Vital Anglican Presence Planned for Beijing Women's Summit
Episcopal News Service. April 7, 1995 [95058]
Lucy Germany, Freelance writer from Texas.
(ENS) In September Anglican and Episcopal women will travel to Beijing, China, to join diplomats and advocates from all over the world for the United Nation's Fourth World Conference on Women. The Anglican group, which will attend the Non-Governmental Organizations (NGO) forum of the Beijing conference, recently held a planning and orientation meeting at the Episcopal Church Center in New York.
"It is vital to have a strong Anglican presence in Beijing," said Ann Smith, executive director of the Women in Mission and Ministry (WIMM) office that hosted the orientation. "We hope to bring our own unique spirituality to the mix."
The Beijing NGO conference, on the theme "Looking at the world through women's eyes," is a continuation of work begun at the United Nations Conference on Women in Nairobi in 1985, and strengthened by the subsequent Anglican Encounters in Brazil in 1992 and Honduras in 1995. "The conference, which could draw over 30,000 participants, is equally important for those at home as a means for deepening our understanding of the communion to which we all belong," Smith said. "We are not the church isolated. We are not women alone. We are worldwide and united."
The planning meeting marked the initial work of the newly established Anglican Women's Network that connects women worldwide. The network will help Anglican women have more of an impact in Beijing than they had at the Nairobi conference in 1985. "There was no Anglican Women's Network in Nairobi," said Rose Maliaman, coordinator of women's work in the Church in the Philippines. "This is changing. We have input from all over the world here. The network is a woman-to-woman base that begins at the grassroots, then becomes global."
Planning for the Beijing Conference took place in four major areas: hospitality, issues, spirituality and communications. At least 25 major issue areas were identified, including migrant workers, violence against women and children, economic justice (and injustice), militarism, aging, population, unequal distribution of the world's goods, portrayal of women by the media, and sexual exploitation.
Pat Harris, former president of the 750,000-member Mother's Union, an international Anglican group that claims to be the largest church-related body in the world, told the 30 orientation participants that her organization will produce a logo that emphasizes the diversity and interconnectedness of Anglican women. The logo will be used in a variety of ways to underscore the Anglican presence at the Beijing conference.
Orientation leaders urged individuals and organizations to help send as many women representing as many diverse areas of the church's work as possible to Beijing. A campaign seeking funds for travel scholarships, Send a Sister to Beijing, has been launched by the Council for Women's Ministries of the Episcopal Church. Inquiries and donations should be addressed to Ann Smith, WIMM office, Episcopal Church Center, 815 Second Ave. New York, NY 10017.
"The Beijing Conference is for all women," said Smith, who called it "a spectacular display of unity in diversity which will accomplish important advances towards equality, development and peace. It is not only a gathering of radical feminists but an opportunity for the perspective of all seriously concerned women to be brought to bear on global issues," she said.
Smith did express concern over reports that the NGO forum will be moved to a tourist area 30 miles away, a move supported by the Vatican because of its fears over how participants would deal with the abortion issue. "This is a move to block the influence of NGOs on the summit," she said. "The NGOS can speak for concerns at the grassroots level and address the needs for change."