Ruach Spring 2013 by Karen Bota

Ruach A Publication of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus

Easter 2013 • Vol. 29, No. 3

co-convener’s

message

‘God is not a boy’s name’ by Terri Pilarski

hroughout my years as a parish priest, I have been blessed to have a group of women clergy colleagues to companion with me through the joys and perils of church ministry. My first group was comprised of seminary classmates. We were faithful to our monthly meeting time for the first couple of years. Slowly the original group dissolved as one priest after another left her first call and moved on to another, usually in a different state and diocese. Thankfully the clergy group evolved, and as one member moved on, another woman priest was anxious to join us. We managed to keep the group together for over 10 years. The concept of a “clergy group” has set a pattern for my ministry, and everywhere I have gone since those early days I have founded a group. Our meetings are simple, usually over a meal in a restaurant or a home. We share our worries and joys. We’ve prayed colleagues through breast cancer and the difficult decision to leave a parish. We’ve prayed colleagues through the birth of children and the struggle to find a call while also a young parent. We’ve prayed colleagues through difficult calls and into new life. We’ve prayed and laughed, shared meals and our lives. On one occasion, a later generation of the original clergy group decided to have a celebratory Christmas luncheon. We ate something delightful, sipped a tiny bit of cream sherry, had coffee and dessert and exchanged gifts. One of our gifts was a mug for each of us. On one side it said “EWC,” and on the other it said, “God is not a boy’s name.” At the time the mug seemed almost scandalous! No doubt it conveyed my sentiments exactly, but I was sure it would offend members of the congregation I served. I loved it, and used the mug over and over to affirm for myself that I was not alone in holding an expansive understanding of God’s being. (You can purchase this mug and other EWC merchandise from the EWC website, www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org). It was then, through the gift of the mug and the clergy

Christmas luncheon, that I learned about the Episcopal Women’s Caucus. Over the years, I have come to know the Caucus as the group within the Episcopal Church dedicated to Terri Pilarski Gospel values of justice, equality and liberation and committed to the incarnation of God’s unconditional love. The EWC works diligently to realize this vision by: • Empowering women and men to challenge oppressive structures in the global community, nation and church; • Modeling non-hierarchical ways: shared leadership and decision-making, womanist/feminist/mujerista theology and spirituality; • Giving visibility and respect to women’s perspectives and actions in the work and struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of creation; • Enabling the church to free itself from racism, sexism, clericalism, heterosexism, ableism, and from teachings and practices that sustain and reinforce power inequities. Serving as one of the co-convenors on the board of the EWC (I share the position of co-convenor with Pamela RW Kandt), I have come to know, love, and value the women who lead this group. In so doing, the EWC is modeling shared leadership, lay and ordained. We are working diligently to raise up issues of concern, bring new insight into these issues, prepare us for action, and hold accountable those who make decisions in the church so that our mission and vision may bear fruit. If you are not already, follow the EWC on Facebook at www.facebook.com/groups/331901592469 and on Twitter @EWCaucus. Terri Pilarski is co-convener of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus. She serves as rector of Christ Episcopal Church in Dearborn, Mich.

EWC board supports Pilgrimage of Trust Across the Earth

The board of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus is financially supporting the Pilgrimage of Trust Across the Earth — A Young Adult Taize Event at Pine Ridge Oglala Lakota Indian Reservation in South Dakota. This event will be hosted by Bishop John Tarrant, the Diocese of South Dakota, the Oglala Sioux Tribal Council and the Lakota People on May 24 to 27, 2013.

a youth for whom attending may be a financial hardship by covering the $50 registration fee.

Please join the Caucus in sending a donation to the Diocese of South Dakota in support of this very special event. Sponsor

— Margo McMahon

Ruach | Easter 2013

Send your donation to: The Rt. Rev. John Tarrant c/o Episcopal Diocese of South Dakota, 500 S. Main Ave., Sioux Falls, SD 57104. In the memo line of the check, please write: Taize Event at Pine Ridge.

TABLE OF CONTENTS . . . Co-convener’s Message.........................................................................page 2 Churchwide conversation focuses on human trafficking...............................page 4 Educate men and boys to prevent violence against women.......................page 5 Women’s Indaba success will mean similar gatherings across Africa, U.S. . .....page 6 Thoughts on ‘Indian Giver’ ....................................................................page 7 Report of the Episcopal Church to IAWN................................................. page 8 Liturgy for blessing same-sex relationships begins provisional use ...............page 9 Women serving in the military face challenges on many fronts..............page 10 H. Coleman McGehee, 8th bishop of Michigan, dies ...................................page 11 Did you know that our church is pro-choice? ................................................page 12 One woman’s demand..........................................................................page 13 Up to date on scholarly studies on St. Mary Magdalene?................page 15 We are Women stand up against ‘war on women’...............................page 16 Divine Feminine, Gaia, Yemanja, Grandmother Moon, Sophia, Mary, Ann, You......................................................................................page 17 Women organize in the Episcopal Church to make space...................page 18 Prayers, proclamations abound for Pope Francis................................page 20 ‘Carnage’ of gun violence must stop, bishops say ..............................page 21 UN commission on women ends with adoption of global plan to end gender-based violence .............................................................page 23 Awakened World 2012: A woman’s perspective...................................page 25 Is God a ‘He’? And why this question really does matter.......................page 26 Women’s Wilderness of Spiritual Perspective, Aug. 10 to 16...............page 30 Sharing resources................................................................................page 32 Join Episcopal Women’s Caucus..................................................... back page

Episcopal Women’s Caucus

BOARD L. Zoe Cole 4025 S. Dillon Way, Unit 101 • Aurora, CO 80014 303-355-8834 lzoecole@gmail.com Diocese of Colorado The Rev. Gigi Conner 2926 57th Street South • Gulfport, FL 33707 845-901-1704 (cell) 727-744-3785 gigipriest@prodigy.net Diocese of Florida THE MONTHLY CAUCUS EDITOR The Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Kaeton 35647 Joann Dr. • Long Neck, DE 19966 973 464 8018 (cell) 302 231 8246 (home) motherkaeton@gmail.com Diocese of New York Immediate Past Convener Pamela RW Kandt 120 North Fenway St. • Casper, WY 82601-2720 307.377.7763 PamelaKandt@gmail.com Diocese of Wyoming Co-Convener Dr. Margo E. McMahon 34 Pomeroy Lane Cooperative, Unit #24 Amherst, MA 01002 413-256-8159 (Home-Voice/messages) 413-587-6260 (Work-Voice/messages) margo.mcmahon@juno.com The Rev. Babs M. Meairs 11650 Calle Paracho • San Diego, CA 92128 858-521-0443 (home) 858-207-8519 (cell) babsmarie50@gmail.com Episcopal Diocese of San Diego The Rev Terri C. Pilarski Christ Church Dearborn • 120 N. Military Dearborn, MI 48124 313-565-8450 terri@christchurchdearborn.org Diocese of Michigan Co-Convener

STAFF Chris Mackey 1103 Magnolia Street • South Pasadena, CA 91030 626/201-2363 mackmay22@sbcglobal.net Business Manager

Cover photos from bottom left, clockwise: A “UN Women for Peace” march outside the General Assembly Building, to mark International Women’s Day, March 8. Yoo Soon-taek (third from left, in white hat), wife of Secretary-General Ban Kimoon, led the march. Participants included actor and activist Susan Sarandon (on Mrs. Ban’s left), and Monique Coleman (right), UN Champion for Youth. Another photo of the march. Michele Bachelet (shown on a screen), executive director of UN Women, speaks at an event commemorating International Women’s Day. Muna Ghassan Tamim Rihani, wife of Nassir Abdulaziz Al-Nasser, High Representative of the UN Alliance of Civilizations, spoke at the march. Susan Sarandon (at lectern, with placard) was among the speakers at the march. Mrs. Ban speaking at the event. PHOTOS: United Nations News Service.

Karen D. Bota 1193 N. State Rd. • Ionia, MI 48846 586/291-8877 kdbota@aol.com Publications Editor

The Episcopal Women’s Caucus: Advocating for women since 1971, theologically, spiritually, politically. www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Churchwide conversation focuses on human trafficking

Presiding bishop hosts off-site UNCSW event by Lynette Wilson [Episcopal News Service] There are more human beings in bondage today, twice as many as at the height of the slave trade, working in conditions of forced labor and sexual servitude in what is a $32 billion a year business, second only to the illicit drug trade, said Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori in her opening remarks during an hour-long, churchwide conversation on human trafficking March 6. Of those enslaved, she said, 80 percent are women and girls, but men and boys are also caught in situations of forced labor, forced marriages, illegal adoptions, the making of pornography, domestic servitude, the harvesting of organs, child beggars and child soldiers.

of Iowa, whose congregation is involved in a ministry of presence at one of the largest truck stops in the country, speaking about ministries operating throughout the Episcopal Church in response to human trafficking; Terrie Robinson, coordinator of the Anglican Communion’s networks and women’s desk officer, discussing communionwide actions and policies; Laura Russell, a lawyer from the Diocese of Newark, addressing the church’s policies and implementation based on General Convention resolutions; and Lynnaia Main, the church’s officer for global relations, talking about the United Nations’ response to human trafficking and Episcopal Church involvement.

As Christians, Jefferts Schori said, “we are charged to care for the sojourners in our midst.” An estimated 27 million people worldwide are victims of trafficking, with most being trafficked for labor and sex, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2012 Trafficking in Persons Report. The United States is a major destination country for trafficked persons, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

Lynnaia Main, the church’s officer for global relations, Sarah Dreier, the church’s Office of Government Relations legislative representative for international policy and advocacy, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori and Brian McVey of the Diocese of Iowa during an hour-long, churchwide conversation on human trafficking March 6. PHOTO / ENS

Jefferts Schori led the hour-long conversation, which focused on defining human trafficking and showing how it links with violence against women and girls. The church-sponsored event, streamed online from the Episcopal Church Center’s Chapel of Christ the Lord in New York, was one of many off-site gatherings scheduled to coincide with the 57th annual United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW). This year’s theme was the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls. (The forum is available on demand at http://bit.ly/Z6o7uT.)

Panelists included Sarah Dreier, the church’s Office of Government Relations legislative representative for international policy and advocacy, addressing advocacy on the federal, state and local levels and the presence of trafficking across the world and the Episcopal Church; Brian McVey of the Diocese

Dreier, who is based in the church’s Washington, D.C. office on Capitol Hill, shared good news in that the U.S. Congress Feb. 28, as part of the Violence Against Women Act, renewed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act, which calls for increased screening for potential victims at international airports — trafficking hot spots — and allows victims of trafficking to gain temporary immigration status in the United States.

“But it doesn’t mean our work is done,” Dreier said, adding that, with the exception of the state of Wyoming, 49 U.S. states have passed human trafficking legislation, and 39 states are pushing for stronger trafficking laws. Human trafficking, Dreier said, exists in every country of the world, and therefore in every country and every diocese where the Episcopal Church is present, and the best thing Episcopalians can do is investigate the laws in their states and work toward strengthening those laws aimed toward “protection, prevention and prosecution.” McVey, who serves as the rector of St. Alban’s Church in Davenport, Iowa, suggested that the first thing people can do to combat slavery in their midst is to pray, and the second thing to do is to begin to educate people about the existence of trafficking.

continued on page 5

Ruach | Easter 2013

PB hosts conversation on human trafficking In practical terms, he suggested, educating young girls who might be targeted by traffickers online through Facebook and other social media, about the dangers; telling men to quit buying pornography and educating men who have been arrested for purchasing sex about where their money goes and how it violates women; directing law enforcement to places where trafficking exists; and lobbying legislators for stronger human trafficking laws. (Episcopalians, dioceses and parishes across the country, in places as different as south Florida and Iowa, are engaged in combating human trafficking through awareness and action. ) Russell, who has worked with trafficking victims for more than 10 years, pointed out that foreign nationals are not the only victims of trafficking, and that domestic runaways also can end up trafficked. Nationally, the U.S. Department of Justice reports that 100,000 to 300,000 children, average ages 12 to 14, are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation, a form of human trafficking, each year in the United States.

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Main also talked about the important work of Anglican Women’s Empowerment in the combatting of human trafficking. Robinson, who works across the Anglican Communion, talked about the Anglican Consultative Council’s passage of a resolution to address trafficking in persons last October during its meeting in Auckland, New Zealand, and she talked about developing and sharing model practices for addressing prevention and rehabilitation of victims.

Nationally, the U.S. DOJ reports that 100,000 to 300,000 children, average ages 12 to 14, are at risk for commercial sexual exploitation, a form of human trafficking, each year in the United States.

Russell also spoke about the five General Convention resolutions, going back to the first resolution passed in 2000, condemning human trafficking, supporting trafficking victims and calling for churchwide public education campaigns. Main, who closely monitors the work of the United Nations and works with other groups to monitor human trafficking, talked about how the United Nations respects and welcomes the voice of the Episcopal Church, and how the church’s involvement in combatting trafficking dates back to when the United Nations, in 2000, adopted the Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons.

“We have a special place in this issue because we are the body of Christ in the world,” said Robinson, adding that that includes not only sharing the trauma associated with human trafficking, but also the Good News. At the close of the conversation, each of the panelists reminded those present both in the room and online, not only to remember the victims, but also recognize their own role in human trafficking. (Visit slaveryfootprint.org to calculate how many slaves work for you.)

Other Episcopal Church-related off-site events scheduled in conjunction with the UNCSW on March 6 included an international panel discussion on the elimination and prevention of all forms of violence against women and girls hosted by the L.O.V.E. Task Force on Non-Violent Living at the Church of the Holy Trinity in Manhattan. Sarah Eagle Heart, the church’s program officer for Native American and indigenous ministries, was scheduled to participate on the panel. Lynette Wilson is an editor and reporter for Episcopal News Service.

Educate men and boys to prevent violence against women, says England rep at UN Commission on Women [Church of England] Mandy Marshall, the Church of England representative at this year’s United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW), says that educating men and boys is key to preventing violence against women, adding that faith groups must lead the way.

Justice Network in South Africa outlining 10 points required in engaging men to prevent and end violence against women.

The commission, which ran from March 4 to15, was designed to coincide with International Women’s Day on March 8.

Mandy who used social media to keep supporters updated during the commission, concluded her latest blog with: “With one in four women in the U.K. suffering abuse in her lifetime, and two women a week being killed by their partner or former partner, it is indeed time for action.”

Writing in her blog on “Men at a Women’s conference,” Marshall referred to a presentation from the Sonke Gender

But she stressed that there must be “a focus on including faith leaders, as transformers of cultures, in the process of prevention.”

www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Women’s Indaba success will mean similar gatherings across Africa, United States [Anglican Communion News Service] The first three-day Indaba process specifically designed for women to discuss the issue of violence has been hailed a success by participants. Women from North America and Africa said they were so impressed with the format, they plan to replicate the process in the future. Eleven women travelled to Manhattan, New York, to spend March 1 to 3 in deep conversation across difference. Speaking after the gathering, participants made clear it had been a significant experience for everyone. Burundi representative Mathilda Nkwirikiye said, “It is like when your neighbor lets you look through a window into his house. You learn a lot of things … So I have learned a lot of things about these people because they were willing to share their feelings about their experiences and their community’s experiences.”

tentially provides us with a process and framework to continue what we have been doing and will continue to do in the future: bringing girls and women from around the world together … to learn, understand, collaborate, inspire, and support each other in our work for women’s empowerment, wherever that may be.” Kim Robey, retired executive director of AWE, agreed. “It exceeded our expectations … Our goal was to deepen relationships and to start the conversation about how we might work together in the future and that happened.” Both said they were hopeful that a next step would be similar gatherings, in the U.S. and also in Africa, with girls from America taking part in an Indaba conversation with girls from different countries in Africa.

Lucie Nzarambal is vice She chairperson added that Participants following their three-day Indaba on violence against women and girls. PHOTO / ACNS of the Mothshe had been ers’ Union surprised by in Rwanda and a district councilor representing women. She how easily women who met as strangers talked about such a agreed the experience had been very good, but added there difficult topic — violence against women and girls. She also had been challenging moments in the conversations. “When praised the Indaba model. “We generally go to conferences we were talking and hearing about stories [of violence against where facilitators have planned the lines of the conversation, women and girls] people were sad, they were crying,” she but we built [the agenda] ourselves as a group; we said what we wanted to talk about and how we wanted to go through the said. “We felt bad to hear that women like us had been raped, been violated. Those were difficult times.” conversation.” Diane Eynon is the chairperson of the Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE) group that facilitated the event, which was hosted at the Episcopal Church’s offices in New York City. “We believe this experience will allow us to take our work with young girls and women around the Anglican Communion to a higher and more effective level,” said Eynon. “Indaba po

Ruach | Easter 2013

She explained that, thanks to the gathering, she would be going back with new tools to address violence in Rwanda. “This is the first time I’ve heard about ‘safe spaces’ where a woman can come and talk and break silence about the violence [she has experienced]. That’s something I will take back to my country; as is the idea of gathering two or three women continued on page 8

your

commentary

Thoughts on ‘Indian Giver’ by Elsie Dennis Editor’s note: Elsie Dennis offered these thoughts August 6, 2012.

uring the mornings the first three things I do are: turn on the coffee pot, turn on the television, and turn on the computer. I check my email and start posting on my Facebook page and for several pages where I serve as a volunteer administrator. My mornings are peacefully quiet and the television serves as background noise ready to catch my attention if there is a “breaking news” announcement. On the television this morning, I peeked over at Matt Lauer and Meredith Vieira discussing Olympic clothing when I heard him tell her “Don’t be an Indian giver” as one playfully tried to tug at a garment and the other retracted it. My first thought was, “He didn’t say that. I can’t believe he said that.” Please know this is not an attack against Mr. Lauer. I am a long-time fan of his and of the “Today Show.” Other celebrities, Kris Jenner and Jessica Simpson, also have recently been taken to task for using that same phrase. As I learned at a Words Matter training, let’s assume good intentions in communication, that people in most cases do not intentionally wish to do emotional and psychological harm to others. Why does the phrase “Indian giver” cause me personally to cringe? I answer as one Native person, and not as one who speaks for all Native people. A common misperception is that one Native person speaks for all of us. I would not venture to claim that ability … ever.

of acres of land. For Native people, the U.S. government is viewed as Elsie Dennis (center) with her daughter, Erica the body that Lohrey, and granddaughter, Alyssa. failed to hold up their part of the treaties, official and binding agreements between two nations. The use of the phrase “Indian giver” does not recognize the generosity of Native people in so many ways: at potlatches where the wealth of a family is determined not by how much they have, but by how much they give away; give-away celebrations where people are recognized for how far they have traveled to come to be with the family for a name-giving ceremony or for weddings, or to remember a beloved band, clan or tribal member at a funeral. Hospitality is part of every Native community. My late grandmother on my mother’s side had an “open house” where anyone was welcome and coffee, tea and food was served to anyone who stopped by at any time. We may not have much, but what we have we share with others.

“The phrase ‘Indian giver’ is offensive, its association with Native people is inaccurate and its use perpetuates stereotyping and divisiveness between mainstream culture and the First Peoples.” — Elsie Dennis

“Indian giver” is a term that has come to mean offering a gift and then abruptly taking the gift back, and it has come to be associated with indigenous people, the First Peoples of the Americas. One explanation is that newcomers from Europe did not understand that Native people were offering goods in trade or attempting to loan items, and not necessarily as gifts, and so colonizers were offended when things were taken back by the first people of the land. For some Native people, rather the phrase means that we were the ones promised the retention of some of our land, the right to fish, hunt and gather food in “usual and accustomed” areas, and goods and services (food, education, medical care and housing) in exchange for ceding millions

I have been the recipient of many wonderful gifts that have lifted my heart and spirit at Native events within the Episcopal Church, including “WinterTalk,” a regular gathering of Native clergy and Native lay ministry leaders and supporters at the national and provincial levels. At the beginning of WinterTalk, we build the altar to be used during our worship services, and as a way of introduction we share our names and tell about the items we are placing on it that are of spiritual importance to us. At the close of WinterTalk we have a giveaway to thank our hosts and to recognize people we appreciate, people we’ve become closer to during the gathering. People are not expected to give away the items they have placed on the altar, but some choose to do as acts of generosity and love. At the Province VIII WinterTalk held in January 2012, and hosted by the Diocese of Oregon and the Confederated continued on page 14 www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Report of the Episcopal Church to the International Anglican Women’s Network Editor’s note: The following report was submitted by Lynnaia Main, global relations officer of the Episcopal Church and provincial link to IAWN, with assistance from Sandi McPhee, member of the IAWN Steering Group, and Margaret Rose, ecumenical and interreligious deputy (formerly head of Women’s Ministries) of the Episcopal Church.

King (DOK), Episcopal Church Women (ECW), The Episcopal Community, Episcopal Women’s Caucus (The Caucus) and Episcopal Women’s History Project (EWHP).

he Episcopal Church represents Anglican women in 16 countries: Austria, Belgium, Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, France, Germany, Haiti, Honduras, Italy, Micronesia, Switzerland, Taiwan, Venezuela, the U.S. and British Virgin Islands. Since 2009, it has not had a centralized Women’s Ministries program or staff person. Although this makes information harder to obtain, women continue to work individually, and together, to transform their families, themselves, their communities, their churches and the world.

1. What are some of the achievements of Anglican women in your province over the last three years? What work and programs have women been involved in, especially in the following areas?

This report to the International Anglican Women’s Network (IAWN) is based on publications, Web materials, reports and resolutions passed at General Convention in July 2012. Furthermore, interviews were conducted with several women from overseas dioceses, the staff liaison for Executive Council’s Committee on the Status of Women, and several representatives of established women’s organizations in the U.S., many of which are part of an umbrella body, the Council of Episcopal Women’s Organizations (CEWO): Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE), the Order of the Daughters of the

Women’s Indaba success from page 6 together in small groups, giving them the opportunity to break the silence [about abuse]. Women are not able to talk about it in large gatherings.” The youngest participant, Faith Meitiaki from Kenya, said she had been surprised to discover that “women in the developed world” struggled with life, too. “They have an education, they are economically empowered, so I have never thought about the challenging part of their lives. I realized that every woman has challenges, and are also fighting sexual abuse and domestic violence. For me that was an eye opener: that, as long as you’re a woman, you will always face violence. That was a common denominator between the women from Africa and America.” The participants were Maylin Biggadike (USA), Carey Chirico (USA), Diane Eynon (USA), Zilpa Kisonzelas (Tanzania), Faith Meitiaki (Kenya), Claudaline Muhindo (DR Congo), Mathilda Nkwirikiye (Burundi), Lucie Nzarambal (Rwanda), Sue Ramar (USA), Kim Robey (USA) and Laura Russell (USA). The facilitators were Janet Marshall (Canada) and Alice Mogwe (Botswana).

Ruach | Easter 2013

Lynnaia Main, global relations officer of the Episcopal Church and provincial link to IAWN

Equal representation of women in church decision-making bodies — Leadership and representation by and of women is evident throughout the Episcopal Church, even at its most senior levels, with the first female presiding bishop in the Anglican Communion, The Most Rev. Dr. Katharine Jefferts Schori, since 2006, as well as the leadership of former and recently elected presidents of the House of Deputies. Nevertheless, progress has been halting, and inequality between men and women persists, especially in the clergy order. In 2011, the Church Pension Group published a report, “Called to Serve,” co-sponsored by the Committee on the Status of Women, CREDO Institute and the Episcopal Church’s Office of Women’s Ministry. It provides extensive data on the vocational realities of clergy women and men and recognized “persistent and pervasive inequalities in the employment prospects and compensation of women clergy.” Women coming out of seminary are equal to men in getting their first calls, but a disparity arises between younger women and men in search of second and/or rector calls. Data also revealed a significant gender difference in the desire for mentoring and the support available for clergy, and a two-tiered clergy system with a largely male tier engaged in full time parish or diocesan ministry as a primary vocation, and a second, largely female tier engaged in part-time ministry within or outside the parish system. Women are less likely than men to become vicars, rectors, priests-incharge, cathedral deans, or bishops. Further, the number of female diocesan bishops has decreased. Only one woman has been elected diocesan in the last triennium, although women have been on the slates and have become suffragans. The equity gap in compensation also persists between female and male clergy. Compensation is not commensurate with experience or hours committed. Many times, work is unpaid. Nevertheless, one piece of good news was that women 50 and over seeking first calls have a higher percentage of employment than their male counterparts. continued on page 28

Liturgy for blessing same-sex relationships, approved at GC 2012, begins provisional use by Sharon Sheridan, Episcopal News Service

n the final debate before General Convention approved a provisional church liturgy to bless the lifelong relationships of same-sex couples, Episcopal Diocese of Chicago Deputy Ian Hallas, 22, spoke about his sister, Louisa, and her civil union. “The love that she shares with her partner is unconditional and speaks to the ideal relationships all of us should strive to have,” he told the House of Deputies on July 10 in Indianapolis. “I often get asked by churchgoers and nonchurchgoers why I am a part of this body. The reason I return is for my sister. I seek to assure that she not only has the same rites as myself but also the same privileges.” The new rite, “The Witnessing and Blessing of a Lifelong Covenant,” was authorized for use with diocesan episcopal permission beginning Dec. 2, the first Sunday of Advent.

gives it a different level of authority as opposed to what’s been permitted to be used in individual dioceses,” Ruth Meyers, SCLM chair and Hodges-Haynes professor of liturgics at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California, told ENS. “I know that there were some bishops who were unwilling to allow blessings to take place in their diocese until there was some churchwide decision to allow blessings.”

Louisa Hallas and kClare Kemock had their civil union blessed at their home parish of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in Clarendon Hills, Ill., Dec. 29.

On Dec. 29, Louisa Hallas, 25, and kClare Kemock, 30, had their union blessed at their home parish of Holy Nativity Episcopal Church in Clarendon Hills, Illinois. The couple, engaged for just over a year, met working backstage at the Illinois Shakespeare Festival. Kemock is a costume designer; Hallas now works as administrative assistant for the Chicago diocese’s director of ministries.

The new liturgy and a short theological summary, excerpted from the report of the Standing Commission on Liturgy and Music titled “I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing,” are posted at https://www.churchpublishing. org/media/869869/IWillBlessYouandYouWillBeaBlessingEXTRACT.pdf. The entire set of liturgical resources from the report will be available for $24 from Church Publishing in mid-January and includes a theological essay, guidance on canon law, materials to prepare couples for a blessing service and teaching materials inviting congregational conversation and theological reflection. Although some dioceses have permitted blessing rites, this is the first time the church as a whole has authorized such a liturgy. “For the church to have said this is an authorized liturgy

Besides approving the liturgy, General Convention Resolution A049 directed the commission to continue to review the materials, “inviting responses from provinces, dioceses, congregations and individuals from throughout the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion, and from our ecumenical partners,” and report to the 2015 General Convention.

“Because we’re a church who learns as we pray and our theology develops through our experiences of worship, we’ll learn more about what it means to bless the relationships of same-sex couples through our experience of these liturgies,” Meyers said. “So the commission will be developing a process of review and will want to learn from clergy and couples and congregations who are using these materials, and there may well be some refinements to the material.” A separate resolution (A050) authorized a task force to study marriage and directed it to consult with SCLM and the Standing Commission on Constitution and Canons about addressing clergy’s pastoral needs “to officiate at a civil marriage of a same-sex couple” in states where it is legal.

Differing approaches The blessing liturgy is authorized only with the permission of the diocesan bishop, and clergy can decline to preside at a blessing ceremony. Resolution A049 specified that bishops, particularly in dioceses located in civil jurisdictions where same-sex marriages, civil unions or domestic partnerships are legal, could provide a “generous pastoral response” and that bishops could adapt the liturgical materials to meet church members’ needs. continued on page 22 www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

inside

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Women serving in the military face challenges on many fronts by Babs M. Meairs

ast Memorial Day Weekend I was speaking at a local Episcopal church on the history of women in the military. I had to mention one of my current heroes: Tammy Duckworth, who was in a race last fall for a Congressional seat. Duckworth was co-piloting an Army helicopter in Iraq in November of 2004 when it was struck down, and she lost both legs and partial use of an arm as a result. Turning to advocacy for veterans, this resilient woman, who refused a medical discharge from the National Guard, has served as the Illinois state secretary for Veterans Affairs and was appointed by President Obama as an assistant secretary in the Department of Veterans Affairs. In her second bid for Congress, she faced Republican Joe Walsh, an outspoken Tea Party freshman. Duckworth is one of a number of women veterans who are taking their battle scars into public service by running for Congress. Now, when military experience is at an all-time low in Congress, women veterans bring a special perspective to addressing America’s issues and particularly legislation affecting women. Duckworth refers to the unique voice of female war veterans and getting involved in “real discussions about the cost of war.” Women in the military, as reported in a recent article by Patricia Smith, a compassion fatigue specialist and author of several books, deal with a multitude of additional issues that do not plague their male counterparts. Many people do not see the roles of military women as important or dangerous, and this has a negative effect on the health and reintegration of returning women veterans. For example, because women are in support roles, they often are not treated for posttraumatic stress, even though their jobs place them in the same environments and exposure as most of the men. The widespread sex abuse scandal at Lackland Air Force Base was cited by Representative Jackie Speier (D-California), a member of the House Armed Services Committee, in an article she wrote in August calling for an end to sexual assault in the armed forces. Speier called for serious reforms to the military justice system by advocating for HR 3435, the STOP Act to take cases of rape and sexual assault out of the normal chain of command and place them in the jurisdiction of an impartial office within the military and treating such crimes as felonies. The Pentagon estimates that 19,000 rapes or sexual assaults are committed each year in the military by service members on other service members, but only 13.5 percent of the victims report the crimes. Yet, as Speier notes, the Pentagon also argues that rape and sexual assault are just “occupational hazards” of joining the military. The consequences of these rapes have been brought to 10

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Congressional attention by Senator Jeanne Shaheen (DNew Hampshire), who has championed an amendment to the 2013 National DeBabs Meairs fense Authorization Act to expand abortion access for military women who are raped. In late May, the Senate Armed Services Committee approved Shaheen’s amendment, with favorable votes from Republican Senators John McCain, Scott Brown, and Susan Collins. However, a big problem remains in the Republican-controlled House, where a version unlike Shaheen’s is not expected to be approved. Current Pentagon policy is more restrictive than the 1976 Hyde Amendment, regarding funds for abortion services, denying military women’s coverage in cases of rape or incest. Under current law, if a State Department employee is raped, her government health insurance plan will pay for an abortion if she wants one. If an active duty woman is serving overseas, such as those now in Afghanistan, is raped and becomes pregnant, she can’t use her military plan to pay for an abortion and if she can’t prove she was raped, she may have to look for services off base, which can be dangerous in many parts of the world. Shaheen notes that women serving in the military do not have the same rights to affordable and safe health services as the civilians they protect. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand (D-New York) has sponsored a policy change referred to committee June 16, 2011, regarding the use of Department of Defense funds and facilities for abortions, a bill called MARCH for Military Women Act (Military Access to Reproductive Care and Health). This effort has been backed by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (RCRC) and numerous other advocates. The MARCH Act would 1. restore abortion coverage to military women who are the survivors of rape or incest, and 2. lift the ban on women in the military using their own funds for an abortion in military facilities when serving overseas. This bill is estimated to have a 21 percent chance of being enacted. Still, the Women’s Health and Rights Program at the Center for American Progress estimates that several hundred women in the military become pregnant as a result of rape each year. The failure of Congress and the Pentagon to support victims of rape who seek fairness in their healthcare rights is indicative of a continuing political ploy to denigrate women. In a news release October 13, 2012, the Service Women’s Action Network (SWAN) denounced a sexist ad mocking Congrescontinued on page 24

H. Coleman McGehee, 8th bishop of Michigan, dies [Episcopal Diocese of Michigan] H. Coleman McGehee, retired bishop of the Diocese of Michigan, has died at the age of 89. McGehee served as bishop coadjutor from 1971 to 1973 and as diocesan bishop from 1973 to 1990. He died March 14, after a protracted illness at St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in Pontiac. The bishop was surrounded by loved ones keeping vigil by his side throughout his final days. His peaceful transition was made while his daughter, Cary, was reading spiritual imperatives to him H. Coleman McGehee

He is survived by his wife of 67 years, June; their daughters, Lesley and Cary; sons Alexander, C. Harry and Donald; and four grandchildren. McGehee was born in Richmond, Va., and came to the ordained ministry via engineering, military service and the practice of law. He was at one time deputy attorney general of the Commonwealth of Virginia. An avid golfer, McGehee was swimming laps three times a week and taking other exercise as he had for years until the onset of his final illness in mid-February. He had stopped functioning publicly after the onset of dementia several years ago. After service during World War II as a 2nd lieutenant in the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, he graduated from Virginia

Polytechnic Institute in 1947. He earned a law degree at the University of Richmond in 1949. Eight years later ,he entered the Protestant Episcopal Theological Seminary of Virginia, graduating in 1957. Prior to coming to Michigan, he was rector of Immanuel-on-the-Hill Episcopal Church in Alexandria, Va., from 1960 to 1971 where he was the pastor to the late President Gerald R. Ford and Betty Ford. McGehee was elected a bishop in May 1971 and took up his new duties in Michigan in October of that year. Then 48, he succeeded Richard S. Emrich, who had led the diocese since 1948. McGehee’s convictions about justice and peace matched his concern that not only the church, but society, too, should respect the dignity of every human being. He supported union labor. He offered a liturgy for peace on many a Good Friday at the gates of Williams International in Walled Lake, where missiles were then made. He supported the cause of women clergy, and in 1977 ordained the first woman priest in the Diocese of Michigan. He welcomed gay and lesbian members into the church and was not hesitant to ordain them. McGehee was one of the founders, with Roman Catholic Bishop Thomas Gumbleton and the late Rabbi Richard Hertz, of the Michigan Coalition for Human Rights. The bishop’s conscience led him to support the locked-out Detroit Free Press and Detroit News employees in 1995. Then 72 and retired for five years, he stood with them on the picket line, spoke for them and was willing to go to jail with them. McGehee was a spiritual leader, friend and advocate in the diocese and throughout the church. His legacy will not be forgotten.

Survey finds women veterans unaware of available services SACRAMENTO — Women veterans in California are largely unaware of services available to them and require many specialized services that are currently unavailable, according to the results of a survey released last July. “Women veterans’ needs have been subsumed under the needs of veterans in general for many years,” begins the overview of the survey, conducted by California State Library’s California Research Bureau (CRB). “Because women veterans make up less than 10 percent of the total current veteran population, their unique needs have been obscured by this. This is beginning to change.” The 2011 survey of nearly 900 women veterans, conducted at the request of the California Department of Veterans Affairs and the California Commission on the Status of Women, found that many women veterans are unaware of the state and federal services and benefits available to them, and that many services

they do want are not currently available — including womenspecific healthcare and help with military sexual trauma. Roughly half of the participants also expressed a need for assistance in finding employment at the close of their service, as they transition back into civilian life. “These surveys provide us with the sort of information we need to continue our efforts at the state and federal level to fill the unique needs of this country’s women veterans, expand outreach efforts, and increase access to existing services,” said Senator Lois Wolk (D-Davis), who requested the first such CRB study on women veterans’ issues five years ago with the California Commission on the Status of Women. The results of both the 2009 and 2011 surveys are available online at the CRB’s website. Read an overview of the 2011 survey’s results at www.library.ca.gov/crb/12/BrieflyStated12004.pdf. www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Did you know that our church is pro-choice? (Well, it is. And it has been since before Roe v. Wade was decided.) by John Vanderstar

n this article, I will discuss the subject of abortion and religion and will then focus attention on the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.

I Opinions on abortion are very divided, as it is an extremely difficult subject. But a large majority of Americans believe that a woman’s decision to terminate a pregnancy is for her to make, guided by her conscience and other factors. Most people believe, for example, that a woman who becomes pregnant as a result of a rape should not be forced to relive the horror of the rape as she carries the pregnancy to term and then during the life of the child if it is born. In other words, the subject is not abortion. It’s “choice” — who makes the decision. A decision to have an abortion is a “moral” decision. The woman is a moral agent who may make the decision to terminate a pregnancy for reasons that are best known to her. She has the right to decide what happens to her own body. Thus, the decision is a choice between two or more values. The fetus is not a “person,” only a potential human life and this must be weighed against the woman’s life and her other needs: too many children, inability to care for more, serious health problems, etc. The woman needs to reflect on how she will live with her decision. No one else can make this decision, even though the decision may well affect others, such as the father (who might himself need counseling about the abortion decision), the woman’s family and the community. Ideally, they will all be consulted, but not if the relationships are dysfunctional, and in any event advisers should be thinking only of the woman and the potential human life and not their own religious beliefs. The Episcopal Church has expressed itself on this issue time and again, beginning in 1967. General Convention stated that abortion is permissible when “the pregnancy has resulted from a rape or incest,” or when the child would evidently be born “badly deformed in mind or body,” or when the “physical or mental health of the mother is threatened seriously.” In other cases the woman is “urged to seek the advice and counsel of a Priest of this Church and, where appropriate, penance.” (See Resolutions D005 1976; B009 1982; C047 1988; and A054 1994.) But at the end of the day, it is the woman, and only the woman, who decides whether to carry a pregnancy to term. These same General Convention resolutions all express the church’s “unequivocal opposition” to legislation that would interfere with the woman’s decision. In other words, terminating a pregnancy involves a pastoral matter and should not be the subject of laws. We must trust the 12

woman to make the right decision. Not only our church but also most mainline Protestant and Jewish religious traditions oppose laws that interfere with this decision.

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Some people who oppose abortion under all circumstances have tried to insert into their state constitutions a “personhood” amendment. This amendment would state unequivocally that as matter of law, “personhood” begins at conception. This would, of course, convert every abortion into a homicide. Most people, however, believe that the question “when does life begin?” is a philosophical and theological question. Biblical passages offer several possibilities: Genesis 2:7 says Adam came to life when God breathed life into him; Exodus 21:22 says that if a person injures a pregnant woman and the fetus is ejected (and presumably does not survive) the wrongdoer is fined (not executed); Psalm 139:13 seems to say God formed us in the womb. How can legislatures be expected to decide such questions? Moreover, this kind of decision has enormous practical and social consequences. Would a childless but pregnant woman say “yes” to the question, “Do you have children?” Should the census count a fetus as a person? If stem cell research relies on human embryos, is that homicide? And, of course, there is the constitutional question whether, in the face of Roe v. Wade, a legislature can lawfully decide, by defining a fetus as a person, that every abortion is homicide. Fortunately, whenever these “personhood” amendments have been put to the people of a state in a referendum, the people have rejected them — most recently in Mississippi.

III The issues surrounding the abortion debate extend far beyond the simple matter of “choice.” Indeed, to the amazement of most of us old-timers, the country finds itself deep in discussion about birth control — a subject we thought had been settled long ago. Every woman (and man) has an absolute right to receive an accurate sex education as part of state-required K-12 education. (So-called “abstinence-only” programs are ineffective.) She is also entitled to have access to family planning information and devices, even if the state has to pay for it. These are probably the best way to reduce the number of abortions, especially among economically disadvantaged women. It is perfectly clear that many women who find themselves in an unintended pregnancy — nearly half of pregnancies in the US are unintended, according to the Guttmacher Institute — will opt for abortion, even if substantial obstacles are put in her way. continued on page 35

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One woman’s demand by Patricia M Gil

omen have not been treated as full citizens of these United States from the inception of this country, and our Declaration of Independence and Constitution, through the amendment process, did not remedy these deficiencies; our lives have been restricted unduly because of false information and invalid ideas which depicted women as inferior human beings in mind and body incapable of self determination. While strides have been made since the Declaration of Rights and Sentiments signed in 1848 at the Seneca Falls Convention, we are left wanting for rights that were automatically bestowed, without restriction, upon free white men. Women are being submitted to current restrictions and intrusions into their lives and new ones are on the horizon to be inflicted on our persons, bringing us back in time where the mindset prevailed that women are not mentally qualified to determine their fates. The following words are taken directly from the 1848 document and still hold true today. I will let them stand as the opening remark for a new set of usurpations. “The history of mankind is a history of repeated injuries and usurpations on the part of man toward woman, having in direct object the establishment of an absolute tyranny over her. To prove this, let facts be submitted to a candid world.” That only after 100 years of protest by our fore-sisters who suffered humiliation, beatings, forced feeding and death were we granted suffrage. That as a woman we should restrict our dress, behavior or attitude to “prevent” the vile crime of rape instead of putting the blame where it belongs. Our dress neither entices nor rejects a rapist. Instead teach males that there is no acceptable intercourse unless the woman is fully capable in all respects to make a clear and concise decision free of alcohol, drugs, coercion or force. The legal remedy should not be less than fitting the crime if it were committed upon another man. That certain individuals in power have tried and are still trying to redefine and classify rape into categories like “forcible” and “legitimate,” for the purpose of removing the remedy of abortion should the woman become pregnant from the crime. This debate is demeaning and harmful to women who survived a crime so personal that it can change their life forever. That as a woman we are still in extreme jeopardy of violence and death at the hands of a spouse or partner and the abuse is viewed by a society and legal system that either blames the woman for the violence inflicted on her or deems the offense somehow less in scope as she is still perceived as property of the abuser.

That the Violence Against Women Act was held up by some in our government who wanted to omit certain classifications of women from protection. There is no Patricia M Gil other classification necessary, a woman is a woman regardless of race, sexual preference or legal status and therefore worthy of protection from violence. There can be no logical argument against this act, and if held up for political ploy or power is shameful. That woman’s equal work is less valuable monetarily because of our gender. That some patriarchal ideology that men should be paid more as some outdated mentality regarding only males as “head of household” and thereby worth more and a threat of repeal by those who do not value a woman’s rights of equality. That by apportioning the majority of money from employment to “man” gives him the ability to send a rejected family or spouse into poverty or take custody of offspring unfairly because of his ability through financial status to hire superior representation in the courts which gives him preferred access to the legal system. That because a woman loves another woman, as some in society thinks she should only love a man, the civil liberty of marriage is denied them along with all other rights regarded as normal for even partners of the same sex. This denial of equality is not due to any valid reasoning but is imposed due to other individual personal and or religious beliefs that have no bearing on the life of the individual in question. That contraception, which is the single most determining factor beyond personal performance in allowing a female to thrive in the workplace, and determine her reproductive timing and her future, is not covered by insurance companies as a general practice, and legislation (The Blunt Amendment) was introduced which would allow any “employer” the right to refuse contraceptive coverage in the company insurance plan for his female employees because of the “employers” moral or religious beliefs. Further, pertinent evidence that some forms of contraception are also used, and are required, as medication for various ailments has not been discussed in making this determination. Further, there is the beginning of discussions by some who want to outlaw contraception altogether, which would yet again make women slaves to their reproductive systems. That we were finally granted autonomy over our bodies continued on page 14 www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

One woman’s demand from page 13 and control over our reproduction, within medical parameters, the availability of abortion services by the highest court in the land under our right of privacy. Now that right is under siege in every state across this country for reasons not pertaining to any personal issue of the individual but by those wishing to restrict our freedoms because of THEIR personal and/or religious beliefs. Legislation has been introduced in some states that would force unnecessary medical procedures and time requirements as a hindrance on a woman seeking a legal abortion. There is even debate of wanting to end the option for the widely accepted exceptions of rape, incest and life of the mother. That some further want to amend the Constitution to grant personhood to a fertilized egg, granting it full citizenship with all rights and no restrictions giving a non sentient group of cells, that are only a potential not a surety, unrestricted rights that women still do not have and thereby leaving the door open to the fertilized egg taking legal precedent over the female who carries it. This would make women brood mares and hold women captive to their reproductive systems. Women could be prosecuted for miscarriages if the circumstances were questioned. The legislation would, in fact, legalize FORCED REPRODUCTION. That we live in a country, that since introduced into congress for the first time in 1972, the Equal Rights Amendment, which passed both houses, has failed to receive the requisite number of ratifications by the states thereby maintaining the legal inequality of women and giving further evidence that women’s rights are not to be set by the state in which she resides.

That some legislators want to give control over a woman’s rights and equality to the state where they are more easily restricted by a preponderance of party affiliation or religion, both of which may not be of the woman’s personal beliefs or political leanings and therefore should have no bearing on her rights. Because life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness have different definitions by different individuals, restrictions should only be based on laws common to all and the tenet that one man’s/woman’s freedoms stop at the freedom of another born individual. The false beliefs of the past to the present have held women in captivity for far too long and thereby allowing the disenfranchisement of one-half of the people of this country thereby allowing the government to deny women full rights and equality. I now stand, not asking but demanding: renouncement of future infringement and repeal of past laws, limitations and restrictions based on gender and reproduction, and claim my rights as an equal citizen of these United States of America. Patricia M Gil is the national finance director for UniteWomen.org. Gil lived the daily existence of single working mother taking what was thrown at her as life. One day life became a monster in a ski mask with a taste for her daughter. A warrior was born that day. Armed with unleashed anger and a vocabulary that did not contain fear, a war was waged and still rages today. This piece is reposted, with permission, from www.unitewomen.org. For more information about Unite Women, visit their website or their Facebook page at www. facebook.com/unitewomen.

Thoughts on ‘Indian Giver’ from page 7 Tribes of the Grand Ronde, Rocco Tedesco, a Huron man, a very dear, new member of the First Nations Committee from the Diocese of Olympia, presented me with a cross necklace that had significant meaning for him in his spiritual journey. A Paiute elder and deacon, Reynelda James, from the Diocese of Nevada, presented me with holy water from Pyramid Lake in a beautifully beaded bottle. At a previous Province VIII gathering, she had listened to my story of my personal tradition of giving out scarves, but that I myself had not received one in my family. She came back and gave me one of her scarves, and I hold it when I pray now because it was given to me in love. I am honored to be thought of as worthy to receive such gifts that brought tears to my eyes and much joy to my heart and spiritual being. The phrase “Indian giver” is offensive, its association with Native people is inaccurate and its use perpetuates stereotyping and divisiveness between mainstream culture and 14

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the First Peoples. Why do Native people give things away? One reason, as shared earlier, is to show appreciation for people choosing to travel to participate in the gatherings, and another reason is the hope that we will be remembered. Please remember me, please remember the Native people. Please support us. Please help fight the sin of racism. Elsie Dennis, Shuswap and Cherokee, is a member and past co-chair of the First Nations Committee from the Diocese of Olympia. She has served on the Executive Council Committee on Anti-Racism, and as a former staff person in the Multicultural Ministries office for the diocese. For those on Facebook, please visit the Native American/Indigenous Ministry of the Episcopal Church page and the Episcopal Intercultural Network page, where Dennis serves as volunteer administrator.

Are you and your parish up to date with scholarly studies on St. Mary Magdalene? by Kathryn Piccard A couple years ago, a letter to the editor of Ruach reflected an increasingly common belief that St. Mary Magdalene was an apostle, even though St. Junia is the only woman the Bible explicitly calls an apostle. There are good reasons more people are thinking Mary was an apostle than ever considered this possibility before. There is much more information on this subject than there was 200 years ago, and you do not have to be a scholar with a doctorate to understand the evidence. A parish study guide for Episcopalians about St. Mary Magdalene has been posted online, and this is one of the topics addressed. You can use the guide to find background reading for yourself, if you want; or you can use it to plan educational programs for your parish, or a hymn sing, or a Bible study.

A number of parishes were invited to participate in an educational program, endorsed by the Episcopal Women’s Caucus board. The program offered churches their choice of three free books on Mary Magdalene for their parish library in exchange for using the parish guide for some educational program they devised, and for evaluating the guide. But any parish can use the guide for free. Go to www. katrinasdream.org, and on the menu bar click on Katrina’s Story, then click on Just Words, then scroll down to Parish Study Guides and click on St. Mary Magdalene. You can read it online, or print free copies for use in your parish.

Who Are We?

Episcopal Church facts and figures From the Episcopal Church Office of Public Affairs

New facts and figures about membership in the Episcopal Church have been posted on the Research page: www. episcopalchurch.org/research. Among the facts: •

•

In 2011, membership in the Episcopal Church was 2,096,389 with 1,923,046 in the domestic (50 U.S. states) dioceses and 173,343 in the non-domestic (non U.S. states) dioceses. Twenty-seven domestic dioceses showed growth in membership in the past year: Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Colorado, Dallas, Fort Worth, Maine, Maryland, Navajo Missions, Nevada, North Carolina, Northern Michigan, Northwest Texas, Oklahoma, Pittsburgh, Quincy, South Carolina, South Dakota, Southeast Florida, Southwestern Virginia, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Tennessee, West Missouri and Wyoming. In the non-domestic dioceses, growth in membership was marked in six dioceses: Colombia, Dominican Republic, Ecuador-Litoral, Puerto Rico, Taiwan and Venezuela.

•

The average Sunday attendance table shows a total for the Episcopal Church of 698,376, with 657,837 in the U.S. dioceses.

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The largest active congregational membership in a domestic diocese remains St. Martin’s, Houston, marking 8,480 in 2011.

“The on-going work of our research office continues to provide vital information for our strategic planning efforts,” said Bishop Stacy Sauls, Episcopal Church chief operating officer. “Overall, we are seeing some encouraging signs, particularly in giving and average Sunday attendance. Sauls pointed to 33 dioceses that witnessed growth and upswing in the past year. “These figures, in noting comparisons to previous years, continue to suggest that our health as a body depends on an outward focus in mission and ministry,” he said. “One thing I personally hope for the future is that we can find ways of telling the story of what is going on in our churches more comprehensively, so as to get at the real picture of people being served and missional commitment.”

www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

We Are Women stands up against ‘war on women’

new grassroots organization held a national rally for women’s rights last summer on the west lawn of the United States Capitol to tell legislators “Women are watching!” We Are Woman was created to address the “war on women” taking place throughout the country. The Aug. 18 date for the rally, prior to the critical elections taking place in November, was chosen by We Are Woman as a critical time in the fight to protect and restore the rights they say are daily being eroded by conservative legislators throughout the nation in Congress and in state legislatures.

(We Are Woman now has 7,889 likes on Facebook.) The rally brought together more than 1,000 people to hear inspiring feminist speakers, musical performers and comedians. Each speaker focused on at least one aspect of the women’s rights movement within the context of the current war on women being waged by conservative politicians, like vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan. Congresswoman Eleanor HolmesNorton gave the opening address at the rally. Filmmaker Kamala Lopez, who also recorded at the rally, Andrea Gleaves of the Women’s Information Network and Alice Cohan of the Feminist Majority also spoke.

“Since November of 2010, over 1,100 pieces of legislation “Now, have been more than ever, introduced that we must insist have nothing on full equalto do with jobs ity, reproducor the economy tive freedom, or solving any fair pay, and real problems an end to this in America,” insulting attack said Erin on our rights as Nanasi of citizens of the Mad Mike’s United States,” America and said Jessica one of the DelBalzo, mefounders of We Are Women. Attendees sit under decorated umbrellas that serve as protest signs at the We Are Woman rally for dia coordinator “These 1,100 women’s rights on the west lawn of the U.S. Capitol in Washington on Aug. 18. From www.weare- for We Are Woman. “We pieces of legwoman.us. are confident islation are all that a largeabout one thing: ending women’s rights as we know them. scale gathering at the Capitol will remind the nation that we “Birth control, health care, the right to choose, attaching are a force to be reckoned with; we are mothers and daughters, stigmas to single mothers, reducing or eliminating WIC, SNAP sisters and cousins, employees, friends, and loved ones, and we and Medicaid — all of these have been the focus of the new vote.” Congress and state legislatures. From Missisippi to Michigan, governors have been treating women more like livestock to be regulated than human beings to be respected,” Nanasi said.

Rally event and apeaker coordinator Jacquie NantierHopewell became involved because she was “very alarmed by the increasingly hostile environment to women’s reproductive rights,” she said on “Inside Scoop — Northern Virginia Politics.” “It became abundantly clear to me that the legislative environment here in Virginia and in this country required an appropriate response by women in this country,” Nantier-Hopewell said. “Through social media — the co-founders of this rally met online — decided it’s up to us to step in, and we started organizing.” 16

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We Are Woman received support and participation from Planned Parenthood, as well as endorsements from NOW, the Feminist Majority, CODEPINK, the Coalition of Labor Union Women, the National Council of Women’s Organizations, the ERA Task Force Alliance-National Council of Women’s Organizations, Florida Watch Action, Rock the Slut Vote, Equality Florida, the Rainbow Push Coalition-Florida, the National Equal Rights Amendment Alliance and Virginia’s 7th District congressional candidate Wayne Powell. Learrn more about We Are Woman at its website, www. wearewoman.us.

— Press release

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Divine Feminine, Gaia, Yemanja, Grandmother Moon, Sophia, Mary, Ann, You by Ann Smith

know deep within my soul that to embrace the Divine Feminine is the way to save our planet. We know that to bring harmony to humanity, the Divine Feminine must be illuminated, praised, loved, honored and prayed to along with the Divine Masculine. We know that by calling Her name including our own we are embodying the Divine; we become Her hands, feet and heart. We gain the courage and wisdom to be the change makers needed today. Finding Her in patriarchy is not easy and in some settings not safe. When we honored and celebrated Sophia, Divine Wisdom, at the ReImagining God ecumenical conference in 1991, some women attending were fired from their jobs and some received death threats. We know that to embrace the Divine Feminine is healing and empowering for many women and men, and frightening to those who want to maintain patriarchy.

I believe this film will change hearts and minds. Audiences will see and listen to the wise women elders of Candomblé, connecting on a heart level to this important religion which places the natural Ann Smith world and women at the center of its rituals, practices and medicines. The honoring and living the principles of Candomblé are now practiced in Brazil and other countries in the Americas, including Uruguay, Argentina, Venezuela, Colombia, Panama, Cuba, the United States, as well as in parts of Europe. To support the production of this film so it can be completed and shown far and wide, go to www.projectzula. com. I am blessed to be an Episcopalian connected to Native American Episcopalians who also teach Indigenous wisdom and practices that are nature-centered and balance the Divine Feminine and Masculine in language and daily practices.

My friend Donna Roberts, along with Donna Read, two outstanding filmmakers, are working on a film about the African Brazilian religion called Candomblé, a nature-centered tradition traced Grandmother God rose last night in the face of the full back to Africa that embraces the Divine Feminine. moon. I stood out in the still summer heat watching her. Candomblé is one Brazilian “manifestation” of the How pale you look I said. How hot you look she said. We spiritual traditions that enslaved people brought to shared a smile. Knowing God is seeing God where you the New World. Filmed in beautiful Bahia, Brazil, find her. In images and languages and the thousand faces most of Candomblé’s leaders are women elders. of her world. In the intuition of faith we find her more Yemanja, sculpture Followers wear white, especially on Fridays, in clearly than in the narrow lines of our theology. Her scanhonor of Oxala, the deity of peace associated with of Carybé in wood, dal is an intimacy with all of us who are her family, who Jesus. Oxum is the Goddess of fresh water, Xango, exibit in the Musecall her by many names, and stand outside on hot summer um Afro-Brazilian, justice, Yansan, winds and storm, Oxossi protecnights to greet her when she comes to call. — Episcopal Salvador, Bahia, tor of forests, and Yemanja, great Mother Ocean. Brasil. WIKIMEDIA Native American Bishop Steven Charleston Under the watch of the Catholic Church centuries COMMONS When we experience the Divine Feminine and call her ago, in order to preserve their African practices, by many names including our own, we step into leaderCandomblé’s male and female deities became syncretized with ship of right relationships with all creation. In watching a good Jesus, Mary and other saints. Many still uphold this strange mix film, in a sacred circle conversation with people who are also of icons; others are adamantly opposed. It is a dynamic, diverse, searching and loving, in the knowing we are Nature and want to vibrant and deeply inspirational culture, thriving in the coastal learn from nature, Indigenous wisdom and science, we become city of Salvador, with three million people known as the City of healed and empowered to be the change makers so greatly needed Women. now. We held the Anglican Worldwide Encounter: Churches in Namaste! Solidarity with Women in Salvador, Brazil, in 1992. This conferAnn Smith is co-director of Circle Connections (www.circle ence radically changed the Anglican Communion by illuminating connections.com) and co-convener of developing leadership prowomen’s gifts and issues and by bringing the circle experience grams, resources, partners and sponsors for Ways Women Lead where everyone was equally valued and equally shared the infor(www.wayswomenlead.net). mation, power and resources. The Divine Feminine was quietly present throughout.

www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Women organize in the Episcopal church

he Council of Episcopal Women’s Organizations (CEWO) brings together the leaders of a number of the organizations founded by Episcopal women and through which women created space for women leadership in and service to the church and society. Women are empowered by working collaboratively with women’s organizations, program and ministry groups within and outside the church, as well as with global and local networks working for gender justice, and individual women compelled to risk transformation — of the world, the church, and their own lives in Christ. The CEWO meets in January every year to share information and resources. The following are organizations that are part of the CEWO, along with a brief sketch of each from material on their websites. To learn more, be in touch with each individual group directly. Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE) – AWE is a membership movement of Episcopal/Anglican women and girls with a broad diversity of backgrounds, interests and skills. It works for gender equity and social justice around the world by gathering and connecting women from the Anglican Communion to share resources and opportunities. AWE develops tools and training material which promote the transformative work of Christ in the church and our countries; and enables and supports girls from the Anglican Communion to be equipped and empowered as advocates for equality and justice. AWE’s work is shaped by the issues defined by the

United Nations Millennium Development Goals and the Beijing Platform for Action. It has monthly meetings with guest speakers, and a large annual international gathering for the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women meetings. For more information: anglicanwomensempowerment.org. Commission on the Status of Women – The CSW is a functional commission of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). It is the principal global policy-making body dedicated exclusively to gender equality and advancement of women. Every year, representatives of member states gather at United Nations headquarters in New York to evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and women’s empowerment worldwide. The commission was established by ECOSOC resolution 11(II) of June 21, 1946, with the aim to prepare recommendations and reports to the council on promoting women’s rights in political, economic, civil, social and educational fields. The CSW also makes recommendations to the council on urgent problems requiring immediate attention in the field of women’s rights. For more information: www.un.org/womenwatch/daw/csw. The Order of the Daughters of the King (DOK) – The DOK is a spiritual sisterhood of women dedicated to a life of Prayer, Service and Evangelism, and to the spread of Christ’s Kingdom and the strengthening of the spiritual life of her parish. “We have made a commitment to Jesus as our Savior, and we follow Him as Lord of our lives.” DOK is an order for women who are communicants of the Episcopal Church, churches in communion with it, or churches in the Historic Episcopate. Its membership includes women in the Anglican, Episcopal, Lutheran (ELCA) and Roman Catholic churches. An order is a community under a religious rule; especially one requiring members to take solemn vows. For more information: www.doknational.com. Episcopal Church Women (ECW) – Centered in congregations, ECW empowers women to do Christ’s ministry in the world. Its members are all ages, ethnic origins and socioeconomic backgrounds who hold a variety of views. “However, the common denominator of our members is love of God and the wish to do His work.” More than 80 women from provinces overseas and North America attended the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women in March 2012. PHOTO / Episcopal Church.

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h to make space ECW’s vision is for all women of the Episcopal Church become a “vibrant blend” of all ages, coming together as a peacemaking, healing part of the church. “We aspire to be a Godspark — shining and sharing the love of Christ. For more information: ecwnational.org/twentytwelve. Episcopal Community – The Episcopal Community is composed of women of the Episcopal Church called into community to support one another in a life focused on the Baptismal Covenant to be more effective disciples in the church and the Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori joins 11 teenage girls, aged 13 world. The group nurtures spiritual growth for all to 18, at Trinity Church, Wall Street, February 2012 for Girls Claiming the its members, and helps build up the spiritual life of Future: Hopes and Challenges, a celebration ahead of the United Nations its members by being a part of a vowed community Commission of the Status of Women in March 2012. PHOTO / Episcopal and by providing resources to help its members and Church. their congregations extend the Kingdom of God as revealed in and through Jesus Christ. copal women living or dead through the annual “All Saints” Members are committed to intentionally living out the appeal; raises the consciousness of the Episcopal Church Baptismal Covenant through prayer, sharing, study, and and others about the historic place of women in the Church; service. encourages the “Save a Life” project of raising up women who have been significant in local parishes; researches the For more information: theepiscopalcommunity.org. roles of women in the world mission of the Episcopal Church; Episcopal Women’s Caucus (EWC) – The EWC is a provides speakers and workshop leaders to help diocesan or justice organization dedicated to Gospel values of equality provincial groups revisit histories of Episcopal women; and and liberation and committed to the incarnation of God’s discovers and inventories sources and publications for use by unconditional love. researchers. It works to realize this vision by empowering women For more information: www.ewhp.org. and men to challenge oppressive structures in the global Girls’ Friendly Society (GFS) – GFS is international, community, nation and church; modeling non-hierarchical not-for-profit organization for girls and young women, ages ways: shared leadership and decision-making, womanist/ feminist/mujerista theology and spirituality; giving visibility 5 to 21, that supports and nurtures them with positive guidand respect to women’s perspectives and actions in the work ance from adult leaders. It offers a support system aimed at developing the whole person through a program of worship, and struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of creation; service to others, study, and recreation designed to empower and enabling the church to free itself from racism, sexism, girls and to help them grow mentally, emotionally, physically, clericalism, heterosexism, ableism, and from teachings and and spiritually. practices that sustain and reinforce power inequities. For more information, check with your diocese. For more information: www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org. National Altar Guild Association – NAGA assists parish, Episcopal Women’s History Project (EWHP) – The diocesan and provincial altar guilds by providing information purpose of the EWHP is to promote and encourage research, writing and publication in all matters touching upon the histo- and resources. By making itself aware of the great diversity ry of women in the Episcopal Church; promote and encourage among Episcopalians, by staying abreast of liturgical changes not only in ceremony but also in the furnishings of worthe collection and preservation of records and other artifacts ship, by helping solve contemporary altar guild problems, of interest pertaining to such history; and foster and promote by spreading the word about who knows what “in altar guild public knowledge of interest in such history. country,” NAGA is the center of the altar guild network. Altar To this end the EWHP records and transcribes oral histoguilds around the country assist NAGA with its on-going ries of noteworthy Episcopal women who have made a difprojects such as making stoles and chasubles for the chaplains ference; encourages research and publication of the lives and works of Episcopal women, past and present; honors Epis-

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Prayers, proclamations abound for Pope Francis by Matthew Davies [Episcopal News Service] Pope Francis began his first full day as Bishop of Rome and leader of the world’s 1.2 billion Roman Catholics March 14 in private prayer at a Roman basilica dedicated to the Virgin Mary, but also encircled in prayer as an abundance of messages of support and words of expectation poured in from all corners of the globe. Cardinal Jorge M. Bergoglio SJ, (before he became Pope Francis) celebrates mass in 2008 at the XX Exposición del Libro Católico (20th Catholic Book Fair), in Buenos Aires, Argentina. WIKIMEDIA COMMONS

Argentinian-born priest Thomas Mansella described the new pope, whom he knew during his service as Archbishop Jorge Mario Bergoglio of Argentina, as a man of deep humility and faith.

Mansella, former translation coordinator for the Episcopal Church, recently served as interim rector at St. John’s Anglican Cathedral in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Roman Catholic cathedral in Buenos Aires is just a few blocks from the Anglican cathedral and “‘Padre Jorge,’ as he wanted to be called — even as archbishop and cardinal — used to walk the few blocks from his residence to attend several ecumenical events at St. John’s,” Mansella told ENS. “On many occasions he just rode the subway to wherever he had to go. He is very low key. He says what he has to say, and then sits down.” Mansella said Bergoglio is well respected in Argentina. “He is very ecumenical — especially with us Anglicans — and a man of prayer and great spirituality … He has spoken frequently for social justice. But because he has condemned the current Argentinian official corruption, he is not liked by the powers that be. So, perhaps by strong influence he will be a force to clean up the Roman Curia. But do not expect big proclamations.” Bergoglio served as archbishop of Buenos Aires since 1998. He was made a cardinal by Pope John Paul II in 2001. He is the first non-European to lead the Roman Catholic Church in more than 1,000 years. Shortly after the March 13 announcement, Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori said in a statement that the Episcopal Church will pray for the new Bishop of Rome, “and for the possibility of constructive dialogue and cooperation between our churches.” Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby also issued a statement. “We wish Pope Francis every blessing in the enormous 20

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responsibilities that he has assumed on behalf of Roman Catholics around the world,” he said, calling the new pontiff “a compassionate pastor of real stature who has served the poor in Latin America, and whose simplicity and holiness of life is remarkable.” According to reports, Fr. Federico Lombardi, the Vatican spokesman, said the new pope chose the name in honor of St. Francis of Assisi. Margaret Rose, the Episcopal Church’s ecumenical and interreligious deputy, told ENS that she hopes Pope Francis “will be a leader who risks doing some new things for the sake of the Gospel and who follows in the footsteps of his namesake in calling for the care of the poor and all creation. Our prayers are with him as we seek partnership and the unity of all Christians.” Bishop Wilfrido Ramos-Orench, global partnerships officer for the Episcopal Church’s Province IX, said the election is “a historic moment for the Roman Catholic Church and for the entire Latin American continent. His chosen name to me is very revealing. Hopefully he will follow the path of Francis of Assisi in solidarity with the poor, the oppressed and the dispossessed. May his papacy open the way for authentic ecumenical dialogue and the healing of broken relationships with us Anglicans and other Christian bodies. Episcopal Diocese of Tennessee Bishop John Bauerschmidt, co-chair of the Anglican-Roman Catholic USA dialogue (ARCUSA), said the election “is a sign of hope for all Christians.” “The election at the same time of the first pope from Latin America and the first member of the Society of Jesus to hold this office breaks new ground,” he told ENS. “I pray that Pope Francis will continue to build upon the good relationships that have been developed between Anglicans and Roman Catholics over the last half-century, while also breaking new ground of his own in the pursuit of the unity that Jesus calls us to.” The Society of Jesus, whose members are called Jesuits, is known for its missionary work and its commitment to social justice and evangelization. Early in their history, the Jesuits ran afoul of the pope, the Roman Curia and some nations more than once, but mostly for political and economic reasons rather than theological ones. The Anglican bishop of Argentina and former primate of the Anglican Church of the Southern Cone, Gregory Venables, described Bergoglio’s election as “an inspired choice.” “Many are asking me what he is really like. He is much more of a Christian, Christ-centered and Spirit filled, than a mere churchman. He believes the Bible as it is written,” said Venables, according to a report from the Anglican Communion News Service. “He is consistently humble and wise, outstandingly gifted yet a common man. He is no fool and speaks out

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‘Carnage’ of gun violence must stop, bishops say by Mary Frances Schjonberg [Episcopal News Service] Saying that they “lament and have cried over the widely reported mass shootings” in the United States, the Episcopal Church’s House of Bishops said March 12 that they are also “outraged by the too often unseen and unacknowledged daily massacre of our young people in cities such as Chicago, Newark, Baltimore, Portau-Prince and Tegucigalpa.” “This carnage must stop,” bishops said in a “Word to the Church” issued from the Kanuga Conference Center in Hendersonville, North Carolina (Diocese of Western North Carolina) at the end of their March 8 to 12 meeting. The bishops said they “embody a wide variety of experiences and perspectives with respect to firearms,” including as “hunters and sport-shooters, former members of the military and law enforcement officers. “We respect and honor that we are not of one mind regarding matters related to gun legislation. Yet we are convinced that there needs to be a new conversation in the United States that challenges gun violence,” they said. “Because of the wide variety of contexts in which we live and

our commitment to reasoned and respectful discourse that holds together significant differences in creative tension, we believe that the Episcopal Church can and must lead in this effort. In fact, many in this church are already doing so, for which we thank God.” A specific commitment “to lead a new conversation in our nations as to the appropriate use and legislation of firearms” and to commit to “specific actions to this end” is, the bishops said, in keeping with their episcopal ordination vows to “boldly proclaim and interpret the Gospel of Christ, enlightening the minds and stirring up the conscience.” They also called all Episcopalians “to pray and work for the end of gun violence.” The theme for the bishops’ meeting, which was styled as a retreat, was “Godly leadership in the midst of loss” and the sessions included prayer, daily Bible study, reflection and worship. Mary Frances Schjonberg is an editor/reporter for the Episcopal News Service.

Women organize in TEC of the armed forces and rounding up articles for its regular gift to General Convention — an outstanding Ecclesiastical Art Collection. NAGA is a diverse ministry. Members come from both sexes, all ethnic groups and ages, and follow various styles of worship and interpretations of theology within the church. Its members offer many individual gifts and talents, such as needle arts, flower arranging, writing, speaking and teaching. For more information: www.nationalaltarguildassociation. org. Connecting Episcopal Women – This is a gathering of Episcopal women who have recognized the power of their spiritual leadership to transform the church and world. Grounded in the Gospel, guided through action and prayer and emboldened by their faith, Connecting Episcopal Women seeks to bring about racial, sexual, monetary and economic equality for all women. For more information: connectingepiscopalwomen.org. United Thank Offering (UTO) – UTO is a ministry of the Episcopal Church for the mission of the whole church. Through UTO, men, women, and children nurture the habit of giving daily thanks to God. These prayers of thanksgiving start when we recognize and name our many daily blessings. Those who participate in UTO discover that thankfulness leads to generosity. UTO is entrusted to promote thank offerings, to receive the offerings, and to distribute the UTO mon-

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ies to support mission and ministry throughout the Episcopal Church and in invited provinces of the Anglican Communion in the developing world. For more information: www.episcopalchurch.org/uto. International Anglican Women’s Network (IAWN) – IAWN, one of the networks of the worldwide Anglican Communion, was formed in November 1996 to be the organization through which the voices of Anglican women would be reported to the Anglican Consultative Council. Its vision is to be a bold and prophetic voice for Anglican women throughout the Anglican Communion and in the wider world. The purpose of IAWN is to enable and empower all women of the Anglican Communion to work cooperatively at national, provincial and communion-wide levels to strengthen the ministries of women in God’s world and to ensure women are influential and equal participants throughout the entire Anglican Communion. IAWN works for: elimination of all forms of violence against women and children, especially trafficking; elimination of extreme poverty, by ensuring access to health care, safe water, and employment opportunities; promotion of gender equality throughout the Anglican Communion; combating HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis; promotion of gender budgeting, which seeks to achieve a gender-equal distribution of resources and is a key to all of the above. For more information: iawn.anglicancommunion.org. www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

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In the months since General Convention approved use of the liturgy, bishops throughout the church have issued pastoral letters outlining the policies for their dioceses.

tion to be able to participate as well as being informed of whatever decisions the leadership of the congregation should make,” he said.

In the Diocese of Chicago, in a state where civil unions are legal, Bishop Jeffrey Lee previously had issued guidelines and a liturgy for blessing same-sex unions as part of the “generous pastoral response” allowed under 2009 General Convention Resolution C056. Hallas and Kemock already were planning a ceremony when the SCLM-developed liturgy was approved in July. They are finalizing the liturgy for their service, adapting it using the newly approved rite in the way opposite-sex couples often do for their weddings using the Book of Common Prayer marriage service.

Individuals initially opposed to the blessings also may change their minds after studying and talking about the SCLM materials, or at least come to understand why it’s an important ministry of their congregation and “why the blessing of same-sex couples is a matter of inclusivity, it’s a matter of justice, it’s a matter of God’s expressions of love to all people,” he said.

“I think it’s wonderful, and I’m overjoyed that this is something that the Episcopal Church has authorized, and it’s just a beautiful liturgy,” Hallas said. “I’m thrilled by it, and I’m also aware that this will now be an option for people in other areas who may have only dreamed about it. This is something that means a lot to the community as a whole, to the church community.” In the Diocese of Connecticut, a state allowing same-gender couples to marry, the bishops authorized clergy to use the new liturgy and to officiate at the civil weddings of gay and lesbian couples. Similarly, Bishop Mark Sisk granted permission for clergy in the Diocese of New York, which also has marriage equality, to perform weddings for gay and lesbian couples beginning Sept. 1, 2012. Based on the debate in Indianapolis, he wrote, “I conclude … that it was the mind of this General Convention to extend the meaning of ‘generous pastoral oversight’ to include circumstances in which we in New York find ourselves.” In the Diocese of Utah, where same-gender marriage is not legal, Bishop Scott Hayashi issued a pastoral letter and policy permitting clergy to receive episcopal approval to preside at blessings after undergoing a period of study and reflection with the vestry or bishop’s committee and “inviting the entire congregation” to participate in that study. So far, Hayashi told ENS, three congregations have begun this process. As Episcopalians, Hayashi said, “we do things in community.” Just as the issue of same-sex blessings was studied and debated before General Convention approved it, he wants to see congregations study and reflect on it, he said. “It’s a great teaching opportunity … to come to a deeper understanding of what relationships are, the functions of liturgy and the goodness of the liturgy.” “I require this for this particular blessing of same-sex unions because … I believe that is the way we work as Episcopalians. It’s part of our DNA, and I do want the congrega22

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At one of the three churches to enter the study process, Grace Episcopal Church in St. George, Utah, Rector Catherine Gregg led a three-week preaching series on the issue. She spent two weeks addressing what blessing and union mean, looking at the concepts theologically, pastorally and scripturally. “They are not words that are in the vernacular of society in a way that we might all have some common understanding,” she said. The last week, she talked about same-gender blessings in the context of the church’s values as articulated in its recently completed visioning process, where “radical hospitality” topped the list. It was easy to link the concepts of blessing, union and radical hospitality “to why we are proud to be a church that offers blessing of same-sex unions,” she said. “It really was not even a hiccup. All I did was give the church language to explain to other people, if they want to, why we do what we do.” Although no same-sex couples in the congregation are yet ready for a blessing of their relationship, she said, when one is “it will be something that will be celebrated as the blessing of any union that we do here. This is a very open church.” In the Diocese of Georgia, Bishop Scott Benhase wrote a pastoral letter outlining his decision authorizing his clergy to use a shorter blessing he adapted from the SCLM liturgy. The decision angered some who disapproved of offering any blessing for same-gender couples and others who wanted the full rite authorized. “I did not choose a middle way because that was the politically wise thing to do. I actually happen to believe strongly where I came down,” he said. “That’s where I am on this issue.” Before he became bishop, his parish of St. Philip’s Episcopal Church in Durham, North Carolina, was the first parish in that state to offer a blessing rite, he said. “I have been for over a decade a proponent of the blessing of same-sex couples.” “My concern is and continues to be that the church has not had a significant robust conversation around the theology of holy matrimony, and to offer a provisional rite that mirrors so clearly holy matrimony, I felt, was unhelpful and confusing continued on page 23

Liturgy for blessing same-sex relationships begins provisional use

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and in a sense out of order … I found the rite itself that was approved not to be distinguished enough from the rite of holy matrimony and that it would just lead to further confusion.” “I fundamentally believe that holy matrimony was intended to be between one and one woman,” he added. “That doesn’t mean that God does not bless and want gay couples to flourish in their relationships, but it’s not holy matrimony.” In the Diocese of Northern Indiana, Bishop Edward Little II wrote a pastoral letter outlining a different type of compromise. He did not authorize clergy to use the blessing liturgy in the diocese but is permitting them to use it in neighboring dioceses. The bishops of the dioceses of Chicago, Western Michigan, Michigan, Ohio and Indianapolis, which all border the Northern Indiana diocese, all agreed that priests could request permission to use a church in their dioceses for a blessing service, he wrote. “Those priests should also apply for a ‘license to officiate’ from the bishop of the neighboring diocese, since the liturgy would be under that bishop’s sacramental covering rather than mine.” Reaching this decision “was a struggle,” Little told ENS. “It took me many months to land where I landed.” He was dealing with two commitments that he holds in tension as diocesan bishop, he explained: “my own understanding of sacramental theology, which led me to believe that this liturgy is not one that I could authorize; I believe that decision to present it to the church was a significant mistake” and the commitment to “provide a safe space for everyone within the

UN commission on women ends with adoption of global plan to end gender-based violence NEW YORK — According to the United Nations News Service, top UN officials welcomed an agreement by more than 130 member states March 15 on the prevention and elimination of all forms of violence against women and girls. They urged governments to translate the outcome of the “historic” gathering into concrete actions to protect and promote women’s human rights and fundamental freedoms. Thousands of representatives of governments, inter-governmental organizations, civil society, the private sector and UN partners collaborated on the outcome document of the two-week 57th Session of the Commission on the Status of Women in New York. UN Women said it welcomed the important focus on prevention in the document, particularly through education and awareness-raising, as well as an emphasis on addressing gender inequalities in the political, economic and social spheres.

church.” Little said he’d been “rather vocal” about providing that safe space for conservatives within the church and, “if I was going to be honest about maintaining a place for theological minorities, it had to work both ways.” Northern Indiana is a diocese of 36 congregations in 13,000 square miles, so no church is more than an hour from the diocesan border, he noted. “Within the diocese, I’ve had a good deal of support from people sort of on both sides of the issue who see what I’m attempting to do as a kind of godly compromise,” he said. “Beyond the diocese, the reactions have been more extreme.” “I’ve had some very helpful and positive face-to-face conversations with several gay members of the diocese who came in to see me with some concerns about the policy. I think relationally we’re in a good place,” he said. “A bishop is the bishop of everyone,” he added. “You’re not just the bishop of people you agree with.” SCLM Chair Meyers said she encouraged people to look at the resource materials including the study guide, “even if they are not ready in their congregations to take this step or not understanding why the church is taking this step.” Another important part of “I Will Bless You and You Will Be a Blessing” is the pastoral resources for those preparing couples for a blessing, which the commission prepared in the expectation that such couples would undergo a time of preparation the same way straight couples do before a wedding, she said. For Hallas, it’s significant that the church has authorized a common liturgy, rather than continuing to offer different rites in different dioceses. “Because there is a rite for marriage in the prayer book that is used throughout the church, I think it’s appropriate and fitting for there to be one for same-sex couples as well. It really creates unity,” she said. “It affirms the feeling that we are all part of the same body and cared for.” “The blessing rite is an incredible gift, not only to the church and the LGBT community, but to persons everywhere. It truly respects the dignity of all persons and shows that God cares for and loves us all and that God’s love and care is not exclusive to a heterosexual marriage or relationship.” Said Meyers, “I think it is a statement of the Episcopal Church in its welcome of gay and lesbian couples and families.” Before Ian Hallas spoke in favor of the blessings resolution at General Convention, he asked his sister’s permission to discuss her situation. She watched his testimony from home. “I told him it was the best gift I’ve ever gotten from him,” she said. “It was very sweet.” www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Women serving in military face challenges sional candidate and combat pilot Martha McSally. SWAN called on the Democratic House Majority PAC to recall its ad which it denounced as a sexist characterization of McSally, a retired Air Force commander and the first female fighter pilot to fly in combat, for superimposing a photo of her on a kitchen background with several of her “recipes” for Congress. One Arizona television station pulled the ad. SWAN Executive Director Anu Bhagwati, a veteran Marine captain, said “SWAN will not stand for sexist tactics used against women veterans, regardless of their party affiliation.” She added, in reference to the sexism battled both in the ranks and in facing America’s enemies overseas, that an apology should be made to McSally. “Women who serve in uniform already confront this ignorance while making cracks in the military’s brass ceiling — they shouldn’t have to battle it again as they pursue public office.”

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Corps prepared me for the ordained ministry in the Episcopal Church, where I re-experienced the prejudice against women that is manifest by those who are unwilling to share leadership and have a limited perspective on qualifications for service. I am grateful for having been mentored by admirable women, including Carol Mutter, the first woman three-star general in U.S. military history, who paved the way for many who were audacious about succeeding where only men had been before. When Mutter’s appointment as the chair of a newly revamped Defense Advisory Committee On Women In the Services was announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz on October 18, 2003, conservative groups feared she might guide the committee on a more feminist course, increasing roles for women in combat positions. While women in combat roles is closer to being realized today, and supported by some of the women veterans seeking congressional positions, Mutter was recently reported to be speaking across the country on behalf of service women who have to pay for their own abortions after being raped, a decidedly non-conservative advocacy for a veteran appointed by Romney to his Military Advisory Council.

“The failure of Congress and the Pentagon to support victims of rape who seek fairness in their healthcare rights is indicative of a continuing political ploy to denigrate women.”

Many field jobs not previously open to women in the military are now becoming available. Of the approximately 1.4 million military personnel, 207,308 are women, including 37,807 officers. These women are challenging old stereotypes and demonstrating their proficiency in a wide variety of professional services. At least three women with military experience have served or are now serving in Congress. Heather Wilson, an Air Force Academy graduate who served in the 1980s was a House member from New Mexico and sought a Senate seat last year. Catherine Small Long, a Navy veteran of World War II represented Louisiana in the House in 1985 to 1987. Representative Sandy Adams of Florida worked in the Air Force from 1974 to 1975. McSally, who ran for the vacated seat of Gabrielle Giffords in Arizona this year, and Duckworth seeking to represent Illinois were joined in last year’s election efforts by Tulsi Gabbard, an Army veteran who as a military police platoon leader helped train the Kuwaiti national guard’s counterterrorism unit, as she sought to represent Hawaii. Women veterans have survived untold discrimination and abuse and yet continue to respond to a call to service, in the military, in civilian positions, and in the church. They face challenges as they speak out for human rights and represent the achievements made against odds to uphold justice in a still-sexist society. As the field coordinator for the Episcopal bishop suffragan for federal chaplaincies, I met admirable women chaplains who had ministered in difficult places, especially in the Middle East. The challenges they faced as they cared for our troops included gender discrimination among fellow chaplains, as well as extensive grief support and exposure to combat trauma. I know that my service in the Marine 24

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Hooray for today’s Holy Women; may their witness inspire and bring justice in the world in which we live.

Sources and Suggestions for followup www.4militarywomen.org/Advocate_0212.pdf www.servicethefilm.com (documentary “When Women Come Marching Home”) www.facebook.com/servicewomen (SWAN) www.motherjones.com/politics/2012/06/shaheen-amendment-military-rape-abortion articles.nydailynews.com/2012-08-26 (“Assaults in armed forces must stop” by Jackie Speier, August 26, 2012) news.yahoo.com/battle-tested-female-war-vets-run-congress (“Battle-tested, female war vets run for congress” by Donna Cassata, AP-August 23, 2012) Babs M. Meairs entered military service during the Vietnam War, was a deacon for 12 years in Fort Worth, is now an Episcopal priest and retired from federal service as chief of the chaplain service at the VA San Diego Healthcare System, one of the flagship medical Centers among the 170 in the Department of Veterans Affairs. Meairs is a member of the Episcopal Women’s Caucus board and editorial board. She lives in San Diego.

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Awakened World 2012: A woman’s perspective by Joy Mills “I’m always looking forward to the next mealtime wondering what remarkable people I will talk to,” said one woman at the Awakened World 2012: Engaged Spirituality for the 21st Century conference in Rome and Florence, Italy, October 13 to 21, 2012. Two hundred spiritual activists had traveled to Italy in order to broaden and energize their passion for peace and justice through interreligious and spiritually engaged conversations. I realized how much I also was treasuring these informal personal exchanges within the larger context of the conference. The richness of Awakened World 2012 was almost dizzying because the participants were as fascinating to talk with as the 15 facilitators from the Association for Global New Thought (the primary sponsor), the International Interreligious Peace Council and the Interreligious Engagement Project, and the 39 invited core leaders. At mealtimes there was a continual intermixing of these facilitators and leaders with the 150 participants. My experiences of talking with Professor Hyun Kyung Chung about feminist theology, being embraced by Sister Joan Chittister when she saw me in my clergy (Episcopal, retired) collar, listening to Venerable Samdhong Rinpoche who just retired as prime minister of Tibet-in-exile, and sitting beside South African activist Ela Gandhi as she talked about her grandfather stimulated, challenged and inspired me. The conversations with other participants grounded and connected me through our relatedness. The conveners of the conference had intentionally shifted from a traditional format to an enlivening rhythm between panels and small discussion groups rather than keynote speakers followed by questions and answers. In Rome, each small group of 20 to 25 people focused on one of four Domains: Reconciling with the Other, Transforming Society, Embracing the Earth Family, and Rediscovering the Sacred. The Domains were then broken down into four stages appropriate to that domain. We discussed each stage in consecutive Domain group meetings. In Florence, members of the four Domains were blend into new groups so that we could cross-pollinate our ideas and broaden our thinking. Each group included six to seven core leaders and facilitators. On the third day of our explorations, my particular passion for justice was awakened. As I was listening to one of four panels of core leaders from each Domain, I began to feel irritated. The presenters seemed to be droning on. I realized many of them were not representing the thinking from their small groups as they were supposed to do; they focused on repeating their own stories as they had been invited to do in the context

of the larger sharing in their small groups. Then I began counting by gender the names of the panelists Joy Mills in the conference booklet. The irritation I had felt became stronger. Of the fourteen panelists, 10 were men; four were women. I flipped to the back of the booklet where there were biographies of the invited core leaders, then to the facilitators’ and organizers’ biographies: of the 54, I counted 14 women and 40 men.

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Church in Zambia launches campaign to tackle violence against women This International Women’s Day the Anglican Church in Zambia has begun a new initiative to tackle violence toward women and girls. According to one survey, 47 percent of Zambian women have experienced some form of sexual or physical violence since the age of 15. This violence includes beatings and rape, with some attacks ending in the woman’s death. All five Anglican dioceses in Zambia are taking action to combat gender-based violence, including setting up women’s development groups to raise awareness of the issues, provide support, and help women to establish an income and a degree of independence. The church also will be offering support and counseling. There also will be training for church workers on how to speak effectively in churches about gender-based violence. The Britain and Ireland-based Christian charity Us (formerly USPG) is supporting this work, which was launched in Zambia with a march and public rally organized by the Zambia Anglican Council on International Women’s Day, March 8. — Press release

www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

your

commentary

Is God a ‘He’? And why this question really does matter by Meagan Manus “Words are things, I am convinced… I think they get on the walls, they get in your wallpaper In your upholstery, in your clothes and finally… Into you” — Maya Angelou

ticks and stones will break my bones but words will never hurt me. How many of us have mouthed this phrase to ourselves like a mantra in hard times, or given them as advice to a youngster? We use the phrase specifically because we know it isn’t true. Because we know that actually, words are powerful. Yet we consistently throw them around as if they were meaningless. What if we took our words seriously? Would we be able to keep pretending, for instance, that using exclusively male language for God was not also communicating that something about maleness was inherently God-like? “In the beginning was the word (logos) and the word was with God and the Word was God…through [the logos] all things came into being…” – John 1:1, 3 Remember learning about the Inuit language in which there are about 12 different words for snow — and thus an increased capacity to understand, to see, 12 different kinds of snow? From my Cleveland upbringing and a slough of NYC winters, I could point out maybe three different kinds. If I had 12 different words, would I be able to see more? I imagine myself, a little girl growing up in a church full of exclusively male leadership and male language for God. Can she see the divine in herself — or is that possible reality closed off to her because she has no language for it? And when this little girl, 20-plus years later, finds herself to be an ordained clergy person, will she be able to understand that as a part of her identity? Or, on some level, will a lack of language hide it from her? “Dear God, are boys really better than girls? I know you are a boy. But try to be fair. (signed) Sylvia.” — Taken from A Child’s Letter to God About three years ago around this time of year, I was lucky to get involved in a conversation between many wise women who work in denominations and their women’s organizations, in seminaries and churches, who were concerned about the way words were being used. Most of them had been active in the “original” inclusive language battles in the ’60s, ’70s and ’80s. They had worked hard to write articles opposing male-only language for God, they had passed through denominational and seminary policies that required use of genderneutral words for God and for people: chairperson instead of 26

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chairman, brothers and Meagan Manus sisters instead of simply brothers, and the repeated use of the word God instead of any pronouns at all (“For God so loved the world that God gave God’s only …, etc.). Each of these women, about 20 of us on a conference call, were deeply troubled at the state of the usage of inclusive language in churches and seminaries today, after all these policies and regulations were in place. Instead of an improvement, they had seen a decline. Students brushed off the concern for inclusive language as the pet project of one professor, not a central justice issue for people who would become leaders of faith communities. Pastors and people in charge of denominations used inclusive language when they felt like it, or remembered to do so — which was not often. That was the problem identified on our phone call; when folks were just handed a rule or a policy, they were not apt to understand why it was important to follow. We needed a way to not just tell people what kinds of words to use, but to help individuals understand how much was at stake in the language they chose — how the words we use can reinforce the very systems of injustice we say we want to dismantle: patriarchy, racism, ablism, heterosexism, and on and on. The other problem we saw was the problem of neutral language. When pastors talked about God and Godself, we all found ourselves continuing to picture a male, often white, God. The neutral language did nothing to equalize or change; it only masked the systems of power rampant in Christianity. Instead of neutral language, we determined, what we needed was more language. More words, images and pictures of God. A greater diversity. Instead of simply “inclusive” language, we needed something expansive. Out of this conversation sprang Words Matter, a project based in storytelling and conversation with awareness and awakening as its goal. Words Matter gathers a group together and then asks each person to tell the group a short (three minutes or less) story about a time when they noticed the power or importance of words. Every time I lead this process, I am surprised again that everyone has a story. When we give the prompt, we are careful to specify that these can be stories of Continued on page 31

Prayers, proclamations abound for Pope Francis From page 20 very quietly yet clearly when necessary.”

of hope and encouragement.

For instance, Venables said, the former cardinal told him over breakfast one morning that “the Ordinariate was quite unnecessary and that the church needs us as Anglicans.”

Olav Fykse Tveit, general secretary of the World Council of Churches (WCC), called the election “a turning point in the life of the Roman Catholic Church, but it also has an impact on people of other churches and faiths.”

In 2009, Pope Benedict XVI, Pope Francis’ predecessor, created the Anglican Ordinariates in England and the United States to allow provisions for former or disaffected Anglicans to join the Roman Catholic Church. The controversial announcement came as a surprise to many Anglicans, including then-Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams who had not been consulted about the plan despite having built a close relationship with Pope Benedict. While he was primate of the Southern Cone, Venables offered oversight to conservative members of parishes and dioceses breaking away from the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Church of Canada. Alyson Barnett-Cowan, the Anglican Communion’s director for unity, faith and order, told ENS that the fact that Pope Francis is from Latin America, “that he seems to be a genuinely humble man, and that he has chosen the name he has signal a fresh direction … [I] hope that he will rejuvenate the Roman Catholic Church and give it fresh spirit and vision.” Several Anglican primates issued statements about the pope’s election as they anticipate the formal enthronement of Welby, their own new spiritual leader, in an invitation-only ceremony on March 21 at Canterbury Cathedral. Archbishop Phillip Aspinall, primate of the Anglican Church of Australia, said that Pope Francis brings with him “a wonderful reputation for social justice, care for the poor and humility. His appointment as leader of the Roman Catholic Church comes with great hope, expectations and responsibility … The new Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, will be enthroned in London next week, meaning two of the largest Christian world communions each have new leaders to face and address the challenges of the future.” Francis’ installation Mass is due to be held March 19 at St. Peter’s basilica. Richard Clarke, archbishop of Armagh and primate of All Ireland, said: “In company with millions of men and women throughout the world of different Christian traditions to his own, I assure the new pope of our prayers as he begins his new ministry. An Argentinian of European parentage, he brings together in his own person the cultures, hopes and spiritual needs of the first world and of the developing world, so much to be valued amidst the complexities and apprehensions of our globalised earth. He has been a champion of the needs of the poor and dispossessed, and, in the simplicity of his own lifestyle, he has sought to reflect the life of the much-loved saint whose name he now carries in the future, Saint Francis.” The ecumenical world also is abuzz with reactions and words

In a statement, Tveit said that ever since the Second Vatican Council of the 1960s, the Roman Catholic Church and the World Council of Churches have enjoyed constructive dialogue and cooperation on matters of faith, witness and the fundamental unity of the whole body of Christ. “We have learned that we are pilgrims together in the one ecumenical movement, and we are particularly grateful for the way the Catholic Church works with us on the highly significant issues of unity, ecclesiology, mission and interreligious dialogue,” he said. “Now, in close collaboration with Pope Francis, we look forward to building on this positive relationship with the Catholic Church that has been nurtured so carefully in the past.” The Roman Catholic Church is not an official member of the WCC, but delegates and observers often attend major meetings. In the U.S., National Council of Churches President Kathryn M. Lohre said: “All of us have seen profound growth among Christians of every tradition in Latin America and throughout the southern hemisphere. We pray all of us will be attentive and responsive to the Christian witness that is emanating from that part of the world, and we wish Pope Francis the very best as he begins his new ministry.” Again, the Roman Catholic Church is not a member of the NCC, but the U.S. Catholic Conference has been active with the NCC in ecumenical ministries and programs, and Roman Catholics have served on NCC commissions and committees. President Barack Obama also welcomed the appointment in a message “on behalf of the American people.” “As a champion of the poor and the most vulnerable among us, he carries forth the message of love and compassion that has inspired the world for more than two thousand years— that in each other we see the face of God,” Obama said. “As the first pope from the Americas, his selection also speaks to the strength and vitality of a region that is increasingly shaping our world, and alongside millions of Hispanic Americans, those of us in the United States share the joy of this historic day. “Just as I appreciated our work with Pope Benedict XVI, I look forward to working with His Holiness to advance peace, security and dignity for our fellow human beings, regardless of their faith. We join with people around the world in offering our prayers for the Holy Father as he begins the sacred work of leading the Catholic Church in our modern world.” Matthew Davies is an editor/reporter for Episcopal News Service. www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Report of the Episcopal Church to the IAWN from page 8 From 2009-2012, the Committee on the Status of Women worked with one of the researchers of “Called To Serve,” and presented several resolutions to General Convention 2012: consistent and intentional mentorship of women, clergy and lay, in the church; development and distribution of a search toolkit for congregations and dioceses in discernment and for clergy seeking new positions; and a reexamination of the canons regarding clergy canonical residence. Elimination of gender-based violence — The Episcopal Church affirmed its commitment to overcoming gender-based violence at its General Convention in July 2012. Resolution A139 – “Gender Violence” (www.generalconvention.org/gc/re solutions?by=topic&id=34) affirmed the Primates’ Letter to the Churches of the Anglican Communion following their January 2011 Dublin meeting, including endorsing and implementing the proposed actions. Resolution A139 encourages parishes and dioceses to participate in annual awareness campaigns about gender violence, and calls on the church to identify and disseminate resources about gender violence and promote their use by dioceses and parishes. It received very positive responses during the hearing process and in the House of Bishops. Additionally, some women’s organizations have intentionally focused on gender-based violence as part of their ministries. Episcopal Women’s Caucus and Anglican Women’s Empowerment have published articles in their newsletters and, for the past two years, have joined together in marking November 25, the annual International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women/White Ribbon Day, and the first day of the global “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.” The Episcopal Church continues to raise awareness regarding human trafficking through the Episcopal Public Policy Network and advocacy campaigns by the Office of Government Relations; in conjunction with the NGO Committee to Stop Trafficking in Persons at the United Nations and by supporting the National Council of Churches’ Working Group on Justice for Women in their work against trafficking. In 2011, AWE produced a toolkit, “Human Trafficking: Freeing Women, Children and Men” (see anglicanwomensempowerment. org/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Human_Trafficking_Toolkit1. pdf) and, in response to a resolution passed at General Convention 2009, AWE also produced an “Open Letter to People Who Have Been Raped or Trafficked” in distributable format and available on their website (anglicanwomensempowerment. org/?page_id=42). On the U.S. government legislative front, the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) became politically divisive in 2012 when it came up for reauthorization with expanded provisions to protect tribal women and lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) individuals. The Office of Government Relations and president of the House of Deputies conducted extensive advocacy, with mixed results. VAWA passed in the 28

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U.S. Senate, but was challenged by conservatives in the U.S. House of Representatives. (Since this report, VAWA has been passed.) Despite the Church’s attempts to fight gender-based violence, some women interviewed for this report felt that the church is only treating symptoms, rather than root causes. Are there other areas youa wish to report on? The work and presence of women is felt and experienced in myriad ways throughout the Episcopal Church. Today, women do not necessarily work in traditional women’s work areas, but in all areas and at all levels of the church. Since 2009, Executive Council’s Committee on the Status of Women and, to a lesser extent, the Council of Episcopal Women’s Organizations have filled the gap in connecting various women’s groups within the church. An Executive Council-appointed task force recently completed a significant study of the United Thank Offering, revising bylaws, clarifying legal relationships with the Episcopal Church and providing templates for selecting grants for the future. The church continues its ongoing support for gays, lesbians, bisexuals and transgendered groups. Ongoing advocacy and education in Haiti continues in the face of violence after the 2010 earthquake, as well as reconstruction and recovery programs in partnership with Episcopal Relief & Development and the National Council of Churches. The last triennium has seen the birth of a new women’s spiritual community, The Episcopal Community. At General Convention, they provided a prayer garden, maintained a prayer chapel and offered a hospitality space to international guests from around the Anglican Communion. Anglican Women’s Empowerment observed that Episcopal women are reaching out to their Anglican sisters in important ways, by starting non-profits elsewhere in the Communion, working with refugees, serving as missionaries and funding higher education for women in developing countries. Episcopal Church Women reports that education has been the main theme for 2012, with support for schools in Idaho, the Dominican Republic and Women-to-Women grants for projects overseas. The Episcopal Women’s History Project raises awareness of women’s leadership in the church by recording oral and written stories, holding a biennial conference with papers presented that become part of the archives, and grants for independent research projects. The Episcopal Church has adopted its own version of Words Matter, the National Council of Churches’ tool for exploring and encouraging grassroots conversations about existing and new images and language for God, to illuminate the ways gencontinued on page 29

Report of the Episcopal Church to the IAWN der infuses our everyday lives as church and community. The Episcopal Church is maintaining a more active presence at the United Nations and raising awareness there on its priority issues and ministries, such as women’s rights, poverty alleviation, human trafficking, indigenous concerns and environmental issues. Since 2000, Episcopal women and men have participated in the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. 2. What are the main issues of concern for women in your province? What are the biggest challenges women face? How do you think the church might be able to address and work on these issues? Do you need help or resources to do this? Main issues of concern/ biggest challenges: • As in other provinces, women face persistent gender disparities in the wider society. They are not heard the same, paid the same or honored the same, in the church and in general. Women working full-time in similar jobs still earn less than men, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. For many racial minority women, employment inequities have contributed to poverty, exploitation, and marginalization. Work-life balance is a serious challenge, particularly for single mothers. Increased poverty and the decline in standards of living, due to the current global economic financial crisis, disproportionately affect women and children. As families struggle, the likelihood increases of violence towards women, the exploitation of young girls, a loss of adequate health care, underemployment and unemployment, and homelessness. Human trafficking is an issue of growing importance impacting women and girls from poor rural areas and inner cities, and affecting borders and immigration. However, awareness is growing and some secular organizations are seeing results in this area. The exploitation of women and young girls in the media is pervasive, with girls being sexualized at an inappropriately young age. Violence towards women and girls is emphasized in movies, music, and print media. Eating disorders, in particular anorexia nervosa, are on the rise. The need to rebuild the lives of women and families in Haiti continues after the earthquake in January 2010. Seventy percent of church buildings, diocesan-run schools, clinics and hospitals that served over 100,000 Episcopalians, and countless community members, were considered a total loss. Elimination of the Women’s Ministries desk and an associated program budget within the official structures of the church decreases the possibilities for program work and networking, and sends a psychological message about the lack of importance of women in the church. The use of language in the church continues to be restrictive despite years of work and the recent Words Matter project.

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There is little understanding and knowledge about global women’s rights, although the secular press has helped to close the gap. Reproductive rights continue to be a divisive issue that prevents women’s groups from working together, as was seen at UNCSW 56. How might the church be able to address and work on these issues? General Convention 2012 passed several resolutions, many proposed by the Committee on the Status of Women: • Resolution A137 Strengthening Families urges church-related health insurance providers to provide coverage for infertility treatment and support maternity/paternity leave for clergy. • Resolution A138 Ending Statelessness Discrimination Against Women asks the church to urge the U.S. government and international community to end discriminatory practices leading women and children to statelessness. • Resolution A139 Gender Violence affirms primates’ statement at Dublin Meeting (2011), endorses implementation of suggested actions, encourages annual awareness campaigns about gender violence; urges dissemination of resources about GBV for use by dioceses and parishes. • Resolution A140 Advocate for Maternal and Infant Health urges the Office of Government Relations, congregations and dioceses, healthcare institutions and providers of the Episcopal Church to partner with international and domestic efforts to advocate for improvement of maternal mental and physical health and infant development. • Resolution A141 Fund Meetings of the Council of Episcopal Women’s Organizations provides $15,000 over triennium for council’s annual meeting to subsidize travel by volunteers. • Resolution A142 Study Expansion of Canonical Residency directs Executive Council and standing commission to study granting canonical residency to clergy not in charge of congregations. • Resolution A143 Develop a Search Toolkit directs the development and distribution of a search toolkit for church leadership discernment committees and female clergy applicants. • Resolution A144 Monitor Women and Other Underrepresented Groups calls the church to monitor, report on and make recommendations to increase the ratio of female to male candidates, nominees and electees to episcopal offices, as well as other underrepresented groups. • Resolution D022 Church wide Response to Bullying encourages new partnerships for support and preventative programs to discourage all forms of bullying, including genderbased harassment. Do you need help or resources to do this? Resources are always welcome!

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www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Report of the Episcopal Church to the IAWN 3. What would you like to happen for women in your province over the next three years? Try and be specific. Continue to have women assume leadership roles in the church and be recognized as equal colleagues to men. Educate women, men and young people about the lack of parity in health care, the orders of the church and more broadly speaking, in community life. More formal and informal education and training, especially for single mothers. Episcopal Church Women would like to become a resource center to start programs in local parishes. Obtain financing for church planting for new mission opportunities within the Convocation of Episcopal Churches in Europe. The convocation has a few women in seminary whom they would like to see return to Europe to serve. Re-establish a Women’s Ministries program or budget line within the Episcopal Church or to existing women’s organizations, to provide for better networking, collaboration and information sharing. Have existing women’s organizations collaborate with a more unified voice on a few key issues. 4. If you have been involved in UNCSW, how has that experience been of assistance to you and women in your province? Women and men in the Episcopal Church have participated in UNCSW since the early 2000s. In 2012, 100 Episcopalians gathered for the 56th UNCSW, two as accredited members of the Anglican Communion’s delegation. Participants representing women’s groups, young adults, Native Americans and indigenous peoples come to UNCSW to learn about gender justice and participate in parallel events. Those interviewed for this report remarked on the “exceptional opportunities to hear from experts around the world” and that they are “transformed forever to be with 5,000 women who are all there and focusing on that particular concern.” An officer of Episcopal Women’s Caucus called the experience “mindboggling in terms of the information acquired,” which finds its way into her teaching, sermons and newsletter articles. The executive director of Anglican Women’s Empowerment, an organization formed as a means of keeping UNCSW’s energy alive year-round, affirms that “UNCSW is one of the most important things the church supports. It creates the awareness and the partnerships that can make a difference.” One interviewee noted that, for young people, UNCSW is a broadening experience, incredibly powerful and important for developing their voice and leadership. 5. What action from the Anglican Church in your province and across the communion would be most effective in eliminating gender-based violence? The Anglican Communion and Episcopal Church already have demonstrated their commitment towards combatting gender-based violence. Implementation, teaching and raising awareness remain vital to prevention. Human trafficking, bullying and increasing sexualization of women and girls via the media are all critical elements. It would be useful to stream this education along gender 30

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lines. Women and girls could be taught self-respect, selfesteem and self-worth and encouraged to pursue leadership positions in society and in the church. They should be helped to recognize that violence is always unacceptable, that women are not at fault and not the cause of the problem. Men and boys could consider past perceptions of women as property and the contemporary effects of that legacy. One interviewee’s son remarked, “I really wish there was a program for young boys. Boys need to be taught that it’s not manly to do violence to a woman. My dream would be to have some way to focus on young men and boys and educate them.” The Anglican Communion and church might also research the ways in which the church encounters gender-based violence and serves as a locus both to the problem and to potential solutions. In a similar vein, a resolution at General Convention 2012 called for additional resources and training for parish leaders to identify issues, community resources and means to ensure a better pastoral response. The Anglican Communion and the Episcopal Church should also address the economic issues that lead to stress and eventual violence. Women with jobs and financial resources, who are not dependent on a man for their food and shelter, can get out of violent situations, as has been seen in the work done with church-based and secular microcredit programs. Dependent women are much more likely to get battered.

Women’s Wilderness Trips of Spiritual Perspective August 10-16, 2013 North Manitou Island, Sleeping Bear Dunes National Park in Leland, Michigan Co-sponsored by the Women’s Spirituality Project and Lumunos www.womensspiritualityproject.com • www.lumunos.org This retreat is designed to help participants slow down and remember the women that they are called to be. It is an excellent choice for women of all ages and hiking abilities who are • Restless and seeking answers in their lives • Curious and want to revel in the wonders of God’s creation • Transitioning and want an opportunity to gain perspective • Vacationing and want a more simple and sacred way to honor their time • Busy and seek to simplify, slow down, breathe, and rest. Three groups, each with a diffferent focus, will be offered: Travel Lightly (forwomen who have always wanted to come but can’t carry a backpack); Four Directions & Four Elements (will require moderate to vigorous mobility); Sacred Silence, Sacred Circles (with an an opportunity for solo camping, the movement of this group will be determined by the abilities of those who come along). Your guides are experienced hikers and devoted to walking with women as we seek greater spiritual depth and insight together in sacred community. Please come and join us for this remarkable experience, whatever age you are. If your spirit is hungry and your body is yearning to break out of a routine way of being, you will find how perfectly ready you are for this wilderness experience!

Cost: $425 per person (Fee includes food, camping, ferry fees, guides and program. Transportation to Leland not included.) For information, visit the Websites above, or call Debbie Wollard at 586-242-8270

Awakened World 2012: A Woman’s Perspective By now, my heart was racing faster as it always does when I am compelled to be vulnerable by speaking the truth of my experience without knowing what others are thinking. As my anxiety sky-rocketed, Barbara Field, the convener from New Thought, announced that there would be no time for the planned discussion period. It was implicit that panelists had not respected their allotted times — and no one had stepped in to correct them. I shot up from my seat and gave my gender counts; then I made explicit that participants had not been given their time because the “experts had overshot theirs.” The biggest take-home for me was other women coming up to me and saying, “I had been counting the gender disparity, too.” And “Did you notice that the people who introduced each of the panelists and those that thanked them were overwhelmingly women, handmaidens to the men?” A small group of women had already organized a pre-conference gathering called WAVE: Women Awakening to Vision and Engagement where 80 women had gathered in circles and shared first one-on-one and then as a group. Now women wanted to gather in circle again to access what had happened. Each woman’s contribution was recorded on newsprint and later shared with the conveners. The next morning, the conveners responded to my challenge, which had been echoed by many others. They opened the session with ample time for participants to share what they had learned during the plenaries and in their small groups.

From page 25

On our last day in Rome at our news conference at the Campidoglia, Jack Canfield was one of the core group members who spoke publicly. He said he had finally gotten it about women’s voices being heard equally with men’s. He proclaimed himself to be “a radical feminist.” If connections were truly made on this deeper level, perhaps the world had awakened just a bit to the profound plight of women in patriarchy: that women are, as Nicholas Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn have written, “Half the Sky,” and the work of spiritual activists for justice and peace in the 21st century must begin with “Turning Oppression into Opportunity for Women Worldwide.” Joy Mills is a retired Episcopal priest in the Diocese of Pennsylvania and, she said, “sadly, a member of the church in exile.” Her passionate concern is to address the destructive impact on women and children, as well as on men, of the imaging and languaging of God as male throughout world religions, as well as within the Episcopal Church’s major liturgies. “As Mary Daly said, ‘If God is male, male is God,’” Mills said. She continues her private pastoral psychotherapist practice, where she can address the intersection of psychology and spirituality as a way to become more who we are created to become.

Is God a ‘He’? And Why This Question Really Does Matter from page 26 hurt or of healing, but the vast majority of stories I hear are those of pain. They are stories of not belonging, of being unworthy, being left out, being discriminated against. The hope of Words Matter is that, once we understand our own stories and can truly hear others’ stories, we might understand in a real way how words matter, and we might change the way we do things as a result. Words Matter imagines our communities of faith not as neutral, politically correct gatherings striving to be inoffensive, but as wildly dynamic and vibrant places where we use more words, more images, and more stories in an effort to speak to the hearts of so many different kinds of people who gather with us. Places that spark our imaginations and allow us to see more, different realities, like learning new words for different kinds of snow. But I caution you. Once you start to open yourself to how words impact people’s lives, their physical, mental, spiritual and emotional wellbeing, living in the world can become deeply troubling, and it is quite difficult to un-see. Perhaps you will start to see these connections and get excited, and try to tell someone about it! Here I caution you again. It is so easy — so easy — to put together a pamphlet telling people which words they should or should not use and then to distribute it. But getting people to understand in their core how words they hear and words they choose themselves are par-

ticipating in systems of injustice, and how these words could potentially be words of life and healing — that is a difficult task. As far as I can see, our only choice is to try. It is with this caution that I invite you to join me on this journey. Words are powerful. Words are things. Words shape the way we understand the world. Let’s use them together, to build a reality with more, more access, more possibility, more belonging, more welcome, more acceptance, more affirmation. More. Can we do it together? Learn more about Words Matter by visiting www.wordsmatter.org. Meagan Manas is an ordained minister in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) She currently serves in a validated ministry as justice and peace staff specialist for Presbyterian Women, and is program coordinator for the World Day of Prayer USA Committee. Manas lives in Brooklyn with her husband, Dan, and cats, Marge and Arthur, and is interested in eating food, communities, and thinking about how to make religion good for people. Her blog post, from manmadegirls.com/guest-post-is-goda-he-and-why-this-question-really-does-matter-by-meaganmanus, is reprinted with her permission. www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

sharing

resources

Religion Gone Astray: What We Found at the Heart of Interfaith

by Pastor Don Mackenzie, Rabbi Ted Falcon, and Imam Jamal Rahman 2011, Skylight Paths, Woodstock, Vermont. 170 pages. reviewed by Lyn G. Brakeman “We have erred and strayed from your ways like lost sheep ... .” When as a college student I first found and fell in love with the Episcopal Church in 1958, the congregation said this line every Sunday from the 1928 Book of Common Prayer’s General Confession. I called it the sheep clause and loved it because it rang true. I had run amok in so many ways, some of them by own foolishness and some by ambush. And so had everyone else! Religion Gone Astray is a seminal book for the future of the religious enterprise, because it takes erring and straying beyond the individual and into the institutional. Religions are like sheep: each one prefers and guards most zealously its own pasture, its own group, its own images of divinity, and its own practices. Because these things are precious, they are worthy of defense and feel crucial to survival — at significant cost.

to God and each other on behalf of their religions’ sins (my word). Yet all religions put faith in a God who cares about each AND all at the same time. These authors try to be a bit more like God. They stick to the interfaith conversation, develop deep affection for each other, and deepen their own faith without fighting for it. The authors expose four ways in which each religion has gone astray and lost touch with God, self and neighbor: •

Exclusivity: staking claim to a One and Only Truth

•

Violence: justifying brutality in the name of Faith

•

Inequality of men and women: domination politics to preserve patriarchal power

•

Homophobia: denying the legitimacy of homosexuality in practice and in being

Chapters explore these four religious errors. Each includes a personal reflection, a look at how institutions and scriptures have strayed into practices that keep the people of the one God apart, scholarly commentary, core teachings and healing, and particular spiritual practices from each tradition. One of my favorite practices comes from the advice of a Thai Buddhist who taught Imam Rahman to say Neti! Neti! — which means Not this! Not this! — to keep violent thoughts at bay. Violence in religions arises when extremes are taken as the whole, dualities advanced as the one correct picture, and violence-advocating verses in scripture are preached as the whole truth about God. Judaism’s core gift is Oneness and Jews also hold onto choseness; Islam’s is Compassion above all, and Muslims hold the Qur’an to be superior; and Christianity offers Unconditional Love and claims that One Name saves.

The interfaith vision of this book touches on the costs of too much safety-in-the-fold devotion, precisely in the paradox that the more we defend, the more we offend. While all religions and their scriptures, at God’s command, issue calls to provide for strays and aliens, most of them are so bent on caring for their own well-being they don’t find out what other religions are about. There are blinders on each sheepfold.

I find these authors most honest and credible when they write about inequality between women and men in their religions. They laugh at themselves: three straight patriarchally stereotypical men offering insights about equal inclusion of women and homosexuals in their “club.” They admit that each religion has been spiritually truncated by the exclusion of women’s voices. And they cite ways in which change is happening. This book is one effort.

As I joined the Christian sheepfold, I knew there was a place for me, and somewhere there was a God who cared about the whole, including the strays, the lost, the foolish, and the headstrong. As a Christian I could be lost and found. Over time I began to wonder if Jesus in the parable of the Lost Sheep returned the strays to their own comfy group, or did he simply challenge them to find God wherever they’d landed?

My only regret is that I wish they had done more with language about God, particularly those troublesome masculinizing pronouns. We can no longer afford to have an exclusively male deity, even in languages like Hebrew that have gendered nouns. Our God deserves our effort on this. “Religions go astray when they contribute more to human suffering than they do to human healing.” There will be evil, and we will do evil, but we can not BE evil.

This book has affirmed my suspicion. Exploring the core belief of each major religion, the authors make confession

I recommend this visionary book for individual and group study in and among any and all religions.

continued on page 33

Ruach | Easter 2013

Sharing resources: Book reviews I Shall Not Hate

by Izzeldin Abuelaish 2011, Bloomsbury, London. 239 pages reviewed by Lyn G. Brakeman I Shall Not Hate by Izzeldin Abuelaish was a spontaneous gift from a stranger on an airplane flight from Tel Aviv to London. We struck up a conversation across the aisle when lunch or breakfast or whatever meal it was (on airplanes they blend together like time zones) arrived. I asked her about the book she was reading so intently. She showed it to me and said she’d give it to me when she finished it. I was reading Jesus Freak (Sara Miles) and she was reading I Shall Not Hate. How do such connections happen? Nimisha is Hindu, a clinical psychologist living in London who travels to Gaza five times a year for two weeks to help treat post-traumatic stress disorder among Palestinians. “I hear horror stories. That’s why I watch dumb movies on airplanes,” she said. “Well, after I finish this book.” “This book is for everyone,” she said when she, in a short time, passed it across to me. I thanked her and began to read. The first thing I noticed was that the author was a Palestinian who had grown up in a refugee camp in Gaza and that there was a praise-filled foreword by a Jewish Israeli physician, Dr. Marek Glezerman, chair of the Hospital for Women and deputy director of Rabin Medical Center, Israel. Glezerman expressed surprise that Abuelaish, though chronically humiliated by Israeli military border procedures (harassments really) while traveling for his work, was not “the very angry man I expected to greet.” On our pilgrimage, we visited a refugee camp in Efrata North, south of Jerusalem, established in 1949. We heard a young Arab Muslim, 24, speak of his life there and his dream of returning home to West Jerusalem. He wasn’t angry either, but spoke with a kind of derailed depression freckled with hope and good humor. He had 30 hours to go in the university in the camp where, tellingly, he studied psychology and social work. “I’m afraid to graduate,” he told us. “What then? My friend applied for a job in Nablus with 11,000 applicants!” I asked him about his faith in Allah. His

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answer was simple: “When I choose the good way and pray first.” As a feisty Christian feminist westerner, I felt humbled. How come neither this man nor Abuelaish or other Palestinians haven’t given up on God? I thought that until I remembered that I hadn’t either, although my trials have been minor. Abuelaish is an ob-gyn doctor who specializes in infertility medicine. He had a heart for families, mothers and newborns, loss. He was born in a refugee camp in Gaza where life was harsh. But his mother was a “lioness” mother who never let up on him about study, study, study. He obeyed and eventually received a scholarship award and went to study medicine. Life in Gaza remained restrictive and travel back and forth to work required him to cultivate teeth-gritting patience. Through unimaginable suffering and tragic loss, Abuelaish persisted. I Shall Not Hate is his memoir. It’s his testament to his religious faith and to the friendships of many Israeli colleagues who helped him and value his work and person. I’m reminded of the New Testament of the friends who removed roof tiles to lower their paralyzed buddy on his stretcher down through a roof so he could bypass crowds to get to Jesus for healing. And Jesus told him faith had made him well — his own and that of his friends. Chapter One, titled “Sand and Sky,” begins: “It was as close to heaven and as far from hell as I could get that day, an isolated stretch of beach just two and a half miles from the misery of Gaza City, where waves roll up on the shore as if to wash away yesterday and leave a fresh start for tomorrow. We probably looked like any other family at the beach ... .” I was hooked. Abuelaish had brought his two sons and six daughters plus cousins, aunts and uncles to the beach to find peace in the midst of grief at the premature death of his wife Nadia from leukemia just two weeks after diagnosis. Little did Abuelaish know that in a short time, his home would be the target, mistaken but never apologized for, of a fatal shelling during the 23-day siege of Gaza (December 2009 into 2010) in which more family members would die. The sustained attack was designed to intimidate Hamas, retaliation for their suicide bombings. But instead it murdered innocent people. Under a photo of himself in a graveyard, Abuelaish wrote: “No caption can express a father’s loss.” Feelings of agony, rage, terror, love, patience, and hope course side by side through this book, but never overwhelm the story, nor the author’s peace and friendship platform. The prose is clear and direct — accessible. No facts, no matter how painful, are sentimentalized, minimalized, or sensationalized. This is the work of an ordered mind that continued on page 34 www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

Sharing resources: Book reviews from page 33 manages to stay sane in the midst of insanity. He never blames Israelis for their government’s actions. Medicine is his practice, healing physical illness and souls as it creates a level playing field of need and compassionate care. Strong Muslim faith is his stronghold. “For the three weeks during the war, we lost our belief in humanity, so God and each other were all we had left.” And ... friends on the other side. “The tank pointing its guns at my house ... looked like the angel of death. I called Shlomi Eldar.” Eldar, his friend on the putative other side, managed to engineer a military inquiry into the matter and also set up an interview on Israeli radio. The story went viral and that crisis was averted — until the next one. At one point Abuelaish ran for public office in Gaza as an independent, thinking it might be a way to work for change. His campaign platform stressed the same issues (poverty, health, education) as the Hamas platform. But Abuelaish’s campaign included raising the status of women. Abuelaish lost. In 2009 he won the Niarchos Prize for Survivorship. How ironic there is such a prize. It is given by the Survivor Corps, an organization that works to break cycles of victimization and violence. Nomika Zion, an Israeli woman, shared the prize with Abuelaish. She and other neighboring Israelis act and lobby in solidarity with Gazans. Zion (I love the irony of the name!) accepted the award and spoke against the glorification of war. “I am frightened that we are losing the human ability to see the other side, to feel, to be horrified and to show empathy. It’s our obligation to make our leaders talk, to compel them to tell us, for a change, a different story.” Abuelaish, in his acceptance speech, encouraged action and to think forward together. “The dignity of Palestinians equals the dignity of Israelis ... .” Does that sound familiar?

Having finally to make the hard decision to leave Gaza, Abuelaish got a job and moved his family to Toronto, where his children could experience safety and hope for a future. But he plans to return to his native land and continue his healing mission to encourage an internal shift from hate to respect, on both sides at grassroots levels. He isn’t the first to have such a dream. The very first activity his younger children performed at their new home in Toronto was to take down a section of the fence between their house and the neighbors so the kids could run back and forth. “How prophetic that I witnessed what I had been dreaming about for years for our two neighbors, Israel and Palestine,” Abuelaish wrote. Daughters for Life is the foundation Abuelaish has started. It is dedicated to change the status and role of women through the provision of scholarships for high school and university education. (Abuelaish himself got his ticket to eventual freedom through scholarship aid, and thanks to his “lioness” mother who made him study and study and study.) Ultimately he hopes his foundation will create a credible voice for female values throughout the Middle East. I just made a small gift online at www.daughtersforlife.com. Lyn G. Brakeman is an Episcopal priest, pastoral counselor/spiritual director, and author of two books and a memoir seeking publication. Brakeman is a fellow in the American Association of Pastoral Counselors (AAPC), an associate of the Religious Sisters of Mercy, and a long-time member of EWC. Through writing, teaching and preaching, she champions full inclusion and acceptance of women’s ministries, lay and ordained. Brakeman writes a blog offering spiritual wisdom to souls challenged and nurtured: www.spirituallemons.blogspot.com.

Soulistry expands creativity offerings Soulistry’s latest expansion is to provide additional opportunities to express the gift of creativity and celebrate the Creative Spirituality Artist within. If you’re into making handmade cards/artist trading cards (ATCs) or making your own books/journals/boxes, read on.

Soulistry is a neologism (“soul” and art “istry”) meant to bring an oasis of calm and peace into an otherwise hectic and sometimes chaotic world through retreats, workshops, publications and Facebook pages. “In a Bind: Making Books by Hand” is the place on Facebook to learn how to create the sacred space that is a handmade book/journal/box. Share photos of your books/ journals/boxes, talk about creations, ask questions, learn 34

Ruach | Easter 2013

from one another – and play! The URL is www.facebook. com/groups/270832533042635. “CMG: Creative Card Making”is the Facebook place to share photos of our handmade art cards, ATC’s etc.; talk about our handmade cards; ask questions; learn from one another; share resources – and play. Here is its URL: www. facebook.com/groups/125422164254459. P.S. If you send me a “friend” invitation on Facebook, I can add you automatically to either/both groups. I’d love it if you subscribed/liked the Facebook Soulistry page (www. facebook.com/soulistry). Happy Creative Year! — June Maffin

The Episcopal church is pro-choice from page 12 Religious affiliation is not a deterrent: A majority, even as high as 78 percent, of women who have abortions have a religious affiliation. The worst end point is a return to pre-Roe days and botched “illegal” abortions. The Episcopal Church has spoken out on these matters. The General Convention resolutions cited above speak in favor of family planning: “the beginning of a new human life, because it is a gift of the power of God’s love for his people, and thereby sacred, should not and must not be undertaken unadvisedly or lightly but in full accordance of the understanding for which this power to conceive and give birth is bestowed by God” and that “such understanding includes the responsibility for Christians to limit the size of their families and to practice responsible birth control.” (See also the UMC Social Principles 162K and 162V, 2008 Discipline.)

IV Let me now turn to the subject of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. RCRC has existed for more than 30 years. Its key mission is to put forward the pro-choice position of its member organizations — “pro-choice” meaning leaving to the woman, and not legal authorities, the decision to terminate a pregnancy. The motto of RCRC is “Pro-Faith, Pro-Family, Pro-Choice.” It seeks to counteract the widespread belief that “church” means “anti-choice,” and it thereby gives support and comfort to the millions of churchgoing Americans who are pro-choice, whatever their denomination’s views on the subject. Further, RCRC keeps an eye on state and federal legislatures and attempts to state the pro-faith pro-choice position in commenting on legislative efforts that might affect the right to choose. But RCRC does not address only the “choice” issue. In addition, it engages in a wide variety of programs that can be characterized as “reproductive justice.” For example, its Clergy for Choice Network, which has about 1,300 members, keeps clergy alert to choice issues and provides workshops and other information about the role of clergy in pastoring to persons who are considering terminating a pregnancy or who have already done so. In addition, RCRC has a powerful, Bible-based sex education curriculum that is widely used; it also teaches about family planning. RCRC also has a youth program, called Spiritual Youth for Reproductive Freedom, which seeks to educate young people about family planning and choice issues, and gives them an opportunity to discuss these issues freely and openly. RCRC also offers a speakers’ bureau and a series of monographs, which are well-informed, balanced explanations of issues related to reproductive choice. Topics include “Is the Fetus a Person?” by Dr. Roy Bowen Ward; “Abortion: A Christian Ethical Perspective” by Dr. John M. Swomley; and “How Good Women Make Wise Choices” by the Rev. Nancy Rockwell. These and many others are listed on its website, rcrc.org. RCRC is, as its name implies, a coalition of faith communi-

ties of various kinds. Its members include the Presbyterian Office of Women’s Ministries; the Methodist General Board of Church and Society and the Women’s Division of the General Board of Global Ministries; the Justice and Witness Ministries of the United Church of Christ; the Unitarian Universalist Association and its Women’s Federation; Catholics for a Free Choice; the United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism; the Central Conference of American Rabbis, and many others. The Episcopal Church, the Episcopal Women’s Caucus and the Episcopal Urban Caucus have been members of RCRC for some 25 years. RCRC has a small staff in Washington, D.C., an independent board of directors, and a “Coalition Council,” which consists of one representative of each of the member organizations and faith communities. For many years I was EWC’s representative, but now Carol Cole Flanagan will take on that assignment. I am now a member of the board (and also treasurer), as is EWC Past Convener Elizabeth Kaeton. In General Convention in 2003, a resolution proposed that the church (and also the EWC and the Urban Caucus) be required to withdraw from membership in RCRC. It was argued that RCRC takes positions that are inconsistent with the position of the church. The House of Deputies referred the subject to a standing committee. Although the House of Bishops took no action, and thus the matter died, the Standing Commission on National Concerns did review the subject and voted 8-0 against withdrawal from RCRC. Executive Council in January 2006 accepted this view and voted to reaffirm our longstanding membership. Another effort to withdraw was offered in the 2006 General Convention, but it also was unsuccessful.

V The RCRC board is presently considering whether to have individuals and local and regional groups as members, in addition to the faith communities and other faith-based organizations. But even apart from the question of membership, RCRC and the principles for which it stands very much need supporters who can get involved in the good work it carries out. A particular need stems from the increasing assaults on choice — and even birth control — that are put forward by state and local legislators, and by opinion writers of various kinds. RCRC has no staff or office in any of the 50 states. It therefore needs people who would be aware of such assaults, let the staff know about them, and offer to help with lobbying, letter writing, and just plain speaking out to protect the values for which RCRC stands. There is also a need for people to become active as board members of RCRC affiliates in some states, and to help form affiliates where none exist now. If you are interested, let me know at vanderstar@msn.com, and I will try to assist. John Vanderstar is a retired attorney and serves on the RCRC board of directors and as its treasurer. www.episcopalwomenscaucus.org

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