The CBE Scroll

We arrived at the Jasper Hotel in downtown Melbourne at midday on Friday and found that already the organising committee were hard at work preparing to receive those who would come early to register for the first CBE conference in Australia. This was the culmination of a year’s hard work by a dedicated group who had prayed for at least 200 people to participate.

By the time the first people came through the doors, there were already over 220 names registered and the steady stream of eager people was so heartening to see as the time for the first meeting approached. A perceptible feeling of anticipation could be felt as folks chatted over cups of tea and coffee, meeting new and old friends and the common question of “Well, what brings you to this conference?” Africa, New Zealand, Asia and America were represented as well as Australians from several states.

The first meeting for the conference included a welcoming address from General Eva Burrows (retired) from the Salvation Army in Melbourne who was so inspiring and exemplified what one dedicated woman could achieve for God. We also were amazed by a dramatised reading of John chapter 4 by Rob Turnbull ………very powerful to hear the story of the “Woman at the Well” read aloud. Graham Cole gave the keynote address on the biblical ideal of “Better Together” which is the theme of the conference.

By the time the first session began today, the crowd had grown and it was to a packed room that Funmi Para-Mallam spoke on “Women and girls in Africa: Issues, challenges and ministry strategies” We heard the history of women in Africa and how the religious culture maintains the oppression of women in both subtle and overt ways. Funmi is actively involved in interventions to bring about gender equality in her country which is also experiencing great persecution and bloodshed.

From the outset, we could see that this conference would be looking at the issue of Biblical Equality from three perspectives….

*The biblical and theological framework for equality

*Gender in the Australian church and culture

*Equality and justice on the global scene

During the day we had opportunity to attend three electives within these three streams and the general consensus was that there was never enough time to fully discuss the issues and share experiences.

The conference dinner  featured the presentation of awards to three students whose papers on biblical equality had been chosen from  a large number of entries. These papers can be read on the Australian CBE website www.cbe.org.au The speaker for the evening was Jessie Taylor, a young woman who has a passion for social justice and is particularly concerned with the plight of refugees. Photos taken at some risk in detention camps gave occasion for us to see ‘refugees’ as real families and particularly the pain of parents as they mourn the loss of ability to provide for and protect their children. Again, we were reminded that biblical equality is concerned with far more than the sanctioning of women in the pulpit.

As people shared their last cup of tea or coffee before going their separate ways for the night, there was already conversation about the next CBE conference to be held in Australia – such was the enthusiasm. We are only half-way through this experience as it is a long weekend here in the state of Victoria so we’ll write another report on Monday afternoon after several more workshops and challenging keynote speakers.

In this Australian conference there has been a strong emphasis on justice issues both locally and on the world scene. The organisers of this weekend, were determined that the subject matter would be far broader than just the ordination of women. The perception is often expressed that because there are now many ordained women in some denominations, the whole gender equality issue is ‘done and dusted’ Through the variety of group discussions, this aim was certainly achieved. Topics ranged from what it means to be a young woman in Australian church culture to how we can help women to feed their families in Afghanistan; from how churches welcome people with disabilities  to helping women who are suffering abuse in Christian homes.

Overload was an oft-repeated word as delegates moved through three workshops and at least one plenary session each day. The morning and afternoon tea times went all too quickly and conversations had to hang in the air while we rushed off to the next session.  With so much information and interaction, surely the cause for biblical equality will benefit enormously and each participant will take away a lot of literature and new information to encourage them to ‘not grow weary in well-doing’

There are recordings available for most of the conference sessions and these can be ordered through the Australian website mentioned earlier. Kevin Giles wrote a study book for release over this weekend and every delegate received a free copy of “Better Together” – they sell for $14.95 AUS and can also be ordered from the website. Attendees from Victoria were encouraged to join the CBE chapter and folks from other states and New Zealand are now considering beginning chapters among their  friends and colleagues.

Our final session  was one of the highlights as Cheryl Catford spoke on “Riding the Third Wave” Biblical Equality in the Twenty-First Century”.

After giving an excellent summary of the first and second waves of feminism, we were made aware of what is typical of a young woman’s expectation now. This pointed up how we as Christians have been so influenced by the culture around us through magazines, TV and the media and trying to assimilate this with biblical equality has caused a lack of definition and also given rise to a resurgence of more ‘conservative’ trends in church life.

We were reminded that it is biblical values and principles which should be guiding our lives and not our responses to the waves of change and cultural shifts, even within the church scene. The whole message was one of hope and encouragement to ‘get on our boards’ and be in the action, believing that God is in control and that his Holy Spirit within us will empower us to face the challenge of the coming waves, whatever form they may take. Each one of us will take from the conference a personal challenge to be more proactive in a Christ-like manner and to watch God at work.

Looking forward to reading other comments from those who attended and their sharing of how they were impacted by the whole event. Even if there are some questions still unanswered, please feel free to express them and perhaps we can listen to one another and grow together in understanding.

PS:  Mimi said to say that the food was great too!!

I have worked in Legal Aid offices for some 15 years. I can tell you that many poor are not the kind of people most of us associate with. They tend to be undereducated, unorganized, and often buried under their financial burdens. Many come from longer generations of poverty. Many are weak and do not present or represent themselves well. Some have developed aggressive strategies to deal with people. All-in-all, they need our help.

And, we need theirs.

We get people who call us and, whether or not we can help, they will end the conversation with “Have a blessed day.” They may be choosing between a roof or a meal, between needed medications and feeding their children. They may be, or feel that they are, cast out, abandoned by society, used by politicians, landlords, etc. Yet, time and again I am told “Have a blessed day.” I remember one caller to whom I had to give bad news; we could not represent her. I finished by telling her “good luck.” She came back, “Luck is the devil’s word. God is in charge. It should be ‘blessing,’ not ‘luck.’”

The poor do not exist so we can have someone to give to and pray for. They do serve those functions, but within the Church they are also a great resource for prayer warriors, comforters, and other positions that require great faith. They may not be all that intellectual, and their theological training may be weak, but the Christian poor are a tremendous source of high voltage faith.

As egalitarians, we should be aware of this resource and be helping to see that the poor are used in positions within the church, not just kept as charities. God calls both the rich and the poor, and we want to be sure we’re ready to hear and act on God’s calling to these people whose gifts He can use.

One of my most trying journeys during college has been learning to give others grace: to forgive my roommate, to be patient with other white people’s ethnic journeys, to stop calling myself “an evangelical that doesn’t like other evangelicals.” One of the areas I still struggle with is in giving grace to women and men that don’t see eye-to-eye with me on gender issues.

Every year our UNC InterVarsity chapter holds two events called Ladies’ Night and Men’s Night. Each involves one gender performing comical skits and serving food to the other, as a way to show them appreciation and honor. While attending Ladies’ Night and working on Men’s Night are great fun for most women in our chapter, for me, they are bittersweet. At some point every year, I always wonder why we do them in the first place.

It doesn’t seem to matter that the past two years the men have sponsored significant gender justice events about relationship violence or sex trafficking around the same time as Ladies’ Night. When I go to Ladies’ Night I can’t help but feel frustrated that most of the men in the chapter don’t know much about sexism, despite their genuine desire to honor women. The skits and desserts are a good time, of course, but are these people actually committed to the issues I care about as a woman? Beyond cosponsoring one sex trafficking movie?

Quick as I am to judge, reflecting on grace has brought me an interesting realization this year: “giving grace” to others isn’t just about forgiving or bearing with one another, not simply about avoiding rash reactions or sticking in a relationship. Grace literally means “gift,” and many times I think I’m giving someone the gift of my forgiveness and patience. But what’s really crucial? Is it my ability to give something that’s lacked? Or my ability to receive? Why is it that I think I am above receiving the gift of Ladies’ Night from these men that genuinely love the women in our community?

I’m coming to think that perhaps my issue isn’t “giving grace” after all. Perhaps it’s a problem of willingness to receive grace, a gift—to accept love when it doesn’t feel like the demonstration of love I want. While true reconciliation will necessitate men’s understanding more of what is meaningful to me as a woman and their action to correct ongoing gender injustice, part of reconciliation is my job too.

The Lord is showing me that humbly accepting whatever good gift I am offered by men is essential if intergender unity is to ever be achieved in the Body of Christ. After all, God accepts love and worship from imperfect humans. Who I am to reject the creativity, excitement, and goodwill of these men? Of course, grace is difficult, whether I’m giving or receiving, but over time I am being taught to say of both, “I will with God’s help.”

Sometimes we hear things or see things or read things that we can’t forget. Sometimes we wish desperately that we could forget them. Sometimes we’re willing to give every ounce of who we are to keep on remembering. Sometimes it’s a mixture of both.

I just can’t get it out of my mind – this passage in Proverbs 31 (verses 6-7) about poverty and injustice. It’s the verse that says to let the poor drink beer so that they might forget their misery and anguish. It won’t stop running through my mind that there are people so impoverished that Wisdom would say to let them drink so that they won’t have to remember their misery! The amount of despair that is revealed in these verses makes my heart ache so much I wish I could forget it. And yet, this amount of very real, everyday heartache that people experience is something I don’t want to forget.

Because. I want to do something about it. It is clear this desire I have is something God desires. The verses that follow say:

‘Speak up for those who cannot speak for themselves, for the rights of all who are destitute. Speak up and judge fairly; defend the rights of the poor and needy.’

This is our job. We must speak up for others—be a voice for the voiceless. This call has become increasingly poignant to me; it increasingly pierces my heart and demands action. God really cares about justice, doesn’t he? I was never really aware of this before, but now I see it so clearly. Because I am made in his image, the passion for justice burns within me. I want to defend the rights of others that they may have all that God dreamed up for them.

May all men and women, rich and poor, and people of every tribe and tongue in all the earth know their value, dignity, and worth in God’s eyes. May they experience the degree to which he values and esteems them through all the human beings they encounter in their lives. And may you and I come to know the part which we can play to answer this call for justice.

Mutuality is now accepting articles (and discussion surrounding the issue) for the Summer 2008 issue on ‘Resolving Conflicts.’

Topic ideas include, but are not limited to:

• How convictions about biblical equality and gender justice apply to resolving conflict
• Biblical alternatives to ‘the tie-breaking-vote’ model of conflict resolution by female submission to male headship
• The importance of prayer for resolving conflict
• Whether there is a ‘middle way’ between egalitarianism and male headship
• Appropriate and inappropriate anger
• Biblical reflections: examples of how Jesus handled conflict, Jacob and Esau’s reconciliation, rivalry between Sarah and Hagar, etc.
• Examples of Christians who are/were reconcilers as well as examples of Christians who refuse(d) to compromise on truth
• Practical tips and reflections on race and gender reconciliation in Christ

Please send specific ideas or proposals to mgreulich@cbeinternational.org.