Anglican Encounter in Solidarity with Women Set for Brazil
Episcopal News Service. March 14, 1990 [90060]
A planning committee has chosen the theme, location, and program ideas for the Anglican Gathering in Solidarity with Women planned for March 25-28, 1992.
Representatives from the Anglican Church of Canada, the Episcopal Church, and dioceses of the Caribbean, Central America, Southern Cone, and Brazil met in San Juan, Puerto Rico, February 25-28, and decided that the Diocese of Recife in Brazil would host the meeting. The actual site will be Salvador, a city with a population of 1.3 million, and the theme will be "Celebracao de Vida Por Um Reino de Justica e Paz" (Celebration of Life for a Kingdom of Justice and Peace).
Coordinating with the World Council of Churches and United Nations themes of solidarity with women, the Anglican Gathering will emphasize justice, peace, and the integrity of creation. The program will incorporate opportunities for women and men from around the world to share their stories and find a common story.
Among the issues that will shape the program are the colonization of the Americas and its effect on native peoples; the persistence of racism in the Americas; environment and a renewed attention to ecology through a renewed incarnational theology; increasing violence and terrorism and how it affects women.
The idea for the encounter grew out of Anglican participation at the 1985 Nairobi meeting ending the UN Decade on Women. North American participants at Nairobi began to discuss the possibility of a meeting as part of the Ecumenical Decade of the Church in Solidarity with Women. Anglican women participating in the 1988 Lambeth Conference as a "women's witnessing community" further developed the idea of a special meeting of women in the six provinces of the Americas.
The first planning meeting in Costa Rica a year ago decided the site had to be in Latin America and had to be "the Anglican church's contribution to the Decade for Women," according to Ann Smith, executive of Women in Mission and Ministry.
"We must break down our isolation, struggling with our issues together, moving beyond the labels of First World/Third World, men/women, black/white/brown/yellow," Smith said. "Women's voices will be heard -- and they will be empowered."
Bishop Craig Anderson of South Dakota, the only man on the planning committee, said he is "convinced that we are on the brink of a reformation within the church, both the Anglican Church and the larger Christian Church -- a reformation as profound as the one in the 16th century." He said that he believes reformation will come from the Southern Hemisphere and third world nations. "It will be a reformation led by women -- strong, prophetic, and caring women of the church, women who will call us back to our senses and the need to care for this fragile earth."
The Anglican Gathering may be a milestone on the road to this reformation, Anderson contended. "It is my further hope that this gathering will sow the seeds of reconciliation as a prelude to reformation," he added. "A reconciliation born of diversity will provide the key for a deeper sense of transformation and reformation within the church that could establish a community committed to peace and justice."
While primarily a gathering for men and women from the Americas, other dioceses of the Anglican Communion will be invited to send representatives. It is anticipated that 2,000 to 3,000 people will attend, including a number of ecumenical representatives.