Emerging Women

Liza Peiffer sent us the following about an important issue affecting women and families worldwide.

The United Nations has designated the first Monday each October as World Habitat Day.

This year on Oct. 5 in Washington, D.C. and around the world, please join Habitat for Humanity in support of this global observance as we come together and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable.

According to the United Nations, more than 100 million people in the world today are homeless. Millions more face a severe housing problem living without adequate sanitation, with irregular or no electricity supply and without adequate security.

Worldwide, more than 2 million housing units per year are needed for the next 50 years to solve the present worldwide housing crisis. With our global population expanding, however, at the end of those 50 years, there would still be a need for another 1 billion houses. (UN-HABITAT: 2005)

Raising awareness and advocating for change are the first steps toward transforming systems that perpetuate the global plague of poverty housing. World Habitat Day serves as an important reminder that everyone must unite to ensure that everyone has a safe, decent place to call home.

The U.N. further states that both developed and developing countries, cities and towns are increasingly feeling the effects of climate change, resource depletion, food insecurity, population growth and economic instability.

Rapid rates of urbanization cause serious negative consequences – overcrowding, poverty, slums with many poorly equipped to meet the service demands of ever growing urban populations.

With over half of the world’s population currently living in urban areas the U.N. believes there is no doubt that the “urban agenda” will increasingly become a priority for governments, local authorities and their non-governmental partners everywhere.

On this day, we reaffirm that adequate shelter is a basic human right, and we focus on the housing conditions of cities and towns around the world. We also use this day to remind the world of its collective responsibility for the future of the human habitat.

On October 5, 2009, please join us in support of World Habitat Day, as we raise our voices and declare that the lack of decent, affordable housing is unacceptable.

What can you do for World Habitat Day 2009?

Educate yourself and your friends and family.

* Read Habitat’s World Habitat Day handbook to learn more about the importance of secure tenure and neighborhood revitalization.
* Take a virtual tour of the Capotillo informal settlement in the Dominican Republic.
* Read statistics and research about poverty housing in the U.S. and around the world.
* Link to our World Habitat Day 2009 resources page on your social media pages, personal Web site or blog.

Advocate for decent housing for all.

* Submit a photo of yourself holding a sign that says “It all starts at home” and submit it to Habitat’s photo petition on Flickr.com.
* Send a message to your members of Congress on World Habitat Day.
* Tell your friends and family to take action too!

Join a World Habitat Day event in your community.
Visit World Habitat Day events.

Donate to support Habitat’s efforts.
Donate online today.

By Audrey deCoursey

The recent conviction for the murder of Annie Le, the Yale grad student, reveals a too-common pattern that we don’t want to see.

New Haven Police Chief James Lewis stressed that this crime was workplace violence, in an AP article:

“It is important to note that this is not about urban crime, university crime, domestic crime but an issue of workplace violence, which is becoming a growing concern around the country,” Lewis said, adding he wasn’t ruling out additional charges.

But the location of the crime is far less significant than the persons involved: a (white) man enacting violence against a woman (of color). There are many factors in play here, and preventing such horrendous crimes in the future will require a multi-pronged approach. But it won’t be ended unless we explore (and change) how men feel that lashing out violently against women resolves problems. Why do men resort to violence and why are women deemed their choice of victims?

It can be a scary world to be a woman in, and it shouldn’t be that way.

Audrey deCoursey is a Church of the Brethren pastor in Elgin, Illinois, and convener of the Womaen’s Caucus of the Church of the Brethren. This post originally appeared at her blog Brethren Priestess Online

By Jessica Coblentz

I recently received a copy of This I Believe, a printed collection of essays from the famous radio show series of the same name. Most nights I read a few of the 2-3 page essays, slowly making my way through the volume. A different author composed each essay—some are famous people like Albert Einstein, and some are more ordinary people like you and I. All of them respond to the deceptively simple question, “What do you believe?”

What would I write in my This I Believe composition? This question confronts me every time I close the book before falling asleep in bed. And I have awoken in the middle of the night with answers to this question. When they strike me, I roll over and squint my eyes through the darkness to scribble a few words on the inside cover of my book before the words leave me.

“I believe your story.” This is the first statement of the short list that has formed there. I’ve been returning to it over and over again since it hit the page. And this phrase is about what I believe as much as it is about the significance of the entire This I Believe project itself. I believe that beliefs—the deepest truths and convictions of people’s lives—they don’t just appear out of thin air. On the contrary, I believe we all have stories—reasons, events, influential encounters, messy narratives—upon which the foundational truths of our lives are built. If we ask people to recount the story of the “why” behind the “what” of their beliefs, and if we take them seriously when they do, there are profound consequences.

For one thing, I have found that it is much more difficult to patronize, or oversimplify, or quickly dismiss someone’s beliefs once they have situated those beliefs within an authentic narrative of their lives. Even when I really disagree with someone’s convictions, I am more reasonable in my disagreement when we have discussed our conflicting views within the context of our experiences. I am less likely to mistreat an adversary once I have realized that his or her beliefs are rooted in assertions derived from existentially significant experiences, just like mine. The “why’s” behind people’s stories soften my heart in a good way.

I think I came to believe in other people’s stories much more when I learned the power of telling my own. There is a profound sense of dignity accompanies the process of presenting oneself to another person, and feeling heard. Really heard. What’s more, the process of telling my story, as I do in small ways all the time on this blog, compels me to take ownership of my complex motives and subsequent actions in everyday life. I believe in giving other people the opportunity to experience this. I do that by taking seriously their lives, their stories, their reasons “why.”

Articulating my belief in the power of one’s story has me reflecting on how often I actually make time to hear people. I want to hear people more. I want to be changed and challenged by their stories. I need to stop and ask and listen more.

Jessica Coblentz is a graduate of Santa Clara University and has worked in Catholic young adult ministry. She is currently involved in graduate studies at Harvard Divinity School. This post originally appeared on her personal blog, jessicacoblentz.com.

By Angie Muresan

While at my mom’s this morning, I watched a little of the Kathie Lee and Hoda show (that may not be what the show’s called, but I’m sure it’s not far from that). For a half minute they were talking about what constitutes a great friendship, and one of them, don’t remember who, said that a great friend is someone who is happy for you and cheering you on even when you are successful at what you do, or when things go well. I got to thinking about it, because so often we, or at least I, have been under the impression that a real friend is the person who is loaning you the shoulder to cry on. You know that whole, ‘friend in need, friend indeed,’ bit.

But the more I thought about it, the more I realized that this woman was on to something. Thinking back on not such pleasant circumstances in my life, girlfriends popped out of the woodwork, so to speak, whenever something unpleasant occurred, offering words of sympathy and kindnesses unheard of until then. And I remember wondering then if they just needed fodder for gossip, secretly glad at what had befallen me. Did my personal tragedies make them feel any more superior? Did they pretend to be strong, because in reality, they were weak?

I can say in all honesty that when I myself have acted in such a way, it gave me a definite sense of power, and it made me feel privileged that the mean reality of the other person’s life, was not mine. But to be truly happy (and I don’t mean half heartedly), for someone’s good fortune and blessings, now that is altogether different. It implies a pure heart, free of envy, jealousy, or spite. Love and encouragement in bad times as in good. That is a true friendship.

I am so curious what you readers, think about this.

Angie Muresan was born and raised in Romania during the communism dictatorship of Nicolae Ceausescu, where even her thoughts had to be censored for fear of blurting the wrong thing out. Now, she lives in the Pacific Northwest with her husband, her two children, a house full of books and no television. This post originally appeared on her blog angiemuresan.com.

By Deb Falank

I just came across an article promoting the legal institution of marriage. The excerpt below is from the section titled “Evidence From the Social and Biological Sciences”.

Fathers excel when it comes to providing discipline, ensuring safety, and challenging their children to embrace life’s opportunities and confront life’s difficulties. The greater physical size and strength of most fathers, along with the pitch and inflection of their voice and the directive character of their speaking, give them an advantage when it comes to discipline, an advantage that is particularly evident with boys, who are more likely to comply with their fathers’ than their mothers’ discipline. Likewise, fathers are more likely than mothers to encourage their children to tackle difficult tasks, endure hardship without yielding, and seek out novel experiences. These paternal strengths also have deep biological underpinnings: Fathers typically have higher levels of testosterone—a hormone associated with dominance and assertiveness—than do mothers. Although the link between nature, nurture, and sex-specific parenting talents is undoubtedly complex, one cannot ignore the overwhelming evidence of sex differences in parenting—differences that marriage builds on to the advantage of children.

I’m all about marriage and stable families and agree with much of the broader outlines of the article. However, I find the particular stance in this paragraph to be a little disconcerting on two points, the idea that effective discipline requires particular physical characteristics, and that men are more likely than women to instill perseverance and inquisitiveness. What do you think of these premises? Is effective parenting really defined by gender in this specific way?

Deb Falank writes about women, animality, violence and Christianity at the soulful eye.

My church recently hosted a screening of the documentary Pray the Devil Back to Hell. I knew little about the film before attending the event, but what I encountered was a powerful story of women making a difference in their world. As the film description reads,

Pray the Devil Back to Hell chronicles the remarkable story of the courageous Liberian women who came together to end a bloody civil war and bring peace to their shattered country. Thousands of women — ordinary mothers, grandmothers, aunts and daughters, both Christian and Muslim — came together to pray for peace and then staged a silent protest outside of the Presidential Palace. Armed only with white T-shirts and the courage of their convictions, they demanded a resolution to the country’s civil war. Their actions were a critical element in bringing about a agreement during the stalled peace talks. A story of sacrifice, unity and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia. Inspiring, uplifting, and most of all motivating, it is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

Theirs was a courageous and hope-filled story that gives testimony to the fact that grassroots activism does affect change, but it was also much more complex than that. It is also a story of terror, greed, and oppression. Liberia’s Civil War tore apart the nation. The President, Charles Taylor, in his greed for money and power, ruled through his roaming military bands with no regard for human rights. The opposing warlords cared little for saving the country, and made use of the same injustices to secure power and wealth for themselves. The women were tired of seeing their husbands and sons caught up in (and dying in) the pissing contest for power, of watching their children starve, of having to flee their homes, and of witnessing the rape and murder of family members. But instead of simply despairing, they decided to take a stand for peace. Taking their cue from Esther in the Bible, they wore simple clothes and began protests for peace hoping to gain the attention of the President and the warlords. They held signs, sang songs, and persuaded their priests and imans to join their cause. They withheld sex from their husbands to get them to listen to reason. And when the eventual peace talks stalled and became a joke, they staged a sit-in trapping dignitaries in the conference hall until a decision was reached. And even when the chance of democratic elections was won, they campaigned still – guiding the disarmament process, getting women out to vote, and electing for Liberia the first woman President of any African nation. Courage, passion, and intensity can barely begin to describe the commitment these women had to peace. As they got into the cause and started to see that peace might actually be realized, they were emboldened and forgot to fear. As one women put it, “we forgot we could be raped.”

The power of women to change their world was profoundly demonstrated in this film. I loved how these women were presented as always being for peace rather than against the atrocities. This perspective kept them on the path to achieving their goals. It also help them help rehabilitate the child soldiers after the war ended. The images of young boys with limbs blown off playing schoolyard games is heartbreaking – and it was even harder knowing that those women were helping their former rapists and torturers. I’ve heard similar stories of women in Nigeria and Kenya peacefully banding together to stand up to injustices. It takes vision, commitment, and more hope in a better world than there is fear of what repercussions may ensue.  But it also takes a commitment to mercy and love.

Beyond being emotionally moved by this film, I was struck by the need for a couple of things in response to the film. First is the need for stories like this to be told. All of this was unfolding in Liberia during 2003-2005 and I never heard a thing about it on the news. Granted here in the USA, we were busy at the time bombing the crap out of Iraq and to even say the word “peace” much less talk about a movement of all of a nation’s women for peace was considered highly “unpatriotic.” But the world needs to know about the injustices as well as these stories of hope. Knowing that ordinary mothers and grandmothers can completely alter the path of a nation, is inspiring to say the least.

The second thing I was struck by was the need to educate children on conceptions of masculinity and femininity that affirm love and not hatred. When men are taught that they must be strong and powerful to be a good man, it is not hard to end up where the men and boys of Liberia did. Killing, raping, and pillaging in order to gain wealth and power shouldn’t be the definition of a man. Churches though are supporting these lies in encouraging the “fighter Jesus” images and hierarchical concepts that place men above women. The women of Liberia finally stood up and took charge, challenging those inane conceptions of masculinity. Others of us, especially in the church, can learn from them the importance of promoting respect, reconciliation, and love as opposed to strength, power, and dominance as core values.

To see the ability of women to change the world, to see the hope to be found in peace, and to know that even the most horrible of hells can be redeemed through peace and love, Pray the Devil Back to Hell, is a must see film. This is the sort of film that should be encouraging our churches to similar action and the sort of story that I want my children to learn as they grow older.  Our schools should be teaching our children less of the stories of who killed the most people to win wars, and more of those that saved their country by ending war without violence. If we want to raise peacemakers that respect the dignity of women, choose love over hate, compassion over greed, and life over death these women are the heroes they need to be presented with from a young age. So go see this film – spread the word, tell the story of hope, and take a stand for peace. To find a screening of this film near where you live click here

This letter was sent out today (along with this video) to the friends of Emergent Village, detailing our vision and hope for the future. -

Greetings!

You may remember back in April that a number of people invested in Emergent Village gathered in Washington, D.C., to discuss the future of this conversation. In May that group of 24 shared our stories from the weekend and expressed our hopes for what is to come. With the previous EV leadership ready to step down, this was a prime opportunity to take stock of where Emergent Village has been over the past decade. Over the past few months those of us who gathered in D.C. have been discerning carefully and thoroughly where God is calling us together. Though we are by no means finished dreaming for the future of the Village, here’s our summary of the process thus far.

In our recent conversations we distinguished four recurring emphases to guide the way we structure the Village: collaboration, distribution, transparency and localization. We want to hear what you are doing, connect you with others, open up channels of communication between diverse voices, and highlight the powerful and creative places of emergence happening in our backyards. And guess what? All of them involve YOU.

Emergent Village has always centered on relationships that find their common ground in seeking new, creative and sustainable ways of following Jesus, and that create glimpses of the present and coming Kingdom. As we move ahead, we want to continue to create intentional means of connecting people. We’ve been describing this intentionally relational space as the Village Green. The Village Green will take on many forms: gatherings and events, local cohort meetings and conversations, book groups, web resource sharing, news updates and more. In all instances, the Village Green is a generative environment where missional friendships are nourished.

For the Village Green to flourish, it needs YOU to ignite that generative energy at the local and grassroots level. The Village Green is open for planting seeds, throwing parties, living justly, discussing new ideas, connecting with new people, creating music and art and poetry, and yes, even sitting around discussing theology. As a way of encouraging, organizing and advancing these efforts, we’ve created eight working groups around the things we are most passionate about. A number of Villagers have already found their way to these groups and have started conversations about what the future of the Village Green looks like from there. And now it’s your turn to do the same. This is YOUR Village. We invite you to jump in on one or more of these groups by contacting the team point person(s) and contributing to the planning, the dreaming and the doing. If you think we’ve missed something or just feel like adding something new, let us know by contacting any of the people listed below.

Here are the working groups:

Arts: The Village has always been a place of creativity, and we want to continue in that direction by supporting, networking and highlighting artists of all kinds in the Village. If you would like to help foster arts on the Green, contact Troy Bronsink (troybronsink@mac.com) or Makeesha Fisher (makeesha@gmail.com).

Cohorts: In many ways, cohorts are the heart of the Village. This is a great on-ramp for people to get involved in the conversation, make new friends and discuss new ideas. If you want to help organize and resource our network of cohorts, contact Sarah Notton (sarahnotton@gmail.com) or Mike Clawson (mike.clawson@gmail.com).

Communications: Our relationships will only be as strong as our communication. So, a team of folks have been invited to steward our venues of communication to make sure that they are open, consistent, and empowering others. There will plenty of ways to help us spread the word around the Village and beyond. Already you’ll notice the fresh look and feel of the Emergent/C. If your gifts might serve this team, contact Tim Snyder (tksnyder@gmail.com)

Events: As a generative friendship, Emergent Village hopes to promote face-to-face interaction around compelling and creative ideas through a number of events. It has been part of our practice in the past to encourage Villagers to attend at least one event per year to sustain and grow relationships. If you want to help dream and implement future events, contact Randy Buist (randybuist@comcast.net) or Anthony Smith (postmodernegro@gmail.com).

Justice: One of the clear themes that came out of our time together in April was our common desire to see justice embodied in our communal life together and fostered in our individual lives, and to bring more stories of justice to the table. If you want to help foster our emphasis on justice, contact Kelly Bean (bean.kelly@gmail.com) or Wendy Johnson (Wendy.J@episcopalmn.org).

Resources: The Village Green is a great place to share ideas, and a wonderful place of conversation for Jesus Way followers to find encouragement and support. Through articles, books, podcasts, and lots of other mediums, we are all invited to share our collective wisdom for the greater good of the Kingdom. Contact Mike Stavlund (mikestavlund@gmail.com) or Brittian Bullock (brittianbullock@gmail.com) to help resource the Green.

Village Council: To help coordinate the efforts between these eight areas and to encourage the conversation even further into this next season of Emergent, the group from D.C. selected six people to serve on the new Village Council. The Village Council also makes up the Board of Directors for EV’s non-profit purposes and will handle some of the organizational necessities of EV. VC members will serve no more than two consecutive years. This year, the Village Council members are: Melvin Bray (melvinbray@gmail.com), Troy Bronsink (troybronsink@mac.com), Julie Clawson (julieclawson@gmail.com), Dwight Friesen (quest@scn.org), Eliacin Rosario-Cruz (eliacin@gmail.com) and Danielle Shroyer (danielle@journeydallas.com). How we choose future Village Councils is still yet to be determined, but we look forward to inlcuding more of you in this process down the road.

Web: The EV website and other digital media venues provide a virtual space for the Village Green in between our face to face encounters. The web also provides access to resources and offers a place of connection for newcomers. If you have ideas about supporting our virtual Village, contact Jon Irvine (jonirvine.com@gmail.com) or Michael Toy (the.michael.toy@gmail.com).

Thanks to ten years of dedication, passion, and vision, the soil on the Village Green is rich. We’ll do all we can to create and maintain this generative space because we are convinced that we’re far better together than we are apart. After all, that’s the definition of emergence—the collective becomes more than simply the sum of its parts. And isn’t that what this Kingdom is all about? So, fellow Villagers, we have only one question for you: What will YOU do on the Village Green?

Sincerely,
Danielle Shroyer, Melvin Bray, Troy Bronsink, Julie Clawson, Dwight Friesen, and Eliacin Rosario-Cruz