Emerging Women

So I got home a week ago and have been meaning to post about this all week – but life just got in the way. I wanted to give a brief report of what happened at the Emerging Women lunch at the Emergent Gathering last week. And in case you were wondering, the picture is of Makeesha and me at the lunch. Somehow that’s the only picture that turned out.

Anyway, we gave an open invitation to whoever wanted to attend an Emerging Women lunch at the Gathering. Men and Women both (or as it has come to be phrased at these things, “Emerging Women and men who like them”). We had a good sized group show up for a spread of cheeses and organic soup and salad (thank you Sarah Sayles for helping prep). I gave a very basic introduction to the types of activities Emerging Women is involved in and then we opened it up for people to share their stories. The storytelling took up most of our time, but I found it to be a very blessed and supportive time. There was a wide diversity of women present who have come to this emerging conversation from a variety of backgrounds. After sharing our experiences as women in the EC we spent a (very) short amount of time discussing the lack of visible women in leadership in the emerging church.

There were a few highlights in the conversation that stood out to me that I want to mention here -

One woman spoke on how she wished God was more like her father. Unlike the women who try to get away from the Father image of God, she is seeking to understand God in that way. Her own father encouraged her and told her that she could do/be anything. But it was God (or the church’s representation of God) that seemed to be restricting her. She wants to see God in the encouraging and supportive role her own father played in her life.

One woman mentioned that for this emerging conversation to be balanced (have equal representation of men and women’s voices) everyone needs to be willing to give up something. Be it ego, power, ease – if we care about balance we have to work for it.

Some women brought up that in the emerging church we shouldn’t be having to work for equal representation and respect for women. We should just already have it if we are truly a representation of the body of Christ. That sparked a discussion on the way things are verses the way things should be. A couple of women who work with victims of domestic violence brought up that there shouldn’t be violence against women, but there is. They are not just going to wait around for the way things should be to just happen because of their inherent rightness. No, they are going to fight to bring justice and make things right. The same goes for being proactive in demanding women have a voice.

And I want to thank Jeff for his portrayal of the unenlightened vs enlightened emergent male. According to his division, the unenlightened emergent male sees that there are so many issues to deal with and hurdles to overcome in moving this emerging conversation forward, so he brushes women aside as an unimportant issue in light of the bigger picture. But the enlightened emergent male will continue this whole revolution by doing his part in helping bringing women alongside as an equal and powerful voice in helping make things happen.

This past weekend we held the first ever Midwest Emergent Gathering. Basically a few of us who help lead Emergent Cohorts wanted to put on a regional gathering. We invited all the Midwest cohorts and anyone else who was interested and dove into putting on a conference. It was a ton of work, but in the end turned out to be a great experience. We had a fantastic group of people show up and heard from some dynamic speakers. Our keynote speakers included Tony Jones, Doug Pagitt, Denise Van Eck, Nanette Sawyer, Alise Barrymore, James King and Spencer Burke. If you are interested in hearing what they had to say, the main session talks (and a few others) are all available for download at the Midwest Emergent Gathering Website. And if you are interested, a summary of the whole event has been posted at the conference blog.

It was great to see some of the women who interact on this blog at the conference. We held an informal Emerging Women lunch that was basically a time to share experiences and dream about what we as women would like to see happening in the church. A fairly diverse group of women and men attended to discuss the “role” of women in the emerging church (a problematic concept if there ever was one). One father attended who had become disillusioned with his faith as he watched his daughters leave the faith because of how the church treats women. Other women who come from mainline denominations said they have never had any issues as a woman in the church. Other women there were tired, very tired, of struggling to be accepted at all. There were women there who see no need for a separate “women’s group” and others who are desperate for other women they can relate to. Needless to say, we had some rich conversation.

Some of the women shared how they were surprised at how male dominated the conference was. While we had tried to give equal speaking and workshop opportunities to women and men, most of the upfront voices were still male and all of the God talk was male gendered. For women especially from mainline backgrounds, it was a bit shocking to see such an imbalance. It made me realize that even when we deliberately planned for more gender equality, the male voice still dominated. No wonder it has been hard for women to see themselves represented in the emerging church. What will it take for women to be fully recognized and seen as a vital (and needed) presence in this conversation?

Another topic of conversation at the lunch involved the lack of resources (or information about such resources) for emerging women. There are women out there writing books, teaching theology, and giving brilliant talks. They just aren’t well known. We discussed some of the reasons why this is the case. Some suggested the mommy factor. Women who have the ability to teach, speak, or write often are never blessed with the time to do so because of family obligations (the men seem to have no problems on the other hand.) Also if women do get books out there, they rarely get the same level of promotion and press as books by they male colleagues do. Hence fewer women know that those resources are out there. And often those resources are coming from mainline and not evangelical publishers, making it difficult for many evangelical (or post-evangelicals) to even know they exist. So as a group we discussed the need to not only encourage and empower women to use their voices, but to also start grassroots movements to promote women whose voices are already out there. To let others know what books have influenced you or given you hope. To let the world know when there is a new book published. That could involve sharing with friends, making a point to blog a review about a book (or even just provide a link), or something as simple as creating lists on Amazon or adding a book to your Facebook or Librarything bookshelf. Grassroots means that women get behind other women to help let their collective voices be heard. What are other ideas people here have?

To help with that sharing of information, we highlighted a few of the books women who were at the lunch had written. I wanted to share those here as well. Many of you may have already read Ivy Beckwith’s Postmodern Children’s Ministry. I found it to be a fantastic introduction to postmodernism and a great help for reimagining children’s ministry. We also highlighted upcoming books from Beth Booram (The Wide Open Spaces of God, Sept. 2007) and Nanette Sawyer (Hospitality the Sacred Art, Oct. 2007). I look forward to reading those and hope to post more about them in the future.

In all, I thought the conversation was helpful. It pushed us to think about the effects the roles the church (even emerging churches) have given to women (and we have accepted) have on people’s faith and desire to be involved. I realized that we need to always be aware of whether or not all people feel welcomed and included. I saw also the need to be doing whatever we can to help women find, use, and promote their voice. And that doing so does not necessarily have to involve fighting for equality (although that is often also needed), but engaging in love and hospitality. It means encouraging and supporting each other – be that by reading each other’s books and blogs, by giving moral support, or watching a friend’s kids so she has a quiet moment to write.

So thank you to all who attended for a good conversation.

At the recent Emerging Women Midwest Gathering, Elsie Rivera Palabrica gave a presentation on St. Teresa of Avila as a woman who re-imagined. Due to technical difficulties, we were unable to show the powerpoint with all of the illustrations. But she has made the presentation on St. Teresa of Avila, monasticism and centering prayer is available to anyone who would like a copy (in pdf or powerpoint format). Let us know if you’d like a copy, with notes, emailed to you by leaving a comment or sending an email to emergingwomen@gmail.com.

Elsie also writes – “The centering prayer website recommended in the presentation is www.centeringprayer.com. The text of the most popular book on centering prayer, Open Heart, Open Mind by Thomas Keating, is available at www.centeringprayer.com/OpenHeart/index.htm – note, this link isn’t directly accessible through the main website so be sure to bookmark it.”

As part of this week’s Weekly Round-Up, I want to say some huge thank yous.

First I want to thank all the great people who helped make the recent EW gathering happen. Many people gave of their time to make the experience work for everyone. I want to thank everyone who led workshops and discussion groups – thanks for lending your knowledge and experience and passions to the rest of us. And thanks to everyone who helped with set-up, hospitality, and clean-up.

Thanks too to Sarah Notton for helping plan all the details, Sarah Sayles for coordinating the music, Elizabeth Potter for her good ideas and willingness to help with anything, and Kristine Socall for taking charge of hospitality stuff. (and for all being awesome people!)

We also want to thank the groups that sponsored us. They helped provide advertising, resources, and scholarships. A big thanks to them for their help!

And now to highlight a few emerging women posts -

Nadia reflects on a recent retreat with the Urban Servants Corps.

Read about holistic theology over at Eternal Echoes.

There’s a review of Lisa Samson’s new book Quaker Summer over at Calacirian. I’m all for supporting emerging women writers!

From Linda -
“I wanted to tell you about a brand new ministry I started recently called ‘Christ Driven Women’ and would appreciate any help you can give as far as ideas, resources, wisdom, prayer & help bringing other women to the website. www.ChristDrivenWomen.com. It is all still very new as you will see but I’m hoping to get some discussions going on the forums ASAP. I see the forums as being one of the driving forces in this ministry to get women talking & connected with other women church leaders around the globe. My goal is to get other women involved in this ministry & see it as a huge ministry to helping women be all they can be for the sake of Christ.”

Enjoy and have a great weekend!

At the Emerging Women Gathering, Sarah Sayles led a workshop called “Creative Worship in the Everyday”. The women attending this workshop collaborated on a poem that expressed that theme in their lives. Here it is for all to enjoy!

Finding Sabbath

If I don’t clean the house
why would I take care of my temple?

Because it’s a lot harder
to shove your thighs in the closet
when your friends come over!

Even when I think I outta be playing
cards with my kids

I know I’m better off seeking
God’s face on my exercycle…
or when I’m driving my car
(with my eyes open!)

I cry out to God

It’s better than cursing the other drivers
and the traffic doesn’t care anyhow.

When I’m in a good place
it’s worshipful to do the dishes
or shop and clean the bathroom

I can declare what God has done
to the dust bunnies under the chair.

How can I remember God
in the clamor of this world?
Life can be so loud
so distracting

How can I remember to not forget?

Bring an offering and come before God
with willing heart.

We lay before you -

a joyful heart
dog hair
a clean house
a good meal
fresh-baked cookies
an abundance of kind words
puppy kisses
Earthworms

Find Sabbath in all of these things.

Midwest Emerging Women’s Gathering

March 17, 2007

Hi – I just wanted to post a few links related to the recent gathering.

When the women registered, they were asked to recommend one book for other Emerging Women. I’ve posted this list for everyone to benefit from over at Amazon, you can find it here. The books represent the diversity of women that were present and I found I few to add to my own reading list.

For some other perspectives on the weekend check out the reflections of -
Amy
Karen
Mike (yes there were a few guys present, I’ll post about that later…)

(I’ll add to the list as I’m made aware of other’s posting)

We hope to post some other reflections, some of the workshop notes, and some of the artwork created over the next few days as well.

Hi all. We are back from the Emerging Women Midwest Gathering and besides being totally exhausted, I am really encouraged by the dreams and passions that I witnessed this weekend. As the coordinator of the event, I didn’t really “experience” it in the same was as everyone else, so I hope we can hear a variety of perspectives about the weekend.

We gathered in a Castle in Oregon, Il and I thought it was a fun setting for our conversations. We of course had fun with the castle theme with décor and a “make your own tiara” station, but our main theme revolved around re-imagining the Kingdom. We had workshops that explored ideas of how that is done and heard stories of women who re-imagined in our main sessions. We also spent time re-imagining worship by providing space for experimenting with fresh forms of worship.

I really appreciated the diversity of women there. We did have women from all ages and backgrounds. This provided for some great (albeit emotional) conversations about theology and what in the world is this whole emerging church thing. We saw the variety of ways women come at their faith experience and how they conceptualize and talk about God.

Over the next few days, we will post resource lists and other reflections on the weekend, but I thought I would post my notes from my opening and closing session remarks to help others get an idea about what our theme and purpose was for our time together.

(opening remarks)
Once we decided on the Castle location for this gathering, we knew we had to do something fun with the whole concept of the castle… There was of course talk about all wearing Ren-faire costumes and jokes about exploring the sacred feminine by dancing nude in the moonlight in a grove of trees (a few too many of us have read Dance of the Dissident Daughter…) But as we really began to think about it, we realized that most castle themes just didn’t seem to fit. You have the knights in shining armor, the violence of the crusades, and way too many damsels in distress – not exactly Emerging Women fare. But it got me thinking. I love history so I began to wonder, “what do we know about the women who lived in castles?” and as a logical follow-up “how do we know it?” As a student of the history of history, I realized that it was only with the advent of a method called “social history” that the day-to-day lives of the women who lived in castles became known. Social historians decided to re-imagine history. Not to throw out facts and truth, but to re-imagine which facts and which sources are deemed important. While most other methods of history focused on the lives of rich and powerful men, social historians began piecing together the stories of women, minorities, and the poor. As they did this, people began to realize the impact these previously-ignored groups had on the shaping of our world. It took leaving the fortresses of assumption and bias behind to get the big picture for these historians. And it is from that re-imagining that we developed the theme for this weekend.

Unlike the stories that were passed down through our common imagination, we are not just Princesses waiting around to be rescued as our t-shirts proclaim (although we all do need helping hands from time to time). We are not waiting around to be told what to think or waiting for permission to join the conversation, we are ready to worship and serve God. For some this is a struggle – we have been wounded, we have been denied a voice, or we just don’t know how to have that voice. So, I want us to step out beyond the castle walls this weekend – leave behind our assumptions about who and what are important in God’s Kingdom, and re-imagine ways that we as women in this emerging, postmodern culture can worship and serve to truly make an impact on our world.

We are a diverse group. We have different church traditions, different theologies, different worship styles and that’s okay. We don’t all have to agree on everything this weekend – in fact some of the people leading workshops might present differing views, its okay. Many of us have the commonality that we are interested in the emerging church conversation (others came with a friend and have no clue what that’s about). But if you’ve been around the emerging/emergent conversation long enough, you know that it expresses itself in many different forms. We can explore some of those together this weekend. But mainly we want to help encourage each other as women to serve God and have a voice, how that plays out in our lives will look different for each of us. I hope it will be a time of learning and of refreshment for each of us.

(and from our concluding session)
Sometimes it’s the world that needs re-imagined – the systems of injustice, the pain, the evils. Sometimes it’s the church that needs re-imagined – traditions and theologies that have usurped the call to serve God. Sometimes it our worship – when we forget or are frightened by the variety of ways we can connect with God. Sometimes it our lives – when we realize that perhaps God is pushing us to step up and serve, to use our voice, to use our talents, to use our compassion to serve him. Where is God calling you to re-imagine?

As you leave this weekend, how will you re-imagine the Kingdom? What do you see in the world or the church that needs to change or improve or grow? What in your own life needs re-imagining? Is it how you worship, is it how you serve God, is it how you interact with others? What will it mean for you as a woman to do these things? How will you re-imagine?

To return to our castle theme – we are Princesses but we’re not in need of rescue. Even in our brokenness, even in our fear, even in our questions we can go out beyond the castle walls – literally and figuratively. We are the one who can re-imagine. We can start the conversations, engage with new ideas, experiment with our worship, use our voice, work for justice, and not be afraid to risk it all to serve God. But we are not alone – we have gathered as women at learn from and encourage each other and we can look to each other for support.