that helps. I think it will be very enlightening and inspiring to talk with you, especially as you come from a completely different generation…..we need to be listening to your thoughts and ideas.

 Take care,

 Susan”

My overview of how the various groups involved in getting Delegates to attend the UN Commission on the Status of Women and what we do there, inspired many wonderful questions from the ECW women attending the presentation. These questions allowed the dialogue to go into specific antecdotes from my experiences and the experiences of the many fascinating women I have met who are living thier lives as catalysts for humanity. From these antecdotes I then shared how the stories had changed my perspective on any given topic.

Please note: for those of you offering presentations to various groups feel free to use any of the above talking points/questions in your presentations.

‘And your sons and your daughters shall prophesy’: Reflection Easter 2

‘In the last days it will be, God declares,
that I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh,
and your sons and your daughters shall prophesy,
and your young men will see visions,
and your old men shall dream dreams.
Even upon my slaves, both men and women,
in those days I will pour out my Spirit; and they shall prophesy.’
(Acts 2.17-18) A reflection by Imogen NayWe follow the story of Acts in the Easter Season and with the first Sunday after Easter we begin with Peter’s address to the crowd. It has intrigued me to find however that the verses shown above have been sidestepped in the lectionary; on Monday of Easter week and today the same readings from Acts are given: Acts 2.14a, 22-32 and on both days Acts 2.14b-21 is missed out.

It may be that these verses are read in different lectionary years; however, it seems significant that they are deliberately not included. Reading with a hermeneutic of suspicion I can’t help but wonder: is it because there is the prediction of radical inclusiveness in the Kindom (sic) of God for the post-resurrection community of believers?

I couldn’t help but wonder if the selectors felt: Is it better not to read this passage regularly as a Christian community? Is it more convenient to turn away from the resurrection witness of Mary Magdalen in John’s Gospel and move into the circle of male discipleship authorized to declare the good news? Is it better to forget the devotion of women to Jesus during his worst hours? Is it better to control the radical nature of the gift of the Spirit?

During Holy Week Bishop Victoria Matthews was the visiting preacher at Westcott House Seminary, Cambridge, UK. At the Good Friday addresses she explained the significance of the tearing of the temple curtain as Jesus breathed his last and cried out. The temple curtain marked the entrance to the Holy of Holies into which the High Priest only could enter once a year to offer sacrifices to God. A hierarchy of access to the sacred space was employed, with gentiles furthest away and then Jewish women, followed by Jewish men and the priests. The tearing of the curtain reveals how Jesus has destroyed the regular division between humankind and God and the need for a hierarchy of access to the sacred. Jesus invites all to reach the Father through him: all are equal.

In ‘the last days’ as the Spirit is poured out upon the people and we follow the story of that through Acts and into our own lives we do well to remember the radical nature of Christ’s salvation promise. Jesus humbled himself, utterly, coming into the world, washing his disciple’s feet, showing us the way of love even to the Cross and revealing the new commandment to love one another. He closes the gap between heaven and earth, having broken into the economy as love, as the divine. It is very hard to believe. The story of doubting Thomas in the lectionary today from John’s Gospel is a necessary reminder of the task of faith and of the extraordinary nature of what we believe. It is easy to doubt. It is easy to doubt what salvation means in Christ and it is easy to doubt that all are included. As humans we want to monitor, guard and control access to the divine. We want to say who is allowed and who isn’t allowed access to the sacred mysteries.

Training for the priesthood in the Church of England in which women are still barred from the Episcopate there is a definite punch to this reading. As communities of believers it seems that we still doubt the resurrection of Christ and the implication of that resurrection. We prefer to select and read with our own prejudices, and of course I am no exception. To have the honesty to read with the eyes of Christ and to act with the mind of Christ demands great faith; we all no doubt would prefer Christ to come among us and show us his wounds so we could prod and poke them and have definite proof of his resurrection. With John we can truly assent to Jesus’ saying: ‘Blessed are those that have not seen but have come to believe’ (John 20.29).

But let us rejoice in the Sunday after Easter in the promises of Christ and of the last days. We can confidently expect our ‘sons and daughters to prophesy’ and that the Spirit will be poured out upon those who have low status in society ‘both men and women’. Christ disrupts our categories of status and authority, freely bestowing all manner of gifts upon those whom society least expects to be blessed. PRAISE BE TO GOD.

Petition adequate funding rape crisis centres, UK

http://petitions.pm.gov.uk/RapeCrisis/

Please sign the petition in order to ensure that rape crisis centres in the UK are set up and the ones that already exist are given adequate funding.

The Status of Women: UN Conference Anglican Delegation

From the 21st February to the 2nd March 2008 I attended the United Nations 52nd Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW 52) as a delegate sponsored by Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE) representing the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC). The topic of this year’s Commission was ‘Financing for Gender Equity and Women’s Empowerment’. The week commenced with the launch of a campaign to end Violence Against Women, which Ban Ki-moon the Secretary General of the UN announced to rousing applause. Ban Ki-moon stated that violence against women is not the result of random individual acts of misconduct, but rather is deeply rooted in structural relationships of inequality between women and men. He said the roots of violence lay in the historically unequal power relations between men and women and that there was still pervasive discrimination against women in both the public and private spheres.

The Commission was attended by numerous NGOs including the Mothers’ Union, YWCA, Unifem, Womankind Worldwide, Oxfam, Girlguides, Episcopal Church Women as well as the permanent country delegations at the UN. Women from all over the world gathered, with AWE sponsoring women from countries including Ghana, Nigeria, Brazil, Mexico, Philippines, Japan, Australia, Wales and England.

Of particular interest to the religious organisations gathered were the workshops on the gender architecture of institutions and gender budgeting. The ACC adopted resolution 13/31 on Gender Equality (2005) acknowledging the MDG (Millennium Development Goals) for equal representation of women in decision making at all levels and called for each Province to consider the establishment of a women’s desk. This year the recommendation is that the ACC passes a resolution on gender sensitive budgeting. This would mean that analysis of budgets would be undertaken with regard to gender so that rather than women’s and children’s projects receiving small special grants, that an equitable distribution and input of resources is promoted between the genders (gender mainstreaming). This policy push comes from analysis of poverty worldwide which reveals that women and the girl-child are by far the poorest and most disadvantaged members of the global community. In ensuring that women and children are given equal access (not privileged access) to the world’s resources poverty can be cut out at its root. For me the shocking statistic of the week was that women produce ½ of the world’s food but own only 1% of its farmland.

Several Bishops’ wives were part of the delegation and the few female Bishops that gathered reminded us that at the forthcoming Lambeth Conference women would be outnumbered 19/800 – the number is likely to be reversed at the Spouses Conference. If the Church is to be a partner in the global campaign to reduce poverty and empower grassroots women, it must look to the prejudice within its own walls. The lack of gender equity within the Church of England is in stark contrast to Great Britain’s high standing in the global gender gap index (9/115, 2006). As an ordinand the reality of the need for financing for equality is brought into sharp relief when it is considered that one national fund only gives grants for books to male ordinands. This kind of practice needs to be recognised as blatant discrimination.

It was a truly enlightening experience to be with women from around the Anglican Communion fighting for equality in our extremely diverse regions. Faithful and passionate lay and ordained women revealed their commitment to the liberation and freedom that is in Jesus Christ dramatically enacted by Bishop Catherine Roskam at our opening Eucharist as she gave a homily on the woman bent over for 18 years who was set free by the healing ministry of Jesus Christ (Luke 13:10-17).

Training to be a priest as a young woman in the 21st Century: tensions and opportunities.

Before I went to New York to attend the 52nd Session of the UN Commission on the Status of Women I was feeling a little depressed about my vocation, the Church that I was a part of (Church of England) and how I could live out  an authentic calling in it. I had felt restrained by a constant atmosphere that I picked up on, which, despite my training to be a priest in a college with 50% of ordinands being female, that we were still justifying our (female) presence in the priestly ministry, and that the jury is definitely still out on our inclusion in this aspect of the Church’s hierarchy.  This emersion in an atmosphere where equality is not necessarily assumed is a surprise for a young woman (28years) who has grown up in a Western culture in which equality, access to education, work and so on, had been the norm. Whilst I had also grown up in the Church, as a lay person, I suppose I felt that I could take what was good from the Church and reject the bad. But suddenly there I was training to be an integral part of this Church in which certain members and certainly the Tradition, is, patriarchal; but, still worse, in many aspects inherently misogynistic. How could I claim a fruitful ministry in this atmosphere and did I want to? I knew that I did and that on the other hand I had been so enriched by life in theological college.  I came to UNCSW 52 then,  with a desire to connect with other women of faith and re-vision my vocation

UNCSW 52 and the additional activites organised by Anglican Women’s Empowerment and the Episocpal Church Centre’s Office for Women’s Ministry did all this and more.  It was a surprise to find myself in an atmosphere of overwhelming support for female ministry (lay and ordained) and passionate commitment to the rights of women. It was a relief for a change to not feel responsible for fighting for the right to minister and to feel that others could carry me for a while. However the generation gap between the women that campaigned for women’s ordination and me and others like me who have been the recipients of that hard work can be daunting. We are in a new phase in England and Wales of consolidation of female ordained ministry that requires different mechanisms of support. These as yet are not up and running, there is relative silence, as though women feel so grateful to have got here that now they are just getting on with the hard job.  This reflects the wider problem of the lack of young adults in the Church overall; the Church simply isn’t minstering succesfully to this age group.  In England we talk of ‘pioneer ministry’ but for me all female ministry is pioneer ministry, especially young female ministry, for at the moment, we are breaking the mould, we are breaking new ground. 

UNCSW 52 helped me turn my attention away from the difficulties in the Church of England to the wider and more important issue of women’s impoverishment worldwide. To look at the issue of equality from the stark reality of women’s suffering, their lack of political power, their lack of monetary power, their lack of access to health care and education, and their victimisation in war was sobering.  I was very impressed by the words of Ban Ki-moon regarding the relationship between individual acts of violence against women and structural, historical inequality. The relationship between women’s exclusion from leadership roles and their poverty is clear, but so too is the relationship between lack of power and being abused. This was brought home to me at a local leven when I read the headlines of the Guardian on line that police are failing rape victims in England, simply because they don’t take reports seriously. The conviction rate for rape cases in England is a frightening 2%. This needs to change. There’s lots more to say on all these issues, watch this space!

How can we use this blog?

Let’s brainstorm together the ways in which we envision using this blog. Please edit this post so we can all add our insight and compile a list. Then, once we have a list, we can take an idea and start a new post on it so we can develop the idea. Thoughts?

 We can use this blog:

-to…

-to motivate each other to work on various projects on our minds. In this vein, it would be interesting to have an ideas section for projects we are thinking about so we can use each other as sounding boards and can then comment on each other’s ideas so as to help develop them.

-to report on what we are doing, news items of interest, our spirtual journeys, etc.

Launch lunch!

On Wednesday, February 27, 2008, four young Anglican women attending the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women lunched with Hei-Yue Pang, an intern with the Anglican Observer to the United Nations and Thom Chu, program director for ministries with young people at the Episcopal Church Center. They decided to put together a group blog to share their thoughts about their experience during the week and invite other young Anglican women from around the world to connect.