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CWM - News
Report
on CWMM Conference – April, 21-27, 2001, Goa – No.4
24.04.01
–
says Dr. Musa
Liberation is and must
be today and it cannot wait for tomorrow, said Dr. Musa in her first challenging
keynote address to the delegates of the Global meeting on the Community of Women
and Men in Mission in Goa. We need
not be extraordinary to announce liberation and to work for justice in our
villages, churches – we can be ordinary daughters and sons of so and so in the
neighbourhood. What is important,
however, is that as Christians, or the followers of Jesus we must see
oppression; recognize it for what it is and openly say it is not right and we
must be willing to work for
justice and liberation
– right away.
The other point Dr. Musa
brought out is our Social Location which helps us to analyse ourselves.
Elaborating on this point she gave a number of examples about herself and
her social location. Turning back to the members she said that you can either be
given a lot of power – in terms of voice, access to resources and capacity to
make and implement your own decisions, or you can be powerless.
Our social locations influence “what the people
say about Jesus and then what we say about him”.
Many
women, she said, have indeed internalised their own marginalisation as normal,
from family to government, women are more often than not denied power – they
have no access to leadership, resources and independent space. They have no
female models of leadership and power. Therefore,
many women are yet to answer the question: But you, who
do you say that I am, for themselves.
The
report from the group session, which took place after lunch on the 24th.
All the groups presented their reports very nicely,
as there were comments and discussions after every presentation.
Group no. one presented the following report.
Group no. one
was very firm in saying that we should train people for advocacy.
They said that we know the meaning of advocacy but the problem is that we
don’t practice it. We have to be
conscious of the power of advocacy. It
is time that we introduce a new language in the church through stories and
various issues surrounding us. Not
only should we be telling stories but we should allow the stories and incidents
to speak to us and then act upon them. We
have to foretell and forth tell and unearth new visions for each other. At this point there was a question from the floor as to how
one could put gender issues to the church.
HOW would one start to do it? These
questions were then discussed and delegates joined in.
We have to educate the comfortable in and around us, not only the
comfortable but the unsympathetic among us as well.
A proposal of having CWM Sundays more often to make CWM famous was also
brought up.
Summing up the presentation of group no. one Rev.
Prince said that the basic point on the whole is to mobilise people. Training
has to be given to people within our own churches and pressure groups must be
formed to get the work done!
Report for the group no. 2 was read by Kim and he emphasised the point how we
as a church and community are scared of a change.
We happen to be so accustomed to the rules and regulations that we are
tensed the moment someone talks about a change. Maybe we as a church have a fear of the unknown in us.
For example, some of our churches may not be comfortable in having women
as leaders. The women of the church
are ready but we have to have people who will support the cause of women with
100 % dedication. For this there is no better thing than awareness raising.
Only, saying that we have to raise awareness will not be enough but the
ways and means of awareness raising should be thoroughly checked.
For example if our men partners help in campaigning for women then it
will have more impact on the masses than if the women by themselves are doing
it. This example does not mean that we are giving place for
differences but we can use the famous saying, “In Rome Do What The Romans
Do.”
A
short note: this was the only group, which had a round of applause from the
floor…
Group No. 3 immediately reminded everyone that they are in
INDIA. The t-shirt of the group
leader said so. The report said
that men and women both have to be made aware of each other’s role. We are wasting much of our time in arguing on who exactly
needs to be made aware, Men or Women. There
is no point in fanning this inextinguishable fire of doubt, as it will not be
wrong to say that this issue is as old as the saying, “Who Came First, The
Chicken Or The Egg.” Men have to
be aware of the women’s role in the church, only then will they will be able
to help in the cause. We need to
have and provide space for discussion. The
education system itself is a bit shaky on the women’s issue as for example
there was once a photograph of a minister and the minister was a man.
What are we trying to say - that women cannot be pastors?
This is how our systems are at fault.
We are setting the wrong note and after all that we want our song to be
absolutely perfect. A point
was raised from the floor, that it is the teachers who are to blame, we can not
blame the children.
Group no. 4
was firm and they challenged the CWM to advocate equal partnership in leadership
by men and women - or should we put women and men….
This can be put into practice by asking the CWM to ensure equal
representation in all the CWM meetings and conferences.
The group also brought out an on the spot suggestion of how there can be
equal representation. ( for further information on this particular point please
make sure you read the third para of the Tit Bits section in this newsletter)
During the second session of the day by Francis for
group discussions the topic was
‘developing team visits’. The
WCC, as Francis explained, visited each of its member churches. The teams
consisted of 4 members, 2 men and 2 women accompanied by a facilitator.
The team visits were mainly to encourage and show solidarity with the
member churches. These team visits
also strengthen the relations between the two partners. So the theme for the second sending by Francis was that each
group would discuss the two parts of the team visits. The group was asked to discuss from the perspective of the
team that is going to visit and also from the perspective of the church that is
going to receive the team. This was
done so that we are aware of what goes on between both sides and also to save
ourselves from being called biased. Then
Francis went on to say that the reports were to be handed over on the evening of
the 24th and if that was not possible then it must be handed over on
the morning of the 25th.
( so friends if in the morning after reading this
newsletter if you remember to give the report then please do it)
The evening worship service by Rev
Verna was on the theme confession and liberation…
The worship service started off by sweet
mellow flute music and then the choir presented a song.
Then Rev Verna gave a very inspiring message.
She spoke about the pros and cons of the word POWER.
Power as muscle and brain both. We
were told how power is used in different ways, power to liberate others, power
for good, power for bad, power used in a negative way.
Then Rev. Verna put the question to the delegates and asked them how do
they use their power? We must
confess, until and unless we confess we won’t be open and free.
The guilt holds us back. We
are here in this place to learn and we are here because others have paved the
way for us. After this Rev Verna
asked the delegates to all name some of the people who paved the way for them to
be here at the conference today. There
were many names ranging from guide teachers to wives , husbands, friends, Sunday
school teacher, mummy , daddy, college staff to evangelists.
Then the delegates were asked to name the people who stood like a cloud
of witnesses around them. Then
there was a unique confession done as Rev. Verna asked all the delegates to face
each other and talk about their confessions, and she also said that the person
with whom we share represents the Christ who died for us.
It was also told that the reality check therapy, like confessing before
others of your sins or taking responsibility for the expectation of forgiveness
through confession, is an element of penance in a positive way.
The things that we cannot tell or share with others were to be written on
a piece of paper and the whole congregation went and burned the papers outside
on the lawns.
Interviews…
Rev.
Philip Woods – United Reformed Church in the UK
Everyone is involved in a team and if someone
stars to visit each other there will be a network of people.
This networking is important to support and encourage each other in the
long run. The idea of partnership
between men and women should be understood by each other as a mutual way for
fulfilling God’s Mission. In this
programme supporting the men and women together we should be able to build a
model church for everyone to see in the patriarchal society of ours.
Men and women should be respected and heard equally.
CWM’s wealth lies in its
member
churches. People’s ideas and
creativeness is what is important. Given
the will we all can work hand in hand for fulfilling the mission of God.
CWM dreams big dreams and it is up to the member churches to fulfil the
dreams. We have to move beyond the normal way and keep on asking
ourselves these questions, can we create a model church which will be in
partnership with men and women? What
do we mean by partnership? And how can we be a model church?
Rev.
Sulani Kabala – Uniting Presbyterian Church of Southern Africa
We are moving forward and are looking at things we
have not looked at so far. Women’s
leadership is in a very small number. In
the whole of Zambia we are only two women pastors.
Women are slowly coming up and it will take quite some time for them to
come out of their shells. Men do
not oppose the women but the cultural and social factors do have a hand in it.
Our assembly Moderator is a woman, so since 1897 this is the first woman
moderator. So it took almost a
century for our women to come up. This
is Sulani’s first time in India and she has visited as many as three
conferences hosted by the CWM. They
do have exchanges in the regions; women from Madagascar and Malawi go and come
often. This exchange broadens the
thinking of women and gives them confidence.
Tit
Bits…
Weaklings in the
group…who?
During the report presentation in the afternoon,
when the first group was presenting its report, there started the discussion on
who will present the second report. A
voice called out, we are weaklings without power, let the women do it….
Who is it anyway?
Autographs
anyone?
Rev Prince is on a bag-signing spree!
He is going around asking for autographs from the participants.
It is a really nice idea to get your bag signed by everyone as a reminder
of the conference days. So those of
you who have not put a signature of Rev. Prince’s bag, please do it as soon as
you read this bit…or is it that Rev. Prince knows that one day one of you from
the group is going to become very famous and that day Rev. Price will the
happiest man on Earth with that particular signature?…Which out of the two it
is, is only up to Rev. Prince to answer.
Indian
Stretchable Time………
The worship service for the evening was supposed to
be at 6 but no one knew and it was 6:30 and still the worship service did not
start. This is a sure sign that
Indianness is slowly creeping into the CWM conference. It is said so because in
India inmost parts, if someone gives you a certain time it always is half an
hour after the given time. So that
is why in India the Indian Standard Time has been changed from the original
version to the Indian stretchable time.
Bringing
about Change is not easy but very tough…
During the
group reports presentation at one point Pat got up to say something and because
it was not audible from where she was seated she was asked to go to the front
near the microphone. Pat did go but
she was hesitant at first. But once
she got there she made her point very clearly and came back to her seat with a
look of satisfaction on managing to tell the group what she wanted to say.
Similarly during the evening service before the worship service, if we
all remember the venue was changed after the choir took its place in the front.
But as soon as the venue was changed there was a chain of reactions, from
groans to moans and laughter to loud Oh No’s.
Well friends let us take time to ponder this, if such a small things like
this has so many reactions then we are here in this conference talking about
changing the society with partnership for women and men alike.
Well I think we know what to expect. But we should also remember the
small flicker of satisfaction on Pat’s face as she took her seat.
So if such a tiny incident puts a smile on her face then think about the
happiness we all present in this conference will get when we will be successful
in having equal partnership.
Our Sins burned but not washed
away……thank God….
The worship service on the 24th evening
required the participants to burn a piece of paper with their secret confessions
written on it. While the
confessions were about to be burned, Francis and many others remembered the sprinkler systems, which are activated on coming in
contact with smoke. So our
confessions and we complete with Rev. Verna and the bowl with the flame went
outside to offer our confessions to Jesus without getting washed away.
Produced by:
Ms. Shona Thangavel, Church of North India,
For the Council for World Mission, Reporting from
Goa.
E-Mail:
shona@nagpur.dot.net.in