The themes that were agreed upon are:

• For the 54th session in 2010: Review and appraisal of the implementation of the Beijing Declaration and Platform of Action and the outcome of the 23rd special session of the General Assembly.
• For the 55th session in 2011: Women and girls in science and technologies: increasing opportunities in education, research and employment. Review theme: agreed conclusions from the 2007 session on the “Elimination of all forms of violence and discrimination against the girl child.”
• For the 56th session in 2012: The empowerment of rural women, in relation to climate change and food security. Review theme: the agreed conclusions from the 2008 session on “Financing for gender equality and empowerment of women.”
• For the 57th session in 2013: Addressing stereotypes which constrain the achievement of gender equality and empowerment of women, including in decision-making. Review theme: the agreed conclusions from the 2009 session on “The equal sharing of responsibilities between women and men, including care-giving in the context of HIV/AIDS.”
• For the 58th session in 2014: Prevention of violence against women and girls. Review theme: the agreed conclusions from the 2011 session, “Women and girls in science and technology: Increasing opportunities in education, research and employment.”

For more information, check out: Association for Women’s Rights in Development, Women’s United Nations Report Network, and the International Women’s Tribune Centre.

At the Ecumenical Women Orientation two weeks ago, we worked with feminist theologian Caryn Riswold to elaborate on what it is to be a third-wave feminist in today’s world.  Three generations reflected on whether the distinction of “third-wave” is even helpful. They worried about where the next generation will take us.  And, they expressed concern over whether feminism itself is dead.

Women spanning six continents reminded each other of the various perspectives that a global movement brings to feminism.  We noted with joy young women like Facia Boyenoh Harris of Liberia, who hosts a radio show for young girls, embodying a bridge between the second and third waves.  Privileged feminists of Ecumenical Women were reminded of the needs of a far greater population of women—those for whom reproductive justice is not an option; whose decisions are often made for them; whose bodies are made vulnerable to domestic violence, human trafficking, and crimes of war and terror.

Suddenly, we weren’t facing the nuanced standards of a privileged third wave anymore, riding on the shoulders of our mothers who fought before us.

2 Samuel 13 tells the story of Tamar, a young woman who is raped by her brother Amnon with the permission of her father—none other than King David, who the Bible so faithfully upholds as the greatest leader in Jewish history.  Because she is physically weaker than her brother, the passage tells us, Amnon is able to force her into having sex with him against her will. After this, we are told that because of the actions that he himself chose to perpetrate against her, he comes to hate her “with a hatred greater than the love with which he had loved her.”  So Tamar puts ashes on her head and she tears her robe in grief.  Her father David is angry but does nothing, and her brother Absalom encourages her “hold her peace.”

We never hear what happens to Tamar after this story. The horror of discovering this rape in the Bible is eclipsed only by the realization that even the author cares not what happened to Tamar after all was said and done.  Her life, her name, the “rape of Tamar” – these all serve in the text only as a function to explain why later her brother Absalom, who told her to stay silent, kills her brother Amnon, who raped her.  In the story, Tamar is property to be protected or violated. She is a figure whose violation represents not her own personal grief but her family’s public shame; a woman whose grief is but a footnote in the long opus to political power that we find recorded in the Bible.

Discovering the story of Tamar, a text that is out-of-lectionary and therefore out-of-mind, is an experience that can be tragic and which can feel incredibly problematic, especially for the thoughtful Christian feminist reading the Bible.  Tamar’s story infuses the rest of the scriptures with a painful twist, a wrench in your gut reminding you that although the Apostle Paul spoke in Galatians about the equality of the Jew and the Greek, the slave and the free, the male and the female—when he mentions it in Corinthians, he conspicuously leaves the part about gender equality out.

Tamar asks us to remember her when we read the words “Love is patient, love is kind, [and] love bears all things,” tugging at us to – perhaps – limit that bearing of all things; that perhaps love is showing your neighbor mercy, is lifting another’s burden, and is sharing in one another’s grief.

And when we read the beautiful Annunciation passage in Luke, Tamar helps us to remember that God did not ask Mary’s permission before impregnating her, but she simply was informed of God’s intentions. Tamar reminds us that although Mary consented, what else could she have done in the face of such great power? Did Mary have the option to say “no”?

Perhaps Tamar’s voice, is a voice we ought to listen to.

Last week Fulata Moyo and Ezra Chitando showed us how one can use the story of Tamar another way.  They, along with other colleagues in Southern Africa, use it to teach young people – especially young men – about domestic violence, rape, and the silencing of women in their own contexts.  Asking questions about the role of power and gender in the story of Tamar, the young men to assess their own lives for whom has power and how it is utilized.  Engaging people in conversation about the roles of Amnon, Tamar, and Absalom in this bible passage encourages them to identify people in their own lives who are Amnon, are Tamar, and are Absalom.

Using the story of Tamar in this way helps to create a space in which we can name that which is wrong around us.  Claiming what is unjust within a biblical text grants courage to claim injustice in the lives of women and men all around the world.

First, second, or third wave—I’m not sure it really matters.  In this space of a global movement for women’s rights, the Commission on the Status of Women, Ecumenical Women has brought to light what it means to be feminist, thoughtful, and Christian: it means that wherever we go, we bring Tamar with us.

With the DOW dropping to ever new lows on Wall Street even as we participate in the CSW at the UN, the undercurrent of all this talk about caretaking must be: how does the volatility of the global economy affect women’s lives around the world? Increasingly, there has been concern expressed by and among women’s organizations, networks and agencies about the impacts of not only the global financial crisis but also the food, fuel and climate change crises on women.

I was able to attend the NGO Consultation Day on the CSW this past Sunday, and participated in the workshop on how this emerging financial crisis might affect women. It proved to be quite informative, both in the basic facts provided about women and the global economy, and also about how UN politics affect the ways in which gender issues receive–or don’t receive–the budgeting required to improve the status of women around the world.

Below is an excerpt from the informational data sheet handed out at the meeting.

———

How is the global financial and economic crisis affecting women?

• Women’s jobs [worldwide] tend to pay lower wages, in part because women tend to have a higher rate of part-time employment, and are often not covered by social safety nets. Moreover, in countries without social safety nets, the impact on women is even more severe.
• Employment losses or a slowdown in job growth is expected to contribute to growing unemployment. This finds women at the risk of being hired last and dismissed first.
• Female-headed households are at greatest risk, with few if any savings to weather the crisis, and limited ownership of wealth and other assets, as compared to men.
• Ethnic groups that are less powerful and immigrant groups will suffer in many of the same ways because they are similarly situated in the paid economy as women. Even in developed countries such as the US, Black and Latina women face particularly high rates of poverty.
• The effects on women and therefore children will be transmitted through cuts in public sector budgets, due to falling tax revenues and foreign aid.
• As food and fuel prices soar and adding stress and hardship to families, incidents of violence against women and communal violence increase.

What are policy and advocacy inputs to improve the situation for women?

• Past experiences have shown that financial crises and neoliberal policy responses, such as Structural Adjustment Programs, have disproportionately affected women in negative ways. It is critical to recognize gender equality as a fundamental human right and an issue of social justice essential for economic growth, poverty reduction, environmental sustainability, and development effectiveness.
• New indicators must be developed to measure the impact of gender inequality on economic growth by measuring the value of women’s unpaid work as well as by developing performance indicators to measure progress in introducing and implementing gender-responsive approach to public finances.
• To be efficient, effective, and accountable, public finance management systems and practices need to support rather than undermine principles of participatory and gender-responsive budgeting.

Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman inspires Lutherans to challenge their cultures

Zau Rapa calls them “dynamite women.”

Rapa, acting head bishop of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea, was referring to the 1,500 women who gathered Sept. 13-19, 2008, at the Baitabag Lutheran girls’ school outside the northern village of Madang.

Rapa saw God’s power as “dynamite” within them, which they took back to their villages after six days of worship, Bible study, singing and drama under the theme “Jesus Liberates Women in Papua New Guinea from Male-dominated Cultures.”

Bonnie Arua and other women from the Papua District lead those attending a September conference of the Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea in song and dance at the closing night’s worship service.

Yes, that’s “cultures.” Plural. A Papua New Guinea folk saying puts it this way: “For each village, a different culture.” In a country the size of California, more than 850 languages are spoken.

Many of its coastal and island villages are only accessible by boat, and many highlands villages only reachable by plane. Such a diversity of cultures has bred a long history of intertribal conflict and violence.

Some of the women traveled three days by cargo ship to join their Lutheran sisters. They ran out of food when the journey took longer than expected. Others traveled days by truck on overland roads full of potholes. They represented 16 church districts and hundreds of traditional cultural practices. They united as Lutherans to confront a common challenge: the status of women in Papua New Guinea.

Rapa believes they’ll be the dynamite to ignite change in their villages—their cultures—of which the U.S. State Department says “women generally are considered and treated as inferiors” and “gender violence is endemic.”

The justification for violence against women begins with the bride-price, said Rose Pisae, secretary of the Papua District women’s organization.

Across Papua New Guinea, a new bride’s family is compensated for the loss of her agricultural and household labor. Pisae said a bride-price in her district (which includes the capital, Port Moresby) can bring the woman’s family as much as $20,000.

After paying so much in a country where the average per capita income is $900, Pisae said the husband’s family feels like they own the bride and can place demands on her, such as how many children she should bear.

Ibarias Yabon of the Madang District consults her Bible for further insight into the story of Jesus and the woman at the well. Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua New Guinea spent two hours each day of its convention studying John 4:4-42 for parallels to their own lives.

Pisae has two daughters—16 and 5. She also has a 12-year-old son. She admits she’s strict with her daughters, expecting them to cook, clean and mind the house.

“Now that I’ve come here,” she said, “I’m thinking that I should have my son do a little work too.

“I tell my two girls: ‘I will not accept the bride-price and I’ll make sure your husbands are good to you.’ I think a lot of women are beginning to understand, to say ‘no’ to the bride-price and to report any violence to the police or the community counselor.”

On Friday, March 6, women worldwide will unite in prayer for Papua New Guinea as part of World Day of Prayer. Women of the ELCA is a denominational representative on the World Day of Prayer USA committee.

Other dynamite women include Jane Henry, director of a Lutheran vocational center in Mount Hagen that trains women in music, theology, church administration, agriculture, nutrition, counseling and computing. Part of the training includes a six-week practicum in which the women share the skills they’ve learned with other women.

“I think the ladies who are here will go back and teach other ladies to speak out,” Henry said. “We can pray to God that it will happen in God’s way.”

Michael Wan Rupulga, a recipient of an ELCA international scholarship and lecturer at Martin Luther Seminary in Lae, Papua New Guinea, led a two-hour daily Bible study based on Jesus’ encounter with the woman at the well (John 4:4-42).

Another is Seba Benag, a midwife in Biliau who is training men to be present at childbirth and participate in early child care, despite taboos to the contrary.

Such taboos are something familiar to Bible study leader Michael Wan Rupulga. “I struggled along with my mother my whole life,” he said. “I know how it feels.”

The son of the second wife of a village “big man,” Rupulga refused to follow traditional highlands practices regarding the separation of sons from mothers at age 6, when boys become susceptible to the perceived uncleanliness of their mothers.

He was mocked by other men in his village for refusing to avoid contact with menstruating women. They would ask him: “Do you have your period too?”

He’s gone against his culture, he said, but asks: “What’s more important? God’s word or the culture? If there is a barrier, God’s word will break it down. It is like dynamite.”

Rupulga’s mother died in 1997, but she was the inspiration for him to do his master’s thesis at Pacific Theological College in Suva, Fiji, on Jesus’ reaction to the Samaritan woman. Rupulga received an ELCA Global Mission international scholarship to pursue his degree.

“If there’s anything in a culture that suppresses women, that hurts women, that makes women suffer their whole lives, it doesn’t come from God,” Rupulga said. “It comes from the devil.”

At the end of the week, Rapa told the women he was proud of them. “Go home and talk to your husbands about what you deserve and expect in your relationships,” he said.

Will their husbands be receptive?

“If their husbands are involved in church activities, it will be easy to relate what they’ve learned about here,” Pisae said. 

As members of a religious community, the second part of this theme must give us pause.  It is the faith-based community who, in the past, helped in perpetuating a negative stigma of people living with HIV and AIDS.  Our role in this negative stereotyping requires repentence, characterized by a prounounced humility and tremendous courage in naming our wrongdoing.  It is our role, before acting out in advocacy, to ask forgiveness of those whom we have wronged.

We can follow the example set by ELCA Bishop Mark Hanson, who spoke this past summer at the XVII International AIDS Conference in Mexico City.  Watch him speak and act in this video to help envision how we ourselves might repent as religious leaders.

Like the shepherds so long ago, I must share with you what I saw.

I woke up this morning on World AIDS Day with many emails in my inbox from around the world.   World AIDS Day (WAD) is a time of social networks, and we celebrate it in many ways – we post liturgy on websites, email, worship, remember, give money, wear ribbons.  Today is the day that we do these things all at once, all over the world.  By sitting here in these pews we are part of a chain of reflection and action.

AIDS is with us in the US, but from my work at the Lutheran Office for World Community, an office representing the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) and Lutheran World Federation (LWF) at the United Nations, I have seen the immense and tragic effects of AIDS’s in countries that are poorer than ours.  Having traveled to far off places, like the shepherds sent on a mission that winter night, I feel I must tell you what I have seen, that among suffering I have felt awe.  This witness is what I am going to talk about today.

When I visited Kenya last year, I sat with a group of women at Jerusalem Parrish in Nairobi.  These women meet weekly for a widows support group. In Kenya, widowed women are considered outcasts, and face discrimination. After the husband dies, it is part of the culture for his family to take his land and his house, in the worst cases forcing the woman out on the street with nothing.  One of the women told me: “As you mourn death of your husband, someone from his family is in Nairobi filing the paperwork.”  I can’t imagine, on top of such a loss, having to fight for your home at the same time as you grieve.

Besides having support groups for women, many of which have lost their husbands because of AIDS, Jerusalem Parrish pays school fees for children who have lost their parents, and has a program for kids that live on the street in the slums.   This church welcomes HIV positive people into the pews, and offers testing.  Christine Mangale, an intern at the Lutheran Office for World Community, is from Jerusalem Parrish and she tells me today they are doing a WAD observance today that lasts all day, with singing, dancing and testimony.

At another church I visited in Northern Kenya, I sat with a group of women who come together every week to do crafts while their children go to preschool.  I watched them –one stitch at a time– weave baskets out of plastic string.  Each stitch had to be pushed through the hard plastic frame.  It seemed it would take days to stitch just one basket.  These women sell the products to each other, maybe for the equivalent of one dollar.  Their handicrafts will never reach a large market, certainly not our coffee hour after Sunday services. Their income will never buy them medicine, let alone send their child to college. While they wove their children played in the yard.  Many of the children were half naked because they did not have clothes.  It was the rainy season. This was poverty.  These women had nothing, and some of them had HIV.  It seems just too cruel.

In my work I have seen that the Lutheran church has its arms around the entire world, with person-to-person connections — names, faces and addresses– in every country.   The chaplain at the Church Center for the UN, helping me with this sermon, told me don’t be afraid to speak from your own point of view – your generation worships differently.   That got my thinking, mine is the social network generation, and the church I believe in is a giant social network.   The church I believe in is global –and by walking together, with each other and with God, each and every day, we are constantly creating our communion.

When I first started my job 6 years ago, I would look up at the UN building and think, wow, what good work the UN does and we are only a small church office.  Now I when I look up at the UN I think, I can go anywhere in the world and find a church and a program that works at a local level, helping women and children and empowering community leaders.  As Lutherans, we have a human network connected by faith, family and belief.  Our communion is stitched together by what is felt in our hearts and done by our hands, and these connections are incredibly strong and long lasting.  I can only think the UN would envy the strength of our network because it is priceless.

In September I went to Papua New Guinea (PNG) for a National Lutheran Women’s conference.  One-fifth of PNG is Lutheran because of the German colonization, and the church has deep roots in the country.  PNG is a fascinating place, with 6 million people it has more language diversity than any place on earth, the people speak 800 languages on an island that is about the size of Texas.  PNG has an estimated 60,000 people living with HIV or AIDS, and with a culture that still practices polygamy, isolated communities, severe gender inequality and violence against women, the conditions are prime for further spread of the virus.  PNG is still struggling with fundamental challenges like keeping mothers alive during childbirth and making sure children can go to school, so AIDS becomes just one of many urgent issues.

But in PNG I learned the meaning of community health care, and saw firsthand how churches are saving lives.   Through sponsoring training programs, the church trains what they call village health volunteers and birth attendants.  These volunteers, mainly women, are trained to identify signs and symptoms of abnormal pregnancies, as well as Flu, TB and malaria and then take the patient to the nearest health center or hospital.  The volunteers also keep birth and health records, while before there was no one to do this.

A trained birth attendant, or midwife named Midi Nus, told me:  “Lots of women do this, but when they see they don’t get anything in return for their work they give up.” She told me if she were to be given money for her work she would spend it on kerosene to cook meals for her family.  She is a widow with six children.

“Last week a girl from the bush came down,” said Midi. “She was two months pregnant and had a homemade abortion, she was bleeding to death, I made her safe.” Before she was trained as a birth attendant, it was not legal for her to be a midwive, she could be caught by the police.  Now that she has the certificate, her husband is supportive of her work.

She told me “When women seek help, we always pray first so God is with us”.

Midi is a caregiver, and she is doing her work for free.   According to the UN, women are 90% of caregivers.  In some ways this is a story that we know in this country.  Women care for the sick or the elderly in our families, but in many ways it is an unfamiliar story to us.   But in the US no one is expected to deliver a baby for free, or provide hospice care without compensation for weeks at a time.

In Africa, where 4 out of the 5 deaths from AIDS occur, the caregiver, or community health workers might travel to the bed of 10-20 patients a day, having received some training from an organization like the Lutheran World Federation.  They might be caring for family members or for strangers, but they alone are the health system.   While these women give their time helping others their own families suffer.  They do not have money to pay for school fees, they do not put food on their table.  Next year the UN is having a global meeting to discuss women as caregivers, and the equal responsibility of women and men.  I am glad for this because caregiving is an issue that has not received much attention.

I tell you this information about PNG and Kenya because it is an example of the church holding up society where there is nothing else.  The church must go where no one else can, and when no one else will.  These examples also show that government and society’s response to AIDS depends on how the church responds to AIDS, and that the church can be and is, in small and quiet ways, salvation.   Since we are the church, sitting here today in these pews, let us remember that our collective voice is important.

When we are sick, when we are afraid, we seek God and we seek each other.  Our communion comes from this need.  Healing is the work of the church. Faith-based organizations have provided care all over the world, for hundreds and hundreds of years. The UN will not tell you this. As church people we must tell each other about this good work and speak up.   We do so much, and with our strong existing networks, we can still do more.  In the ELCA each church has a synod to synod partnership—here the NY synod partners with Tanzania.  Advocacy staff like myself and my colleagues in DC are advocating on behalf of the poor and those living with HIV and AIDS and we need your help reaching out to decision makers and congress, you can help by signing up to our action alerts at elca.org/advocacy.  I am sure as an ELCA congregation you already contribute to the ELCA World Hunger Fund, which gives grants to support the work in Kenya and PNG.  These grants go to real people and solve real problems of hunger and poverty.  They are vital.  Thank you for your support to ELCA World Hunger.

There is so much we can do as church people.   This collective ability is our gospel, this interdependence our celebration.  I am so happy to pray with you today, to be invited to your church, and to honor this communion.

Finally, let us remember the parts of the networks we do not hear about, but are surely connected to: the caregiver who works for free, the widow, the women who have no clothes for their children, those living with and affected by HIV and AIDS. Let us keep asking about them, keep seeking out connections to them, for we don’t have to look too far.  Our communion includes them, and this is our strength.  Amen.

Winner of Best Documentary Feature at the 2008 Tribeca Film Festival, the film 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. A story of sacrifice, unity, and transcendence, Pray the Devil Back to Hell honors the strength and perseverance of the women of Liberia, and is a compelling testimony of how grassroots activism can alter the history of nations.

This remarkable film shows us a faith-filled example of how powerful peacemakers can be when they join together, and it is coming to New York, opening on November 7, 2008 at CINEMA VILLAGE (22 E 12th St.; 212-924-3363). A special multi-faith screening will be held and free tickets can be reserved by sending an email to NewYorkRSVP AT gmail DOT com with the name of your organization and the number of tickets you would like to purchase. Tickets for other nights can also be purchased at the cinema.

Watch the trailer below:

Prayers for the Millennium Development Goals

In the spirit of the Millennium Development Goals, let us pray that god’s justice and peace will prevail in the World.

Leader:  Let us pray for the poor, hungry, and neglected all over the world, that their cries for daily bread may inspire woks of compassion and mercy among those to whom much has been given.
People:  Give us the will to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger.

Leader:  Let us pray for schools and centers of learning throughout the world, for those who lack access to basic education, and for the light of knowledge to blossom and shine in the lives of all God’s people.
People:  Give us the will to achieve universal primary education.

Leader:  Let us pray for an end to the divisions and inequalities that scar God’s creation, particularly the barriers to freedom faced by God’s children throughout the world because of gender; that all who have been formed in God’s image might have equality in pursuit of the blessing of creation.
People:  Give us the will to promote gender equality and empower women.

Leader:  Let us pray for the health of children and families around the world, especially for an end to child mortality, that in building healthy families, all God’s people may be empowered to strengthen their communities and repair the breaches which divide nations and peoples.

Leaders:  Give us the will to reduce child mortality.

Leader:  Let us pray for ready access to prenatal care and adequate nutrition for all pregnant women and an end to maternal mortality.
People:  Give us the will to improve maternal health.

Leader:  let us pray for an end to pandemic disease throughout the world, that plagues of death may no longer fuel poverty, destabilize nations, and inhibit reconciliation and restoration throughout the world.
People:  Give us the will to combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases.

Leader:  Let us pray for an end to the waste and desecration of God’s creation, for access to the fruits of creation to be shared equally among all people, and for communities and nations to find sustenance in the fruits of the earth and the water God has given us.
People:  give us the will to ensure environmental sustainability.

Leader:  let us pray for all nations and people who already enjoy the abundance of creation and the blessing of prosperity, that their hearts may be lifted up to the needs of the poor and afflicted, and partnerships between rich and poor for the reconciliation of the world may flourish and grow.
People:   Give us the will to develop a global partnership for development.

Leader:  Almighty and most merciful god, you command us to offer food to the hungry and satisfy the needs of the afflicted;  Grant that your holy and life-giving spirit may so move every human heart; that we may give of ourselves in the service of others until poverty and hunger cease in all the world, and all things are reconciled in heaven and on earth.
People:  Amen.

• Gstaad Blog, 21 October 2008 – Slow progress for women in United Nations system
  
• Ms. Magazine, Spring 2005 – Women in the Congo
• New York Times, 17 October 2008 – Rape Victim’s Words help jolt Congo into Change
• Deauville Journal, 19 October 2008 – For women who lead, a forum of their own
• Market Watch, 21 October 2008 – Faith-based Organizations create Global Network to fight maternal death, AIDS, poverty
• New York Times, 13 October 2008 – Young Muslim Women drawing new lines in secular Turkey

Have a news story to share?  Email alison AT ecumenicalwomen DOT org.

In describing the sourcebook, the World Bank released an apt statement:

Women play a vital role as agricultural producers and as agents of food and nutritional security. Yet relative to men, they have less access to productive assets such as land and services such as finance and extension. A variety of constraints impinge upon their ability to participate in collective action as members of agricultural cooperative or water user associations. In both centralized and decentralized governance systems, women tend to lack political voice.

Gender inequalities result in less food2 being grown, less income being earned, and higher levels of poverty and food insecurity. Agriculture in low-income developing countries is a sector with exceptionally high impact in terms of its potential to reduce poverty. Yet for agricultural growth to fulfill this potential, gender disparities must be addressed and effectively reduced.