Convention Participants Say Church Must Do More to Overcome Sexism
Episcopal News Service. September 7, 1994 [94152]
Confessions of admitted sexists and stories of pain from victims of sexism brought home the cost of a male-dominated world during a panel discussion and national teleconference presented to the 71st General Convention and the Episcopal Church Women's Triennial meeting. The program, entitled "A Vision of Wholeness: Overcoming Sexism" was sponsored by the Triennial in response to suggestions emerging from the Triennial's successful forum on racism at the 1991 General Convention. Attended by more than 3,000 people -- bishops, clergy and lay deputies, delegates to the Triennial and visitors -- the session was videotaped for later distribution. Moderated by Pamela Chinnis, president of the House of Deputies, the panel featured the Rev. Alison Cheek, director of feminist theology studies at Episcopal Divinity School and one of the first 11 irregularly ordained women; Bishop Robert Johnson of Western North Carolina; the Rev. Carmen Guerrero, coordinator of Hispanic ministries in the Diocese of Los Angeles; the Hon. Byron Rushing of Massachusetts, first lay chaplain of the House of Deputies; and Ginny Doctor, missionary in the Diocese of Alaska.
"Sexism is moving in from the periphery of our corporate consciousness," said Chinnis, who noted that in 1976 there were only 120 lay women in the House of Deputies and none in the House of Bishops. Today, she said, "there are nearly 300 lay and clergywomen among the deputies, and three women in the House of Bishops."
Chinnis, who has moved from presiding over the Triennial meeting to election as the first woman president of the General Convention, is herself an example of significant progress in the church toward "dismantling the legal barriers that kept women out of the governance and ordained ministry of the church," she said. Nevertheless, she added, there is far to go, both within the Episcopal Church and in the world beyond.
Violence against women and children lies at the core of sexism, said the Rev. Alison Cheek, the first panelist. Such physical, emotional and psychological violence cuts across racial, ethnic and class lines and must be stamped out at both the institutional and personal level, she said. Although Cheek did not blame any one source for perpetuating sexism, she used her own life to discuss how society conditions both men and women to believe sexist myths about each other.
Because the church plays a major role in socialization, Cheek urged the church to examine the theological questions of sexism. "In our history there have been patriarchal traditions that undergird sexism, and there have been unpatriarchal traditions that bring life and liberation," she said. "We have to ask if our theologies enable violence against women and children or do they interrupt such practices?"
Guerrero, an outspoken advocate for Asian, black, indigenous and Latina women of the Episcopal Church, described the devastating impact of sexism which she has experienced as an Hispanic priest and woman of color.
"As I grow older," Guerrero said, "and begin to acquire more experience in life and the church, it is more and more difficult for me as a Hispanic woman to distinguish between racism and sexism. I want very much to believe that no one is intentionally sexist, but it is still very real, very operative in the church." This is most evident, she said, when conscious or unconscious attempts to control others result in gender-related oppression.
Guerrero said sexism in the church is not concerned with "who gets to open the door." Rather, "sexism is about ensuring that the door either remains shut, or only gives the illusion of being open." Sexism, she said, "is about rendering some human beings voiceless."
When women are isolated from decision-making on church staffs and are degraded by men for asking to be included in the process, added Guerrero, "that's a real slap in the face... It may not be literal, physical abuse but it nevertheless guarantees exclusion and oppression."
"Here we are again to talk about another 'ism,'" said Doctor. "Last time racism, this time sexism. When is it going to stop?" she asked. Looking to her traditional Native American teachings is one way Doctor says she deals with life in a sexist world. "If something from another culture works better, then borrow it and use it," she advised. "The Creator had reason for making people different and giving them different gifts... It is time for us to stop hiding behind our cultures and to create a new energy."
Doctor also called for sexists -- whether intentional or not -- to confess it as sin and learn to change. "You may not confess this before the multitude, but admit it to yourself and then ask, 'Do I want to change?' Some of you may not want to change, and that's fine and well. If you want to change, then commit yourself and find others who share the same commitment."
In closing remarks, Presiding Bishop Edmond Browning called on the bishops to raise the church's consciousness of sexism and to work diligently to promote the calling of women clergy.
"I think when there are vacancies in congregations, bishops of this church have a deep responsibility to make certain that women are included in the search process for every vacancy in the church," said Browning.
Equity also applies to the appointment of lay women to national and diocesan staffs. "All too often I think we have seen the church turn to lay men," Browning added.
Browning said that during the past nine years 96 bishops have been consecrated, but only three have been women, noting that institutional sexism is evident in the church's liturgy.
"When I consecrated Barbara Harris, Jane Dixon and Mary Adelia McLeod, I realized the sexist language that is in that service," Browning said. "And I say to you, on the issue of sexism, that at every level of this institution we need to be intentional about making a change so that what we have said here today might become a reality."