In the past thirty-five years, the international community has become aware that the world must find ways to redress millennia of discrimination against and oppression of women. The United Nations decade for women, culminating in 1985 in Nairobi, and the ecumenical decade of churches in solidarity with women, launched by the World Council of Churches in 1988 and supported by the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, are two recent signs of that awareness.

It has become apparent that woman's life, from cradle to grave, requires resurrection:

A redistribution of society's basic resources is called for to end the enforced dependency and impoverishment of women.
New family, social and political structures need to be developed, which make it possible for women to affect publicly their societies and to determine the course of their own lives.
Myths about the nature of women and men which endorse relationships of dominance and submission must be challenged.
Hierarchical leadership styles need to be remodelled, reconceived, and transformed in new, unforeseen ways.
In the church, theologies that emerge out of world views which take women's inferiority for granted need to be re-evaluated. Liturgy and language must be tested against the reality of women's experience, and her basic God-given rights as a human being.

Often Christian women join together with women of other faiths to address the problems of women - and inevitably encounter broader issues. For example, Hindu, Muslim and Christian women in India combine their talents as schoolteachers, administrators, and legislators to develop programs for women - in literacy, rural development, and political awareness - which enrich the whole of life in villages and towns. In base community movements in Latin America, Methodist and Roman Catholic women work towards the restoration of favelas (slums) which ring the great cities such as Sao Paulo and Buenos Aires, and act as advocates for indigenous peoples perennially exploited by dominant power groups. The focus of their work is explicitly the restoration of human community as a whole. But their starting point is with women, in recognition that the role and fate of women are central to the whole community.

Nevertheless, progress is haphazard, with many factors slowing the pace of change. A rise in religious fundamentalism - Hindu, Islamic, Christian, Sikh - uses religion to oppress women and restrict their choices in private and public life. Governments are reluctant to make any basic economic changes which would allow women to control even the most meagre resources. Age-old cultural patterns such as Confucianism, which dictates that a woman must be absolutely obedient to her husband, are difficult to reconcile with women's emancipation.

Churches are being challenged to reflect on theological viewpoints, ways of understanding the Bible, and styles of church leadership which persist in discriminating against women. The World Alliance of Reformed Churches is composed of 168 members, all in various stages of meeting this challenge. In some cases, their progress is aided by the cultures in which they live. In Canada, for instance, women are afforded all the opportunities that men enjoy both in church and society. But in other situations, such as Pakistan, any change is perceived as a threat. The member church there cannot ordain a woman because a strict interpretation of Islam forbids women to be visible public leaders.

Churches do not always follow the norms of their societies, but sometimes stand outside the mainstream - either moving far ahead or lagging way behind. In Taiwan, the WARC member church has forged ahead, not only in the question of women's ordination, but also by being women's advocates in society. In the United States, however, one member church is just beginning to open doors that will allow women to participate fully with men in the life and witness of their community of faith.

Political and economic factors affect churches as well. Poverty is a great oppressor of women, as is famine, civil disorder and war. Women and children are the first to starve, and the first to die. In cultures where all material resources are provided by women, they often have all the responsibility for maintaining the social order, but have no right to reap the benefits of that order. In situations of continual poverty or instability, churches which have begun to change nevertheless fall back on more traditional patterns when their survival as communities of faith, if not their very lives, are at stake.

In this diverse, exciting and too often tragic world, it is nearly impossible to plot development on a straight line. Often, a church will make great strides in one area while holding back in another. The best one can do is to offer trends: a scan of how churches are encountering the challenges, and some long buried problems which have emerged as change occurs. Following this survey, a few testimonies of faith appear, written by women from around the world, describing their experience of God's love and women's hope in that love.

Trends in Europe

There are thirty-seven member churches in Europe, most of which ordain women. Where ordination is possible, most other roles and responsibilities are open to women as well. They may serve as church secretaries, fund raisers, church school teachers, deacons, elders, pastors, members of theological faculties, and administrative leaders. Lay women and clergy engage the secular world in ministries of peace, social justice, and concern for the environment. On the surface, it appears that the issue of women's full participation in the church has been resolved. But while great strides have been made in a comparatively short time, there is still a long way to go.

It is sometimes hard for congregations to accept women as pastors or theologians. Women clergy serving such parishes see themselves as pioneers, paving the way for tomorrow's women clergy. It is an exciting adventure, a new pilgrimage, but one which requires a great deal of patience.

As roles expand for all church women among WARC's European members, lay women have begun to recognize inequities in the treatment of women volunteers in the church. Traditionally, women have served the church in many ways, with no expectation of reward. Recently, a group of women in Switzerland have reported extensively on how women volunteers have been exploited by the denominations they serve. Fewer women manage the material resources of these volunteer ministries than do men serving in the same ways; and, overall, men usually receive some form of recognition for their services, while women do not.

As educational opportunities expand and more women enter into professional life, some churches have begun to lose highly talented and skilled women to careers in the secular world. Femmes D'Orsay, a women's advocacy organization in the Reformed Church of France, is very much concerned by this trend. The church is simply not as challenging to these women as society; and their withdrawal from the church means that changes of attitude and roles within the church come even more slowly.

Theologies and liturgies of Europe have yet to reflect the ways in which both women and men experience the world today. On the whole, faith is expressed using models of dominance and submission, masculine imagery, and sexist language. Even the ways in which questions of God and world are posed for the church set up divisions within a woman's (and a man's) spirit, so that her experiences are ranked as more spiritual or less spiritual, more earthbound or less earthbound, closer to God or farther from God. Such traditional ways of thinking often have little to do with how women experience life as a whole. Therefore, women have been compelled to form their own ecumenical networks which enable them to tell their stories, share their experiences, and form new models for talking about God, Jesus Christ, and the world he came to save.

Certainly there is a long way to go, but sometimes a seemingly small gain is a breakthrough. When a congregation in Budapest elected a woman to serve as its pastor in 1987, and a theological faculty in Sweden elected its first woman as an instructor in that same year, both were seen as milestones by the churches' leadership. New doors had been opened, new risks taken, and both women and men felt that these elections were major achievements. Another gain, not visible to many, is the advent of the clergy couple, where a wife and husband serve the same parish, or in congregations near one another.

The challenge in Europe is not only to alter age-old patterns of women's roles in the churches, but also to help form models that permit new ideas about the faith, and new ways of expressing the faith which are contemporary and adequate to a woman's experience. Inequities within church structures also need to be recognized and redressed: that some of these can even be researched and reported out from churches to the wider Christian communities is a sign that things are moving.

Trends in Africa

There are forty-three member churches in Africa. More than half do not ordain women. Most church women serve as Sunday school teachers, church secretaries, custodians, deacons, manage and provide for social functions, sing in choirs, and, perhaps most significantly, raise money. There are organized women's associations which raise money for projects concerned with women's needs; but most funds raised are turned over to the leadership of the church, which invariably means men. Those churches which do ordain women, such as the Presbyterian Church of East Africa and the Presbyterian Church of Mozambique, are moving slowly towards involving women in the total life of the denomination. One or two, such as the Presbyterian Church in the Cameroon and the Presbyterian Church in Nigeria, have opened all doors, so that women may fully participate in the life of the church. Generally speaking, however, women remain invisible.

But, if it seems that church women are primarily in care-taker positions, it is also true that some of the strongest voices demanding women's rights come from the churchwomen of Africa. These voices do not cry for women's rights within the church so much as within the world. Africa is a continent replete with war, starvation and political instability. When an African woman cries for freedom and dignity, she is crying for her life and the life of her child. She is fighting for her basic right to survive as an individual and for the survival of her community. It is a battle on two fronts - something comparatively unique in African societies, which have traditionally valued only the community, and not individuals themselves. This two-front battle attacks both discrimination against women as persons and threats to the life of traditional communities. It is a dual challenge which pervades Africa as a whole. The All Africa Conference of Churches' women's department, for instance, is devoted solely to women's development. There are projects in health, literacy, agriculture, education, and advocacy. By being staunch defenders of women's rights, the All Africa Conference of Churches supports the view of African nations that their focus must be on developing their societies.

Traditional male roles precluded men from learning how to cope with sudden change. It is predominantly women who farm, who fetch, who cook, who give birth, who bury the dead, who erect homes, who sustain the social bonds of the community. African women are not thought of as weak, but as incredibly powerful, and yet at the same time as being subservient to men and expendable. The fact is that without women in the forefront of development, Africa simply will not flourish. But to put women in the forefront of development, it is necessary to grant them the same rights to survive and to grow as have always been the rights of men.

To see the churchwoman's struggle in Africa is to see Africa's struggle. Her progress in the church often mirrors her nation's ability to address economic, social and political issues that confront it. One churchman said, "Without the woman, there is no tribe; without the tribe, there is no life." His view, blending with the knowledge that women have basic rights as individuals, hints at what the future of Africa may look like, and the role that African churchwomen could play in the development of their societies.

Trends in Asia

Taking into account the Middle East, there are forty-six member churches in Asia. Most do not ordain women. For many women, this refusal to ordain is becoming an increasingly unsatisfactory situation. In at least one member church, women strongly believe that ordaining women is now a necessity if their church is to be a credible witness in the world. Recently, some of these women have considered leaving their church as a last resort if ordination is not granted.

Most traditional roles associated with churchwomen all over the world are performed by Asian women as well. Reformed churchwomen in Asia tend to represent the middle class, and so are generally better educated than their sisters. Employment opportunities are greater for such women; and in India, for instance, many Christian women are professionals who are also active feminists. For most churchwomen, however, their only culturally recognized value is as wife and mother; even playing these roles, their status is almost nil. In India, for instance, a woman must serve her family first, and only afterwards may she eat. It is not unknown for a woman to starve herself to death. In Indonesia, some Christian women have become prostitutes in order to better their husbands careers. Ministries with and for women in Asia generally are few compared to the need.

Exceptions such as the Presbyterian Church in Taiwan and the Presbyterian Church in the Republic of Korea, are both involved in human rights and justice issues which embrace women's struggle in the home, the church and the marketplace.

Asian churchwomen dwell, as do their churches, in religious and sometimes cultural minorities. Their very existence stands outside the boundaries of ordinary life. Buddhism, Confucianism, Islam, Shinto, and Animist religions and cultural traditions permeate their everyday life and witness. Yet they are Christian and Reformed, and so ecclesiastically on their own. Their communities of faith must be very strong in order to survive. One challenge Asian churchwomen face, then, is to retain that which is best in their cultures and change that which has oppressed them for millennia, with the aim of strengthening rather than weakening their churches. Not an easy task - especially when many of these churches are reluctant to change at all.

In some countries, another challenge is to learn to speak up in public arenas. Only women of high status can proclaim their views in both the church and in the society. Many churchwomen are silent as well as invisible. Where women's organizations exist, they exist mostly to serve the ministries of men; yet they are the only places where women can share their experiences and their stories never go beyond the walls. Churches need to enable women to tell their stories publicly, and to shape their ministries in response to those stories.

The theology of Asia as expounded by many churches reflects the missionary movements of North America and Europe in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. These automatically limit women's full participation in the church. Minjung theology in Korea and movements for democracy elsewhere support women's revisions of theological ideas that both discriminate against women and violate their experiences of life. Yet another challenge for Asian churchwomen and their communities of faith is to engage actively in theological reflection that may transform the roles of women in the churches and, at the same time, develop a deepening sense of their responsibilities to their societies.

One great sign of hope for Asian women is the work being done by the Christian Conference of Asia, now based in Hong Kong after its expulsion from Singapore in January, 1988. The Christian Conference of Asia exposes the injustices, the violence and the utter disregard of Asian society towards women. Theirs is a clarion call to churches in Asia and throughout the world to take up the cause of women's rights. Controversial, highly political, and deeply committed, the Conference has been especially successful in raising the world's consciousness on the issue of third world prostitution and tourism. It is a sign of hope among Reformed churches in the region that most support the work of the Christian Conference of Asia.

Trends in Latin America

There are twenty-five member churches in Latin America (including the Caribbean). Most do not ordain women. The few exceptions, such as the Waldensian Church in Uruguay, the United Presbyterian Church of Brazil, and the Presbyterian Church of Cuba, have done so either because their own ecclesiastical traditions have remained intact (ie the Waldensians, originating in Italy in the 12th century), or because their understanding of the Christian faith has been influenced by secular liberation movements. In most churches, however, women can be seen as secretaries or performing traditional maintenance functions and diaconate ministries, often without ordination to that ministry. A few can be found in theological seminaries. Interpretations of the Bible predominate which justify subordination and invisibility. These interpretations are undergirded by a macho world in which men are perceived as being saviours and father figures. Since all of the Reformed churches in Latin America are minorities - with the Roman Catholic Church as powerful as government and military institutions - these churches tend to see all liberation movements which support the women's struggle as either inspired by Roman Catholics or by Communists. Therefore, they tend to retreat from any hint of women's liberation.

Nevertheless, women in Latin America, regardless of religion, have begun to band together in base community movements in order to build their societies from the bottom up - which means first addressing the needs of mother and child. Women's voices have been raised on behalf of women and men. Organizations such as GAM in Guatemala, pressures the Guatemalan government to locate missing husbands, sons and brothers believed to have been killed by government-inspired death squads and commando units. A group of Argentinian grandmothers has forced the Argentinian government to find their children and grandchildren kidnapped during the military dictatorship in the 1970s and early 1980s.

One particularly acute problem affecting churches throughout the world, but intensively experienced in Latin America, is the mushrooming of TV evangelists, primarily from the United States. These evangelists proclaim an "other worldly" message, attract the poor, and make millions on their misery. Poor women, already suffering, suffer even more, and the retreat from encountering the world has retarded the women's struggle as well as attempts to improve Latin American societies.

Perhaps because they are minorities, Reformed churches in Latin America have lagged behind their Roman Catholic and Methodist counterparts on human rights and women's issues. So silent have Reformed churches been (with the few exceptions mentioned above) that that very silence has given rise to self-reflection. In October, 1987, AIPRAL, the Association of Presbyterian and Reformed Churches in Latin America, concluded that women's issues were to become a priority for the association. Concern for the role of women in the church has expanded to include the development of women's potential in society as a whole. They realize that they now must catch up and take their proper role as prophets and ministers within their own contexts, which means taking up the women's struggle as their own.

Trends in North America

There are eleven member churches in North America (that is, in the United States and Canada). Most ordain women. Like churches in other parts of the world, women generally are in the majority on the membership rolls. They are deeply engaged both in evolving traditional programs for women and in developing new models for church leadership, ministry and witness.

Women are strikingly more visible in church leadership than they were fifteen years ago. Though women have been ordained as ministers in some North American churches of the Reformed family for more than a century, especially in the Congregational tradition, the number of ministers remained very small until quite recently. The proportion of women elders on local sessions has also risen noticeably in recent years. Nearly all Reformed churches now permit women to be ordained as ministers, elders, and deacons. The Presbyterian Church (USA) has even mandated the presence of women elders on sessions as part of a broader process to bring about more representative leadership. Women constitute between a third and a half of most seminary student bodies; and the number of women seminary faculty members is growing, albeit very slowly.

The last fifteen years have also seen the rise in lay women's leadership at national levels. In addition, traditional women's associations in churches remain very much alive and, in many cases, are searching for patterns of renewal which will enable them to maintain their historic role of calling the whole church to new forms of mission. Bible study, prayer and development of spiritual life, preparation of women for leadership in the church and service, both to congregation and the wider church, remain high priorities. Reformed church women continue to value their relationships with ecumenical organizations of church women such as Church Women United (CWU).

The presence of larger numbers of women leaders has resulted in some greater acceptance of inclusive language for worship. Several North American churches have adopted guidelines calling for the use of inclusive language, making clear that the people of God includes both women and men, and drawing language concerning God from a broad range of biblical images, not only such traditional make images of Father and King.

As in Europe, however, the opportunities for women in the secular world have drawn younger professional women away from the church, and particularly from church women's groups. Across North America, women's groups see this new pattern as a challenge for more flexible and imaginative programs.

Another challenge has come from the raised consciousness of women as women. In growing numbers, women of all ages (and some men) are uncomfortable with the overwhelming maleness of traditional language worship, with the slow pace by which women are brought into positions of leadership in anything approaching fair proportion to their numbers, and with the invisibility of women in church histories. Many churchwomen are taking responsibility for special study of feminist theology and feminist biblical study. Some not only read the increasingly available literature on the subject, but have also begun exploring their own church's and congregation's records to recover the contributions of women to the church and to make them visible.

Where congregational leadership resists using inclusive language in worship, an occasional women's association is beginning to offer alternative inclusive services for the whole congregation on a Sunday evening, drawing more explicitly on women's experience. Non-traditional groups of religious women, often ecumenical or interfaith, struggle together to relate their commitment to a growing awareness that changes are needed in both religious institutions and the wider society to bring about just relationships between women and men.

Yet problems remain. A conservative evangelical movement, which has invaded other churches throughout the world, has also challenged the women's movement in North American churches. To what extent it will be successful has yet to be determined. Moreover, there are some smaller, more conservative denominations which still do not ordain women or encourage women's development within the church. And even within denominations which do ordain and support women's full participation in the life of the church, geographically and culturally isolated congregations often continue to discriminate against women. Such small denominations and isolated congregations do not see their liturgies, their theologies or methods of biblical interpretation as needing renewal in light of the gospel which they profess. Churches in North America are still on the way towards being communities of women and men in which all sit at one table, drink from a common cup, and decide together how they will minister and witness in today's world.

Mother, woman

This Mozambican poet reminds us that we women have internalized certain subordinate roles assigned to us throughout history. If revolution and freedom are to be fully realized these roles must be cast aside.

Mother, woman:
Walk and raise your fist,
Affirm your desire to be free.

You are soil. You are sap.
You are strength. You are work.
Thus you are life.
In the fields,
In the factories,
In the home,
You have the truth of your strength
From your life-giving bosom.

Don't walk three yards behind
Your comrade and the revolution,
Walk, in front of them.
It's your place by right.
And when they want to exploit,
prostitute, violate your naked body,
refuse them,
fighting, refuse them.
Mother, woman: the Revolution is you.

(Anonymous. Translation by Nadine Samanich-Camprubi)

Ich bin eine Afrikanerin

Ja, ich bin eine Afrikanerin.
Ich bin die Eva von Adam.
Ich bin die Königin Hatschepsut, ich bin Nofretete.
Und die gefallenen Helden, auch die alten Pharaonen,
wachen über mich.

Ja, ich bin eine Afrikanerin,
ich bin die Kleopatra,
die Caesar nicht bezwingen konnte.
Ich bin die schwarze Madonna,
zu der Papst Paul betet.

Ja, ich bin eine Afrikanerin,
und wie der Regenbogen
habe ich die Welt umarmt
und ihr meine ursprünglichen
menschlichen Farben gegeben.

Ich bin die Königin Nzinga.
Ich bin die Königin Amina.
Ich bin Harriet Tubman.
Ich bin Mbuya Nehanda.
Und sieh! Ich wurde gestossen!
Hinunter! Auf den Boden!
Ich streckte meine blossen Hände aus,
wie ein Gefäss.
Aber ich habe jahrelang gekämpft,
in unzähligen Schlachten,
und ich richte mich immer wieder auf.

Ja, ich bin eine afrikanische Frau,
ich stehe aufrecht, wie eine Zypresse.
Ich fürchte mich nicht!
Denn meine Helden und Pharaonen
wachen über mich.

(Nilene OA Foxworth)

Out of the depths

Out of the depths I cry to you, O God,
Hear my voice, O God, listen to my pleading.

My voice is weak, O God, my God,
Although it speaks for many.
It is the voice of Sarah, shamed before her servant,
Barren, and given no worth.
It is the voice of Hagar, abused by her mistress,
Driven out into the desert with her child.
It is the voice of Rachel, weeping for her children,
Weeping, for they are all dead.
It is the voice of Mary, robbed of her humanity,
Woman, yet not woman.
It is the voice of Martha, taught to be a servant,
Challenged to choose for herself.
It is the voice of a nameless woman, bought and sold,
Then given back to herself.
It is the voice of women, groaning in labour,
Sweating in toil, abandoned in worry,
Enslaved in dependency, afraid of their weakness.

Do you hear my voice, O God, my God?
Can you answer me?
The words I hear all speak to me of men.
You said I am also in your image,
You are my father, are you also mother,
Comfort-bringing like the loving arms?

Do you hear my voice, O God, my God?
Can you answer me?
I can sing your song of praise no longer,
I am not at home in this world any more.
My heart is full of tears for my sisters,
They choke my words of joy.

Do you hear my voice, O God, my God?
Can you answer me?
You sent your son, a man, to love me,
But him they killed also.
What is the new life that you promise me?
I do not want more of the same.

(Kathy Galloway)

By his wounds you have been healed

1 Peter 2:24

O God,
through the image of a woman,*
crucified on the cross
I understand at last.

For over half of my life
I have been ashamed
of the scars I bear.
These scars tell an ugly story,
a common story,
about a girl who is the victim
when a man acts out his fantasies.

In the warmth, peace and sunlight of your presence
I was able to uncurl the tightly clenched fists.
For the first time
I felt your suffering presence with me in that event.
I have known you as a vulnerable baby,
as a brother, and as a father.
Now I know you as a woman.
You were there with me
as the violated girl
caught in helpless suffering.

The chains of shame and fear
no longer bind my heart and body.
A slow fire of compassion and forgiveness is kindled.
My tears fall now
for man as well as woman.

You, God,
can make our violated bodies
vessels of love and comfort
to such a desperate man.
I am honoured
to carry this womanly power
within my body and soul.

You were not ashamed of your wounds.
You showed them to Thomas
as marks of your ordeal and death.
I will no longer hide these wounds of mine.
I will bear them gracefully.
They tell a resurrection story.

(Anonymous)

* In a Toronto (Canada) church the figure of a woman, arms outstretched as if crucified, was hung below the cross in the chapel.

Woman's Creed

I believe in God
who created woman and man in God's own image
who created the world
and gave both sexes the care of the earth.

I believe in Jesus
child of God
chosen of God
born of the woman Mary
who listened to women and liked them
who was followed and financed
by woman disciples.

I believe in Jesus
who discussed theology with a woman at a well
and first confided in her his messiahship
who motivated her to go and tell
her great news to the city.

I believe in Jesus who received anointing
from a woman in Simon's house
who rebuked the men guests who scorned her
I believe in Jesus
who said this woman will be remembered for what she did
minister of Jesus.

I believe in Jesus who healed a woman on the sabbath
and made her straight because she was a human being
I believe in Jesus who spoke of God
as a woman seeking the lost coin
as a woman who swept
seeking the lost.

I believe in Jesus
who thought of pregnancy and birth with reverence
not as punishment - but as wrenching event
a metaphor for transformation
born again
anguish-into-joy.

I believe in Jesus who spoke of himself
as a mother hen who would gather her chicks under her wing.
I believe in Jesus who appeared first to Mary Magdalene
who sent her with the bursting message
GO AND TELL

I believe in the wholeness of the Saviour
in whom there is neither Jew nor Greek
slave nor free
male nor female
for we are all one
in salvation.

I believe in the Holy Spirit
as she moves over the waters of creation
and over the earth.
I believe in the Holy Spirit
the woman spirit of God
who like a hen
created us
and gave us birth
and covers us
with her wings.

(Rachel C Wahlberg)

Profession de foi

Je crois en l'émotion sainte des femmes
qui ont vu la pierre rouler
au lever du soleil de Pâques.
Je partage leur espérance pour
une communauté réussie de saint(e)s,
une communauté de soeurs et frères libéré(e)s
ou personne ne ferme la vie de l'autre comme une pierre.
Je crois en la vraie immortalité de Jésus
dont la rencontre nous a révélé
la force profonde de la vie humaine;
il a affronté tout ce qui nie la vie
passant outre le pouvoir et les opinions d'autrui;
il a pris parti et s'est impliqué jusqu'à ce que le droit à la vie
lui ait été ôté et qu'il ait été assassiné sous la haine.
Ainsi il fait partie de cette chaîne apparemment incessante
de celles/ceux que l'on méprise et que l'on assassine,
dont la souffrance ne peut se dire en mots.
Et pourtant nous ne pouvons nous taire,
car sinon nous deviendrions folles/fous.
Je crois au secret doux et fragile que nous appelons "vie",
caché dans la terre comme une graine
qui nous surprend partout avec plein de questions
et suscite notre amour, notre interdépendance
et notre responsabilité.

(Femme vicaire, Liturgie de Pâques, Wittenberg/RDA, 1986)

Testimonies from the WCC special issue on the ecumenical decade of churches in solidarity with women, No. 25 (January 1988).