Women and the church - an interview with Nambura Njoroge

You can read an interview with the brilliant and irrepressible Nyambura Njoroge
Here's an extract:
As the Project Coordinator for Ecumenical HIV and Aids Initiative in Africa
of the Geneva-based World Council of Churches, Nyambura offers "life-affirming words, words that speak healing and wholeness to all who are afflicted and condemned to death."
Gradually, the church is realising that HIV is more than a medical issue that cannot be ignored and that it is wrong to stigmatise those it afflicts.
Nyambura says theological reflection helps in Biblical care and counselling of those infected and affected.
"It helps us take action in a different way and be more creative. My journey of theological reflection has shaped me and helped me grow in life. It is now helping me deal with Aids positively and with hope," she says.
First woman ordained
It is a journey that began in earnest on September 5, 1982, when she became the first woman to be ordained by the Presbyterian Church of East Africa (PCEA). As a pioneer, she had to work hard to discover the many dedicated, but un-ordained women to mentor and also to be mentored by. She also quickly learnt that when you are a pioneer, others look out for mistakes. She recalls the sneers she received in Harare,
Zimbabwe, at the 1992 All Africa Conference of Churches (AACC) Assembly, when
she used the case of Pia Njoki, the woman blinded by her husband in a fit of rage so she wouldn’t see other men. She was accused of washing dirty linen in public.
"We had all cried for Pia. When I wrote my doctoral dissertation, the
issue of domestic violence had come up. So what was the dirty linen that I was washing at the Assembly?" she asks.

Circles of names from the USA to remember women leaders who have been important to us

One of the press releases forwarded to me at work today was this. It's from the USA idea but I wonder whether we might be able to do some similar on the UK and European level and maybe even worldwide. It's a way of supporting women's ministries in different denominations.
Anyway it's also a great idea to try and think about what the names are you would like to celebrate. Here's the release - follw the circle of names links to find out where the picture comes from too. (It's by Mary Button – Honorary Artist for “Wise Women Circle”)

NCC sponsored 'Circles of Names' campaign will support denominational women's ministries New York, November 25, 2009 -- Mindful of the historic contributions of women leaders in its member communions and concerned about recent cutbacks in gender justice and women's ministries, the National Council of Churches is taking steps to nurture the work.
During the National Council of Churches/Church World Service
General Assembly Claire Randall Luncheon in Minneapolis earlier this month, the Rev. Ann Tiemeyer, NCC Women’s Ministries Program Director, announced the launch of the "Circles of Names" Campaign to enable donors to support ongoing and future work by honoring women who have made a difference in the church and in individual lives.
"In light of recent cuts to denominational budgets and staff in the areas of women’s ministries and gender justice work," Tiemeyer said, "now more than ever we need to make visible the broad support for this work in our communions."
To encourage and assist the leadership circles in advancing the "Circles of Names" campaign, Honorary Chair of the Wise Women's Leadership Circle," Anne Hale Johnson provided a substantial challenge gift to the campaign.
"Her generosity has assisted in rapidly moving us toward our
goal of $100,000 and 1,000 names in just 51 days," Tiemeyer said. "Over the years Anne Hale Johnson, a member of the Presbyterian Church (USA,) has provided encouragement and support to many women leaders both in the church and in wider
society."
The "Circles of Names" campaign asks participants to submit the name of a woman who is or has been influential in their faith life, and to contribute $100 in that woman's honor.
"We have designed the campaign in such a way as to make it possible for most people to participate," explained the Rev. Deborah DeWinter, Director of Donor Relations for the National Council of Churches. Ten people can all agree on one woman to name and each donate $10. While pledges and names are due by December 31, 2009, donors have until December 31, 2010 to submit their payments. The names will be displayed on the Circles of Names Web site, www.circlesofnames.org.
"The exciting thing about this campaign is that it is a women's ministry that supports woman's ministries," said DeWinter "Its very structure is symbolic of the management style of women of faith throughout history -- circles of interconnectedness that have enabled
women to approach challenges and tasks together."
"Our foremothers in faith met in sewing circles, Bible study circles, mission circles, hospitality circles," DeWinter added. "We are confident that women of faith will understand this to be a Kairos moment for the future of Women’s Ministries and gender justice work, and see this "Circles of Names" campaign to a successful conclusion."
"There are probably 100,000 women who should be listed as part of the Circles of Names to honor their past, our work today and into the future-and just about as many creative ways to nsure more than the requested 1,000 are listed," said Jerri C. Rodewald, Co-Chair, Presbyterian Church (USA)
Advocacy Committee for Women’s Concerns and a member of the Wise Women Circle.

In these difficult financial times, not every donor will be able to
contribute $100, but women's ministry has always been about partnership, Rodewald said. "In our 'Safe Circle,' a group of women that gathers within the Presbytery of Riverside, each member has donated 20 dollars and we have been able to name two women for the .Circles of Names," she said. "Since, we’re now over $200, we’re re-circulating the request with the hope that with just a few more dollars, we’ll be able to name a third person."
The campaign, which will run until Dec. 31, 2009, aims to raise $100,000 to build a foundation of support for Women’s ministries through these $100 donations. A Steering Circle,
Staff Circle, and "Wise Women" circle have already committed to naming women and urging their friends and family to do the same.
A circle of 10 high-profile men, the "Joseph Circle," is also taking the lead in finding the names of the women who are and have been important in our faith lives. Full lists of these circles can be found online at www.circlesofnames.org/leadership. Donations can be given before the end of the year 2009, or pledged to be given in 2010. They can also be made in quarterly donations throughout 2010. Speaking on behalf of the Joseph Circle, the Rev. Dr. Michael Kinnamon, NCC General Secretary, said "gender justice is at the heart of the Council, it is central to the mission and ministry of the General Secretary's office, and it is integral among my personal commitments as well. The body of Christ cannot be whole without the full participation of all its members, at every level of leadership to which women and men of all ages have been called."
"The Circles of Names Campaign is an
opportunity to again make these circles of support visible to all of us - the
whole body of Christ - to see," said Tiemeyer.
"For all of us regardless of
gender it is critical to remember and to name leaders in the ecumenical movement, in our member communions, in our faith communities and organizations, and in our personal faith lives. The woman who ministered to Jesus - who broke
open the jar and poured the ointment before his death - she is remembered. Yet oddly we do not know her name. Jesus says she will be 'remembered wherever the good news is proclaimed.' The good news for all of us - regardless of gender - is that God's love is for us all and God’s love promises us all new life each
day."

Posted by Jane

Drum beats, bell ringing, musical notes, bead-threading - act for climate justice

Here are some Advent ideas ... more to come soon but what about your Advent ideas, what is everyone up to?

Listen to the drumbeat of creation, weave a rainbow, act now for climate justice make the world leaders hear!
The seven days of creations were the inspiration for the liturgy we've just posted online. 350 drumbeats, 50 for each of the seven days of creation. After each day is read out from Genesis so also one of the great Advent Antiphones is read. Colleagues from different regions of the world have written cries and hopes of and for climate justice.

Here are cries and hopes from the Pacific:

Atua! Your Pacific people call out to you, even as the waters continue to rise...
hear our prayer, we who trust in your love!
Atua! Your Pacific people call out to you, even as our land disappears before our eyes...
hear our prayer, we who hope in your love!
Atua! Our strength! Our life! Our love!

Meanwhile the Danish Council of Churches have put together a great liturgy for bellringing including a powerful hymn by Torsten Borbye Nielsen called bells of the world and an English translation by Edward Broadbridge. They've also got a specially commissioned piece of music with 350 notes in it. A stimulus to creativity - will you be ringing bells, threading beads, beating drums, singing hymns - to get the world to hear the case for climate justice?

Here's the two final verses of the hymn:

For though we know
we should rise higher,
we are consumed by our desire;
hear how our earth, ravaged, consumed,
calls for our care, or we are doomed.
May we free Earth from its pain;
give us hope that once again
Your will be done.

In hope and faith
we shall not cease
striving to make a world at peace,
for all that lives, from pole to pole,
from east to west, from soul to soul.
Lord, our God, whose mighty Word
then and now and shall be heard,
renew our Earth!

Posted by Jane - cross post from the Stranzblog

Holy Rood House - Space for learning, reflecting and flourishing

This a picture of Holy Rood House
It describes itself as the place to turn to for a
"holistic approche to therapeutic care where hospitality is genuine, safe space is real, community is open."
The Executive director is Revd Elizabeth Baxter and it houses the Centre for Health and Pastoral Care and now also the Centre for the study of Theology and Health which is directed by Revd Dr Jan Berry.
Here's part of the programme

Thursdays at Thorpe:

Day courses for counsellors and pastoral carers, health professionals, and those involved in church, community or voluntary groups.

Aspects of Caring 10.00 – 3.30 (lunch & refreshments included)

14^th January: Caring for the carers: Looking after yourself

11^th February: Faces of caring; distinctions and overlaps in counselling, pastoral care and spiritual care

11^th March : (tbc) Working with survivors of domestic violence

Research seminars

Day consultations offering a chance to discuss recent or current research, and share work in progress Overnight accommodation at Holy Rood House may be available on request.

March 25^th Revd Carla Grosch-Miller on theological education and issues of abuse plus forum for sharing issues and good practice. (face2face research seminar )

May 13^th Revd Dr Janet Lees on faith communities and parenting plus forum on research methodology

Weekend courses and retreats

6^th - 8^th February

Ritual Making: Constructing contemporary rites of passage

Rev Dr Jan Berry

19th-21th February

‘Lenten-Longings’ Creative Retreat

with Jan Younger, Elaine Wisdom,

Rev Elizabeth Baxter and community members

12th-14th March

‘Journeying: A Labyrinth Workshop for Women’: a women’s spirituality weekend to mark International Women’s week.

Rev Dr Jan Berry and Rev Elizabeth Baxter

March 31- April 6th

Easter Retreat

‘The Way of the Cross’:Re-creating Stations of the Cross for our contemporary world

Rev Dr Jan Berry, Rev Elizabeth Baxter and the Community Team

April 23^rd – 25^th

Honouring the sacred in women’s bodies: using art and photography to explore our own spirituality of embodiment

Rev Dr Jan Berry and Dr. Althea de Carteret.

14th-16th May

Men’s Spirituality Weekend

Rev Prof Stephen Wright and Rev Stanley Baxter

Summer Schools

18th-20th May

Creative Retreat for women in ministry

Rev Dr Jan Berry and Rev Elizabeth Baxter

18^th -20^th June

Summer Solstice Creative Retreat

19th-23th July

Summer School ‘Spirituality and Mental Health’

For details (including costs) and booking forms for these events, or to be added to our mailing list for future information, please contact the Centre for the study of Theology and Health or see our website www.holyroodhouse.org.uk

Holy Rood House and Thorpe House are about five minutes walk away from the centre of Thirsk where National Express coaches call daily. The railway station is just a mile away. Visitors can be met from both coaches and trains by arrangement.

Thirsk swimming pool and fitness centre are within easy walking distance. Shops in the town centre are about ten minutes walk away and there are attractive field and riverside walks directly opposite the house

The Centre for the study of Theology and Health is part of the ministry of Holy Rood House, Centre for Health and Pastoral Care,

and is based at Thorpe House, next to Holy Rood House

10, Sowerby Road, Thirsk, North Yorkshire, YO7 1HX

International women blogs - for daily bread and greater campaigning solidarity

So here this is another post to encourage people to read and leave comments on other blogs.
Today three more blogs - this time with an international flavour.
This week the WCC is holding its UN advocacy week in New York alot of my colleagues from Geneva will be there. However to get a fuller picture of some of the international work involving campaigning by NGOs and others at the UN I've been reading the Ecumenical Women at the United Nations blog for quite a while. There are some fascinating posts there - you can find posts from Cambodia, Kenya and Middle East among other places: comparing the role of women disciples of Jesus and female followers of Martin Luther King; about female condoms, child brides, shopping and fashion justice, the rich poor divide and much more besides. A few months ago the blog adverstised for new writers and as a result posting is much more regular and more diverse than in the past. It's a useful window onto international campaigns but with personal insights from the authors.
One of the new writers there is Paola Salwan, Programme Assistant for Africa, the Middle East and Europe at the World YWCA and co-founder of the blog Café Thawra, The blog is in French and English and offers insights into Middle East issues - a special dossier on the Lebanese communist party, where the left is in Middle East politics, as well as promotion of social entrepreneurship.
The Women's desk at the Lutheran World Federation is preparing for next year's LWF assembly with a blog on Give us Today our Daily Bread. As the women in ministries network prepares to meet on the theme of food for the soul perhaps someone would like to write something for their blog. As the issue of food security moves up the world agenda how do women, who grow, harvest and prepare much of the food eaten in the world, think about food justice and spirituality. I'll admit that as a woman who has spent most of her life eating far too much the "stuffed and starved" agenda is one I find particularly challenging. What does the promise of the heavenly banquet mean to those of us who live in permanent food plenty? Lots of issues around food will develop on the blog as preparations for the assembly in July next year advance, so why not drop by from time to time and join the discussions?

And finally here's a challenge (is there anybody reading these posts?) try to use the comments section here to link to a favourite website, blog or book.
Written by Jane

Blogs about life and ministry, about studies and vocations

After a rather long silence here I thought it might be good to highlight other blogs that might be of interest to women in ministries. This is also a way of encouraging you to try and get a bit more involved in the blog - what are the blogs and sites you enjoy, do you have a book you've recently read? Then why not tell others about it using this blog.
I realise that not everyone is an internet and communications addict like me but it's important to try and use this space a bit more - especially in the run up to the meeting in Windermere in January.
Anyway here's an intro to a couple of blogs I enjoy - this blog has a permanent link to all of them.

Sunday's Coming is a blog where Ruth Whitehead "thinks about preaching". She posts most of her sermons and when she has time she also shows her workings and reflections as she works towards Sunday each week. I've just been reading through her struggle with coughs and colds, multiple carol services, funerals and all the rest through Advent last year. What I like about this blog is that it's not flashy or gimmicky - very pared down and Reformed in many ways - here's a woman simply getting on with ministry in an ecumenical setting. It really allows for insights into the weekly struggle with the biblical text and the church context. It's down to earth, the sermons are good and it's a great example of using the blog to add a bit of extra value and after-life to the work of writing sermons many of us are involved in. Also if you are having a bit of a sermon crisis Ruth often posts her sermons early so you can go there for late Saturday night inspiration too!

Rachel Marszalek blogs at Re vis.e Re form. Rachel is training for the Anglican ministry at St John's in Nottingham. Since starting her training she blogs nearly daily about the lectures and courses she attends and her own thoughts, prayer life and spirituality. Before that she wrote about her vocation and work with children and young people as a volunteer in her local parish - amongst many other things. She writes a great deal about the Bible which has got her into the top 50 biblioblogs. I blog quite regularly but Rachel really blogs an enormous amount - even with essay crises and all the rest, it's very impressive. I like reading Rachel because the way she speaks about her faith, her experience of God are so very different from mine. She is a charismatic but not a conservative evangelical. She's also committed to the role of women in the Anglican church and follows the synod discussions about women bishops with refreshing thoughtfulness and commitment. Reading her I am often reminded about how intent the Church of England is to try to hold the diversity of the church together and how hard it is for people within it to sometimes find the way to their convictions as a result. Rachel's blog is a useful reality check for me, showing me how much the churches have changed in the 20 years since I left the UK. I love her fresh approach and enthusiasm - a great antidote to my cynicism. Hope you will also enjoy reading it.

And finally for now a plug for Kate Grey's Breadbreaker blog which I imagine will be a bit quiet now that she is on maternity leave. The blog mainly highlights a few of the events and some of the work in St Mark's Wythenshawe. I particularly enjoy the photos and the links to the messy church events. Lots of great ideas so why not visit and and perhaps get inspired to start your own blog - even if you only post once a month it can be a great resource for community and church work.
posted by Jane.

Food for the Soul in January!

Where is it? The Windermere Centre
When is it? 11-14 January 2010
How much is it? £200 (£165 to Windermere; £35 to Pamela Ward, our treasurer, on arrival)
What's happening when?
Monday
4.00pm Arrivals & making your mark
6.00pm Bar
6.30pm Gathering Meal
including Bread and Wine and Cairn building
7.30pm Welcoming: Remembered meals, personal special meals and biblical meals
9.00pm Sweets, Treats and Feeding 1000s
Bring some of your favourite sweet and savoury snack foods to share as we worship
Tuesday
8.30am Breakfast
leading into Breakfast on the beach
9.30am Intro to the day
10.30am Morning Coffee Break
11.00am How am I fed? Stories and creating
1.00pm Lunch including Bread and Wine
2.00pm Free Afternoon
4.30pm Afternoon Tea
5.00pm Bread for the Journey - hands on bread making
6.00pm Bar
6.30pm Evening meal including Bread and Wine
8.00pm Bread for the Journey
leading into Evening Worship
Wednesday
8.30am Breakfast
leading into African worship
9.30am Intro to the day
10.30am Morning Coffee Break
11.00am Soul Food: Film and creating
1.00pm Lunch including Bread and Wine
2.00pm Free Afternoon - go and find more food!
4.30pm Afternoon Tea
5.00pm Spiritual Nurturing: Awareness walk / labyrinth
6.00pm Bar
6.30pm Evening meal
including Bread and Wine
7.30pm The journey ahead for WIM
8.30pm African Delights! Making & sharing
9.15pm African Worship
Thursday
8.30am Breakfast
9.30am Intro to the day
10.30am Morning Coffee Break
11.00am Journeying on: Closing Ceremony
12.30pm Agape Lunch
including Bread and Wine, Milk and Honey
What to bring?
• Memories of special meals
• Favourite sweet and savoury snack food to share as part of Monday evening worship
• Family graces or sung graces to share at meal times
• Percussion instruments for African worship
• Bible
See you there, I hope!

Jan Berry Book launch 30 November at Luther King House

So here's an invitation to the book launch for Jan Berry's new book Ritual Making Women.
The launch takes place at Luther King House, Manchester on November 30 at 18.30.
I'm sad not to be able to be there but hope some of you can make it.

Celebrating women church leaders

Following my delight at the election of Margot Kässmann as chair of the EKD Council in Germany I tried over on my own blog to put together a list of national church leaders. I got some help from the comments section.
Here's the list so far ... perhaps we can add to it, but perhaps we also want to start thinking about what leadership may mean for women in the church - does it mean having to play the game of the structures in the same way as always. Reflecting about what womanly ways of leadership are and could be might be a good thread to develop here at some point.
But for now this is to note and celebrate teh women church leaders we do have. There are fortunately already quite a number women at regional levels of leadership around the world - bishops, moderators, regional presidents etc. - but very, very few at national levels of leadership. It is just starting to break through now and this does represent a huge change.
Here's my ammended list, do correct and add to it.

1) I was very proud when my own church, the United Reformed Church was the first in the UK to appoint a woman as head of the denomination. Roberta Rominger comes originally from the USA and she's been doing a really great and challenging job since she took over in 2008.

2) Sharon Watkins is the General Minister and President, and thus the leader of her denomination, the Disciples in the USA. She preached the sermon at the national prayer service following Barack Obama's inauguration.

3) Katharine Jefferts Schori has been presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church in the USA
since 2006 and has been involved in difficult church political issues.

4) Margot Kässmann was elected yesterday as the chairperson of the EKD Council in Germany.

5) Jana Jeruma-Grinberga was appointed as the presiding bishop of the Lutheran Church in great Britain.

6) Rosemarie Wenner is the main representative of the United Methodist Church in Germany. She is also the president of the Association of Protestant Free Churches (Vereinigung Evangelischer Freikirchen). I think, we can count her as a national church leader.

7) Judy Redman left a comment on my blog saying "I was very pleased when my denomination (the Uniting Church in Australia) elected a woman as its seventh national leader in 1994. Dr Jill Tabart was/is not only female but a layperson and she did an excellent job. However, we are now up to number 12, and Jill has been both the only woman and the only lay person. Of course, in our noticeably multicultural church, there has never been a non-Anglo president, so gender is not the only qualification."