Gender awareness workshop

Janske Lazne, Czech Republic, May 25 2000

Targeted on member churches from central, eastern and southern Europe, the third in Warc's series of regional workshops on gender awareness and leadership development was held at the Sola Fide conference centre in Janske Lazne from May 18 to 25 2000.

The workshop was a surprise for everyone, participants and staff alike. For the first time, most of those attending were under thirty five years of age. They surprised Warc staff and the facilitator, Rev. Mila Hradecna (Evangelical Church of the Czech Brethren) with their openness, enthusiasm, ideas about the future and frank assessment of their churches and social contexts. It soon became clear to the organizers that the proposed agenda and Bible studies had been geared for an older age-group. These participants had different memories and experiences, particularly as a result of the political and economic changes that occurred in 1989. So...the agenda didn't last very long, the workshop "went with the flow" of group concerns, and some of the questions for the Bible studies were simply dropped.

Participants were surprised as well. Accustomed to meetings that featured keynote speakers or lectures to which one responded, they were exposed to a process that helped them generate the workshop's content, usually through dialogue in small groups. Also the subject matter of the workshop - gender awareness - was new for most.

And a final surprise. For the first time in this series of workshops, it was decided to send a short message to the churches of the Warc family, which is printed below.

This message reflects the changes that occurred in the participants' perceptions of women and men during the week, and the ways they could relate in church and society. Four churches that do not ordain women to the ministry of word and sacrament sent delegates. It was not clear that their views shifted dramatically on this issue, but it was clear that the subject matter - gender awareness - had become a serious issue for reflection within the churches.

The issue of power - power as natural and positive in persons, to be employed for good and not for harm - was introduced to the participants by the newly elected secretary of the department of partnership of women and men, Rev. Patricia Sheerattan-Bisnauth. She was not sure how they would take it, but of all the subjects discussed, the issue of power - personal and social - deeply resonated within the group, and they spent an intense day and a half on just that topic alone.

Other subjects discussed by the group included domestic violence, unemployment or underemployment affecting both women and men, leadership positions for women and men in church and society and how to affect social change, a topic which emanated from questions given in the bible study.

Participants came from the two Warc member churches in the Czech Republic, Bulgaria, Latvia, Greece, Austria, Hungary, the two synods of the Reformed Church in Romania, Croatia and Poland. All together there were nine countries represented and a total of eleven participants (seven women and four men).

Our thanks are due to the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren which hosted the workshop and whose logistical support was invaluable. And to Evelyn Martin from the Reformed Church in Austria, a vice-president of our European area, who was recruited to the leadership team on the spot to work with Mila, Pat and myself.

Rev. Jana Tozickova, the delegate from the Evangelical Church of Czech Brethren, found the workshop so stimulating that she arranged for two interviews with Czech radio stations while it was still taking place.

The hospitality offered to everyone by the staff of the Sola Fide conference centre was heart-warming. One man, for instance, who worked in the kitchen, made certain that we had snacks whenever we needed them, doubled as a computer technician and generally "watched over us" like a mother hen! The director of the centre, Mr Miroslav Cejnar, prepared a one day excursion to take in some of the major tourist sites in the heart of the Giant Mountains. He also gave over the use of his private office to the staff, particularly Karin Wisniewkski, when the portable printer and laptop computer taken from Geneva went on an unplanned holiday and refused to start up.

The next regional workshop on gender awareness and leadership development will take place in Central America towards the end of this year.

Message from the participants
To the member churches of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches and the Warc executive committee

Gal 3.28 "There is no longer Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer male or female, for all of you are one in Christ."

Dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

Greetings in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.

We are thankful for the opportunity we have had through the workshop on gender awareness and leadership development:

• to share experiences from different countries and churches,
• to learn from each other in discussions,
• to analyse the situation of the roles of men and women in churches and in societies.

We considered the differences in understanding of gender roles and the question of power and its abuse.

We concluded that women and men have more in common than differences. However, it was recognized that even within the democratic structures there are still imbalances of power between women and men. The church also has a responsibility for developing democracy.

In order to achieve equal opportunities for women and men in church and society, it is important to continue these gender awareness and leadership development programmes. The churches should pay more attention to such problems as: domestic violence, power in economics (specially the growth of unemployment), and the abuse of power in the church and in society.

We would like you to open up discussions about these issues in your local churches. In this workshop we realized that we are still at the beginning of a process of opening up opportunities for women and men to work in partnership, so that all may have life in its fullness.

God bless you in your ministry.