Women's Council Stresses Full Role
Episcopal News Service. June 11, 1987 [87130]
Lucy Germany, Diocese of Texas
MEMPHIS (DPS, June 11) -- The Council on Women's Ministries delivered a clear message to the Episcopal Church's national office and to its Executive Council: "Women's ministries are vital to the Church and they must be supported".
The Council, gathered at St. Columba's Center near here for their ninth meeting, agreed with a report from their Executive Council liaison, Ann Fontaine, that additional staffing is needed for the Women in Mission and Ministry Office (WIPRI) in New York and that the whole church must pay close and constant attention to the goal of "full participation and integration of women in the mission and ministry of the Church."
The women -- representing more than 20 organizations -- prayed together, shared Eucharist and celebrated ministries both local and national, including Memphis ministries to street people, urban youth and an ecumenical project, "Pennies for Hunger," in which the Episcopal Church participates. Words that surfaced repeatedly throughout the four-day meeting convened by Dee Beggs, Episcopal Women's Caucus, were "empowerment," "communication," "sharing," diversity."
"The Council's role is to express diversity. We are many... we have ministries, not a ministry...we are not a single entity," Ann Smith, Coordinator for Women in Mission and Ministry, observed at one point. Pam Chinnis, member of the Executive Council, vice-president of the House of Deputies and more recently a representative to the Anglican Consultative Council, expressed disappointment that women's ministry in the local church is still perceived as "helping the priest." She called the decision to invite ACC members to Lambeth "very interesting" as it would mean women would be, for the first time, seated at Lambeth with voice, though without vote. "With no female bishop in the Anglican Communion, there has, up to now, been no female voice at Lambeth," she said. Twenty women, including five from the U.S., will be designated as consultants, and two ordained women have been invited to participate in the discussion on women in the episcopate. Slowly, she observed, women make progress in the deliberative processes of the Church worldwide.
The Council approved the movement to New York of the publishing function for their Journal of Women's Ministries. The four-year-old quarterly will continue to be edited by Salome Breck in Denver, with the assistance of a new four-member editorial board.
In a session on mission imperatives, the Council identified the need for additional Women in Mission and Ministry Unit staffing in order to participate fully in the World Council of Church's "Ecumenical Decade -- Churches in Solidarity with Women, 1988-1989," for development and communication of print and video resources in areas of vital concern including justice, peace, children and family, leadership training for women by women and for an increase in the visibility of women's commitment to Christian unity and to the exercise of ministry as the fulfillment of baptismal vows.
"Though we differ on what we do and how we do it, we share the fact of being human and being women," was the underlying theme of prayer circles and worship. "As women, we have unique gifts to bring to the church, yet we are part of the church's wholeness. We are not trying to divide but to belong. We are not a power group but an umbrella," were beliefs expressed frequently and in different ways. Observed Myrtle Gordon, representing Episcopal Council on Black Ministries: "We have started a process to strengthen women in the Episcopal Church. We are in a stirring-up stage. We have a right as Christian women to speak up. Women must have a stronger representation in the hierarchy."
The Council, which interfaces with the Women in Mission and Ministry office in New York, with the Presiding Bishop's Office and the Executive Council and with organizations of and for women throughout the Church, meets twice yearly to share existing ministries and to explore new ways to be effective leaders in ministry. The next meeting will take place in Puerto Rico Dec. 3-6 with Evelyn Keddie, Episcopal Churchwomen, as covenor.