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The Delegation:
Dr. Thelma Chambers-Young,
Chair; Progressive National Baptist Convention; Mrs. Sandra Ann Pyke
Anthony, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Ms. Linda Ann Bales,
director of the Population Project of the General Board of Church and
Society, United Methodist Church; Rev. Dr. Rhashell Debra Hunter,
director of the Racial, Ethnic and Women's Ministries Program,
Presbyterian Church (USA); Rev. Elenora Giddings Ivory, director of
the Washington Office, Presbyterian Church (USA); Ms. Shirley Ann
Nichols, member of the Coordinating Cabinet of the Presbyterian Women,
Presbyterian Church (USA); Rev. Lois Martha Powell, team leader of
Justice and Witness Ministries for Human Rights, United Church of Christ;
Rev. Susan Gwen Turley, Swedenborgian Church; Ms. Arlene Connie
Tyler, president of the Women’s Department, Progressive National
Baptist Convention, Inc.; Dr. Iva Elaine Carruthers, Proctor
Conference, United Church of Christ; Rev. Andrea Lucille Clark,
assistant pastor, Antioch Baptist Church, Tulsa, Okla., (National Baptist
Convention); Ms. Angelita Clifton, student, Drew Theological
Seminary, American Baptist Churches USA; Rev. NaShieka Dawn Knight,
associate minister, Greater St. John (Baptist) Church, Upper Marlboro,
Md.; Rev. Jacqueline Y. Lynch, associate minister, Saint Matthew's
Community AME Church, African Methodist Episcopal Church; Ms. Deborah
Leah Stapleton, lay minister, Fountain Baptist Church (Summit, N.J.)
and a student at Drew Seminary.
National Council
of Churches staff :
Dr. Antonios Kireopoulos
Rev. Brenda Girton-Mitchell
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| "I hope
we will hear the concerns of women in the region and stand in
solidarity with our sisters and brothers who are caught in the
middle of the conflict."
Dr. Thelma Chambers-Young, delegation
chair
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Daily
Report of the National Council of Churches' delegation of women church
leaders to the Middle East
Only a
Woman
Elenora
Giddings Ivory
You are
only a woman. What can you really do?
- God
did not say to Mary: You are only a woman and should not have the
Christ child, God's own child.
- Jesus
did not say to the women at the tomb that they should not preach the
word of his resurrection to all who would hear.
- The
Apostle Paul did not say to Phoebe that she was only a woman and
should not establish churches.
You are only a woman. What
can you really do?
- You
can, like Mary, nurture the children you are given, as well as those
who are the least among us.
- You
can, like the women at the tomb, preach about the resurrection's
redemptiveness. There is hope that repressive behaviors will stop and
dividing walls will fall.
- You
can, like Paul, speak of Jesus' call for justice and righteousness,
that we "love others as we love ourselves." Be a voice for the
voiceless at all times and at all decision points of our personal
lives and throughout society.
God knows there is no such
thing as "only a woman." For God has chosen woman to stand at the
pivotal moments of our collective faith journey. Women can make a
difference.
Faith to faith,
Face to face,
Woman to Woman.
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