Some news of the Ecumenical Water Network

Today the Ecumenical Water Network's blog went online with its first of seven weekly meditations during Lent. This is all about getting Christians and churches to take action on issues of water and justice, to link with one another and be aware of what is going on in other parts of the world.

It so happens that the first meditation is written by me and is called drip, drip, drip. I really loved reading it in translation - my French and German are so much more elegant than if I had written myself - and as for my Spanish - well it exists which it wouldn't do otherwise!

Anyway you can get the meditations via an RSS feed and we really want people to leave comments and tell us about what they are doing to prepare for World Water Day. So please, read, comment and share. The ecumenical water network is one in a series of interesting projects the WCC is currently involved in on environmentla and economic issues.
So please support this initiative by reading and commenting or maybe by building the RSS feed into the sidebar of you blog.
Posted by Jane

Seven Weeks for Water - English

http://www.oikoumene.org/en/activities/ewn-home/resources-and-links/seven-weeks-for-water.html

Sept semaines pour l'eau

http://www.oikoumene.org/fr/activities/roe/ressources-et-liens/sept-semaines-pour-leau.html

Sieben Wochen im Zeichen des Wassers

http://www.oikoumene.org/de/activities/oekumenisches-wassernetzwerk-oewn/ressourcen-und-links/sieben-wochen-fuer-wasser.html

Siete Semanas para el Agua

http://www.oikoumene.org/es/activities/la-reda/recursos-y-enlaces/siete-semanas-para-el-agua.html

Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church: Ecumenical Women’s Guide to Advocacy

In preparation for International Women's Day on March 8th here's some news from a press release I've reiceved this week. I should also point to the Ecumenical Women at the UN blog which you can find here.

What are you doing for Women's Day - it's the 100th anniversary of the first women's day this year so there's grounds to celebrate but still much to achieve.

New York, February 24, 2009 -- In preparation for the March meeting of the Commission on the Status of Women (CSW-53) at the United Nations, Ecumenical Women, an international coalition of church and ecumenical organizations, has launched an advocacy guide: Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church: Ecumenical Women’s Guide to Advocacy.

The resource prepares delegates from faith-based non-governmental organizations for effective action at the annual United Nations meeting.

Including a brief history of advocacy by women of faith at the United Nations, the guide provides an overview on how to advocate for women’s rights at the UN, gender-equality action strategies for congregations, and theological reflections on gender equality written by women and men from around the world.

The 53rd session of the Commission on the Status of Women will take place March 2-13, 2009 at United Nations Headquarters in New York. More than two thousand women delegates come to New York from around the world to participate in the annual meeting.

This year approximately one in every ten women will be a member of Ecumenical Women.

Grounded in faith and a commitment to global justice, Faith at the UN, Gender in the Church combines traditional methods of advocacy at the United Nations with a message centered in the radical Christian concept of love for one’s neighbor.

Chair of Ecumenical Women and editor of the guide, Emily Davila, said, “We hope this book helps equip a movement of women and men who will transform their churches and societies to be places where all people have access to resources and opportunities to reach their greatest potential.”

WEBSITE: http://ecumenicalwomen.org

Reading as a way through ministry ...

I apologise for reposting this from my own blog but Sarah suggested it might be a good idea. Also it strikes me that we all make sense of our ministry in very different way, some by walking or jogging, others by writing poetry, others like me by reading detective fiction ...
Reading is a great solace and support in ministry and Kate has also been writing about reading so I encourage you to go and read that too, and please why not share something about what nourishes and supports you in your ministry. What helps you make sense of it all?

On Saturday morning I finally finished reading The Blood Spilt by Asa Larsson. It's not a classic crime novel in some ways but I found it a therapeutic and interesting read. (If you're intending to read it then I should probably warn you that what follows may contain "spoilers".)
I found it a very satisfying read, and have been trying to work out why. It spoke to me at quite a deep level in part no doubt because I left my last pastorate due to a conflict with a retired minister who never accepted my authority. The book depicts quite elemental and base emotions and jealousies that are aroused by the arrival of the woman priest and the way she does her work. As the book opens she seems to be a rather cardboard cut out feminist hate figure but as the story progresses her personality and ministry are fleshed out much more. Despite being the corpse at the beginning of the book Matilda remains its main character throughout, somehow that spoke to me about resurrection.
Perhaps I found the read so satisfying too because it also has a good selection of other strong female characters. It was helpful for me many years down the line to recognise what very deep emotions are triggered by the arrival of a new person who is also a woman in a clergy role. A new woman priest will tend to always be more visible and will represent consciously and unconsciously so many fears and prejudices to some people. I realise now that this is what happened when I arrived in my last pastorate.
When I preached with a view in the parish the lectionary text was the woman taken in adultery, it was passion Sunday. I preached a good biblical, gospel, sermon. I hadn't chosen the text, the text had chosen me and the service went very well.
The retired colleague I later had so many problems with was the only person who didn't shake my hand that morning, he stalked haughtily out of the church barely nodding at me. Not surprising really that after a few years in the job I was thinking up crime novels with some good choices for cadavres on the first page! Only now does it all make sense. It helps a bit to feel a bit less guilty about it.
I don't normally find reading crime fiction quite so meaningful but I'm very glad I picked up this one in the bookshop in Rome. I'm also glad that I was not found strung up from the organ loft in my former parish.(Given that the retired colleague was treasurer of the organ committee this would have been fitting no doubt!)
However, joking apart, the level of harrassment that many clergy have to live with in the jobs is also a form of violence that churches do not readily open their eyes to or admit. The level of harrassment dressed up as theological disagreement that some Anglican clergywomen have to put up with is also I believe deeply abusive in many cases.
Perhaps the very physical violence in Asa Larsson's book has helped me recognise the verbal and political, spoken and unspoken violence I had to put up with. In the book Matilda's ministry continues after her death and the she-wolf still dances in the forest.

Face to Faith by Elizabeth Gray King

You can read a Face to Faith for Valentine's Day by Elizabeth Gray King in the Guardian.
Here's how it begins:

Valentine's Day. What image does it conjure for you? Hearts and flowers, romantic meals, invitations to marriage or partnership, love declared by mysterious Valentines? While primary schools encourage children to say "I love you" to their parents, teenagers can be filled with angst as to whether anyone loves them at all. Such are the burdens of a day dedicated to love.

In a wretched world, where loneliness, despair and grief is all too real for many, it may seem anachronistic to celebrate Valentine's Day, to play the game with hearts and flowers or lingerie and chocolates. Somehow it feels wrong.

This week one of my closest colleagues learned that her marriage was over. Her husband told her by email. I've been thinking about her on today...

Women bishops, women's ministry

As I've been reading about (and commenting on) the Church of England and the ongoing debate about women bishops, I've been thinking about the United Reformed Church's contribtuion to women's leadership of the church in our country. As I thought about it I realised that even with Roberta in place as general secretary and with a couple of generations of women moderators, women's leadership is still quite fragile even within our own denomination.
Being a leader in the church today is not easy for anyone, woman or man. Perhaps it is much clearer to those of us in ministry today in western Europe that we are on the edges of society.
I am shocked by the misogynistic invective used in some of the debate. Rachel who is starting out training for ministry in the Anglican Church is also trying to make sense of all that on her blog which I enjoy reading.
So how can we support the women in leadership in our churches, both in the UK and elsewhere? Are we in solidarity or just too busy getting on with our own work?

Here's an extract from Judith Maltby's piece in the Guardian

A friend of mine is the dedicated parish priest of a busy and demanding urban parish in east London. The parish is proud of the fact that a number of its post-war vicars have gone on to serve as bishops.
She told me recently of a meeting of the management committee for the play group associated with the church (just the sort of ministry to the wider community that the Church of England excels at) made up mainly of young professional women. One of the lay women present remarked that my friend would surely become a bishop as well. Besides her natural modesty, she informed them that it isn't possible yet for women to be bishops in the Church of England. My friend's remark was met with complete incredulity by these young women as one of them responded, quite reasonably when you stop to think about it, "Is that legal?!"
It is legal, of course. It is perfectly legal for woman priests to be rendered ineligible for certain posts in the church simply because they are women.

Jane

The Other Side of You

On a few days off last week I read Salley Vickers' The Other Side of You - referred to earlier in this blog. It made me want to go and look at Caravaggios again and to spend more time in Rome - and it isn't too heavy for a holiday read, so what more can you ask?!

Next on the list is Jane Leach's book Walking the Story, with pictures and theological reflections on her walking the Santiago da Compostela. The motivation is that I'm preparing to walk a small part of the path later in the year. The other part of my preparation should include working on fitness...but there are always good reasons for not doing things, aren't there? I've been thinking about motivation this week in connection with Mark's account of the call of the disciples. "Follow me" - and despite all the personal and economic and common sense reasons for not going, they just do. Yet Mark doesn't explain motivation, either here or in so many other places. Intriguing - I wonder where they thought they were going?

Ann

Hunger

I'm hungry. Not really hungry - but John has gone to take some stuff to Coventry on the way home & my evening meeting has been cancelled, so I'm waiting for him to get home before we eat. And I've been sitting at the computer too long to concentrate any more just now, so I've got the time to notice that it's dinner time.

But what do I know about real hunger - physical, spiritual or any other sort? And if I've never been starving, then surely I can't appreciate food (physical or spiritual) in anything like the same way as someone who has - c.f. the woman who anointed Jesus' feet in Luke 7. So how do I learn better to appreciate what has been showered upon me? Perhaps be concentrating the mind in other ways - decluttering - and by deliberately working at savouring what I have received.

Women Bible translators

One of the blogs I follow is by Suzanne Mccarthy and is mainly about Bible translation. Suzanne does wonderful posts that are both erudite and engaged about Bible translation and egalitarian rather than complementarian approaches to the text.
One of Suzanne's most recent posts is about women Bible translators. Her work is an interesting and important reclaiming of the work many women have done in past centuries on biblical translation. Go here and click on the links to read more.
Do you have a favourite blog or website?

posted by Jane

Of quilting, craftivism, life and creativity

Janet Lees has posted a wonderful photo of the extraordinary quilt Louise Mabbs has made to celebrate Janet and Bob's 10 years of life and ministry in Sheffield. It is an amazing celebration of the Land's End to John o' Groats walk Bob did in 2003 and a stunning demonstration of Louise's skill and creativity.
Not all of us are as artistically talented as Louise but I'm sure all of have things we do which nourish our ministry. I love doing calligraphy - or even just thinking about doing calligraphy. It helps to calm me down, makes me breathe more deeply and sometimes the results are not too bad.
Thanks to Sarah Hall's new blog I've been discovering about craftivism - the gentle art of craft and activism - perhaps craftitheoligism is what a lot of my ministry has been about. Give me some paint, a Bible text and a campaign and I'm away.
So what do you do to restore and feed your soul?
Meanwhile check out news of Manchester Street Pastors on Kate Gray's breadbreaker blog.

Posté par moi Jane formerly of the Stranz Manse in France