This week has been an emotional roller-coaster, from feeling like I was going to explode on Monday to implode by Thursday, it sure ain't dull.
Every time I think that I have buried the voice in me that wants to speak out and up for women, she is encouraged to breathe again. I wonder how long I will fight and try to suffocate this call and I wonder how the voice will be heard, I mean, really, not just virtually here and apologetically at college. Maybe I will just always sit with this restlessness and that is what life in the Church of England will be like. Rosie Ward is doing a lot of work at CPAS on Growing Women Leaders and has a book of the same title, which is definitely worth a read.
This week I have met two very different women who speak into the gender issues that afflict our planet and they do raise the issues that affect women rather than men. That is their call. Elaine Storkey provided us with horrifying statistics regarding female abuse and oppression the world over and Michelle Guinness encouraged us to 'shake up' the church and our practices a little so that we are not relying on the institution to nurture the faith of our children, we are creating homes where God reigns and children can explore him, communities where we create community and creep out of our individualistic comfort-zones to discover the comfort we might be to one another. My passions have been stirred afresh!
Following Jesus is a call to radicalism. Jesus also calls us to community and loving our brothers and sisters. Okay - Lord, now let's work out how those two things get negotiated! There is something I find attractive about Mark Driscoll's presentation of the gospel. He tends to think that he is delivering a Jesus for men, the warrior, the radical, but do we not all need to hear about this Jesus? The feminised Jesus, oh heck, the masculinised Jesus, oh dear - no just Jesus - gentle disturber! Comfort/discomfort - ease/dis-ease - it's all of this and more. Such half-baked thoughts and if I sounded shrill, I didn't mean to.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
LinkWithin
.
A little background reading so we might mutually flourish when there are different opinions
2 comments:
It's sad Rachel, but you're sounding increasingly shrill. Think of the fruits of the Spirit, then read your last post. Do they fit?
Sad indeed, Rosemary. The statistics I have heard this week are enough to make you weep. I will type up some of Elaine Storkey's lecture at some point.
Shrill - Concise Oxford dictionary: (of voice or sound) highpitched and piercing. Derogatory (of complaint or demand) loud and forceful.
Highpitched - can't be helped.
Piercing - hope not
Complaint - yes - we are looking in our pastoral care module at how perhaps we need to revive a lament and psalmist theology, in terms of crying out to the Lord, danger is- you can be misunderstood - yep!
Loud and forceful - loud? People read if they want to, or not.
Forceful - doubtful. One of the problems for women is that for so long they have lacked a voice. We heard about the terrible suffering in silence experienced by so many women with Elaine Storkey. You would be moved for your sisters too, Rosemary.
Good to hear from you again.
Post a Comment