Magyar Egyház, 1990 (69. évfolyam, 3-6. szám)
1990-05-01 / 3. szám
12. oldal MAGYAR EGYHÁZ THE ECUMENICAL DECADE OF THE CHURCHES IN SOLIDARITY WITH WOMEN In 1989, our denomination became one of 22 denominations and 4 organizations to join the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Decade on Churches in Solidarity with Women. The Decade was set up by the WCC to correspond with the Decade on Women declared by the United Nations in 1987. The Decade is a long-term project to accomplish the following goals by 1998: • free the Churches from teachings and practices that discriminate against women; • improve the status of women and the world; • empower women and men to challenge oppressive and unjust structures; • hear and act upon women’s perspectives on justice, freedom, and peace, and • affirm full and equal participation and responsibility of women and men in the home, the Church, and the world. Named to the US National Committee, I attended the September, 1989 meeting held in Los Anegles, CA along with about 100 other women (and a few men), who represent the leadership of the women’s ministries in the various denominations. Our group was divided into five groups that dealt with the areas of (a) full participation of women in all areas of church life through leadership development, placement into decision-making positions, community building, increasing the number of women in the clergy and in lay leadership roles, etc.; (b) celebrations to bring about awareness of the Decade in the general community; (c) bring about local awareness of global issues such as poverty, violence against women, political/economic/social discrimination against women, etc.; (d) working through legislators, bring about political changes affecting women’s issues in the secular world such as child care, equal pay, and job discrimination; and (e) theology/ spirituality studies to make the language of the worship service more inclusive of women. I joined the group dealing with ways in which women can be enabled to more fully participate in church life. We chose as our goal shared leadership/power in the church, agreeing that fear or threats that men feel when they are required to share their power with women would be the biggest obstacle women would have to overcome. To counter this fear by men, an experiential educational program needs to be developed to re-educate both men and women in the church. Women would also be included in the educational process because some women would have difficulty accepting a strong women leader, and also because women have traditionally not been brought up to consider themselves as potential leaders in the church. Another group I belonged to (recording/research/resources) will serve as a clearinghouse for information concerning women and the Decade. Within the WCC a resource library will be established containing data pertinent to the Decade, women, the church, and their relationship. Our groups made many plans to be worked on during the remaining 8 years of the Decade. The highpoint of the weekend was an ecumenical worship service featuring the Rev. Joan Salmon-Campbell, moderator of the Presbyterian Church (USA). Many of the clergy in attendance also participated in this service, which featured three gospel choirs, liturgical dance, and communion. The dates for our next semi-annual meeting were set for March 29-31, 1990, to be held in Nashville, Tennessee. Having attended that session I found it to be as rewarding as the previous one. We met at Scarritt-Bennett Center, an educational center for lay-training and women’s issues connected to the Methodist church and located next to Vanderbilt University. In this retreat setting, we began our day at 7:30 AM and ran our meetings until 10:45 PM. Our long days were very productive ones. The first item on our agenda was a presentation by Dr. Arvonne Fraser, Director of the Humphrey Institute for Human Rights in Minneapolis. Her husband is a human right activist himself, a former congressman, and currently mayor of Minneapolis. She spoke concerning the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women. This Convention (a legal document similar to a treaty) has been in the works for 10 years, and has been ratified by 101 nations. Unfortunately, the United States is not among these. This paper, which is a bill of rights for women on an international level, will have an effect on women at the local level if it is ratified by the US. Right now, women are discriminated against economically, legally, and socially, as many of you already know. If you are a women who someday will be eligible for pension or receive property from your husband through death, or become divorced, this bill can affect your economic future. Ratifying this document would eventually force our own laws to conform to the UN Convention, resulting in more equitable treatment of women in all areas of life. The bill is currently tied up in the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. The Decade committee has adopted as one of its goals the ratification of this Convention, and one way to help bring it about is through letter-writing campaigns to the individuals on the Senate committee. On a larger level, national activities that will bring about press coverage and greater awareness of the Decade are being planned. Our sub-committees from Los Angeles met again to further their goals for the Decade. The committee on full participation of women developed the idea of establishing an ecumenical resource packet that could be used by either local churches or denominations at various levels to begin building awareness of the Decade and actually provide the materials necessary to conduct workshops for men only and women only, worship materials, church lay leadership, youth, and seminaries. We will meet again in New York in August to begin compiling the materials for this training packet. My other committee began planning ways to assemble materials for an informational packet that will be distributed to individuals, churches, and organizations for low cost, and will contain basic information on the Decade, its goals, members, etc. Attending these meetings has been an exciting and fascinating opportunity, to say the least. It is exciting to work with these women who are the top-ranking individuals in their denominations, and to take part in an international/national decision-making process. As a layperson and a “nonprofessional,” it is a real thrill for me to be able to share ideas with these people and see some of my ideas put into the program. Watching the processes by which these decisions are made is at times tedious, but fascinating. I look forward with much anticipation to our next meeting to be held September 6-8, 1990, in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Anna T. Souto
