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Women’s History Month at the NCC Article 5 Earth Day advocacy beyond Earth Sunday: Resources from WAND – Faith Seeking Peace Curriculum—and the NCC Eco-Justice Program By Meagan Manas As we approach Earth Day, we remember Women’s History Month’s 2009 theme Women: Taking the Lead to Save our Planet. An extensive list of women from around the world honored for their work in eco-justice is available from Women’s History Project.
Often, and even on Earth Day, the problem of environmental degradation and its solutions can seem too large, abstract, and overwhelming to do anything. To avoid this kind of paralysis, Cassandra Carmichael and NCC Eco-Justice have a strategy. “The way we see it at Eco-Justice,” Carmichael says, “is an education for advocacy model. You can’t ask people to take action in their homes, congregations, and civic communities unless they know and care about the issues.” Some Earth Day ideas and resources for your congregation to use in the education to advocacy model are available on the Eco-Justice website.
As we recognize the ecological efforts of women across the globe, we should not be surprised to see so many women working on these issues. The same oppressive systems in our world that value men over women have also valued humanity and its whims over the health of the earth. These systems of oppression often lock women into roles where they most feel the effects of environmental degradation. Ivone Gebara, Latin American theologian calls this connection “ecofeminism:” “I sense that ecofeminism is born of daily life, of day-to-day sharing among people, of enduring together garbage in the streets, bad smells, the absence of sewers and safe drinking water, poor nutrition, and inadequate health care. The ecofeminist issue is born of the lack of municipal garbage collection, of the multiplication of rats, cockroaches, and mosquitoes, and of the sores on children’s skin. This is true because it is usually women who have to deal with daily survival issues: keeping the house clean and feeding and washing children.”(Ivone Gebara, “Longing for Running Water,” (Augsburg Fortress, 1999), p.2) The
intersection of the health of the environment and women’s lives may be
familiar to many of us in the very basic ways Gebara outlines, and the
“Faith Seeking Peace”
Quick Links: -“Faith Seeking Peace” from WAND A complete and thorough facilitator’s guide is also available for download online. -Resources from Eco-Justice http://www.nccecojustice.org/ -Bulletin resources from the United Methodist General Commission on the Status of Women Through the use of these resources, the NCC Women’s Ministries hopes your Earth Day celebrations will remembering the women who have helped us value and respect the totality of all God’s creation. Article 4
Faith and Feminism: By Meagan Manas
Gathering to discuss the connection of Faith and Feminism is critical to
engaging activism in new ways. This year, the NCC in partnership with
The Sister Fund
sponsored sixteen focus groups of women around the country to gather and
explore the topic of faith
The focus groups used a workbook designed to accompany Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance, written by Helen LaKelly Hunt. LaKelly Hunt tells us that her “intention for this book has been twofold: to help secular feminists begin to trust the possibility that faith can lead people to effective activism, and to encourage religious women and men to consider feminism as essential to the divine plan for love and justice.”[i] The connection between women’s personal stories of faith and the strength they find to work for justice is LaKelly Hunt’s foundation.
Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance uses the stories of
five historical women to weave a tapestry of connections between faith,
feminism, and the stories of women’s own lives. The women, Emily
Dickinson, Theresa of Avila, Sojourner Truth, Lucretia Mott, and
The focus groups read each chapter and then met together to discuss questions and engage in activities from the workbook. Sharing the lives of these women and of one another revealed, according to one participant from Blythedale, Missouri, “that we all have common ground.” This feeling of connection was echoed by the groups in Council Bluffs, Iowa and Anaheim, California. Another woman, from Olathe, Kansas reflected that she “enjoyed hearing the women’s stories and how they identified the different stages in their lives.” Identifying and connecting with one another breaks down barriers of difference and empowers women to come together and work for change.
Activities and discussions on each specific woman built the
participants’ courage to try new things, as one participant in the Iowa
City, Iowa group wrote her very first poem in the
section
on Emily Dickinson. Another from Gresham, Oregon reflected that the
stories of
The focus groups confirmed that the safety of their group encouraged
these new experiences. One woman from Lexana, Kansas noted that meeting
together gave her group “the opportunity to discuss issues we normally
don’t talk about.” One focus group from Independence, Missouri agreed
that the discussion gave the process depth. Journeying with one another
through this book and their lives “prompted honest sharing,”
The power of advocacy that comes from women gathering has been demonstrated throughout the women’s movement. Echoing those women who have gone before, one woman from Denver Colorado commented that going through the focus group process “really helped me learn how strong I can be.” Another woman from Naperville, Iowa reflected that “sharing our stories and speaking the truth, when we are heard, encourages us to find our own voices,” and one from Utica New York thinks this particular process “is a new and different way for women of faith to look at their lives and perhaps make a change for the better.” This is the same power that LaKelly Hunt speaks of, coming from women embracing their stories, and it is the power that has and continues to fuel movements for action.
Realizing their inner strength and voice did prepare the focus group
participants for action, as one woman, from Clarinda, Iowa wrote “There
is empowerment in seeing where and what we’ve experienced and how
prepared we are for future action.” The
Hundreds of years before women’s suffrage in the United States, before the fights for equal pay in the workplace, Jesus called all people to gather. He even went so far as to say that if people were to gather together in his name he would be there too. "Again, I say to you, if two of you agree on earth about anything you ask, it will be done for you by God my Mother and Father in heaven. For where two or three are gathered in my name, there I am in the midst of them. " Matthew 18:19-20 Translation: An Inclusive Language Lectionary[iii] To continue the spirit and energy of Women’s History Month year-round, we can gather together and recognize Jesus in our midst. We can get to know ourselves and other more deeply, perhaps finding two or three who “agree on earth” about issues that are important to us. We can use the power we find in ourselves, in one another, and in God, to make an indelible impact on the world, following models like Sojourner Truth and Dorothy Day. We can gather. One tool we can use is the discussion questions provided in the back of Faith and Feminism: A holy Alliance (www.sisterfund.org). If you would like to receive e-mail updates about Faith and Feminism and the work of the NCC’s Women’s Ministry, please send your email address to mmanas@ncccusa.org.
[i]
Helen LaKelly Hunt, Faith and Feminism: A Holy Alliance
(Atria Books: 2004), p.117. Article 3 Women in Slavery
By Meagan Manas Human trafficking has been a particular focus of the work of the Justice for Women Working Group and the National Council of Churches for some time now. (Read the NCC Resolution on Human Trafficking adopted in the fall of 2008 here. Human trafficking has also been gaining some media attention lately, as just last week an article was featured in TIME magazine. And, as most of us know, human trafficking disproportionately affects and abuses women, especially those living in poverty. Each of these reasons could merit an article posted here as a call to remember and advocate for the victims of human trafficking, especially during Women’s History Month. But there is another voice in the fight against slavery that calls out its witness from deep within the history of the women’s movement. It is this voice that urges us to continue to fight slavery in our world and time.
From the beginnings of the first wave of the feminist movement, working
towards equality for women and working towards the abolition of slavery
went hand-in-hand. Women
One of these women was Matilda Joslyn Gage (left). Although she is not as well-known as some of her contemporaries, Gage was a tireless activist for the rights of women, and other oppressed people, passions exhibited in her speech at the National Women’s Rights Convention of 1852: Although our country makes great professions in regard to general liberty, yet the right to particular liberty, natural equality, and personal independence, of two great portions of this country, is treated, from custom, with the greatest contempt; and color in the one instance, and sex in the other, are brought as reasons why they should be so derided; and the mere mention of such, natural rights is frowned upon, as tending to promote sedition and anarchy.
Gage understood the ways in which power conspires and operates in great
systems of oppression, seeing the connection between herself and those
labeled as “other.” Her
As the movements for women’s suffrage and the abolition of American Antebellum slavery have demonstrated, when we join our voices in witness and advocacy great change can be achieved. Will you join your voice with ours and raise awareness of human trafficking, of worldwide and modern-day slavery? Here are some resources to help: ∙Your denomination may already have resources and advocacy materials related to human trafficking. Women’s Ministries Director Ann Tiemeyer’s article gives a comprehensive list. ∙Learn more about the life and work of Matilda Joslyn Gage at her namesake foundation’s website, and use her story as a springboard to discuss how fighting against slavery is related to our stories. • The Matilda Joslyn Gage Foundation hosts events on these topics periodically, contact foundation@matildajoslyngage.org or visit the website. àRecently, MJGF has used two resources that might work in your community:
This 2007 National Book Award Finalist offers a first-person, heartbreakingly painful narrative of a young girl's sale into slavery today. Voted by the ALA as one of the Top Ten Best Books for Young Adults, it is a challenging and important book for readers of all ages. Trade (2007; starring Kevin Kline, rated R; viewer discretion advised) Trade is a feature-length film about a thirteen year-old Mexican girl sold as a “sex slave” into the United States. • Issue #184, May 2007, of the World Council of Churches’ journal, Contact, was centered on the topic of human trafficking. Available in PDF, its articles would be an excellent starting point for any group wanting to know more. • Find out more from the U.S. Dept of Health and Human Services Campaign to Rescue and Restore Victims of Human Trafficking. • Find out more from the UN Office on Drugs and Crime here. Article 2 Women of the NCC in action at the United Nations By Meagan Manas March 2-13 marks the 53rd Commission on the Status of Women at the United Nations. Each year, the Commission meets to “evaluate progress on gender equality, identify challenges, set global standards and formulate concrete policies to promote gender equality and advancement of women worldwide.”
This sight should not surprise
us, though. Women of the ecumenical movement have always been a part of
the United Nations, working to influence and advocate for themselves and
their sisters and children around the world. In 1941, 100 women
representing 70 Protestant denominations and three large
interdenominational women’s
Perhaps most visibly, women of the ecumenical movement contributed to the life and discussions of the United Nations as women from the United Methodist Church raised the money to build the Church Center of the United Nations (CCUN). Built in the early 1960’s, the CCUN was envisioned to be, and still functions as today, a space in which the agencies working for peace and human rights could collaborate more fully.
There is so much to find out about the CSW and what is going on there these two weeks. History, more on the CSW, the Advocacy Statement of Ecumenical Women for this year, and the Ecumenical Women’s Advocacy guide, are all available online. For now, just to pique your appetite, take a look at the report on a panel discussion on Positive Masculinities sponsored by Ecumenical Women, and take with you the words of this song, sung together at the beginning of the Ecumenical Women Orientation last Saturday: Sister,
take my hand; walk with me today. Text and music by © Grace Pugh Hubbard for Ecumenical Women Orientation opening worship at the 53rd Commission on the Status of Women at the UN. *Credit is due to the Ecumenical Women’s Advocacy Guide for the information they provided about the history of the ecumenical women’s movement and the UN.
Article One By Meagan Manas This March 2009, the Justice for Women Working Group of the National Council of Churches is celebrating Women’s History Month with weekly articles touching on a diversity of women’s experiences in churches and in the world. Our topics will range from women of faith and their involvement in the United Nations to the connections between the suffrage and abolition movements and what they can teach us about ending human trafficking today, to examining the connections between faith and feminism and the value of women meeting together through a focus group report on Helen LaKelly Hunt’s Faith and Feminism, A Holy Alliance. But for now, during this first week of Women’s History Month, the week preceding International Women’s Day (March 8), and the week beginning the United Nations’ Commission on the Status of Women, we thought we would check out what our member communions are doing to celebrate. Here’s what we found—for your convenience we’ve organized the links into three categories: History, Resources, and Advocacy. First of all, some history: • For general background, we found this article from womensenews.org helpful. • Are you a women’s history buff? Try this quiz from the National Women’s History Project • The Philadelphia Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends gives some interesting background on two prominent women of faith, Lucretia Mott and Sojourner Truth. • Histories of women in the Reformed Church of America, and in the United Methodist Church. Make sure to scroll all the way down! Looking for Resources? • The Episcopal Church has composed special Lenten bulletin inserts for International Women’s Day, March 8, about the Anglican delegates to the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women. • Women of The Evangelical Lutheran Church in America are also offering Lenten reflections by women in their resource, Looking into the Mirror: A Lenten Reflection • The International Council of Community Churches recommends the book Women at the Well, Volume 2: Meditations for Quenching Our Thirst, for Women’s History Month and Lent. • Women’s Ministries of the Presbyterian Church (USA) offers a range of resources from reflections and sermons to inclusive language hymns on their website. • The United Methodist Church’s General Commission on the Status and Role of Women has made available a variety of bulletin covers, litanies, and bulletin inserts all in keeping with the 2009 Women’s History Month Theme: Women taking the lead to save our planet. • Presidential Proclamation on Women’s History Month 2009 • Cassandra Carmichael, Director of Eco-Justice Programs for the National Council of Churches was present at the signing of an Executive Order to develop new fuel-efficiency guidelines for the auto industry (read more: and we congratulate and honor her as the director of a very successful program! You can find the Eco-justice resource, “Mindful Living: Human Health, Pollution, and Toxics” here at the Eco-Justice website. • The World Council of Churches marks International Women’s Day in Nairobi: “Africa: Churches to Lead Fight Against Violence on Women” • National Tele-Conference Series and other International Women’s Day events from Women Thrive Worldwide. Next Steps: Advocacy • The United Church of Christ remembers women through work on the Congo Sabbath Initiative. According to their website, the Congo Sabbath Initiative is “an effort to engage faith communities in raising awareness about violence against women in the Democratic Republic of Congo.” • In remembrance of International Women’s Day, the National Council of Churches and several of its Member Communions are supporting the International Violence Against Women Act (IVAWA). One of these supporters is the United Methodist Church, whose General Board of Church and Society says this about the Act: The International Violence Against Women Act supports innovative programs to help women and girls do things we so often take for granted --- go to school, earn an income to take care of their families, gather food or water without fear of rape, be free to protect themselves from HIV/AIDS. It also works to support leaders in their own countries who are working for broader social change that supports women’s rights to be free from violence. Simultaneously it integrates the issue far more effectively into our foreign policy and aid. More information on the IVAWA can be found here through Women Thrive. And a petition is available on the UMC website here. We at the National Council of Churches Women’s Ministries Program, are looking forward to a month of remembering, discovering, working, and worshipping together! We will continue to update this list of resources throughout the month, and would love to hear about what else is going on during Women’s History Month in your community of faith. Keep checking back during March for new articles and additions to this list! Information and events can be sent to Meagan Manas. |
Among
those taking the lead in the ecumenical movement are Cassandra Carmichael,
who serves as
Another
excellent tool in the education to advocacy model for environmental
education in your congregation and community is the “Faith Seeking Peace”
curriculum
encourages us to further examine our connection to God’s creation. “War’s
Silent Casualty, The Eco-footprint of War,”
and feminism. We give a big “Thank you!” to
all of the women who participated in these focus groups, and are eager
to share what they learned from their experience with this unique study
tool. 
Dorothy
Day, reveal to us the stages of what LaKelly Hunt calls the “feminine
hero journey.” Their stories weave the tapestry of this book as LaKelly
Hunt shows how “We are made collectively stronger by every woman who
learns to embrace her story,” and that “An important aspect of
empowerment comes from sharing our stories with one another.”
Emily Dickinson and Teresa of Avila enabled her to see things
in a new way: “I could now ‘name’ my shadows and painful moments and
keep things in perspective.” Developing the courage to try new things
and to see things differently in a safe group setting builds our courage
to participate in all areas of our life—personal, professional,
spiritual, political—in new ways. 
according
to one participant in Eugene, Oregon. And a participant from
Huntsville, Alabama reflects that “the guidance on establishing a safe
discussion group [through Imago Dialogue, referenced in Faith and
Feminism p.131] was good and cannot be overemphasized.” 
women
drew strength from one another as well as new ideas and courage for
action, like in the group in Columbus Ohio, where one participant “liked
discussing and sharing group members’ contribution to the world. It
gave me incentive to explore new areas of contribution.” This clarity
of purpose was summed up by one woman from the Maryville, Missouri
group: “My desire is to serve God as a person who is well-balanced and
forgiven and loved.” Action that springs from this place has the power
to be truly transformative. 
were
some of the most vocal opponents of slavery, and did not insist on waiting
until their own goals were accomplished to advocate for their brothers and
sisters. 
Sold
Throughout
the two weeks, work is done to complete and modify a document known as
“agreed conclusions.” The agreed conclusions formulated by the
representatives of 45 member states at the end of these two weeks will be
submitted to the Economic and Social Council for adoption, setting a
precedent for governmental and non-governmental action and policy on a
certain issue. This year, the theme of the CSW is the equal sharing of
responsibilities between women and men, including caregiving in the
context of HIV/AIDS, and this year’s agreed conclusions can be found
But
what does all of this international bureaucracy and UN jargon have to do
with the National Council of Churches, the ecumenical community, and the
Justice for Women Working Group? Lots. Participating as an NGO, Women
from the NCC work together as part of a coalition of sixteen organizations
called
groups
joined together to form the United Council of Church Women, now known as
Church Women United. CWU petitioned the United States to “join and take
its full responsibility in a world organization,” and in the inaugural
meetings of the UN General Assembly in 1946, it was the American First
Lady, Eleanor Roosevelt, who spoke to the importance of addressing the
situation of women in the world. It was this same year that the CSW was
created, and challenged with the task of finding out about the status of
women worldwide--no data like this had ever been collected. 
And
it was in the CCUN that this diverse coalition called Ecumenical Women
gathered on Saturday, February 28, to learn, share, meet one another, and
prepare to advocate. Among those representing the National Council of
Churches was a group of 9 young women from around the country, some in
seminary, some in international and public relations, all with a yearning
to follow God through the work of advocacy. Their presence was part of
the growing involvement of young people in the ecumenical movement, and
their stories will be shared here in the coming weeks. 