text: Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2013 http://archive.org/details/feministliberatiOObreb TV\rs ( (pile FEMINIST LIBERATION: A CALL TO REVOLUTION An Invitation to White, Middle-Strata Prestyterian Clergywomen to Live Passionately By U}m BENSON BREBNER A Thesis Submitted to the Faculty of the Episcopal Divinity School in Partial Fulfillment for the Degree Doctor of Ministry (Feminist Liberation Theology and Ministry) May 15, 1990 Supervisor - f r^uju /> < ta^uc^ iteader Remember not the -former things, nor consider the things o-f old. Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs -forth, do you not perceive it? Isaiah 43:16-19 Table of Contents Preface: "Feminist Liberation Theology: Called to Justice-Making Lives" Introduction 1 Background 1 My Particularity and My Communities of Accountability 4 The Goals of the Thesis 6 The Limitations of the Thesis 6 Methodology 7 The Flow of the Thesis 9 Dedication 11 Endnotes 13 Chapter I Church Employed Women: Early Experiences of Feminist Liberation 14 Early History 15 Life with Church Employed Women 1972-1974 18 Relationships with Other Women's Constituencies 19 Specific Endeavors of CEW 20 Challenging the Vocation Agency 21 Work on Equal Employment Opportunity Program 22 Clergywomen-" s Therapeutic Seminar 23 Surveys of Our Constituencies 26 Hiring the Coordinator of Employment Opportunities 27 The Layoffs on the National Staff 29 Structural Relationships with the Church 31 Financial Struggles 34 Power Dynamics within CEW 36 (Analysis — See Appendix I.) Endnotes 38 Chapter II The Relationship Between Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation 42 A Schema of Comparison 42 Moving Toward Feminist Liberation 45 Factors Blocking the Movement 46 Factors Facilitating the Movement 48 Endnotes 51 Chapter III The Journey Toward Feminist Liberation: The Lives and Work of Three Feminist Liberation Theologians 53 Introduction 53 The Elements of Feminist Liberation as Reflected by Three Feminist Liberation Theologians 55 Community 55 Revolutionary Change 61 Embodiment 66 Particularity 70 Global Awareness 74 Interdependence 76 Marginal it y 82 Transformation 86 The Process of Beginning the Journey Toward Feminist Liberation 90 Endnotes ? c; Chapter IV The Lived Experience of White, Middle-Strata Feminist Presbyterian Clergywomen 100 Introduction 100 Issues Reflected in the Corporate and Individual Work of the Clergywomen 104 Particularity and Privilege 105 Civil Disobedience 107 Sexual /Erotic /Sensual 109 Political Sense and Involvement 110 Personal and Communal Issues 114 Ethical Norms 116 Paradigm Shifts 117 Global Sense 121 Making the Connections 123 Sense of Vocation 124 Liberal Feminism 126 Liberation Theology 128 Envisioning the Future 129 Conclusion 130 Chapter V Resistances to Feminist Liberation 133 Fear 133 Liberal Ideology 135 Sexism 138 Social Privilege 141 Additional Factors of Resistance 146 Lack of Information 146 Despair 146 Isolation 147 Endnotes 150 Chapter VI The Vision for and the Implications of Feminist Liberation in the Lives and Ministries of White,, Middle-Strata Presbyterian Clergywomen 152 Saying "No" to Our Old Relationship with the Presbyterian Church 152 Fear of Reprisals and Losses 152 Possibility of Leaving the Church 154 Questioning the Viability of the Church 156 Saying "Yes" to Feminist Liberation 158 The Healing of Our Beings 158 Transforming Our Theology and Ethics 161 Theology and Ethics Must be Justice-Centered 161 Theology and Ethics Must Generate Moral Agency 162 Theology and Ethics Must Encourage Risk-Taking 163 Theology and Ethics Must Help Strengthen Communal Right -Relation Theology and Ethics Must Reflect and Celebrate Our Embodiment Theology and Ethics Must Be Contextual Theology and Ethics Must Be Connectional Theology and Ethics Must Be Visionary Endnotes 164 166 169 171 172 174 Chapter VII Strategies for Moving Toward Feminist Liberation in the Presbyterian Church 176 C lergy women •" s History Project Conferences on Privilege Racial Privilege Age and Able-Bodied Privilege Heterosexual Privilege Class Privilege Clergy Privilege Travel Seminars Seminary Quarter for Women Lesbian Clergy Political Caucus Intensive One-Month Study Leave Program Presbytery and Synod Clusters Conclusion: A Call to Revolution Endnotes 176 179 180 180 180 181 181 183 184 186 189 190 191 195 Appendices (Each is separately numbered. Appendix A: Appendix B: Appendix. C: Appendix D: Appendix E: Appendix F: Appendix G: Appendix H: Appendix I Appendix J Appendix K Appendix L Appendix M Memories of Annette Wall on Pre-CEW Days in Philadelphia CEW Prospectus and Purpose October, 1972 Descriptive Brochure of CEW May, 1974 CEW Recommendations to the Committee on the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity April, 1973 Statistics of Responses to a Survey of Church Secretaries Fall, 1972 A Creative New Way to Do Mission — Proposal for a Nine- Month Employment Schedule Fall, 1974 The CEW Response to the G.A. Agency Staff Terminations October, 1974 Church Employed Women's Statement and Proposal Prepared for the General Assembly Mission Council July, 1973, and Related Correspondence An Analysis of the Early Years of CEW The Design of the Gathering of Clergywomen April, 1989 Elements Essential for Transformation Mind-Map The Church and Homosexuality May, 1978 Bibliography Feminist Liberation Theology: Called to Justice-Making Lives If Justice were used as the -foundation o-f our theology, what -form would our theology take? With Justice as the norm, Feminist Liberation Theology calls us to: TAKE SERIOUSLY THE CONNECTIONS BETWEEN OPPRESSIONS sexism racism ablebodism heterosexism imperialism classism adult ism militarism ageism anti-Semetism ethnocentrism elitism Christo-facism and any other "ism" that renders a person less than -fully human. The web formed by all o-f these oppressions momentarily strengthens them but also entangles them, producing a vulnerability in the -face o-f concerted, coordinated, cooperative, contextual coalitional, conspiratorial, communal endeavors to undo the sticky mess. With Justice as the norm, Feminist Liberation Theology calls us to: RESIST THE PRIVILEGE OR PREROGATIVE AFFORDED US BY our race or our class or our gender or our "whole" body, mind, -Or psyche or our nationality or our education or our sexual preference or our age or our religious beliefs or our work or our politics or any other aspect of our social location by which we are blinded to the oppression of others that is required by and enables our own privilege. With Justice as the norm, Feminist Liberation Theology calls us to: PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT 900,000 persons died in Leningrad during the siege of that city -from 1941-1944, most dying of starvation. PROMISE NEVER TO FOR&ET THAT Kitty Genevese was stabbed countless times and finally died in a New York City street while many persons watched from their windows and refused to do anythina out of lack of concern or an unwillinqness to get involved. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Millions of Jews, gypsies, homosexuals and other so called misfits were reduced from human beings to no beings and could, therefore, be ■istreated in any Banner which suited their oppressors and executioners, whether by slave labor, experimental surgery, forced guarding and torturing of their own people, or the crematoria. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Shannon died at 3 1/2 years because the law said that his violent father should h&ve ample opportunity to prove that he was a good father. PROMISE NEVER TO FOR&ET THAT Tens of thousands of persons disappeared from the streets of Argentina, Chile, El Salvador, Brazil, Guatemala and of many other Latin American countries and were subsequently jailed, tortured and killed, all because they dared to believe that the poor and oppressed had dignity and should be afforded rights and respect. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Joan Clark lost her reputation and the job which she had held for nine years in the Women's Unit of the United Methodist Church because she dared to come out as a lesbian. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT South African Blacks, Coloreds, and other non-whites risk and give their lives in the struggle against the most structured system of enforced racism in the world, namely. Apartheid. PROMISE NEVER' TO FOR&ET THAT Bob must leave his family because he has lost his job, and his wife and four children cannot get welfare help unless he is no longer a part of the family. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Medgar Evers, Viola Liuzzo, Martin Luther King, James Cheney, Andrew Goodman, Michael Schwerner, Malcolm X, James Reeb, Emmett Till, Jonathan Daniels, and many others gave their lives or risked their lives to bring Civil flights to the Blacks in this country. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Jesus of Nazareth was tortured and executed ©y the state for being a subversive rabblerowser because he advocated for the poor and oppressed, questioned authority, both religious and secular, and saw the need for societal transformation. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT . Countless women and children around the world are raped or sexually abused each moment of each day either in the street or inside their homes. No place is safe for them. Fourteen Canadian women were shot in a classroom merely because they were perceived by their murderer to be feminists. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT John was bashed to death while the young men who murdered him chanted and danced in glee — all because John was gay. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Millions of women, who were called witches because they taught the Bible, healed people, asked difficult questions, and saw visions were burned at the stake, exiled From their communities, hanqed, drowned, cooked in oil. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Margaret is beaten and starved by her daughter and son-in-law; her only crime is that she is 80 years old and cannot take care of herself any longer. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Dozens of young Korean women lose their eyesight each year from working on computer chip boards on the global assembly line. As a result, they are considered outcasts in their society. PROMISE NEVER TO FORGET THAT Countless others are oppressed in sundry ways each day whoa we do forget, for we do not know of their suffering, either because they are hidden by their isolation or because they are part of such a large group of sufferers. Still we are called to remember that they are here in our midst. With Justice as the norm, Feminist Liberation Theology calls us to: END OUR SILENT PARALYSIS IN THE FACE OF THE INJUSTICE IN OUR WORLD WHETHER THAT PARALYSIS RESULTS FROM ...ignorance or naivete ...or a set of personal priorities that does not leave much room for thought or action about such weighty matters ...or just plain indifference ...or a focus on individual salvation ...or a lack of imagination as to what can be done to bring about justice ...or a fear of what eight happen to us as a result of our caring deeply and acting out of that concern. We are called out beyond that paralysis, however comfortable that slavery may have become for us, for some little part of us continues to remind us that until each person is treated justly, none of us is truly liberated. With Justice as the norm, Feminist Liberation Theology calls us to: HELP TO CREATE A VISION OF PEACE, LOVE AND JUSTICE AS PARTNERS, CO- CREATORS AND SOUL MATES OF OUR CREATOR GOD... by committing ourselves to our own conversion of heart and our own spiritual development whatever form that »ay take. by harkening to the testimony of the saints who have preceded us in this journey of faith. Their love, justice and hope live on in us. by joining in corporate/communal action where those who are committed to justice breathe as one in a conspiracy of transformation, which may, in the particular situation, take the form of simple reform or profound revolution. by taking our lead from those on the underside of every domination and oppression so that our mutuality can be real. We learn from and are changed by their experiences of power lessness and powerfulness. by continually being aware of and improving our analysis of the systemic nature of all oppressions which thwart, cripple and/or kill most of us in this world and by being committed to the institutional change necessary ■for our transformation and resurrection. by taking the risks involved in working and living -for justice, because as a result of uncovering our own invisibility or our identification with other oppressed folks, we will be treated as all uppity people have been treated throughout history. by creating ways to work with other justice-committed people in alliances and coalitions so that the web of oppression can be more quickly broken by means of our collaboration. by empowering each other to be effective in "la lucha," the struggle that is the living out of our lives in justice. With Justice as the norm, Feminist Liberation Theology calls us to: PARTICIPATE IN THE DANCE OF LIBERATION WHICH INCLUDES: the celebration of the particularity of each person affirmation of sensuality and sexuality love and affection balloons restoration of hope the joy of play peace fulfilled basic needs a. sense of global family freedom from fear harmony with all of creation the power of ritual mutual relationality intergenerational connections open friendship justice empowerment of our communities joyful movement fair distribution of goodies affirmation of child-likeness passionate living All are invited to join the dance! All are welcome! INDEED, THERE IS A RESURRECTION LURKING! Linda B. Brebner November, 1988 Hodified December, 1989 INTRODUCTION Background ; My ministry as a Presbyterian clergywoman -for the past 25 years has always had a strong social justice dimension. There are not many social justice issues in which I have not been involved to one degree or another. I began with a real sense of caring which demonstrated itself in service. Then through my growing involvement in the Civil Rights Movement, I began to understand that justice was what was called for although I was not sure how I could make a difference. Since the time I self-consciously identified myself as a feminist in 1971, I found that through becoming aware of my own oppression, the oppression of others took on new meaning for me. I began more fully to understand the systemic nature of injustice and the kind of commitment which was involved in the changing of structures. 1 also became aware of the connections among oppressions and of the necessity to address those linkages through coalitions of groups of justice-making persons. As I have struggled with these many justice issues, I have found myself, along with others, frustrated by the reality that many times we have been less than successful in bringing about the changes which we have perceived were needed. Sometimes we did not have the proper analysis of the political, social, economic situation which we faced, and other tines we did not seem to have the tools to move beyond our analysis to bring -about the change which we felt was required. Also many times the alliances and coalitions which we built fell apart at significant points. Other times some of us have fallen apart physically, emotionally or spiritually. In the midst of the fray, it was often difficult to reflect on the issues of analysis and process. The process of writing this thesis has provided me with the opportunity for such intentional re-fiection. During the -first years of my ministry I was comfortable and proud to call myself a liberal as opposed to more conservative political and theological perspectives. However, as I became more sensitive to the depth of the change required for liberation, I began to see that uncritically embracing liberalism (even feminist liberalism) aight be part of the problem in my analysis and advocacy. Having said that, I find it is important to affirm that it is in Liberal Feminist soil that I discovered the seeds of Feminist Liberation. It is both those seeds of Feminist Liberation and the : contradictions which I find in Liberal Feminism which compel me to embrace a Feminist Liberation analysis. It is really my experience that I flow back and forth between the two analyses, and depending on the context I experience those two viewpoints in different ways at different times. At tiroes I find Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation compatible, while other times I believe it is my Liberal Feminism which shields me froir: recognizing the necessity of and blocks me from embracing Feminist Liberation. Thus I fail to take the significant risks involved in truly confronting the oppressive structures of the church and society. It seems that Liberal Feminism has provided me with a more comfortable analysis which in most ways does not really challenge the status quo or the systemic nature of injustice. Liberal Feminism has answered calls -for justice in Central America with heartfelt anger and concern but with caution not to support revolution, calls for justice for the homeless with shelters and soup kitchens but with no economic analysis or change, calls for justice for women with the struggle for the Equal Rights Aaendment but with little awareness of the connections among the various oppressions and how white middle-strata (1) women participate in the privilege o-f race and class. At one time these Liberal Feminist positions indicated progress to me, but now I wonder whether they only blunt the cries o-f the oppressed by seeming to respond while all the time the power relationships remain the same. There are ways in which the liberal response may ameliorate the worst effects o-f injustice thereby deradicalizing those who would fight the oppression they experience. Within Liberal Feminism there has been a real commitment to cure the ills of society but without an understanding of the need for the fundamental changing of the patriarchal structures of society which are ' integral to oppression and injustice. Having said that, ironically I must also say that it is in the very incremental responses of Liberal Feminism that I see some glimmers of Feminist Liberation. It is the place where I find signs of hope for transformation and at the same time the place where my frustrations grow to the unendurable point. It is for this reason that I wish to focus my work on encouraging myself and others to explore those relationships and to see how they affect our lives and ministries. As a feminist Christian clergy woman who is trying to move more consistently away from Liberal Feminism and toward Feminist Liberation, I need to distinguish between the two, to struggle with how a person obtains and sustains a liberation worldview and praxis, and to identify how such a worldview and praxis impact my ministry and the ministry of other white, -•iddle-strata feminist Christian women, -both lay *nd clergy, who are actively involved in doing justice in the church and the world. I want to challenge myself and other white feminist Christian women to struggle with the issue of what it means to be committed to a Feminist Liberation model of justice and to live our lives consistent with that commitment in order to be honest with ourselves and with those with whom we are in solidarity as we join la lucha , Spanish for "the struggle which is life itself." I believe, as Christians,, we are called to do justice as our life work which is also our faith work. No one knows in what context or community one will be called to do justice, but that "la lucha" is always there, one can be assured. Within the vocation of doing justice, we are called to be astute and effective in that struggle. I believe Feminist Liberation provides the greatest possibility for fulfilling that vocation and enables us to set our goals and strategies appropriately. My Particularity and My Communities of Accountability : In order to do my work with clarity and integrity, I believe it is important to state that I am a white, middle-strata, Presbyterian clergywoman who is a. citizen of the United States. I was among the first 50 women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church, and it has been an exciting and frightening journey. Six years after my ordination which took place in 1965, I became a feminist, and my life and ministry have never been the same. It was a. paradigm shift which has been life-transforming for me. The addressing of institutional injustice became central to my understanding of my ministry. Although I continue to operate much of the time from intuition in the doing of justice, I have increasingly realized my need for a liberation analysis of the systemic nature of oppression and of effective strategies for opposing it. It is important to mention that I have struggled greatly with whether or not intentionally to use my identity as a lesbian as a factor in this work. My fear has been that such a "blatant" acknowledgement of the role of my lesbianism in my theological and political development would block my work from being heard by »any of the persons with whom I wish to communicate. However the more I have questioned whether I could point out my lesbianism as a significant prism through which I view the issue of embracing Feminist Liberation, the more I have realized that it is impossible for me to do this work with integrity without explicitly affirming the role that my lesbianism has played in who I am, what I believe and which commitments I hold dear. It is the only way I can speak the truth I perceive from whence I stand. My people (2) are white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen, •any of whom are struggling with the same questions I am. All of ay Presbyterian clergy sisters are my community of accountability and support. This circle quickly expands to white, middle-strata feminist clergywomen of all other denominations. The denominational lines have little meaning, most of the time, to those of us who are feminist clergywomen. My people also include feminists who are laywomen across the Presbyterian Church and within other denominations. I am particularly concerned about the power divisions which exist between clergywomen and laywomen. I both recognize the separations and am committed to the coming together of women across those lines. I also choose to respond to the voices of racial ethnic women in the United States and to women around the world, for it is from them that I have learned so much of what I know about justice and sisterhood. However, I have chosen specifically to direct this thesis to white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen because of the special accountability I have to thee *nd they to «e. 1 feel «y morY -will speak #ost profoundly to them and that my call and challenge will have particular authenticity within that circle. Even «ore specifically, I direct «y thesis to those who have a Feminist Liberation analysis but are working and living where that analysis is rejected or ignored and to those who hold to a Liberal Feminist analysis but are -finding that analysis problematic or unsatisfactory. I do hope that others within and outside o-f the Presbyterian Church and the United States will also find my work helpful as they struggle on their particular issues in their particular times and places. The Goals of the Thesis : The nature of ay thesis is potentially all- encompassing; therefore it is important for me to state the goals which I wish to fulfill in this thesis, realizing that work on these goals may lead me to •any questions and issues which will have to be addressed at a another time. My stated goals are as follow: 1. To identify the ways in which Liberal Feminism points or fails to point the way to Feminist Liberation. 2. To discover what personally, institutionally, societal ly, and intellectually blocks and facilitates white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywbmen in moving more consistently toward Feminist Liberation. 3. To uncover the limitations and risks of feminist Presbyterian clergy women continuing to affirm and use a Liberal Feminist analysis as a foundational base for our lives and ministries. 4. To clarify what the implications are of embracing a Feminist Liberation analysis on the personal lives and ministries of Presbyterian clergywomen. 5. To create a vision of Feminist "Liberation toward which we can individually and corporately «ove with intentionality and commitment. The Limitations of the Thesis : Having stated my goals, it is important to indicate the limitations I have drawn for my work. The following are the intended limits: 1. I have a built-in bias to Feminist Liberation toward which I would hope that Christians -feminists would move. Although I believe that there are some positive aspects to Liberal Feminism, increasingly I see myself, and encourage others in, embracing Feminist Liberation. Thus in my thesis I am assuming, not arguing, the desirability o-f a Feminist Liberation perspective as opposed to a Liberal Feminist stance. . I have chosen to -focus this thesis on the lives and ministries of white, aiddle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen. I have chosen to do so for several reasons. First, I am concerned that many white, middle-strata women have failed to see our particularity as being important; therefore we have also failed to honor the particularity of others different from ourselves. We have often mistakenly thought we could speak for all women. I am attempting to speak about and to women most like me in experience while recognizing that each of us is unique. Second, -feminists have often come together and assumed that because we were all feminists, there were no significant differences. In so doing, we have ignored the differences in privilege and power, especially those represented by our race «nd class, kie have falsely assumed we were being inclusive while overlooking the power dynamics present in the group which work against trust and communication so necessary for working together. I have chosen for this thesis to reduce the power differential within my primary support group by choosing to limit the composition of its •embership. I realize that I am taking a risk that 1 aay have aade a mistake; but there being no perfect process, I cannot avoid some risk. Methodology : My methodology reflects »y commitment to honoring my own experience while realizing that the experience of j>y sisters is also essential for my work. In order to be accountable to those to and on behalf of whom I airi particularly writing this thesis, I invited a small group o-f white, middie- strata feminist Presbyterian clergy women, both lesbian and heterosexual, to participate in a week-end retreat during which we re-flected on our experiences as clergywomen as they relate to the issues focused on in my thesis. In this setting I related as a peer and colleague, rather than a distanced researcher, since I perceived my thesis work to emerge -from our experiences and to speak to all o-f us about our lives and ministries. I did not see this retreat as a field project per se, but rather as a means of Baking sure that my lived experience and the conclusions I might come to in this thesis were reflective of the experience of a broader group of feminist Presbyterian clergywomen. In order to correct for assumptions and distortions which might have emerged from our work as a result of our race and status as white clergywomen, I asked three racial ethnic clergywomen and three lay denominational staff women to respond to the summary I made of the work that we white clergywomen did in our retreat as well as the written responses which each woman gave to a schedule of questions I sent to them. I did not ask them (racial ethnic clergywomen and lay staff women) whether they had had the same experience, but whether they saw any places where I had missed some important insights into our experience which might be clearer to those who use different lenses through which to look at some of the same issues. I chose to be accountable to a larger group of Presbyterian women because it was a means of acknowledging the particular experiences of particular women who are employed within the Presbyterian Church. I also asked the racial ethnic clergywomen and national lay staff women some additional questions to elicit some comments on their own experiences. I decided to pay these six women small honoraria (3) so as to acknowledge symbolically the work they did for roe since they may 8 not benefit as directly from my work and thesis. I was also very fortunate to have the opportunity to meet in December, 1989, with three Steering Committee members of Church Employed Women, who served with me during my two years o-f service (1972-1974). They were Carol Ames, Annette Wall, and Shirley Wooden, and Ann DuBois joined us -for our week- end to help us to reflect and to record our memories. In addition, Annette, Ann and I met with Maggie Kuhn, who was the staff to the Professional Women's Caucus (one of the predecessor groups to CEW) and a continuing support person to CEW. Her recollections were most helpful to me. Lastly, Ann and I spent two days at the Presbyterian Historical Society in Philadelphia reading through the records of the life of CEW during the period from 1972 to 1975. Without ail of these resources, both personal and written, the writing of Chapter I would have been virtually impossible. I am very grateful to all of these sisters for the time and energy they generously contributed to my work. In addition to the above consultants for my thesis, I have used the lives and the work of three feminist theologians. Carter Heyward, Letty Russell and Dorcthee Soelle as illustrative of the journey toward Feminist Liberation. I realize that like so many of us who struggle to embrace Feminist Liberation, these three women manifest in their lives and work the pressures, contradictions, frustrations and joys of that journey. I have read extensively of their written work and have interviewed them personally regarding their experiences of that journey. I interviewed Heyward and Russell in face-to-face encounters, but I was limited to taped and written communication with Soelle since she was not planning to be in this country during the period in which I was doing research for this thesis. The Flow of the Thesis : I had planned to have the thesis begin with my own life and ministry as described in the Introduction -followed by the description of Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation. Then I wanted to establish a base line of the journey -from Liberal Feminism to Feminist Liberation as presented in the lives and ministries o-f the three -feminist theologians. Next I was going to move into a summary o-f the discussions I had with the other white middle-strata Fresbyterian clergywomen about our lived experiences which would -further expand «y understanding of the journey on which we had embarked from Liberal Feminism to Feminist Liberation. The.- added insight of lay staff women and racial ethnic clerqywomen would then help me to correct any false assumptions and to move into a clearer understanding of where white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen may have missed some important connections along the way. Lastly I wanted to consider the theological and ethical implications of this journey on the lives and ministries of white, middle-strata Fresbyterian clergywomen. The flow of this thesis has changed dramatically several times due to the results of my research. 1 will continue to focus on my own experience as reflected in my life and ministry in the Introduction and throughout the thesis where appropriate. Chapter I will tell the story and give a brief analysis^ of the life of Church Employed Women, a national advocacy group for women employed by the United Presbyterian Church in the 1970s, which I co- chaired for two years. I had initially 'thought CEW would be the quintessential illustration of Liberal Feminism; but as a result of conversations with other CEW members and my own further analysis, I now wish to use CEW as a case study of early experiences of Feminist Liberation. In Chapter II I will briefly define the elements of Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation and how they interact so as to provide a common ground of 10 understanding o-f how I am understanding these terms. Chapter III will focus on the work and lives o-f the three Feminist Liberation theologians as a way of showing how Feminist Liberation is embodied in their lives and works and how the Feminist Liberation vision calls Presbyterian clergywomen to respond. Chapter IV will reflect my conversations with the white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen and their written responses to questions I posed to them. This chapter will make clear that this group of clergywomen (which was about as progressive as they come) was decidedly positioned within Liberal Feminism. Then in Chapter V I will suggest some reasons why I believe that we tend to resist the analysis, commitments, and strategies of Feminist Liberation. In chapter VI I will concentrate on the vision which Feminist Liberation offers and what difference Feminist Liberation might make in the lives and ministries of white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen. Lastly, in Chapter v'll I will pose some possible strategies which will help Presbyterian clergywomen to move toward Feminist Liberation. Tnere is no separate chapter reflecting the responses of the racial ethnic clergywomen and the lay staff women. Rather I have chosen to integrate their responses into my last three chapters. I have used quotes where possible, but more important is the general impact their responses made on my thinking and my writing. To these sisters, I am deeply indebted for the tenor of this thesis as well as for the specific cited responses they made. Dedication ; I wish to dedicate this thesis to Ann EuBois, whose encouragement and support, both professional and sisterly, made all the difference. to Carter Heyward, Dorothee Soelle and Letty Russell, whose lives and works help me to know that Feminist Liberation is possible. 11 to Carter Heyward, Joanna Dewey and Katie Cannon, my advisors on this thesis, whose long-suffering over drafts, even ones coming from Latin America, and whose confidence in my ability to complete this work kept me going when the going was tough. to Lark, Dweller, Janelle, Virginia, Red, Daisy, Ruby Fruit, River Woman, and Deborah, my Presbyterian clergywomen colleagues, who shared precious stories of their lives with me and helped to mirror for me my own precious memories. Their experiences and commitments called me to account and sharpened my vision. to Sally, Doris, Margaret, Phyllis, Susan, and Mary, the racial ethnic clergywomen and lay staff women, my sisters who shared their precious stories and helped me to see how important our particularities are. to Card Ames, Shirley Wooden, Annette Wall, and Maggie Kuhn, who shared with me the struggle of the CEW years and who dared to remember both the good and bad memories. To Elizabeth, Nancy, Pat, Gordon, Ann, Lois, Pauline and Molly, my colloquium mates, who first heard my ideas for this thesis, challenged my thinking, and supported me as I struggled to give birth to this thesis. Also to Joanna Dewey, our colloquium professor, who kept us on track in our task and who was our advocate and critic at every turn. To Carol Ames, Peta Blake, Jackie Girard, Jeffrey Mills, Joan Horgan Richard Brown, Lieve Troch, and Julie Wilson, who worked long and hard to help •e get this thesis in and out of the computer with -few mishaps and errors, in and out of the copier without losing any of the pages, and finally into the folders without pinching our fingers. And to all those who listened to my ideas and gave me new ideas over the dinner table at Episcopal Divinity School. 12 Endnotes Note: I want to acknowledge the real help that Nancy Richardson gave »e in thinking creatively about the methodology of this thesis, and her clear guidance shows up most clearly in this chapter. 1. My use of the word, "strata," is in response to the concern reflected by Isasi Diaz and Tarango: Hispanic Women's Liberation Theology uses the tern strata because some factors usually not included in the Anglo concept of class are very important and play a major role in determining to which strata any given person might belong. For example, the longer a family has been a member of a given community, the higher the strata to which the members of the family belong; if the family has been among the founders of the town, parish, or organization, the strata of its members is high, regardless of present economic status... Isasi Diaz, Ada rtaria and Tarango, Yolanda, Hispanic Women: Prophetic Voice in the Church (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), p. 62. 2. "My people" is a term used to name a group with which one identifies most significantly in relation to one's particularities. In this case, the group I call my people are white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen with whom I share race, class, political persuasion, religious affiliation and profession. At various points, a person may lift up different groups to identify as "my people" depending on the context. 3. I have been fortunate to have the financial support of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in bringing the group of white, middle-strata clergywomen together, in transcribing the tapes from that gathering and in providing these small honoraria. 13 Chapter I Church Employed Women: Early Experiences o-f Feminist Liberation One of the places where I invested much o-f my early -feminist years was in Church Employed Women (CEW), an organization developed around the issues o-f women employed in the United Presbyterian Church (UPCUSA). When I initially thought o-f including a chapter about CEW in this thesis, I had planned to use it as an illustration o-f Liberal Feminism at work in the UPCUSA. However, I discovered that my recollections, and those o-f other women involved in CEW during that period (These are the women with whom I met in December, 1989.), pointed in the direction o-f CEW' s reflecting much more Feminist Liberation than I had originally believed, albeit many times an intuitive, and often unintentional, liberation. Since my early development as a feminist was closely related to my experience in CEW, I offer this chapter as a case study to introduce some issues that emerged during those years. Many of those issues have spurred me on to ask the questions I am asking in this thesis. After laying out the historical base, I wish to describe CEW (especially during the years from 1972 to 1974 when I was deeply involved in its life as co-chairwoman of its Steering Committee, and its interrelationships with both the UPCUSA and the other women's constituency groups within the UPCUSA. Then I wish to highlight some of the ways in which CEW's history manifests Feminist Liberation leanings. In addition, I will analyze some results of the overall endeavors of CEW. Finally, I will indicate how these Feminist Liberation leanings were undermined, leading to CEW' s slipping into Liberal Feminism. (Since my analysis depends upon a comparison between Feminist Liberation and Liberal Feminism found in Chapter II, I have placed this analysis in Appendix I, which can be read a-fter referring to that material.) Early History In September, 1972, I was asked to attend an early meeting of the Steering Committee of Church Employed Women (CEW). As an organization, CEW was coming from a feminist perspective, and the members of the organization had high energy for bringing the "feminist revolution" to life in the UPCUSA. In Our Rightful Place: The Story of F'resbyter ian Women. 1970-1983 . Liz Verdesi and Lillian Taylor describe how the organization initially came together. They mention how the Task Force on Women (1) decided at its first meeting in 1970 that it couldn't address all the issues regarding women so it set up a special group of clergywomen, educators and other professional women employed in the church to focus on the issues pertaining to the employment of women in the UPCUSA. This group, called the "Professional Women's Caucus," first met in November, 1970, and it was chaired by Rev. Willa Roghair with Maggie Kuhn giving staff support. (2) This caucus did some work in relation to the 1971 General Assembly (G.A.), held in Rochester, New York. Most significant, in my opinion, was the meeting of professional women employed by the church. I attended that •eeting, and it was there that I became self-consciously a feminist. That gathering was to have a profound iapact on the lives of «any women who attended it. A letter written by Liz Knott reflects this: ...The 183rd General Assembly will always be a point of reference for me. You have opened the horizon — lifted the horizon of my own consciousness and conscience; you have opened and lifted the horizon of possibilities for professional and concerned women in the Church. I am excited about the future as never before; I am hopeful for the place of women; I am deeply concerned about the training of women to work within the political arena of the church and society for the supreme purpose of being "effective" reconcilers. Because of our noted history of 1 c experiences of discrimination and injustice, possibly we can become the instruments o-f advocacy and reconciliation -for our Black brothers and sisters and all minority persons. (This was the G.A. when tensions between Whites and Blacks were high because of the denomination's contribution to Angela Davis' legal defense fund.) In recalling the divisions on issues in the General Assembly — divisions theologically and racially, there is an urgency about our task — there is an urgency about our equipping the saints to become effective "operators" within and outside the system... Liz was to become an active member of the CEW Steering Committee, and she continues to struggle with many of these same issues many years later as the Executive for the Synod of Alaska/Northwest. In addition to the activating of professional women employed within the UPCUSA, other movements going on in the church would impact this new caucus: As a result of an action by the General Assembly in 1971, which called for the upgrading and enhancement of the status of women employed as secretaries, office managers, etc., a series of luncheon meetings had been scheduled in the board offices in the Witherspoon Building in Philadelphia and at 475 Riverside Drive, New York. There, interested women employees discussed their concerns, grievances, problems — as well as their hopes for the reorganized church (a restructuring was occurring at this time), and their anxieties about possible termination, unemployment compensation and retirement/termination benefits. Annette Wall reported that these women employees "would favor joining with the Professional Women's Caucus. " (3) (Appendix A provides some of Annette's notes about the early history of the Women's Committee in Philadelphia.) It is clear, in its minutes, that the Professional Women's Caucus was mindful of class differences, and that by responding positively to the overture of the women in "support positions," they were trying to offset those divisions. The minutes of the Krisheim Meeting reflect this commitment: The Steering Committee (of Professional Women's Caucus) responded affirmatively to this report, stating that women employees should be included and expressing hope that the caste system of the boards perpetuated by false distinctions between 'executive' and 'clerical' jobs could be eliminated. Such a system has no place in the new sisterhood. (4) This action reflects one of the great strengths of CEW. It understood that doing justice for women involves more than attempting monolithicallv to 16 address the problem o-f sexism. Economic/class realities, -for example, were critical to women's well-being. (5) It was certainly a glimmer o-f liberation that this group, unlike almost every other denomination's comparable organization, brought all employed women together. This invited the realization o-f a »uch larger scope o-f issues needing to be addressed by one small organization with no regularized -financial support or staf-f. Once it had made that commitment, however, it tried to be evenhanded in the allotment o-f its time and energy in terms o-f the various groups o-f women it considered to be included in its constituency. At the G.A. in 1972, the organization of Church Employed Women was approved as an organized group within the denomination. Further activity by CEW at the 1972 G.A. is recorded: ...As part o-f the restructuring, the General Assembly also accepted a plan submitted by the Committee on Reorganization which established a "Consulting Committee on Women Employed by the Church" as part o-f the new Vocation Agency. According to this plan, at least -five members o-f the Consulting Committee were to be named by the CEW organization. CEW had also requested a budget o-f $5,000 -from the General Assembly. This request was rejected, which meant -for CEW a continuing dependency on membersnip dues and on the generosity of the Task Force on Women and of the Board of Christian Education (which made a program grant to CEW in June of that year). (6) Having made it clear that it would take over the responsibilities for the issues of women employed by the church, CEW, at its meeting in September, 1972, somewhat distanced itself from the Task Force on Women. It was at that •eeting that "a national structure of Church Employed Women was established ...with four regions, each of which was to be represented on an 18-»ember Steering Committee. Clergywomen, educators, secretaries, etc., were to be included in each region's representation. " (7) (For «ore on a sense of the purpose of CEW and its efforts to find a place within the UPCUSA at that time, 17 see Appendix B.) It was also at that meeting, i>y -first, that I was elected to be the co-chair to serve with Annette Wall, a secretary at the Board o-f Christian Education in Philadelphia. Suddenly I was leading a fledgling organization in a very tumultuous sea o-f the UPCUSA during a period of restructuring. Certainly it was a case of "treading where angels fear to go." Life with Church Employed Women 1972-1974 I now wish to point out what I believe to be particularly important realities in the life of Church Employed Women, realities that indicate a tendency toward Feminist Liberation or away from it. The Steering Committee : As I think back to my years with Church Employed Women, I am particularly mindful of the women with whom I worked on the Steering Committee. All were very committed to women employed in the UPCUSA, but each also had great needs of her own. They needed support; therefore much of our meeting time was spent listening to and advising one another about problems that related to CEW's concerns, but didn't always move us along on to our heavy and urgent corporate agenda. (8) At each meeting we heard our quota of horror stories. The women who were unemployed at the last meeting might now be employed, but others were about to take their places in the unemployment line. It was impossible for some women to set aside their own agendas for the entire meeting, which made it difficult to proceed with the group's agenda. Chairing the meetings was sometimes horrendous. Annette Wall, co-chairwoman with «e 1972-1973, recalls feeling that by the end of soae ■eetings she was behaving like Attila the Hun in order to get things done. In addition to the personal dynamics, we struggled with the dual need to build horizontal relationships among our group and beyond and to address employed women's issues in the hierarchical/vertical organization of the 18 denomination. We also experienced the pull between addressing national issues and building a grassroots organization. There was also the rather schizophrenic phenomenon of wanting to be in the system while critiquing it unmercifully. One minute we were distressed because we were excluded and the next we became aware that the only reason we could confront the system, as we were, was because we were not a part of it. Considering the competing dynamics in most of our meetings, it is, indeed, amazing that we accomplished so much during those years. (See Appendix C. ) Because we were all new to feminism and to church politics, it was difficult for us to sort out or analyze how to make decisions as we operated in the midst of these tensions and contradictions. Relationships with Other Women's Constituencies : In our first couple of years, CEW had to do much negotiating with other women's constituencies, including the newly organized Council on Women and the Church (COWAC), the successor group to the Task Force on Women. COWAC was basically a liberal feminist body, as distinguished from United Presbyterian Women (UPW), a long- established and well-heeled organization of women organized at the local, regional and national levels of the UPCUSA. We also developed a relationship with Third World Women's Coordinating Committee (TWWCC), another new organization composed of women of color representing black, hispanic, asian and native american women. The interrelationships with these groups were complex. In the early years, CEW tended to stand with COWAC and TWWCC in opposition to the leadership of UPW, which seemed to want to preserve their institutional relationships, roles, and concerns pretty «uch the way they were. (9) The rest of us were struggling for things to be changed in 19 significant ways, at least we thought so. Verdesi describes these complicated relationships very well: Perhaps the situation can best be understood if likened to a ■family, .. .where "Mother UPW, " after years of nurturing and protecting her "daughters," COWAC and TWWCC, helped to educate them and watched them launch out on careers of their own. "Mother" was even supportive of CEW. Though not a daughter, CEW seemed without a home and therefore in need of "Mother's" friendliness. But "Daughter COWAC" seemed unnecessarily uppity — as well as extremely patronizing to "Mother." At the same time, "Mother" was hopelessly old-fashioned and submissive so far as "COWAC" was concerned. And according to "Mother," "Daughter TWWCC" did not express proper appreciation for all the help "Mother" gave her. While from TWWCC's perspective, it seemed as if "Mother" was continually trying to determine how TWWCC should use the help she gave. (10) UPW had the advantage of having its own history, autonomy and money, and COWAC was a Council directly related to the General Assembly Mission Council with regular funding, while CEW and TWWCC constantly were forced to find money from one pocket or another. The difficulties and differences among the four constituencies were understandable, but they were also taken advantage of by the ecclesiastical system. The established power bases could use our intergroup struggles against us. Specific Endeavors of Church Employed Women ; Soon after my election as co-chair of CEW in 1972, I moved to Philadelphia to "staff" CEW, for which I received a small stipend from the Board of Christian Education, as well as to be co-chair. It was an exciting and terrifying time to be doing what I was doing. It was exciting because Annette and I were both in Philadelphia, and we aade a good team with different skills and backgrounds. We found ourselves traveling on behalf of CEW almost every week-end which was both exciting and exhausting. (11) When all else failed, Annette's humor got us through. There was little we would not attempt with a little support from Pat Kepler, the staff person related to the Task Force on Women. (12) We were strengthened by 20 the CEW group behind us, and we used the referent power -from that group to do work on CEW's behalf. Some of our endeavors were: 1. Challenging the Vocation Agency : One of the first things to happen, after I moved to Philadelphia, was that the Vocation Agency Board totally ignored the fact that CEW was the organization that had proposed the establishment of the Consulting Committee on Women Employed by the Church. The Board failed to permit CEW, as all had agreed, to appoint at least five •embers to the this committee. Instead the Vocation Agency Board decided to request an ad hoc group of women to appoint the five members. (13) These women had been invited to come together (for a one-time conference in Louisville in January, 1973) as individuals, rather than representatives, even though they came from each of the women's constituencies, including CEW. Upon receiving this information, Annette Wall and I were outraged; however, this experience, in the end, became one of empowerment. We requested a meeting with Don Smith, the new General Director of the Vocation Agency. The only mutually possible time for us to meet with him was during the upcoming CEW Steering Committee meeting. Even though it would be in the middle of our CEW meeting time, we felt that we had no choice but to see him then since the ad hoc conference was happening the next week. Once the gathered women had made their appointments, it would be too late for CEW to act. When Annette and I reported what was going on to the gathered Steering Committee members, who were then meeting in New York City, they too were furious and insisted that all of us go to see Don Smith. When the time came, all IB of us stood in the outer office of the Vocation Agency. When Don came out, he was shocked. As the women of many different church professions fro« all over the U.S. introduced themselves, it was clear that Don was impressed. 21 Annette and I did have broad support, and we had a real constituency. We had agreed that only -five of us would speak during our time with Don. As Don ushered us into his small temporary office, Nelle Morton put down a tape recorder and said, "Don, you won't mind if we tape this conversation." It was a statement rather than a question. Don stood up against a partition between two windows looking pale and as i-f he had been impaled on an invisible sword. We clearly stated our demands regarding the appointments to the new Consulting Committee and our general relationship to the Vocation Agency. (14) After only a short time, Don said meekly, "It is obvious that we have made a real mistake. I will recommend to the Board that CEW be requested to appoint persons to the remaining five at-large spots on the Consulting Committee." He also suggested that we have a meeting with some o-f the Vocation Agency Board members to work out a better communication process. We were not with Don more than half an hour, but we had been heard. (15) We adjourned to the lounge downstairs and determined that we would request that our invited CEW members not attend the ad hoc meeting to be held in Louisville, and then we notified Mildred Grubbs (a staff member of the Vocation Agency located in Columbus, Ohio) of our decision. The word got back to Philadelphia before Annette and I returned that we had had a "sit in" in Don's office. We were a little uncomfortable with that label being attached to our confrontation, but in many ways it did describe what we had done. 2. Work on the Equal Employment Opportunity Program ; Barely having time to celebrate our scrimmage with Don Smith, we requested an invitation (16) to have input into the new Equal Employment Opportunity and Affirmative Action Program (EEO/AAP) of the UPCUSA. We discovered that the denomination had paid Project Equality *20,000 (a large amount in 1972) to develop the EEO/AAP program, and the result was a program with not one mention of women. Annette and I realized that we knew little about EEO/AAP, except in the most general terms, so we asked Leon Calhoun, a Presbyterian layman who was a EEO/AAP officer for the State of New York, to coach us. He agreed to help us, but the only way we could meet him in Albany (because of financial restraints) was to go directly before our trip to Denver in April, 1973, to attend the meeting of the committee responsible for developing the EEO/AA Plan. We spent a night gathering as much information from Leon as we could cram into our heads and write down. When we arrived in Denver, we were "loaded for bear," and almost every recommendation we made to the EEO/AAP Committee was approved. We -did not know much, but we knew more than most of the members of the committee. Those recommendations (See Appendix D. ) stood as part of the EEO/AA Plan of the United Presbyterian Church until the merger with the Presbyterian Church, U.S., in 1983. 3. Clergywomen" s Therapeutic Seminar : Another exciting CEW accomplishment during that year which I spent in the Philadelphia was that I, on behalf of CEW, approached Art Brown, top executive for the Board of Pensions, (17) asking that the Board of Pensions fund an intensive psychotherapy workshop led by Anne Wilson Schaef for clergywomen. We felt that working in the church was putting clergywomen at real risk for emotional and physical illnesses. We stated this belief clearly in our proposal: ...The thrust would be to deal with the internal psychological problems from which women ministers suffer as a result of the pressures, dehumanizing experiences, failures and disillusionments which they meet while attempting to serve the church. It is important that this be an experience particularly geared to women since many of the negative experiences which they have in the church are due to the fact that they are women trying to survive in a male-dominated profession. ??. We had wanted, -for some time, to have such a conference for clergywomen, but neither individual clergywomen nor CEW could afford the price, thus the reason for my negotiating with Art Brown. He and the Board approved a $7,600 grant with the understanding that this conference would be under the supervision of the Menninger Clinic in Topeka, Kansas, the center where Presbyterian employees covered by the church medical insurance (related to our Pension Plan) had to go for all psychological evaluations, especially if they were going into long-term therapy. We weren't happy with this stipulation, but we had no alternative. We felt we could work around it. We contracted with Anne Wilson Schaef and Sylvia Ginsparg, the only woman psychologist on the Menninger staff, who agreed to work with us. When I went to Menninger to scout out the situation, I was concerned about Sylvia's lack of a feminist perspective, but she was all we had. After having had a face-to-face meeting and several conference calls between the planning team, it was clear that Anne and Sylvia would never be able to work together. Sylvia finally realized this and said she could not be one of the therapists for the conference; however, she agreed to be our liaison person with Menninger, which was really a magnanimous offer because it meant that the conference could still go on. There were 17 clergywomen with Anne Schaef and Ann Seiden, a psychiatrist from Chicago who was recruited at the last minute, as the therapists who came together in June, 1973, for this week-long conference. We ■et in a «otel right next to Menninger. The only ti«es we went over to Menninger were to be subjected to a pre-conference appraisal, a post- conference evaluation, and an introductory film which all Menninger patients had to see. It just happened to show all the doctors as «en and all the 24 patients as women. Our response to all three was incredulity. The pre- conference appraisal was a very strange set of exercises, and we wanted to know what they were all about. Our therapists asked, through Sylvia, if we could be told about these tests. She said we would be told as soon as we had ■finished our final evaluation. When the time came, the Menninger doctors refused to give us an explanation. This made us very angry; however, all of us felt that our experience with our therapists was very helpful and beneficial. Anne Wilson Schaef's evaluation of the program indicated that we had experienced personal growth, theological reflection and increased awareness of the power dynamics of institutions. Menninger had unknowingly provided us with a wonderful laboratory experience of power dynamics. (18) On the other hand, when the evaluations of the experience (to which I was privy because I was the administrator o-f the conference) came through, I was shocked. Anne and Ann, our therapists, had each written up 20 pages or more of solid evaluations o-f the event, while Menninger sent a two-page evaluation that made some very strange appraisals of the clergywomen. Based on this strange battery of tests, they made outlandish claims that we were hypochondriacs, had trouble with our sexual identities, and were emotionally weak in various ways. I was appalled and went to Bill Henderson, a supportive staff person at the Vocation Agency. He too was shocked by the Menninger report. As a result of this experience, the Board of Pensions changed its policy which had required everyone on the Pension Plan who needed intensive therapy to go to Menninger for evaluations. However, only recently are those who are to be hospitalized no longer required to go to Menninger. We had made a great impact where we had not intended to. That was par for the course in our struqqles; we never knew when or how our tactics would be effective. 25 4. Surveys of Our Constituencies : Another CEW effort that was to have long lasting effects was to survey all local church secretaries in the UPCUSA churches. Since their names were not recorded anywhere, our letter and questionnaire were addressed to "church secretary" in care of every United F'resbyterian Church. I think there were over 8,000 churches at that time, but •any were too small to have a secretary. Still and all, we received 2,488 completed questionnaires. This was an outstanding return; a 10 percent return of personally addressed mailed surveys is considered to be excellent. (19) (For the results of the survey, see Appendix E.) The information we received was invaluable for becoming informed about the needs of the secretaries, hany of these secretaries became members of CEW and were active in more local groupings of church employed women, which the Steering Committee encouraged through our regional representatives. A number of regional conferences for secretaries were held during those early years, and legislation was introduced by CEW at General Assembly in 1973 to create personnel committees to address the issues of non-clergy employees of the UF'CUSA at all levels. One synod secretary registered her appreciation for the work which CEW was doing: You can't imagine how excited and happy I was to see that three of our synods are holding a conference for local church secretaries. I have thought and talked about something like this for years! However, when you are 'just the church secretary- or 'just the synod secretary' and those who have the say in program for a synod aren't interested, nothing comes of it. Most of our people have thought it was a pretty good idea, but not really needed — at least not as much as some other kinds of conferences. (20) Later that same year, we sent out a similar questionnaire to Christian £ducators, And even later, in 1973-74, ^lergywomen were surveyed. All of the responses to these questionnaires reflected the realities of women employed by the church, thereby giving guidance to CEW as it set its priorities and 26 strategies. This data was also used to make the esse -for -financial and political support -for the organization when CEW was struggling to survive in relationship to the Presbyterian bureaucracy. 5. The Hiring of the Coordinator of Employment Opportunities : During the -fall o-f 1973, I was requested by Don Smith to suggest names o-f clergywomen who might be considered -for the position o-f Coordinator of Employment Opportunities, who, among other duties would staff the Consulting Committee on Women Employed by the Church and provide placement services for women. We of the CEW Steering Committee were well aware of the importance of this position, so we consulted by phone about whom 1 might suggest. I finally submitted the names of three clergywomen. Several weeks later Don called me to say that he was thinking he would offer the job to a woman who had not been on our list and whom I had met at the Clergywomen" s Therapeutic Seminar the previous summer. I can remember being shocked by Don ? s choice, but realizing that I had to keep a cool head about me or I could blow it. I mentioned some of her skills, but I then went on to indicate that I had grave questions about this particular woman in this particular position. I didn't believe she could quickly and easily relate to people, a skill required to interview clergywomen when they came for placement help. Don then said, "Well, I had some questions about that too." I restrained myself from asking why, in that case, he had decided to hire her. He then asked what we should do. I said we needed to do another round of interviews for this position, and he agreed. He asked -for some other nates because the woaen on the -first list I had given him were either not available, did not have enough appropriate experience, or had interviewed poorly. I told him I would get back to him within a day or two. When I hung up, I wondered what CEW could do, since we 27 had given him the best names the -first time. Then I remembered two married clergywomen, living away -from New York City, who would either have to move with their families to New York or have to be willing to have commuter marriages. After consulting with members of the Executive Committee of CEW, I gave Don the names and held my breath. As it turned out, Ann Conrad was willing to be interviewed. She had done some consulting work for CEW, so we were familiar with her and her work. She lived in Philadelphia with her husband, and she was willing to commute each day. As it happened, she was to be interviewed sometime in January, 1974, (21) close to the time that CEW' s Steering Committee was meeting in NYC. (22) I had informed the Steering Committee of the fact that Ann had been interviewed, but that I didn't know the outcome. During that meeting, Ann called to say that she had been offered the position, but she didn't think she was going to take it because they weren't willing to negotiate her hours and pay in relation to commuting daily from Philadelphia. I told her to get on the next train to NYC, and I would "talk turkey" to Edgar Ward, who was the Associate Director of the Vocation Agency and was responsible for the hiring for this position. I called up Ed and asked him how he liked Ann. He said he was very much impressed and would like to hire her. I said, "Well, you had better negotiate with her on her hours and pay or you're going to lose her. And you will be in trouble with CEW; she is our choice! Ann is on her way to NYC at this moment, *nd I know you will negotiate." He responded that he certainly would, but there was some incredulity in his voice. Ann was hired that afternoon with all of her requests being honored, and she held that position for 13 years until the church headquarters aoved to Louisville in 1988. It was a heady 28 experience in so far as we were able to choose the person with whom we would work on issues of women employed by the church. 6. The Layoffs on the National Staff : During those first months of Ann's tenure, things seemed to be moving in a direction for which we had all hoped. (23) There was one snag when an effort was made by the Consulting Committee for Women Employed by the Church to get Ann seated in the Executive Committee of the Vocation Agency Board. We were shot down, partly because we depended on Ann to help to carry the request to the Board instead of allowing her to recede into the woodwork during the debate. Also we had the audacity to ask for one of "ours" to be allowed to enter the inner sanctum of power. However, all in all, the first six months Ann was on board were good ones, but then disaster struck! During the General Assembly in May, 1974, it was made clear that the denomination's budget had fallen unexpectedly short by $5 million which meant probable layoffs. A large percentage of the staff had been hired only one year before, some of them leaving behind good jobs and moving long distances to join the national staff. CEW members were particularly shocked because we had actually encouraged women to submit their dossiers for positions on the national staff, for we believed the UPCUSA was serious about hiring women and racial ethnic persons. During that summer, chaos prevailed as councils, cabinets, and top management tried to figure out what to do. (24) In the aeantime, an ad hoc group of women on the national staff, who had «et together to support each other and to strategize our presence on the national staff, came up with a Nine-Month Plan, (See Appendix F.) whereby everyone would work for nine aonths a year with a month of paid vacation. The other two months we would be free n 9 to do consulting throughout the church or such personal projects as writing, vegetating, etc. We would have all had to struggle a bit to make ends meet, but we would have all had jobs. Our plan was thought to be an unique idea, but never taken seriously. The die was already cast. Once again, although women's constituencies were consulted, the -final decisions were in the hands o-f others. A large number o-F executive and support staff were laid off in the fall. All of us who were executives were given 6 months full pay and benefits and all kinds of special training money and placement help. (25) We called i-t "guilt money." Not surprisingly, women and racial ethnic persons were disproportionately laid off. The layoffs were said to be on the basis of function rather than seniority, which meant that women and racial ethnic persons had held marginal positions. (26) What is interesting is that almost every white man who was laid off was "saved" in some way. They all ended up with jobs of some sort while the women and racial ethnic persons were left to our own devices. Those employees who kept their jobs had almost a worse tiae than those of us who were laid off, because they were wounded from the process and felt guilty about having their jobs under those particular circumstances. (See Appendix 6 for CEW" s reaction to this period of UPCUSA's history.) One agreement the women staff •embers had with the Director of the Program Agency was that those who were terminated could take an ally with them •for their termination interviews. Irthen I learned that I was to be terminated, I asked Ann Conrad to go with me. Don Smith, General Director of the Vocation Agency, and Oscar McCloud, General Director of the Program Agency, consulted and decided that Ann couldn't go with me because she was on the Vocation Agency staff and that would be embarrassing to the Program Agency. It was a 30 divide and conquer tactic, and it worked. Because Ann was new, she -felt she had no political base to oppose the directive -from Don and Oscar. This was probably true, but the impact o-f that decision on Anrrs relationship with CEW was to be pro-found. The trust level was newly established. Four active ■embers o-f the CEW' s Steering Committee had lost their jobs, and Ann had hers. She had been unable to be visible in her support; therefore she became suspect. This tension continued -for years. In some very strange way the person whom we had chosen to be our advocate was now perceived to be an adversary within the establishment. The scars are deep, even though we 'are now supportive and friendly colleagues. During our gathering of clergywomen in Louisville in April, 1989, one of the former members of the PCUS who had nothing to do with CEW used the following analogy with which to respond when she heard this part of our history: The Urban League in Atlanta ran a racism seminar that was written up in the paper. When I read this little description, I thought, which I often do with these things, that also shows how I feel as a woman. The man who was leading the seminar picked a woman out of the audience and had her kneel down and bow with a teacup on her head. She had to hold her hand in a certain way, and do something else with the other hand. All this was very awkward, and she was having a whole lot of trouble with it. Then he asked the group to critique her. After they finished with that, he said, "None of you mentioned the fact that I am the one who put her in that position." Then the clergywoman went on to say to Ann, "You were the woman on her knees. CEW was also the woman on her knees. Nobody was critiquing who put you both in that position." Structural Relationships with the Church : There were «any ways in which we struggled in relating to the structure of the United Presbyterian Church. These structural issues faced CEW from the start, when the nature of the relationship was in question, as reflected in the Early History section. (Appendix B makes clear what the assumptions o-f the CEW Steering Committee were in 1972. ) To complicate -further an already complex situation, the -first year I was a chairwoman o-f CEW, we had our -first woman moderator of the General Assembly, Ruling Elder Lois Stair. At -first, it seemed as if Lois would be a real support to us, but as time went on it was clear that she had come up through the male system and had been chosen by men as an acceptable "first". We had experiences in which supportive men came to us to check out what we were seeking at the G.A. level because they questioned Lois" interpretation of our requests. We discovered that she acted very supportively when she was with us, but consciously or unconsciously misrepresented us before the General Assembly Mission Council (GAMC), which made recommendations to the total G.A. about structural relationships with and financial support of constituency funding projects. Sometimes she did not even cover her adversary role in relation to us. Annette Wall remembers being beckoned to defend CEW to the GAMC during the General Assembly of 1973. She still recalls it as a "horrifying experience" in which she alone faced Lois and her male colleagues from the GAMC. (We tried never to have one person left alone to fight for CEW. No one can recall how this happened on this important occasion.) During Annette's statement, Lois made asides to the effect that CEW was just an organizing group, like a labor union. Lois' behavior led directly to the fcAMC's rejection of our request (in July, 1973) <for a more formal relationship within the structure of the church with continuing funding. (See Appendix H. ) At this point CEW was forced to accept that we would not be a formal part of the structure so we sought to have Chapter 28 status granted to voluntary groups of Presbyterians. (27) 32 As mentioned earlier, another struggle was in building a relationship with the Vocation Agency, with whom we had an o-f-ficial relationship even though we had no structural location. Following the conflict over CEW's appointments to the Consulting Committee on Women employed by the Church, CEW met with a -few members of the Vocation Agency Board to insure better communication in the future. CEW was invited to do some consciousness raising (around the issues of women employed by the church) at the full Board Meeting. As we planned for that gathering, we did not know we were dealing with such volatile issues. Looking back on it, I believe that our existence was yery intimidating to some. When we led a session, many of the Board members acted like unruly teenagers. At one point, a CEW member was leading a prayer, and some of the Board members tittered and laughed. Over a period of time, some of the Vocation Agency Board members became very supportive of our concerns, but it was only after many encounters. Those first years of CEW' s existence, were a time of denominational restructuring; there were vacuums of power, and we were, sometimes, able to take creative advantage of the disarray. Because some of our demands were met, we thought that we were making headway. We trusted the church; therefore we did not have our guard up, leaving us vulnerable. In some ways we were making changes, but in another sense the power dynamics remained unchanged. In the late '70s I heard a lecture by Noam Chomsky (a professor of linguistics at Boston University) that helped me understand the phenomenon CEW had experienced during those early years. Chomsky stated that those in power will make small shifts in response to the demands of those hurt by the institutional structures of a society. These small shifts usually pacify those making the demands because the shifts seem bigger from their perspective 33 than they really are or they believe that such shifts are harbingers of bigger shifts to come. In reality, declared Chomsky, the small shifts are still within the "margin of oppression," permitting the power dynamics to remain the same while deluding the opposition. This is exactly what occurred in the UPCUSA in relation to the demands of CEW. For example, the EEO/AA Plan, which we worked so hard to impact, stood only for ten years and disappeared in the 1983 merger between the UPCUSA and the Presbyterian Church in the United States (our Southern cousin from whom we had been split over the Civil War). What was fascinating was that the white, liberal clergymen who had supported Civil Rights and Women's Rights were at the forefront of the reunion forces which were willing to sacrifice everything, including the hard-fought gains of women and racial ethnics, for the sake of reunion. One injustice (that of racism as fought over in the Civil War) was mended by creating more injustice! It is not surprising that many of the most "radical" clergywomen and women elders voted against reunion, not because we were opposed to our denominations joining together once again, but because the plan of reunion was unjust. Financial Struggles : One constant struggle for CEW was to get enough funding through a small annual membership fee ($5.00 per woman) and grants from various parts of the church. Most of the money, after the restructure, came from the Vocation Agency or the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, either through CEW" s proposing projects that needed to be done in relation to women employed by the church and asking to be funded or through the Vocation Agency or the Office of EEO proposing that we do a project they wanted done for which they would pay us. We were constantly having negotiations with Don 34 Smith, the General Director of the Vocation Agency, or Bob Hoppe, Director of the Office of EEO. We badly needed funds just to get the Steering Committee, together so we would always agree to carry out tasks and studies that the V.A. or EEO wanted done. As a result, we had to respond to their agenda. They, many times, didn't really seem pleased with the work we did; subtle comments would be made about it not being complete. It seemed as if they felt we should not only make proposals and recommendations but that we also should be able to solve the problems of employed women in the F'CUSA. The victims should solve the problems! There was an implicit, if not explicit, control on our agenda? Don Smith and Bob Hoppe heard some of our concerns, but they had to operate within a decidedly sexist system. We were constantly preoccupied about securing funds. In our work with Bob Hoppe, the Director of the Equal Employment Office, some of our unemployed members were employed as consultants to do work for him. The agreement was that these members would be paid a very good salary for that work, and would give some of it to CEW for our brokering of the contracts. More and more, CEW was compromised because we had no money or staff. (28) In our very effort to remain viable so as to challenge the ways things were, we had to take money from two sources, the denomination (Vocation Agency and Office of EEO) and COWAC. We were more and more aware of how our work for the denoainational entities compromised our effectiveness in naming the oppression perpetrated by the denomination and its boards, agencies and councils. Less clear to us was that by giving us grants to do some of our pilot ministry projects, COWAC was also determining our agenda. No longer was CEW able to maintain its autonomy nor were we allowed to do our work on employment issues unencumbered. For example, COWAC decided to do a study of the denominational seminaries without ever acknowledging that this was an area in which CEW and COWAC should, at least, be working together. Power Dynamics Within CEW : A complicating -factor in the second year I served as co-chair was that Fay Noack, the other co-chairwoman of CEW, continued to be our representative to COWAC. Thus she filled two roles, both of which held a lot of power in our organisation but which were sometimes contradictory. She was COWAC s coordinator of the seminary study as well as the one COWAC appointed (without consulting with the CEW Steering Committee) to supervise one of CEW's pilot ministry projects. I sensed that we as -an organization were being co-opted more and more by the denomination and COWAC, but others on the Steering Committee did not understand my concern. Finally I resigned before completing my second term as co-chairwoman. Unfortunately, the result was that I was never replaced, and the by-laws were changed soon thereafter to allow for one chairwoman and one vice chairwoman, each of whom could be in office for two years with a third-year extension possible. A more hierarchical organization developed from then on, with one person in charge with less accountability. At the very time when there was someone in office who was amassing power, the organization relinquished its own power. Fay only relinquished her power in CEW when she was elected chair of COWAC, which was a position with more status. If one looks at the description of the kinds of endeavors done by CEW from this point on, one finds evidence that CEW's radicality had been neutralized. No longer was there *n effort to bring about transformative change. The focus got placed more and more on education and moving the furniture around. Any unique programs had been initiated or dreaaed about during the former, more radical, years. (An analysis of the life 36 of CEW (1972-1974 is -found in Appendix I.) 37 Endnotes 1. It was five employed women in the Philadelphia Office of the UF'CUSA who back in the late r 60s pushed the denomination to address the issue of the role and status of women both in church and society which led to special commissions. The work of these commissions resulted in the appointment of the Task Force on Women mentioned throughout this chapter. (This information was given to me by Maggie Kuhn, who was one of the five women.) 2. Elizabeth Verdesi and Lillian Taylor, Our Rightful Place; The Story of Presbyterian Women, 1970-1963 <New York and Atlanta: Presbyterian Church(U.S.A.) 1985, p. 17. 3. Ibid, pp. 18-19. 4. Lois A. Boyd and R. Douglas Brackenr idge, Presbyterian Women in America (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1983), p. 220. 5. CEW failed to address the issue of race as well as it did that of class. Efforts were made to encourage women of color to join us, but we were not aware of our white privilege. Also at that time relatively few women of color were employed by the UPCUSA. (Most of those who were, were secretaries.) For example, the first woman of color was not ordained as a minister until 1974, and she was Katie Cannon! 6. Elizabeth Verdesi and Lillian Taylor, Our Rightful Place , p. 19. 7. Ibid. 8. For example, Joyce Manson, member of the CEW Steering Committee, wrote a report, part of which appeared in the newsletter in January, 1973. Last spring, my count shows that there are 7 clergywomen and 86 clergymen on 13 agencies and 39 lay women (none of whom I have any evidence is church employed) and 80 laymen on 13 agencies. .. .Preliminary inquires indicate that no clergywoman has ever served on the national nominating committee.... 9. CEW's relationship with UPW was, indeed, checkered. Sometimes UPW was #ost helpful and other times the National Executive Committee hindered us in our efforts whether knowingly or unknowingly. 10. Elizabeth Verdesi and Lillian Taylor, Our Rightful Place , p. 42. 11. Among our trips was one to Grailville in Loveland, Ohio, where we got training in Saul Alinsky's theories of social change. We were really big time at that point! The leaders actually used CEW as a «odel for our discussions. 12. Pat Kepler not only gave us some staffing support but she also gave us a theological base for our work. She usually had good political sense which she shared with us as we tried to get through the snarl of Presbyterian politics. 38 13. This gathering was ostensibly called to address women's issues related to the Vocation Agency. It was instigated by Mildred Grubbs, a clergywomar working out of the Columbus Office related to the Vocation Agency. With hindsight, it would seem that she was working unilaterally in such a way as consciously or unconsciously to undermine CEW' s credibility and effectiveness. 14. The list of concerns which the Steering Committee took with them when they confronted Don Smith (as recorded in the minutes of the January, 1973, •eeting) were -as follow: 1. CEW representation on the Consulting Committee on Women Employed by the Church. 2. We speak for the largest constituency. Others at the ad hoc meeting were representing themselves. 3. The church structure must go through channels women have already established. 4. Lack of agenda clarification of Kentucky meeting. 5- Lack of clarity of representation of Kentucky meeting. 6. Lack of clarity re authority of Kentucky meeting. 7. Not representative of all women (Church educators were not invited). 8. Illegitimate response to CEW proposal. 9. No official action was taken on the official referral of our proposal by C-ll (a committee responsible for the restructuring the national level of the UPCUSA). 10. No CEW representation on EEO Advisory Committee. 11. We refuse to deal with EEO Committee on which CEW is not represented. 15. In April, 1973, the Vocation Agency Board acted to affirm the relationship it had with CEW and requested CEW to appoint five members of Consulting Committee. We did so, and we attended the first meeting of the Consulting Committee in May, 1973, at which one of the suggestions was that we have a church welfare program for unemployed women. This reflects how desperate the situation was for many church employed women at that point. 16. I believe we made this request at the insistence of Willa Roghair, past co-chair of CEW, who was serving on the EEO/AAP Committee. 17. Art Brown turned out to be one of the executives of the UPCUSA who was the ■ost supportive to CEW 7 s causes. Before his retirement he supported the idea of a median income level as the base for pension payments. All ministers who fell beneath that eedian in their career income would receive pensions as though they had made the wedian income. This potentially had a great impact on the future incomes of many clergywomen, because we are among those who may not have received the aedian income during our careers. 18. As indicated in her evaluation of the program. 19. I have done sociological research and know what is considered to be a good return. 20. Recorded in the February, 1974, CEW newsletter. 39 21. We speculated in December, 1989, why this position was -filled a good six months after most positions at this level had been filled. 22. As an aside, I would like to mention that at this meeting, CEW considered an important issue. We dealt with the concerns of employed women who were lesbians, and we actually asked a lesbian national staff member to join our Steering Committee with that particular focus. It is interesting that in the October, 1974, minutes of a Steering Committee meeting, there seems to be retrenchment indicated when making decisions about topics for newsletter series. (Layoffs had just occurred.): It was felt that the concerns which gay women and others who are advocates for gay rights have concerning church employment could best be fed into a "lifestyle" series after the series had begun rather than at the beginning. We also need to do some preliminary interpretative, work in regions on this issue. 23. Ann's analysis was that her job, according to the Vocation Agency, was to find jobs for women outside the church. Dorothy Gist was to be her assistant. Ann set Dorothy free to find jobs for women outside the church. Ann focused on making the systemic changes in the church so women could get jobs in the church. She determined that if the nature of the church, the nature of the ministry and the nature of theological education were changed then women could get jobs within the system. (I might add, just a small task!) Ann indicated this to me in December, 1989, as she took notes of that period in CEW's history. 24. Leon Faniel, Executive Director of the General Assembly Mission Council, resigned and became the fall guy for the budget problems. He was a black minister who had been programmed for failure; the institutional racism was clearly evident. Wm. P. Thompson, Stated Clerk of the denomination, became Interim Executive Director of the GAMC, without going on leave from his other position, which was to create an impossible administrative snarl. He was left free to have the final word as Stated Clerk on the correctness of his own behavior in another position during a crucial time within the life of the denomination. 25. Carol Ames as editor of the CEW newsletter reflected on what happened to support staff who were terminated: Finally, the editor would like to comment on the invisibility of non- exempt (clerical) staff in this whole process. Seventeen of us (including editor) have been terminated, according to official report (issued in Presbyterian News Service, Monday Mornino , A.D. . etc.) It was expected that a number might be transferred to other jobs within the agencies — I don't know how many that affects to date. In all these reports, none of our positions were listed, nor any of our names (though, both were given for exempt staff), although many of us also have contacts with numbers of people in the judicatories and church at large and some have worked longer for the church at the national level than have many of the exempt staff (a number of whom were terminated 40 within a year of hiring). This also prevents us -from even knowing who each other are, -for support or for any joint actions, etc., we Bight have wished to follow. Also, the personnel guidelines were modified for this series of terminations, providing extra benefits for all staff (interview expenses, counseling, expenses for some education to improve qualifications, etc.): the termination pay benefits were improved for exempt staff only — from 3 months normal termination salary to 6 months in this instance — but left at one month for non-exempt staff (it is supposed to be easier for us to find other jobs). It occurred to me that since exempt salaries are usually at least twice as high as non- exempt that this works out to a ratio of 12 to one! 26. Because Annette and I had been the co-chairwoman of CEW when hiring was done for the national staff, we had encouraged women and racial ethnic persons to apply for positions. When the layoffs occurred, I felt it was necessary for as many people as possible in the denomination to know what had gone on in relation to women and racial ethnic persons. I allowed New York City Presbytery to file a judicial case against Wm. P. Thompson, Oscar McCloud, the General Director of the Program Agency, and the Program Agency Board in my name as well as in the name of two others, including Joyce Hanson from CEW. It took one year for us to gc through all of the hoops. In the end, the General Assembly Judicial Commission found our case untimely because we should have done in thirty days what had taken us one year to do. It was really a technicality that disenfranchised us, but three of the members of the Commission voted for us while none voted to support the defendants in the case. We felt we had won a moral victory, and folks around the country did know that something strange had happened in the layoffs. 27. We obtained Chapter 26 status in 1974 only to have it withdrawn a couple of years later because some women employed by the church were not Presbyterians. Chapter 28 organizations were supposed to be made up of Presbyterians. Since some of our secretaries came from other denominations, the organization was disqualified from this status! 28. We continued to try to get foundation grants so we could be more independent, but we failed because there were few foundations which would give us funds for operating expenses. 41 Chapter II The Relationship Between Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation In this chapter I wish to de-fine Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation, to show how I think they relate to each other politically and to indicate why I am presently attempting to stand within Feminist Liberation. As mentioned in the Introduction, I have been struggling -for some time with the relationship between Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation. I -feel as i-f I have lived most of my li-fe within the parameters of Liberal Feminism, the first 30 years of which I was not aware of my -feminist inclinations; and in the last couple o-f years, I have -found that analysis wanting. I -find mysel-f more consistently moving into the flow of Feminist Liberation, and I find the analysis, commitments, and strategies called for in Feminist Liberation more satisfying for me and more effective as I work for justice in our world. Schema of Comparison : After much reading of feminist theory and much thought about my own experience and that of other feminists, I created a schema of comparison between Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation. (1) I know that this schema is not a perfect statement of these two worldviews, but it has been a good beginning point for my work. I want to state from the outset that I am not suggesting that any program or person embodies the elements of either worldview completely nor should that be a goal. These -descriptions are used to point out the tendencies found in each stance. The reality is that aost feminists flow back and forth between these two worldviews; however, some remain consistently «ore with one stance than the other. Neither are these two stances entirely distinct, for there is a fluidity of boundaries between the two. (2) Liberal Feminism Feminist Liberation 1. Individualism : Assume that humans are separate social beings who know their own desires and can Fulfill them in isolation From other individuals and their desires. Maximizing of individual autonomy equality, and -fulfillment is the goal. The focus politically is put on special interest groups and their riahts. 1. Community : Affirm the necessity of social relationships (social web; to the well-being of human beings. Assume a dialectical relationship between the needs and desires of individuals and those of the community. Hove toward the wholeness of individuals within the transformed community. Acknowledge the interlocking of oppressions and the need for collaboration within coalitions to end oppression and to bring about liberation. Recognize that equal relations are impossible in an oppressive society. 2. Reformism : Believe that the system can work for women and other oppressed persons if the correct formula is found. Small adjustments and corrections of the existing system can bring about the changes that are necessary to end oppression and inequality. Have little or no power analysis, and often look to those in power to participate in the liberation of the oppressed. Tend to be cautious while seeking security. 2. Revolutionary Change : Use a hermeneutic of suspicion, especially in relation to the system. Are aware of institutional oppression and use a power analysis as the base point for liberating strategies. Aim toward ending the sexist, racist, classist, and heterosexist domination present in the existing system. Believe that the oppressed are liberated by struggling with those in power. A process filled with risk-taking and death-defying leaps which moves beyond gradualism and security. 3. Rationality : The focus is on the ■ind. Usually there is a mind-body dualism in which the body is seen as of secondary importance. 3. Embodiment : See the body, mind and spirit as a gestalt. What persons believe and think is brought to its fullness in their bodies, sexuality, sensuality and erotic nature. 43 4. Comrounality : Attempt to discover the sameness among persons because the notion of equality is based on that sameness. When such commona- lity isn't found, then there is a push for assimilation. The political goal is social and political equality with white, middle-strata heterosexual men. 4. Particularity ; Attempt to show how we are different, to respect the particularity of each person rather than to ignore and deny such dif- ferences, and to recognize the rich- ness and complexity which these particularities bring to the com- munity. The political goal is to value and use the lived experience of all persons, especially those on the margin, to transform the society. 5. Nationalism : Focus is on life and politics in this country with little concern for or awareness of the rest of the world. 5. Global Awareness : Believe that what happens in this country impacts persons around the world and vice versa. There is a special concern for the impact of the U.S. imperia- lism on the lives of persons worldwide and a profound commitment to peace. 6. Pluralism : Perceive persons and groups as clustered isolated units who impact each other, usually negatively, in terms of competition for the scarce resources allotted by thobt in power. 6. Interdependence : Aware that what happens to one person impacts every- one else, both positively and nega- tively. Persons are very much related and when we work together in right-relation to one another, to all earth creatures and to the earth itself, scarcity and the need for competition are reduced. The sharing of resources and power are then possible. 7. Elitism : Puts focus of the political movement on women with the most privilege in society. The masses of poor women and women of color are left out of consideration. 7. Harqinality : See all women as marginal within society, but focus is placed on women with the least privilege. Have a commitment to pay special attention to the experience of those most marginalized when determining strategies and priorities. 44 8. Evolutionary : The attitude toward history is gradual and incremental. What happened in the oast was then and has little relation to now. Have more of a sense of watching history unfold rather than taking respon- sibility as agents of history. 8. Transf ormation : The attitude toward history includes an under- standing of the past as essential for the work necessary to bring about transformation in the present/future. An oppositional worldview provides the vision and hope for human agency in the buildinQ of a new social order. Moving Toward Feminist Liberation : Having acknowledged that persons flow in and out of Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation, and that th.ese worldviews are intertwined, I want to make it clear again that I have a preference for Feminist Liberation for a number of reasons. It has often been said (even in my Introduction) that seeds of Feminist Liberation are found in Liberal Feminism, but more and more I have trouble with that imagery. It would seem to indicate that one moves through liberalism to liberation in some natural progression, but I question this view. In my opinion, a better image of the connection between Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation might be that of finding oneself encapsulated in a clay pot (liberalism), and through proper conditions cracks develop in that pot. We who find ourselves enveloped in liberalism (including Liberal Feminism) in this society must ask what are the conditions that make the pot develop cracks, and even more important, what are the factors which would enable us to look through the cracks toward Feminist Liberation And then to embrace it. I would propose that cracks develop in the pot because of the internal contradictions found in liberalism itself. A good illustration of such a contradiction would be white, middle-strata Liberal Feminists working hard on 45 behalf of Equal Rights for women while somehow ignoring the racist and classist assumptions and strategies used to win such a battle. (3) As a result, their fight for Equal Rights often fails to include the concerns or insights of poor and racial ethnic women. When we white, middle-strata feminists are wise enough to listen to women of color and poor sisters and brave enough to challenge one another, then the crack can be identified and critiqued. Such a challenge is reflected in a speech given by Barbara Smith at the NWSA conference in May, 1979: The reason racism is a feminist issue is easily explained by the inherent definition of feminism. Feminism is the political theory' and practice to free all women: women of color, working-class women, poor women, physically challenged women, lesbians, old women, as well as white economically privileged heterosexual women. Anything less than this is not feminism, but merely female self-aggrandizement. (4) Factors Blocking the Movement : Moving from the confined pot of liberalism to the expansive arena of liberation is not a foregone conclusion. Most white, middle-strata U.S. citizens do not choose to take advantage of the cracks to see and embrace the new reality even if they discern the cracks. It is much like the seeds found in pots in Egyptian tombs that do not germinate for thousands of years because the conditions are not propitious for their growth, In my native desert home, there are seeds which may not germinate for years until the right conditions of water, sun, and sand occur. So it is in our personal lives and in our communities, -for there are social, political and economic forces that help to determine our readiness to find and nurture the seeds of liberation. As one of ay colleagues said, "Sure you can have seeds of liberation in liberalism, but there is no assurance that those seeds will ever blossom. They could remain dormant forever. Also we aust reaember that the seeds must die in order to come to a new reality." 46 So long as we are in the pot of liberalism and do not recognize the cracks or the realities outside of that pot, we remain unchanged in any significant way. Robert Terry(5) uses a diagram in his study o-f racism which I have modified to be used in my work about liberalism and liberation. The modified diaqram is found below: injustice active passive bigotry status quo justice liberation In this schema there is no problem in finding ways to be actively unjust in this society; they are multitudinous, and most of us can also identify what would be real acts of active justice. Although many of us, especially liberals, do not wish to be actively unjust, we are afraid of the risks involved in being actively implicated in being about acts of liberation necessary to create a just society. As a result, we become passive in our justice-doing, and therein lies the problem because no such possibility exists. One cannot be passive and bring about change. The result is that we end up supporting the status quo, which means we are being passively unjust because the society in which we live is unjust. To leave things as they are is to be involved in doing injustice. As Sartre once wrote, "Not to decide is to decide. "(6) To leave things as they are is to support the evil in our society. The gravity pull is down from active liberation to the status quo. (7> Many Liberal Feminists and their communities have the right mindset in terms of not wanting injustice, but their aotivation, courage, and insight are not great enough to overcome the gravitational pull toward the status quo. 47 That is what is so painful about being caught in Liberal Feminism. One's vision may be right on in many respects, but one is unable to move intentionally and effectively toward that vision. Many Liberal Feminists perceive the cracks in liberalism, but do not move through those cracks to embrace new life. This inability (or choice) often results in physical, spiritual and emotional illnesses, which are initially often experienced as burnout. (8) This situation is caused by a desire for safety and the fear of risk which in turn results in denial, distortion of values, dishonesty and * individualism. I also believe that liberals (including feminists) are more apt to get caught up in the desire to have all the parts of their lives, theories, and strategies to fit much like a person who tries to get all of the pieces of a jigsaw puzzle to fit, rather than being free to take a number of pieces out in order to see the picture from a different perspective. Over the years it has been a surprise to me to discover that liberals can display an ideological rigidity which surpasses that of so called conservatives. (9) As a result, they are often unable to flow in a liberating and empowering manner. They get stuck in the encapsulated thinking of the pot of liberalism. Factors Facilitating the Hovement : Some of those factors that, depending upon what we Are able to make of them, might contribute to our being open to looking through the cracks rather than hurrying to »end the* would be travel outside of the U.S. in the Third World, the decision to do civil disobedience, the recovery process in relation to addiction, facing potentially death-rendering circumstances, accepting the reality of being or choosing to be a lesbian, facing some social disgrace, etc. Any of these experiences might lead to the jarring of one's categories and/or to cognitive 48 and emotional dissonance. Being in such a state can open one to the risks and challenges o-f entering the arena of Feminist Liberation. I choose to call this process o-f perceiving and entering that arena o-f liberation "passionate living." However, as I have mentioned, moving into the sphere of liberation is not automatic. It involves a death o-f much we have known as normal in the past. (10) If we force our way out through the cracks of the pot, it will no longer exist in our lives. We then can no longer be satisfied with the criteria, analysis and commitments associated with Liberal Feminism. Chrystos vividly describes this process of breaking into a new reality in her poem, "Give Me Back," as reflected in these lines: mal mama spirit stole my bones put them in her burying jug sealed me up in wax & ashes I crack out I arrange my bones in their naming places I take what I want shaking my sacred hair dancing out taboo I mark out the space I am with knives(ll) Once we have pushed our way out of the pot, then we are free to discover the breadth and depth of Feminist Liberation. I think that we will discover that a commitment to Feminist Liberation is one of the best ways to get us out of the oppressive cycle which I described earlier. We can move out beyond the failure of liberals to challenge significantly the way things are. -4«Je can begin to define new criteria, analyses, and commitments to provide us -guidance for our passionate living. The greatest danger is that Liberal Feminism often eclipses Feminist Liberation, «uch the way that the «oon can eclipse the sun, so that it is most difficult to capture a vision of Feminist Liberation. It seems as if it is 49 only when we are knocked out of our usual line of vision, as a billiard ball is ricocheted around a billiard table that we can clearly envision Feminist Liberation. Once again, it is jarring experiences which turn our universe upside down, thereby allowing us a new perspective. The embracing o-f Feminist Liberation can be experienced as a form o-f recovery, spiritual awakening, or political conversion, which are not mutually exclusive. Having said all this, I want to say again that although I may state my case strongly above, I am not saying that Liberal Feminism has no merit. Liberal -feminists have been, at times, the only ones who have pointed to a liberating vision or taken action in an oppressive situation. As I mentioned before, there are glimmers of light within Liberal Feminism, but they tend to reflect movement toward Feminist Liberation. I recognize the danger that I may romanticize Feminist Liberation; however, within the context of the U.S., I believe the greater danger is that we will fail to challenge the liberal ideology which permeates and distorts much of our feminist analysis and commitment. My goal in this thesis is to explore further the relation of Liberal Feminism to Feminist Liberation, to see how this connection is or is not reflected in the lives of white, middle-strata clergywomen, and to consider what difference it would make if we chose to push out through the cracks of Liberal Feminism to embrace Feminist Liberation, to embrace passionate living. 50 c Endnotes 1. For this work I am indebted to the thoughts and writing of Alison Jagqer, Katie Cannon, Bell Hooks, Carter Heyward and Charlotte Bunch. 2. There is a close relationship among some o-F the elements I have used in the schema, such as Reformism — Revolutionary Change and Evolution — Transformation. However, I have tried to make it clear in my descriptions and in my use of them that there are distinctions between these elements. 3. One of the most helpful books for my understanding of this contradiction was Daughters of Jefferson, Daughters of Bootblacks by Barbara Andolsen. It was in this book that I was able to see tne history of the white feminist movement as it developed in the 19th Century and continued to manifest the same contradictions in the 20th Century. 4. Cherrie Moranga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds. , This Bridge Called tiy Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown: Persephone Press, 1981), p. 61. 5. The Cornwall Collective, Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1980), p. 152. 6. I saw this on a poster; therefore I have no idea in what context it was said or written. 7. Ronald Harstin has stated this clearly when he says, "The faith that does not remake society is the faith that confirms the present social arrangement." Ronald Marstin, Beyond Our Tribal Gods: The Haturinq of Faith (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1982), p. 86. 8. I want to acknowledge that liberationists can experience burnout too, but there is a reduced probability when they are working within the context of community. The demands of liberation are shared, and the potential for support are increased. 9. It was at a lecture given by Virginia ttollenkott at the Evangelical Women's Caucus in July, 1988, that I began to see the relationship between the thinking of conservatives and liberals. As hollenkott critiqued the thinking of fundamentalists, I realized how similar it was to the thinking of liberals. This lecture was the "aha" experience for me which helped me understand why I had such a problem with liberalism. It helped me to crystalize my questions which are central to this thesis. 10. Julia Esquivel of Guatemala reflects the painful and hopeful process of change in these words: Those of us who, through our experience, have come to understand the need for real and profound change in the Central American social and political structures, and who want to commit our whole lives to this task, have undergone severe, painful and often profound changes in our 51 own lives and personalities. We have lived through experiences of death and resurrection, like that of the Pascal mystery. All death is painful. It is separation. It is rupture. It is being buried. On the other hand, resurrection is life; it is hope. Julia Esquivel, "Christian Women and the Struggle for Justice in Central America," in Diana L. Eck and Devaki Jain, eds., Speaking of Faith (Philadelphia: New Society Publishers, 1987), p. 22. 11. Cherrie iioranga and Gloria Anzaldua, eds., This Bridge Called Hv Back , p. 197. J2 Chapter III The Journey Toward Feminist Liberation: The Lives and Work of Three Feminist Liberation Theologians Introduction ; When I First contemplated writing a thesis on the topic of Feminist Liberation, I knew that it would be very important For ne to look not only to my own experience and to that of other white, middle-strata Presbyterian Feminist clergywomen but also to those women who struggle to live out Feminist Liberation as well as reflecting it in their developing and. writing of Feminist Liberation Theology. After much thought I chose three women whose lives and work I wished to study in order to understand the journey one takes toward Feminist Liberation. I chose three women whom I respect and whose books and public presentations I've had a chance to engage over a period of 10-15 years: Carter Heyward, Letty Russell, and Dorothee Soelle. I am honored that each one gave me the support of her time, energy and thought in granting me an extended interview. I developed a schedule of questions which I used in my face-to-face interviews with Carter Heyward and Letty Russell and in interviewing Dorothee Soelle by mail (she sent me a tape of her responses). Having each of these women respond to these questions was a profound experience in itself, especially when I was able to interact face-to-face with them, as with Heyward and Russell. The questions which I asked were: 1. Describe yourself right now in terms of where you are personally and interpersonally. What are your priorities? What are your burning issues? Where do you spend your energy? 2. What are the basic norms of your ethics? Have they changed much over the years? If so, in what ways have they changed? 3. Have there been significant shifts (shifts in paradigm or worldview) in your adult life, especially in the last 10-15 years? If so, describe these shifts and the impact they have had on you. 4. In considering the shift between Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation, can you describe your journey? What were/are the factors which compel and -facilitate your movement in the direction of Feminist Liberation? What were/are the blocks? What fears stood/stand in your way? What are the risks involved? 5. What are the early influences which would point to your becoming a Feminist Liberationist? What seeds were planted? 6. Have you participated in civil disobedience? If so, what were the factors which influenced you to do so? How did you understand your action? What impact did this experience have on your life in general? If not, what circumstances, if any, would compel you to participate in civil disobedience? 7. When you envision yourself 20 years from now, who do you see? How would you. have liked to have spent your time and energy? What personal and societal issues will have received most of your attention? 8. Audre Lorde sees the erotic as power, a source of creation and liberation. Do you agree? If so, in what ways in your life has the erotic/sensual/sexual been experienced as a source of creation/liberation/power? Are there ways in which the erotic, spiritual, and vocational have been linked in such a way in your life as to be empowering to you and others? Where have they been in conflict? Some of these questions were the same as those I asked the clergywomen' s group to respond to, while others were different. (The clergywomen - ' s responses are the base for Chapter IV.) I formulated these questions with the hope of eliciting responses that would help me to better understand Feminist Liberation as reflected in the lives of these three women as well as making clearer to me what was involved in the journey toward Feminist Liberation. In this chapter I propose to use the materials I gathered in my interviews with the three theologians, along with selections from their writings, to indicate how the elements of Feminist Liberation are reflected in their lives and work. In this way, I hope to flesh out what I mean by Feminist Liberation. I will close the chapter in reporting the self- perception of each theologian of how she has journeyed into the arena of Feminist Liberation. 54 In Chapter II I described the elements of Feminist Liberation as distinct -from Liberal Feminism, realising that there is no sharp demarcation between the two and that people usually don't experience leaping from one to another, leaving the other behind. In most cases people tend to move back and •forth between the two worldviews, which include priorities, values, strategies and commitments. Without programming it to be so, I discovered that the white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen in my group <as will be described in Chapter IV) re-flect, in most ways, the elements o-f Liberal Feminism. In this chapter, through describing the lives and work o-f three Feminist Liberation theologians, I wish to raise some possibilities -for theoloqic&l movement that might inform and stretch the faith and work of all white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen committed to justice for all women. The Elements of Feminist Liberation as Reflected by Three Feminist Liberation Theologians : I will restate each of the elements of Feminist Liberation and share how the three Feminist Liberation theologians have helped me better to understand the implications of each element. There is some overlap among these elements; therefore I will attempt to avoid repetition as I describe them. Community : Affirm the necessity of social relationships (social web) to the well-being of human beings. Assume a dialectical relationship between the needs and desires of individuals and those of the community. Move toward Ihe wholeness of individuals within the transformed community. Acknow- ledge the interlocking of oppressions and the need for collaboration within coali- tions to end oppression *nd to bring about liberation. Recognize that equal relations are impossible in an oppressive society. 5 cr I chose to put "community" as ay -first element of Feminist Liberation because one o-f the most pro-found manifestations o-f Liberal Feminism is its individualism. Our society is built on the philosophy o-f the Enlightenment, and has taken individualism about as -far as it can go. Heyward reflects souse of the problems with the individualism found in Liberal Feminism and how it would contrast to a more radical feminism: Feminism is liberal in that it is — and must be — a movement for equal rights in a society founded upon ideals of liberty and justice for all individuals, regardless of how far short it may fall in terms of racial, sexual, or economic inequity. Feminism is radical in that it threatens to bring down the sexual class system that provides the underpinning of social structures which have little to do with the rights and abilities of individuals, and everything to do with segregation by sex, race, and class. (1) Another critique of the individualism of Liberal Feminism is found in Soelle's response to my interview question regarding Liberal Feminism It (Liberal Feminism) orients itself only in regard to one's own career, so in a way it never transcends the basic presumption of liberalism, which is individualism. It doesn't understand our history as our collective history. It doesn't understand our roots as collective roots. It doesn't understand our salvation and hope as our collective salvation and hope for the whole of God's people in the world. It's like in the question of peace saying it doesn't matter whether we have these weapons. "We will never use them for war. We just want them to deter others." That is the liberal position, which doesn't include those who starve to death with the help of these weapons. The concept of justice in liberalism, and liberal feminism as well, is more or less absent. Justice is seen as only a equal chance between men and women, which is a very important goal for society, but it is not enough. It leaves out the economic and the political, in a way, and this collective hope I do share with other people. Soelle's comments remind me that the individualism of Liberal Feminism not only makes us unaware of the hurt and oppression of large groups in our society and world but also it leaves us bereft of the hope which comes from experiencing oneself as part of a communal entity. In a community we no longer have to bring about change by ourselves. As Heyward said in my 56 interview with her, "One of the most radical things I have discovered in recent years is that I am not alone." Feminist Liberation affirms this declaration that Heyward has made, for the social web of relationships is central to the Feminist Liberation worldview. When we dare to embrace Feminist Liberation, we discover that we are not — nor can we be — isolated beings who go about our living with no awareness of or involvement in relationships with others. Certainly the competitiveness and autonomy emphasized in our society often disabuse us of the reality of the communality of our living. We see the effects of this extreme individualism in much of the personal, interpersonal, and societal illness found in our communities, if they can be called such. But Feminist Liberation calls us to a new experience of life — to a web of life-sustaining relationships. Heyward speaks of these relationships poignantly when she describes how her recovery process from alcoholism has led her to see how she is connected even to those with whom she would have thought she had little in common: There is something very "leveling" about coming to terms with an addiction and realizing that, among the things that most of us have in common, is a capacity to be vulnerable to addiction. I can better understand how Black and Hispanic kids in East Harlem die in the street of drugs, even though I don't have the same immediate, daily kinds of pain that most kids of color in this culture have. There are still those pains that get to all of us, and pain is pain at a certain level. I can see why people shoot up and die. That realization has been both humbling and empowering — it helps me to understand another deeper dimension of the struggle we all share. (2) Such a sense of connectedness pushes us not only to identify with the pain and oppression of others but also propels us to do something together to change our communal situation. 57 What we cannot understand or do alone, we can sometimes accomplish with others when we have a sense of solidarity and community with them. It is to our community that we remain accountable. It is also our community which acts as a corrective to our values, priorities and strategies, for without a community our individual truth or wisdom is more apt to become absolutized. Sometimes we are fortunate to have large numbers with whom to move toward justice, such as the Civil Rights Movement and the Peace Movement of the 1960s, but other times it is a very small group which calls upon the rest of us to embody the communal nature of our lives. Russell points to how four women and their children in Bolivia came together to make a powerful witness for liberation: ...The day after Christmas, 1977, they took their fourteen children to the archbishop's headquarters and began a hunger strike. They were demanding the return and reinstatement of their husbands, who had been fired from the mines and deported, leaving their families destitute. They were also supporting the demand of the churches and other groups for general amnesty for twenty thousand Bolivian political exiles. Although all strikes were against the law, the women decided to underline the Christmas message of justice and peace on earth with their own prophetic sign. Other Christians offered to substitute for the children so they would not die o-f hunger. The mothers allowed the children to be fed, although they kept them with them and pointed out that the children would soon die in the mines in any case. The government finally arrested the women and those who had joined the hunger strike in other cities around the country. But an international ecumenical commission had arrived to investigate human rights violations and the archbishop of LaPaz also took action. He declared that all the churches in the city would be closed in protest. After twenty-one days of hunger strike the negotiations led to the proclamation of general amnesty and to the return of the exiles. (3) Indeed, a small group of women came together as community in order to call others to their communal responsibility and hope. It is in acts of transforming our community that we also move toward wholeness in our individual lives; it becomes an experience of coming home. Another reason why we «ust work together in a communal manner is because 58 of the very interconnected nature of the institutional structures and oppressions which we encounter. Until we see the ways in which those oppressions are linked with and compounded by one another, we will not know how to counteract there effectively. Many of our relationships are based on the domination of one group/class/race/gender over another, and these power relationships are not just registered in our personal interaction but in the very structures of our society. When one experiences being on the underside of more than one of the power relationships, the impact is greater than simply a doubling or tripling effect; it has an exponential impact. Rosemary Ruether calls this "multilayered oppression. " (4) Racism, sexism, heterosexism, classism, etc., are intertwined with one another so it is impossible to debate which is greater or first; all are oppressive and all Bust be addressed if oppression is to be ended. There is no hierarchy of oppression. Heyward describes this reality well when she writes: No structure of alienation in our life together can be uprooted unless we dig into the foundations of the separatism in which all our lives are fastened. Some people will insist that racism is, in fact, the foundation of our alienation; others will contend that sexism or capitalism is basic to everything else. I am persuaded that the problem is the dynamic interaction among the various structures, each of which can only be trivialized when studied as an autonomous phenomenon apart from the others. To dig into the foundations of why we live in such fear and antipathy, scorn and apathy, in relation to most members of our global family is to make the connections among our diverse experiences of injustice and our various movements for justice. ... (5) Such a statement leads us to ask how we are to address such a tangle of pain and suffering. Because no one of us alone has the insight into the nature of oppression due to its entangled, «essy nature, Feminist Liberation pushes us once «ore to seek a communal response. We who experience oppression «ust be in 59 communication with each other because we roust work together in eliminating oppression in all its subtle and blatant manifestations. However, we soon discover that the very nature of oppression makes our coalitions and alliances across various political barriers difficult. For example, white women who wish to bring all women together to address sexism often ignore the particular experiences of women of color and poor women. Most especially, we tend to disregard the role we play in benefiting from and propagating the racism and classism that hurt the very women with whom we would claim solidarity. This complex reality is seen in the efforts which the seven women, including . Heyward, of the Mudflower Collective made to overcome those barriers. As a broken body of women, we confess the pathos of our very concrete historical limits. Like all people, we continue to be shaped by sociopolitical factors and dynamics. . .there is (also) much sadness and much evil into which we have come, and to which we live despite our good will. White supremacy, male gender superiority, economic exploitations, homophobia, anti-Semitism — these forces constitute the destruction of human well-t)eing. These are evil forces which mar our common life and our possibilities of community. We are persuaded that dialogue — a sharing of our lives that seeks justice-based relation — is the only means we have to transform, even in the smallest ways, the history that renders us separate and unequal. (6) Even in its members" pain of separation and alienation, The Mud-flower Collective senses how important coalitions are across these lines. We see this hope for communality reflected in Russell's dream of partnership, which gives us some new perspective on coalition building, as well as interpersonal relationships: Taking into consideration that different qualities are «ore important than others at different times and in different types of partnerships, we can still identify the basic qualities considered important for partnerships by «eans of continued reflection and discussions of our own experiences and expectations. They would seem to include at least: (1) commitment that involves responsibility, vulnerability, equality, and trust among persons or groups who share a variety of gifts or resources; (2) common struggle and work involving risk, continuing growth, and hopefulness in aoving toward a goal or purpose transcending the group itself; (3) contextuality in interacting 60 within a wider community o-f persons, social structures, values and belie-fs that may provide support, correctives or negative -feedback. There is never complete equality in a dynamic relationship, but a pattern of equal regard and mutual acceptance among partners is essential.... Partnership may be described as a new focus of relationship in which there is continuing commitment and common struggle in interacting within a wider community context . (7) (All italics are the author's.) Again, it is clear that Feminist Liberation theologians have a strong sense of the communal, rather than individualism, as central to living passionately. Indeed, we are not alone! We dare not stand alone! Revolutionary Change : Use a hermeneutic of suspicion, especially in relation to the system. Are aware of institutional oppression and use a power analysis as the base point for liberating strategies. Aim toward ending the sexist, racist, classist, and heterosexist domination present in the existing system. Believe that the oppressed are liberated by struggling with those in power. A process filled with risk-taking and death-defy- ing leaps which moves beyond gradualism and security. An assumption of this thesis is that most white, middle-strata liberal Presbyterian clergywomen lack a hermeneutic of suspicion (8) of the prevailing social/ecclesial system. Russell, Soelle and Heyward share a clear hermeneutic of suspicion, which helps them move away -from reformist tendencies and toward a commitment to revolutionary change. (9) Soelle shows her suspicion when she considers the governmental powers of the United States and Western Europe, especially those of her own country, West Germany, and their decisions around nuclear war. Her poem, "To Crucify," is one of her «ost profound statements of suspicion as she questions the real meaning of the language used by so many governments and their representatives around the world: To crucify 61 to execute — to dispose of — to get out of the way — to put in solitary — to leave an electric light on day and night — to sentence -for li-fe--to order special treatment to crucify to do away with — to destroy — to liquidate — to wipe out — to purge — to expel — to straighten out — to stream line — to urban renew — to evict — to threaten eviction — to do someone in to crucify to provide no place to live — to keep from learning a trade — to put in an institution — to kick out of a resort — to be offended in our aesthetic sensibilities — to be unable to bear the sight of — to not want our neighborhood ruined — to gas to crucify to send to a state welfare home — to turn into a criminal — to encourage dependency — to addict — to foster neurosis — to intimidate — to stupefy — to pull the rug from undei to cow — to brutalize to crucify to forget — to conceal — to not want to make a fuss about — to repress — to not have known about it — to consider it an isolated case — to call it inevitable — to let it happen to crucify to bump off — to silence for good — to bind and gag — to deprive of language — to make deaf and dumb — to plug the ears — to put off with false hopes — to blindfold — to gouge out eyes — to turn into consumers — to blind — to stifle to crucify to prepare the final solution — to make conform to the values of society — to adjust — to execute — (10) She fools us, for we initially believe that we are suspicious of "them", but then we becoee aware that "we" are to be suspected as well, individually and corporately. It shows how insidious is the spiral of institutional violence that operates in our society and invades our lives. 62 We must be suspicious of the institutional systems and their violence, which are all around us, and we roust also realize that we have internalized much o-f what most feminists abhor in those oppressive structures. We are both hurt by those structures, and we hurt others through our participation in the very same structures. For example, we may -find ourselves resisting the leadership o-f other women within work structures, we may continue our individualistic ways which deny the importance o-f communal efforts to transform our society, or we may actually ignore the ways in which race and class privilege benefit our lives thereby keeping in place the oppression which results. Institutional violence is insidious and invades our lives both in what is done to us and what we do to others. We want to believe that small changes will bring about the significant transformation we seek, but these small adjustments usually only lead us back to the status quo. If we relax our hermeneutic of suspicion, we will be crucified, and we will crucify! The reality of these oppressive structures must be named and then destroyed. Sometimes, little children can call us to revolutionary change because often they "know 1 the evil and obscenity of oppressive relationships. In my interview with Heyward, she tells of her childhood suspicions and questions about racism: I had good training from »y parents about racism in the South. They weren't naming it that, but I Mas taught that white people aren't superior to black people. What was going on between the races was wrong, was not the will of God. I remember ay parents saying, again and again, that it ought not be this way. I think where they felt powerless (and I can understand this) was in knowing what to do about it. They knew it wasn't the will of God, but I don't think they thought anyone could change it, least of all themselves. Therefore they didn't teach me an ethic of activism or of doing something to change the situation. They just said it was wrong. It shouldn't be this way, but it was. I didn't accept that. Before my father died, on the last day of his life, he was laughing (I had just coie home from Nicaragua) about my always going off to places like Nicaragua. He always accused me of "identifying with the underdog." That was his line since my childhood. "If you could be Black, you'd be Black, if you could be a Nicaraguan, you'd be a Nicaraguan." He also thought that was why I was a lesbian — identifying with those "poor homosexuals." But he began to get it, at the end of his life. He began to understand that there was more than that going on, that I had been a restless child about racism, for example, because I didn't like it. I didn't see why if it was wrong and if it wasn't God's will, we couldn't change it. He said to me on the last day of his life, "Since you were four years old, you've said, 'Well, we don't have to accept it.'" It is this kind of suspicion which we still see so deeply ingrained in Heyward's life and ministry. Through such abiding suspicion, one is open to understanding the dynamics of power that exist in our society and that most frequently are expressed in the differentials of power based on race, class, gender, sexual preference, ages etc. When we do not accept the existence of these power differentials, we believe that oppression is merely an issue of individual treatment of one person by another. Heyward reflects on this tendency when she describes how liberals perceive power: ...a liberal is someone who doesn't have any power analysis — they will say, "Power, Oh we all have power." "Power is a charismatic gift from God or something like that." "The bishop of the diocese has no more power than the man on the street, and God loves us all." "Power is what you make of it." It is the power of positive thinking sort of stuff. Whereas those who understand the dynamics of liberation know the problems of living in the world, they know that alienation affects how we live our lives constantly, 24 hours a day, and that we are constantly participating in the using and abusing of and being used and abused by power. (11) Such suspicion and awareness and the resulting commitments lead Feminist Liberationists toward a desire for revolutionary change. Institutional structures will not just voluntarily collapse, although sometimes they do implode due to their own corruptibility. However, we »ust remember how strong are the forces that keep these structures in place. Such oppressive 64 structures usually begin to crumble only when they are challenged -forcefully by those who do not assume that small adjustments and corrections will bring about significant systemic change, even over time; and when they do not depend on those in power to help undermine the structures from which they benefit in obvious ways. The reality, according to Feminist Liberation, is that we will find liberation only when the most oppressed (I will say «ore about this on the section on marginality) identify what is needed for liberation to occur and then lead the struggle toward that end. From the Feminist Liberation perspective. La Lucha is ever with us.. This requires that we take risks, whether drastically changing our worldviews, threatening our economic well-being, and/or risking our lives. In each of the three theologians'" lives, we see the kinds of risks which they chose to take, whether it was Soelle's deciding to do Civil Disobedience in the search for peace even though there was little basis in custom for doing such a thing in her country, Heyward's coming out as a lesbian priest only a few years after her struggle for the ordination of women in the Episcopal Church and before she had tenure at Episcopal Divinity School, or Russell's leaving behind much of what she took for granted as the norm for her life in order to do ministry in East Harlem. In Inheriting Our Mothers" Gardens , Russell writes of her experience of moving from her grandmother's garden, in which her grandfather was an associate of John D. Rockefeller, to a new garden in East Harlem: Although not a reality in «y grandmother's life, the tenement with its occasional scruffy tree became the reality of ey life for the next seventeen years. The only gardens in East Harlem had to be dug out of several feet of garbage and debris in a vacant lot as an annual church project. My community was not some romantic "clan of the cave bear" but ten thousand Black and Hispanic women, children and men who struggled to sustain life in a city housing project where «ore than one third of the population was forced to live on welfare. I ministered with a group of women and sen who taught me about their own mothers' gardens and grew to reject «uch of «y own parental 6 e gardens, yet to reclaim the power of God's liberating word -for those who are struggling to be free. Bible study, preaching, and sacraments came alive as participation in -freedom schools and civil rights demonstrations taught me -firsthand what Mary's song about the mighty being cast down and the lowly being lifted up was all about (Luke 1:52). (12)" If we embrace Feminist Liberation, we find ourselves called upon to take such risks not just now and then, but as a way of life. We will be aware of ways in which our lives must change in order for us to collaborate in bringing about the revolution! This will not occur overnight; therefore we must learn to keep on keeping on under the most difficult of circumstances. Embodiment : See the body, mind and spirit as a gestalt. What persons believe and think is brought to its fullness in their bodies, sexuality, sensuality and erotic nature. One of the hallmarks of Feminist Liberation is embodiment as opposed to the heavy emphasis placed on disembodied rationality in all liberalism. The theological and social devaluing of the body in our society has been profound and has led to the rejection and renunciation of the sexual, sensual, and erotic. This is a profound contradiction within Christianity because at its center is the enfleshment of God in the incarnation of Jesus Christ. This negative thinking about the body has been particularly significant in the lives of women because, traditionally, women have been associated with their bodies while men have been identified with their Binds. Such dualistic thinking has reinforced, and sometimes created, the aisogyny so prevalent in our society. It has been promulgated that the rational and moral *ale must control and dominate the embodied and immoral woman for her own good and the good of society. Heyward shows to what extremes this dualistic thinking can take us in our advanced capitalist society: In this realm of greed and violence, more and bigger is best. We 66 have it or we don't. It's natural to want it — tor everyone to want wealth, for small countries to want bombs, and -for women to want penises. In the moral ethos o-f the dominant social order, it is assumed that such power as capital, explosives, and rape can be used for either good or ill, depending upon the purposes and judgment o-f those exercising it. In this situation, no action is, in and of itself, evil — except that which challenges the established order of alienated power relations: So, for instance, while hunger may be a problem, communism, which threatens the individual white male's autonomy and his rights to private ownership, is evil. While wife-battering may be too bad, gay sex, which threatens the established order of male control of female sexuality, is evil. While incest may be a shame, lesbian mothers embody the forces of evil which threaten to bring down the entire sacred canopy of alienated power. (13) Heyward, in a compelling way, is able to show how our notions of the body, sexuality, sensuality, and eroticism have a profound impact on how we live our lives in the world. Distortions in one arena produce perversions in others, however minute or global. One of the other results of being focused in the rational is that we lose the passionate base of our lives. We are truly dead from the neck down, and for this reason cannot think well or honestly. We experience little or nothing in the way of feelings. We are like "autonotoms" . Feminist Liberation challenges us to move beyond our protective and sterile cocoons into full, vital, joyous and passionate living. Such dynamic energy will invade all of our lives; Soelle paints a picture of how her passion is embodied in all that she does: I am in an erotic position in so far as I am a writer, a teacher, an educator and struggler, and there are many, many people around me, many young people to whom I am sometimes a mother, a teacher, an instructor or someone who leads part of the struggle. All of these relationships are, as well, filled with tenderness «md vulnerability on both sides, and I wish to keep open this window of vulnerability, to use this militaristic expression. The militarists want to close down the window of vulnerability. When I first heard that expression, I was so shocked because it was very clear to me that my whole being, my very skin is a window of vulnerability, and I need touching, and I need air and moisture, and I need love, love making. And to close down this window is a terrible image for closing down, closing in life itself and killing 67 us, killing our countries and our souls. Staying vulnerable means being able to resist and to keep on with the struggle -for the realm of God. (14) Soelle sees passionate living as related to our commitments to liberation and the doing of justice. We cannot be disembodied and dispassionate justice doers. "Truly God works in and with the erotic, sensual, and sexual power and Hakes us experience those powers as God's power, as creation and liberation. ■ (15) We as clergywomen are called to passionate living. We find ourselves struggling with how to embody our commitments, how to express the erotic in our strategies, and how to be joyous persons with our bodies, minds and spirits all in gear and at their -full potential. Russell sees a direct relationship between her experience o-f the erotic and her work. She sees her lite as a gestalt and reflects the passionate connectedness of her life: ....it has been one of the blessings of my life that many have not had — that the erotic, the spiritual, the vocational, everything for me has always been linked. ... Both as a pastor and as a theologian, there hasn't been any division between my personal and public work. All the things I have always done in my life have been integrated together, and I think that is why I have really enjoyed them... When my mother came, we had to add a room so we added a study. It is clear that I like to study. My life isn't divided up... it (the study) symbolises the integration of my work, that is, I work at home, but I also work other places. (16) She goes further in describing how for her one of the most erotic aspects to her life is her teaching: ...She (Audre Lorde) talks about it (the erotic) as the way one's life is when one is really enjoying life, one has a sense of power and well- being. I certainly think what she describes is exactly so, and I know I experience that the most when I am teaching. ... I die a thousand deaths every time I prepare a lecture and give a lecture.... I am always sure that it isn't going to go right. But never the less, in giving. .. .the lecture, people's ■aha" experience and my "aha" experience in working with people is for me an erotic experience in the sense of well-being and empowerment. ... (17) 68 I am profoundly moved by my three sisters as they endeavor to express and live out a life that is passionately whole and that embodies the power of God. They call the rest of us to such a commitment, to incarnating the Holy. Feminist Liberation does not see the issue of embodiment as a side issue to the development of theology or the doing of justice but as central to those efforts. Heyward shows how all-encompassing is this issue when she discusses what it would involve to heal our corporate body, an essential aspect of moving toward embodiment: ...healing is a radically mutual adventure, not a one-way process. Our power in mutual relation moves among us, touching us physically. She also touches us in our souls, in which we know most profoundly our connectedness with one another and other earth creatures. To touch and be touched, physically and soulfully, is to participate in healing not only others but also ourselves.... Healing does not occur in a vacuum. Like all relational acts, it is political, reflecting our use and abuse of power as a common body and as individual members of this body. .. healing, to be a genuinely empowering process, must be sustained by political commitments. And what might such healing commitments be? What commitments would contribute to the healing of our common body? 1. A healing commitment to embody respect for all living creatures — and solidarity with persons of color; lesbians and gay men; the poor among us; differently abled and elderly people; women and children and all living creatures who suffer abusive power relations. 2. A healing commitment to celebrate friendship rooted and nurtured through the power of the erotic, and to rejoice in relationships of embodied mutual love and pleasure. 3. A healing commitment to fidelity in our friendships and other commitments. 4. A healing commitment not to grant coupling or heterosexual •arriage a privileged social status apart from other forms of relational commitment. 5. A healing commitment to affirm safer-sex play among mutually related persons, an affirmation grounded in respect for bodily integrity and in our needs and desires to touch and be touched. 6. A healing commitment to treat childbearing and childrearing as a special covenant, in which children would be wanted and cared for with tenderness and with respect for their bodily integrity. 7. A healing commitment to nonviolent, nonabusive, noncontrolling relationships and to holding one another accountable for our violent, abusive, or controlling behavior. 8. A healing commitment to acknowledge and confess our relational failures, and to learn from our mistakes, including ways in which we 69 ourselves participate in abusive power relations. 9. A healing commitment to be a -forgiving and forgiven people. 10. A healing commitment to recognize the plurality o-f human intimacy needs, to respect differences, and learn with one another a greater capacity not merely for tolerance, but for celebration of our differences. 11. A healing commitment to grant sex a blessed place among us, thereby ending our sexually obsessive efforts to control ourselves and others by rigid rules, "ethics," attitudes, and behavior. 12. A healing commitment to the care and respect of not only human beings but other earth creatures as well. 13. A healing commitment to help one another keep things in perspective, which would generate humor among us and enable us to smile and laugh — not at, but with, one another. In a perceptive and playful, tender and forgiving spirit, we would learn to smile and lauqh together. (18) Such a sense of embodiment leads us down a path which most of us have not known, a path to wholeness and power. Particularity : Attempt to show how we are different, to respect the particu- larity of each person rather than to ignore and deny such differences, and to recognize the richness and complexity which these particularities bring to the community. The political goal is to value and use the lived experience of all persons, especially those on the margin, to transform the society. Until recently I had not used the word "particularity". Coming from a liberal perspective, I had not focused on how I was different but rather on how I was the same as others, particularly those with whom I wanted to relate. It has been freeing to be challenged by Feminist Liberation to embrace and value «y particularities of race, gender, nationality, class, age, vocation, etc. to take pride in who I am; and to recall who »y people have been in ages past and who they are now. However important it is to affirm one's particularities, the process can also be painful, particularly for white, •iddle-strata women, as we can see in Russell's sharing of her ■experience: ...I would much rather be searching than inheriting . I would rather be naming and claiming «y own future together with «y sisters. 70 Instead, I -find myself having to confess that as a white middle-class North American woman I have inherited benefits that accrue to me disproportionately because of the social structures of racism, classism, and imperialism. I also have to confess that a great deal of this results from my fathers ' gardens and binds me to the patriarchal family structures out of which they have come. Perhaps confession is good for more than the soul. It can be the aeans of remembering our inheritance, or lack thereof, and testing out, together with others, the ways that our parents' 1 gardens «ay have been tended by the same hands and feet that trampled the gardens of Third World sisters and brothers, Bothers and fathers. Such confession is truly difficult, but the sharing of garden stories say bear fruit for sharing around the global table where all are welcome. ... (19) It is only in facing our particularities, both the wonderful and painful aspects of them, that we recognize that the commonality which we white, middle-strata clergywomen assume is a figment of our race and class privilege. The commonality among women that we assume does violence to the particularity of women of color, lesbian women, old women, women with disabilities, poor women. Third World women, etc. It also dis-values and violates us; we are less than authentic. The assumption that our experience is universal is a white, middle-strata phenomenon. Heyward reflects the experience of coming to an awareness of this fact: Since childhood, I have had a dream of a common language. It- remained in the realm of liberal idealism until I was faced in the last ten years with the fact that my Black friends were saying, "No, commonality doesn't include us. It's always on white women's terms" I said, "What? Explain, please." As I have read andthad it explained to me, it has become very evident that we don't build commonality simply on our desires that we all think alike or be alike or dress alike or look alike. While middle-strata folks tend to assume that everyone wants to be white, middle class in our values, we need a vision aore deeply nuanced and textured than that, having to do with taking people's lives very seriously as they are, and as we are. (20) Our society tends to be organized in such a way as to undergird, and therefore perpetuate, privileges associated with race, class, gender, age, etc. The institutions and structures of our society keep these differentials of power in place. We benefit from the system in those areas in which our 71 particularities place us in a dominant group. Even if, as individual members of the dominant group (e.g. white), we try to do nothing to keep these oppressive relationships in place in our lives, we still continue to benefit from unjust power relationships. Those of us who benefit from oppressive systems by reason of our race, gender, class, sexual orientation or age, need to recognize that we have done nothing to merit such privilege. It is not a matter of merit, it is an ontological reality — it comes with being white, with being male, with being heterosexual, with having an able body, or with being born comparably affluent. Nelle Morton, a deeply loved educator and theologian in the Presbyterian Church, once said to me, "Each day when I walk out of my house, I benefit from privileges which people of color and the poor do not have. " (21) It is true that our lives are shaped on the basis of our particular social locations. These particularities determine wherein we have privilege or do not. They will determine how we view the world and the people and creatures therein. We see this vividly in the impact of Soelle's particularities on her life and work. The fact that she was a German, Christian teenager during World War II means that she sees World War II in a different way than, for example, an older Jew from Poland who survived a concentration camp. She reflects on the impact of her growing up in Germany during the war: ...I am from German origin and embedded in German history in this century which made me, first of all, a natural internationalist critical over against any tradition in ay own country, such as militarism, expansionism, imperialism, racism and sexism because all of them went together in Hitler's understanding of the human life and his ideal of what he called National Socialism. The seeds of liberation were planted by my parents, specifically by my mother and her critique of the Nazis. My parents were pretty anti-fascist. They had many, aany Jewish friends, and knew quite a bit about the persecution of those friends during the Nazi time, in terms of their being thrown out from their 72 jobs, -fired, or even mistreated or brought to concentrat ion camps and so on. But even in those early years when I was a girl of seven or eight, I knew pretty precisely in the world that I lived in to speak truly my ■ind was dangerous. The seeds planted -from the very beginning were seeds of freedom in a comprehensive sense o-f the word "freedom" . ...In my later years of my youth, my parents hid a Jewish woman in our house. She stayed for almost a month in 1943 because there was the danger that she would be taken to a camp. So she stayed with us, and we had to keep silent about this fact.... I recall especially the fact that we went to a shelter during the bombing of Cologne, my home town, and we couldn't take her with us so she would go to the cellar of our house which was very weak. It was a lightly built house. I was always afraid we would come back to find her dead or wounded without being able to call the doctor. There were many seeds planted in these experiences of •y childhood and youth. ... (22) On the one hand, Soelle's particularities meant th&t she experienced the war firsthand, unlike myself, but she was protected from the concentration camps because she was not a Jew. She could have lived with the assumption that Hitler was right or, perhaps, that he was an aberration of history for whom she and her family bore no responsibility. Instead, Soelle was born into a particular German, Christian family in which her parents set aside their privilege as Christians to protect a Jew — they could have all been imprisoned and treated as if they were Jews as a result. This particularity of her history contributes greatly to who she is today, a woman deeply committed to peace, justice and liberation the world over, a Feminist Liberation theologian living out her worldview passionately. The result of valuing our particularities is that we are »ore apt to value the particularities of others. If we are ignorant of the privilege our own particularities provide us, we tend to assume that everyone's experience of life is the same. For example, at a conference on racism, a Black woman asked a white woman whom she saw when she looked at her. The white woman responded with all kinds of descriptions of the woman without mentioning her race. When questioned about this, she said, "I don't see you as Black woman, I see you as a person." This is liberalism taken to the extreme, in which the significant particularities o-f others are denied because it is thought to do so indicates broadmindedness and progressiveness. We believe that to ignore our own particularities and those of others is to move away -from hurtful stereotypes, while in reality we are violating ourselves and others most cruelly, denying our own identity and that of the other person. Feminist Liberation calls us to recognize our differences; to face the painful reality of how they benefit some of us and harm others; to enjoy the diversity these differences afford us, to embrace the change our acknowledgement of these differences brings into our lives, and to know that they, in the end, will make us stronger, wiser and more nearly just than if we were all the same. Global Awareness : Believe that what happens in this country impacts persons around the world and vice versa. There is a special concern for the impact of the U.S. imperialism on the lives of persons worldwide and a profound commitment to peace. Feminist Liberation calls us to be globally aware in the sense that we recognize the impact of an event or action in one part of the world on the whole. One is more aware of this connection if one is in a small country that depends on other countries for its survival. For instance, when I was in Peru for a year, I became much more mindful of this reality. In Peru, there is an expression: "If the United States sneezes, we get pneumonia." All three of the women theologians whom I have interviewed have traveled to countries and cultures outside the so-called First World. Their travel has made a areat 74 impact on them and their understanding of politics, theology and life in general. For example, Heyward's visits to Nicaragua have trans-formed her understanding of community: ...Here in this war-torn situation, met by the witness of Nicaraguan campesinas as well as Sandinista leaders, I recognize in these people what I value in us all. U.S. citizens are wounded by our lack of solidarity, our failure to realize that we are a common people. It is not my particular failure, or anyone's, but rather ours together. Those who come bearing good news that there is a better way, a more caring, less cluttered way, are always folks who have found this way together, working for some form of justice to which they are passionately committed. I delight in the liberation that can come when people act together, living and working cooperatively rather than as self- sufficient monads. ... (23) Nicaragua not only challenged Heyward's thinking and her developing of . theology and ethics but it also challenged her way of living, her way of treating herself. In my interview with her, she shared how Nicaragua and its people were central in facing her addiction to alcohol. In speaking of her move toward recovery, she said, ...Facing this addiction was a spiritual turning point for me, which I associate with the Nicaraguan experience. What I experienced about my faith and commitment in Nicaragua pushed me toward sobriety. The Nicaraguan trip helped me begin to realize that I had to take stock of my own life and figure out how I was going to live it in order to be able to help make right-relation, not just in the world out there, but also embody it in myself in order to keep going.... Such transformation is not accidental. Traveling to other parts of the world, especially in the Third World, (24) is apt to jar our understandings of what is important in life, to the extent that we are Dpen to "paradigm shifts," as Heyward describes her experience. We can move beyond our parochial way of perceiving things when we move out beyond the familiar parameters of our lives. Russell confirms this when she says that travel is important to basic transformation and essential for a good theological education: The other -form of cognitive dissonance (which leads to change) is new experiences which invalidate your old way of thinking. I think that is so important that I spend a lot o-f time working with the World Council, traveling, starting travel seminars, taking my students on travel seminars. I try to get all o-f my students, if at all possible, to do internships in Third World counties. I don't think there is any substitute for working in a so-called Third World part of this country or abroad to coming to see the world differently. (25) Travel also can help us face what is happening to the Third World at the hands of the First World. We can be awakened to the imperialistic attitudes which many of us hold and the impact of those attitudes in the lives of real people in other parts of the world. On the one hand, such experiences can lead to tremendous alienation and guilt; on the other hand, they can enable us to draw parallels with our own history and move to challenge the way things are. (26) Soelle's poem, "The lord of history" illustrates the latter option: And in fifteen hundred and twenty-five in the peasants" war in germany a rainbow rose the earth shall not be cursed Ana in nineteen eighty in the war in el Salvador the guerrillas are celebrating mass the dead shall not have suffered torture in vain And in fifteen hundred and twenty-five the peasants trusted god who had allied himself with the earth and they set out with pitchforks And in nineteen eighty the campesinos believe in maiden maria the mighty he will cast from their thrones they sing the old song And in fifteen hundred and twenty-five god betrayed the peasants and he once again cursed the earth that knows not «ine and thine And in nineteen eighty god made a deal with the rich you see them grinning humbly on tv they know they're on the side of the lord of history 76 to know that and still re-fuse to believe in tanks and stocks and bonds to know that and not end up deranged like friedrich h* in his tower on the neckar to know that and still pray in the name of the tortured ♦Friedrich Holderlin (1770-1843), eminent lyric poet, suffered from serious uental illness for the last forty years of his life and occupied a tower room overlooking the Neckar River in Tubingen from 1806 until his death. (27) A profound sense of the global nature of our lives leads us to the issue of peace. Our affirmation of our membership in the global family contributes to a rejection of the concept that some human beings are our enemies and induces us to embrace a commitment to work so that peace may reign in our world. We must struggle to bring an end to the militarism that permeates our world and that destroys not only our "enemies," but ourselves. Soelle projects a vision of what our world might look like if we were to prevail in our efforts for peace: Just imagine if peace were to break out. Not an armed, enforced peace, but the peace free of violence which we have advocated and for the sake of which we will not use violent means, because the means of the struggle would cripple the aim of the struggle. We may only use nonviolent means to prepare the peace we seek.... We want to hold together the ends and the means of our life. ...We have a totally one-sided viewpoint, one-sided for life and against death, one-sided against the tools of «ass destruction, which cannot be called weapons any «ore than the gas in Auschwitz deserved to be called a "weapon." We are not partly for death and partly for life, not for death of others and for our own survival: we stand here because we love life whole, undivided and as vulnerable as it happens to be.... God created us vulnerable—that means capable of peace. (28) Our vulnerability Bakes us aware of our interdependence, more aware of our lives being wrapped up with the lives of everyone else. In order for any to have peace, all must have peace. In order to live creatively, peace, justice and liberation aust prevail. 77 What is probably most important about global awareness and experience is the hope and vision we discover in our relationsnip with persons in the Third World. It is as though we cannot see the vision of and the hope for humankind until we have seen more of the world than our little corner. Our theology and our political understanding contain gaping holes, like tapestries with missing strands, until those strands are provided by those with different life experiences, different particularities, and different priorities. It is not enough to talk to people from other parts of the world who visit this country, although that is an important first step. Too often we forget what we have heard and experienced in our exchange here in the States because it is drowned out by our own particularities, priorities and ideologies which are reinforced by this culture in which we live. When we travel, some of the supporting pins of our worldview are strained to the point that they may bend, crack or actually break, giving the new a chance to enter into our lives, allowing ourselves to be converted to new hope and promise. Once again Soelle captures this reality in a poem: Girl from chile Girl from chile with long smooth hair over the broad Indian face I see you put down the receiver in the phone booth and smile and cross the street and smile and I know what you said and to whom Girl from chile yesterday I saw one of your sisters so weak she was lying on a bed because she had eaten nothing for two weeks because of her father taken away disappeared tortured perhaps aurdered girl from chile 78 yesterday I saw your sister smile your smile beneath the gentle steady eyes when she talked about her -father and about her headache and about her -father Girl -from chile in your country love and hunger smiling and strikes women and strength go together girl -from chile little sister share your smile with us your hunger -for justice your struggle that brings out beauty (29) Our global awareness makes us better citizens o-f the world in that our communication/solidarity with our sisters and brothers helps us to embrace humanity as a global -family. Such a notion challenges any narrower concept of family that would shut us off from an awareness of our r elatedness to others in ever-expanding circles. Seeing ourselves as members of a global family, we are better informed and better able to act in the ways of justice. But, even more importantly, we who think we have so much to offer others learn that we have much more to receive. Our sisters and brothers from all over the earth bring what is needed for our healing and spirit filling, thus enabling us to •ake appropriate contributions toward the global aovement toward peace and justice. Inter dependence : aware that what happens to one person impacts everyone else, both positively and negatively. Persons are very much related and when we work to- gether in right-relation to one another, to all earth creatures and to the earth itself, scarcity and the need for com- petition are reduced. The sharing of resources and power are then possible. 79 At> mentioned in the section on the communal nature of Feminist Liberation, the individualistic proclivity o-f Liberal Feminism manifests itself in a perception that persons and groups are clusters of individual units which often impact each other negatively. Feminist Liberation challenges this assumption with a strong commitment to interdependence among persons as well as with all earth creatures and the earth itself. Our reliance upon each other is imperative for our well being, indeed, for our survival. Heyward has come to a much stronger sense of her interdependence with others: ■ At the heart of the whole thing is the tension between active involvement and knowing our limits; therefore experiencing some serenity. We can't do more than we can do, and it's really O.K. If not me, someone else; and if not now, later. On the one hand, the world is utterly dependent on how I live my life. I have to take that seriously. I do matter and so does everyone else; therefore my ethics, my values and my involvements are of consequence. I have to think of what I am doing and do what I can. On the other hand, I am just one person... We really are like the locusts crossing the river. We are building our lives on the bodies of those who went before, and our bodies become the bridge for those who come after. The human race, as Olive Schriener put it, will pass upon this bridge and so will other earth creatures. That's the way history and nature are moving.... I don't have to make it happen — it's happening already. I can contribute to it, and that's all I can do. (30) All three theologians not only see themselves in an interdependent relationship with other people but also with all of creation. Within Feminist Liberation there is a growing awareness of the integral dynamic between humans and other earth creatures as well as other parts of the created order. The total disregard for this essential relationship has led to the rape of the earth, the extinction of animal and plant species, and the pollution of air, water, and soil. Unfortunately, the way we often have learned of our relationship to all rreation is through destruction, disease, and death. In 80 response to my question about how she sees herself using her time and energy in the next twenty years, Soelle stated a strong awareness o-f what we have done to creation: The other point is, of course, killing our Mother the Earth and destroying our natural resources, the unrenewable resources of our earth, and the whole question of what would happen to us under this "greenhouse" effect, etc., etc. The need for the mending of creation is reflected in Russell's awareness of the interrelationship between us and creation: In my theology I have tried to image this world beyond oppression as a mended creation in which human beings, nature, and all creation are set iree from their groaning and at home with one another.... I first heard this simple expression of eschatological hope from Krister Stendahl, who said that theology is worrying about what God is worrying about when God gets up in the morning: the mending of creation. . . (31) The vision of interdependence toward which Feminist Liberation pushes us, brings us to the issue of right relation which Heyward defines as justice. We are called not only to acknowledge our interdependence, but to be in right- relation with ourselves, others, God and creation, to be doers of justice. In speaking of right relation the editors of Revolutionary Forgiveness write that "a sacred relationship exists between all living things. The world is held together by the power of positive, mutually-beneficial relationship. Without it there is no world. "(32) Then they quote Heyward' s journal where she ponders right-relation as it relates to forgiveness in the context of U.S.- Nicaragua relations: Right-relation and forgiveness can be cultivated only in those situations in which we know ourselves to be basically good because we are essentially social — connected, related to one another: Our relatedness is holy ground. The power that connects us is love, God; hence, we are "by nature" bound in love, members of good and holy order- -creation itself. Far from romantic, this view of human nature and of our power to forgive our enemies seems to me laden with theological radicalism and pragmatic social implications. To begin with, this affirmation of human 81 goodness presupposes ou.' social nature and, hence, our social responsibility. No one is left out of either the benefits or the responsibilities of living in a relation of love toward the neighbor. We share a moral imperative to insure that neither we nor others live outside or at the margins of a common pool of resources. From a moral perspective we must socialize our economic gains and losses because, from a theological perspective, we are a common folk. (33) Russell's concept of right-relation echoes that of Heyward's: Putting things right involves seeing things right. It involves seeing things in an interconnected web of life redeemed and blessed by- God. It also involves recognizing that the term "Creator" is a personal term. For the Creator is one who has shown love not only for human creatures but also for all creatures and for all creation... The gift of New Creation by a loving Creator should be sufficient for us to see reality in a new way, so that we see all of creation, not as a hierarchy, but as an interdependent partnership of life in which we work to bring to the world signs of wholeness and shalom. (34) In Isaiah 43, we find Cod saying, "Behold, I am doing a new thing; now it springs forth, do you not perceive it?" Feminist Liberation invites us to perceive the New Creation, one in which the created order is seen as inextricably connected, and to take our rightful places as co-creators of and co-participants in that New Creation. Marqinality : See all women as marginal within society, but the focus is placed on women with the least privilege. Have a commit- ment to pay special attention to the experience of those most mar- ginalized when determining strate- gies and priorities. Feminist Liberation challenges white, aiddle-strata clergywomen to move •from the center to the margin. This is a "transvaluation" in that, what has traditionally been held up as ultimate, has generally been thought of as in the center while that which is least valued is at the aargin. Thus the word, "■arginalized", has been used to describe the aisbegotten and rejected of society. Consistent with this view, Liberal Feminism originates among women 82 with the most privilege in this society, straight, middle-strata, white women; while the concerns and issues o-f poor, lesbian, racial ethnic and other marginalized women have either been ignored or pushed aside for later consideration. Feminist Liberation summons us to realise that those who are the most marginalized determine where liberation needs to happen and what shape that liberation needs to take. Russell challenges us to "listen to the underside" in order to reformulate our theological perspectives: ...According to Luke 4:18-19, the gospel is good news for the poor and for those on the underside of society. If we want to understand that gospel and live it out, our interpretation cannot be based solely on our own critical analysis, experience, and vision. Our own particular theological paradigm needs to be stretched and expanded by the stories and insights both of those who themselves are victims of domination and of those who stand in solidarity with the victims and share their fate. (35) She then goes on to quote Dietrich Bonhoeffer, whose writings from prison reflect the same understanding of where we must place our attention if we are to understand the realities of this life and change them: We have for once learnt to see the great events of world history from below, from the perspective of the outcast, the suspects, the maltreated, the powerless, the oppressed, the reviled — in short, from the perspective of those who suffer. (36) I believe that, for the most part, only those with some significant experience of marginalization of which they are aware can make their point of reference that of margin rather than center, bottom rather than top. Without such consciousness, there are very few who can understand the necessity for turning their worlds upside down and who are willing to take the risks involved to do so. Our priorities will be changed when we follow the lead of the most marginalized, when they are empowered (37) to find their voices and make their demands. Our strategies and commitments will be determined largely by those 83 who are the "least o-f these, our sisters and brothers." Those of us with privilege in various areas will step back and -follow the lead o-f those without that privilege. For all o-f us this is difficult, but it is essential if our lives and the life of our world are to be transformed. Russell told of an experience of following the lead of the marginalized during a Civil Disobedience action: . . . (W) e were working on issues of the integration in the schools of New York City and other related issues of integration in the city. We were asked to sit-in in relation to a demonstration which was blocking trucks coming into a site in Queens, trying to force people who had city contracts to hire Blacks in construction. I did it because we were asked to do it. We were organizing committees, and the basis of our organization was that we would do, unless our consciences prevented it, what it was that the Black leadership decided were the best strategies. They felt that was an important strategy, so I and some of the other people, namely ministers, went over and formed a human chain... We all sat down, and they picked us up and hauled us away... I felt I was obeying the law and that they had violated the law by not hiring integrated work crews when they were contracting with New York State.... The most interesting thing about it was after a day in jail, we got out on bail.... The group, that sponsored this and also would be getting the lawyers, decided that we should all declare ourselves guilty. That made me furious, but I did it because they didn't want to spend the money to defend us.... If you plead guilty, they gave you a suspended sentence or at least you had the likelihood of getting a suspended sentence whereas if you declared yourself not guilty, you had to go to court and provide a lawyer. ...(this experience) helped me to learn how hard it is to do what it is that someone else wants you to do even if you don ? t approve of it, what it means for a white liberal to do what a group of Black leaders decide to do. (38) When we dare to listen to the Host marginalized and when we dare to stand with them, our lives are different. We are no longer able to look at life in the sane way. In such a process of reversal, the marginalized move from the margin to the center! It is not *s comfortable for us as it was before, for always before us are the images of how our privileges protect us from the experiences of the most marginalized. Such an image remains in Soelle's heart and mind after her travels in Central America: 64 Saturday be-fore easter ? 81 oh when will the graves -finally be empty the exhuming of victims unnecessary the pictures gone o-f children sprayed with a new poison that turns the skin black and peeling and makes the eyes sink into their sockets oh when will the graves -finally be empty of mutilated bodies in el Salvador When I -first became a christian I wanted to see christ striking me down on the road to damascus I pictured the place something like gottingen the empty tomb was no more than a -fairy tale for the unenlightened Now I've been becoming a christian for a long time and I have occasionally seen jesus the last time as an old woman in nicaragua who was learning to read she was beaming not just her eyes but also her hair thinned by age and her twisted feet she was beaming all over But I've also grown poorer depressed I scurry through the city I even go to demonstrations half expecting courage to be passed out there and I r d give anything to see the other half of the story the empty tomb on easter morning and empty graves in el Salvador (38) Sometimes when we are called to stand with the most marginalized, we are treated as they are. We no longer are allowed to use the protection of our privilege. Usually the "punishment" is shunning, loss of one's good name, imprisonment, or loss of job. Occasionally, the punishment of death is exacted. We remember the four church women who died in El Salvador because they championed the rights of the poor and the young engineer who was killed 85 in a Contra attack because he was improving the lot o-f poor Nicaraguans. To stand with those who are the most rejected in society may not be an easy road to -follow, but it is one of the few which offers life in its fullest. It is only in standing on the margin that our perspective allows us to see the way to liberation, peace and justice. Transformation : The attitude toward history includes an understanding of the past as essential for the work necessary to bring about transforma- tion in the present/future. An oppositional worldview provides the vision and hope for human agency in the building of a new social order. Those who embrace Feminist Liberation value the past and those who inhabited it, for it is in affirming and understanding our past that we can be about shaping our present and future. Without that sense of the importance cf our past, we stand naked in history, unprepared to meet the challenges that face us. As has often been stated, we must learn from the lessons of the past, especially in order to avoid the same mistakes. I believe we have even more to gain than that. We can have a sense of "being surrounded by a cloud of witnesses" who can show us the paths which they have already cut and traveled. Soelle and Fulbert Steffensky write: When we are too weak by ourselves to preserve life's grand desires and dreams, we can look for the dreams which our fellow Christians of the past have had. Precisely because we recognize that our own lives, isolated and separated from others, are barren and insufficient, we have therefore linked ourselves up with the desires, the courage, and the work of the many. We discover then, that we certainly don't need to be alone for ourselves only. There were people before us who have engaged in the struggle. . . Church means also to have a place where such stories are remembered and told. We need these risky memories of the many and the courageous who are around us and have gone before us. We also need to have confidence in those who will come after us. We hope that when our own strength diminishes those who come after us will achieve more than we have achieved. .. (40) 86 It is exciting to think that we live in a history in which neither moments nor persons are isolated entities; our present moment is connected to our past, to our -future, and to those who live in past and future. As a result, we not only value and learn -from our past but we also have a vision -for our corporate -future. We cannot simply wait -for the -future to come; we must be about shaping it. Yet we can only help the -future un-fold when we have a clear sense of the guide markers -for that journey. For example, Soelle has said that her present and -future are guided by her commitments to justice, peace, and the integrity o-f creation. With such' a set o-f commitments, she can move forward with a sense of vision as to what kind of future she would like to see us share. Russell's notion of the proleptic helps me understand how we live into the future toward which we wish to move: For women in the church, freedom began long ago and it is time to act now, as if they are free! They are called to live now within the horizon o-f the New Age. The expression Paul used to introduce this life of "provisional freedom' 1 is hos roe ("as if not"). They are to live as if not ; as if the facts of the situation are only provisional because of the horizon of freedom. The prolepsis or anticipation of the new world is breaking in and all other aspects of life cannot be taken with utter seriousness. ... (41) To live proleptically is to live as though our visions are fulfilled, thereby bringing them to fulfillment. We are not stuck with what we've got! We need not wait for the millennium, although it is only ten years off, to live our visions. Our past helps us to paint our visions, so we go full circle. This kind of integration of past/present/future is seen in a portion of one of Soelle ? s poems in which she lifts up the lives of three important women of the past who lived proleptically so as to point to a new future: "Flay me a song about rosa, anna, and rosa: n ...Sing about anna walentinowic crane operator in danzig sing of the strike and why it broke out 87 and don't -forget rosa parks don't ever forget that she stayed seated •for each one of us no matter how white our skin stayed seated in the bus in alabsma where blacks were not supposed to sit Sing about women just looking at them makes me stronger makes me laugh solidly built like anna the crane operator who scared them so much they -fired her to avoid trouble a preventive layoff from her job on the crane Don't forget our great sister rosa luxemburg either she came from anna's country that small country thirsting for freedom split and gagged occupied and possessed beaten and raped but never subdued sing about rosa and about the spontaneity of the people she believed in like anna the crane operator Pid you see her picture sing another song about anna about the hope of the dock workers for meat and the right to defend themselves for bread and for roses Anna walentinowic the papers don't carry your story because people here don't know what it means to be a woman a human being a crane operator who makes strikes possible because we're still expected to admire sweet little bunnies not a woman with a laugh like anna's with four children and now and then a preventive layoff ...play me a song about anna and the two rosas play about real people about women strong and vulnerable caring for others and independent fighting for you too in the teller's cage at Chase Manhattan Bank for all our sisters play about bread and roses play about the price of «eat and a free labor union play against steel helmets and what's inside them 86 play against atomic missiles and what's behind them you can't arrest the sun it shines they flower they laugh you can't censor the roses you can't keep women down Play about rosa luxemburg play about rosa parks play about anna walentinowic play about our sisters play about us (42) Feminist Liberation holds up an oppositional worldview/vision which challenges the reign of domination and provides the vision and hope -for the building of a new social order in which justice, love and peace will prevail. Gloria Anzaldua describes such an oppositional vision as El Mundo Zurde (the Left-handed World) : The pull between what is and what should be. I believe that by changing ourselves we change the world, that traveling El Hun do Zurdo path is the path of a two-way movement — a going deep into the self and an expanding out into the world, a simultaneous recreation of the self and a reconstruction of society.... We are the queer groups, the people that don't belong anywhere, not in the dominant world nor completely within our own respective cultures. Combined we cover so many oppressions. But the overwhelming oppression is the collective fact that we do not fit , and because we do not fit we are a threat . Not all of us have the same oppressions, but we empathize and identify with each other's oppressions. We do not have the same ideology, nor do we derive similar solutions. ... In El Mundo Zurdo, I with my own affinities and my people with theirs can live together and transform the planet. (43) We see this same kind of vision of a new world in the three theologians whom I have chosen to reflect Feminist Liberation. It is clear that they, too, have an oppositional worldview which leads to the transformation of individuals and society and the church as well. God is, indeed, doing a new thing in our midst! One of the most powerful statements of this new world- view/vision is found in Heyward's reflection on women's ministries in the 89 Episcopal Church: The intensity o-f this vision of God's realm may blind us with its brilliance, yet we see. Our participation in the common-wealth o-f joy and pride in all that is good will cost us, yet we celebrate. The sacred space in which courage and compassion are one may con-found us, yet we know. We know that our vision o-f what the church must be if it is to be worth a moment o-f either human or divine time calls us to be both its bearers and its -fulfillment; both theotokos , the bearer, and corpus christa , the born. We know that together, in solidarity, we are she: women and men, older and younger, people of different races and cultures and religions, we are she. Lesbians and gay men, heterosexual ■en and women, married and single, with our diverse gifts and our divergent interests, in our shared commitment to human well-being, we are she. In our own Christian faith we know that in our shared commitment to human well-being, we are she: bearer and born, mother and child. We are the Christa (the name of Edwina Sandys' sculpture of a female Christ). (44) Reflecting on this new vision, I am often overwhelmed by the scope of the task facing those of us who embrace Feminist Liberation. I think I am not up to the job o-f transforming my own life, much less the whole world or cosmos. I am tempted to stop before I have started, but then I remember Soelle's words in her meditation on responding to the continuing reality of Auschwitz in our day. She gives a traditional answer of prayer, which I might easily dismiss if it did not come from her lips: To pray means not to despair. We must understand that we are in the midst of the despairing who have already given their consent to death. To pray is to speak out against death. To pray means to collect ourselves, to reflect, to gain clarity about our direction in life, about our goals for living. It means to remember and in that to achieve a likeness with God, to envision what we seek for ourselves and for our children, to give voice to that vision loudly and softly, together and alone, and thus to become more and more the people we were intended to be. (45) On what better note could me end our discussion of the elements of Feminist Liberation and its call to a transformative vision! The Process of Beginning, the Journey Toward Feminist Liberation : I think that it is clear by now that to embrace Feminist Liberation is no simple 90 shift in one's life; it is a paradigm shift that turns one's life upside down. How would someone come to the point of risking such a violent overthrow of what life has been for her? Each of our three theologians gives us a glimpse of the process of each beginning that journey. Heyward describes her transformative experience in relation to her recovery process: By the summer of 1985, I was just exhausted — I had dealt with experiences of death (her father's), fear (of her own death in relation to a lump in her breast which was thought to be cancerous) and Nicaragua, and I didn't know what to do with my teaching or my time other than more of what I was already doing, and I was too tired to do that. It happened that I had a Sabbatical coming up, and I took a whole year.... In October of "85, just a little over a year after Dad had died and I had returned from Nicaragua and six months after this breast- lump had been removed, I joined A. A., having been pushed in that direction by a couple of friends who confronted me with their concern about my drinking. I had no idea wh&t recovery was going to be about. I thought I was going to stop drinking and feel better. It doesn't work that way. Stop drinking, then everything falls apart. That's what I discovered. I stopped drinking. I really did think that within about a week I would feel energetic and great. Instead I began feeling , feeling pain and fatigue more than I had ever felt it, feeling confusion more than I had ever felt it. The next year was chaotic in terms of extraordinary vocational confusion but, at least, I wasn't drinking, and I was getting healthier. It was happening slowly and organically. (46) Certainly the recovery process from alcoholism was not the only contributing factor to Heyward' s understanding Feminist Liberation, but it was a powerful indication of her willingness to challenge her priorities and her assumptions about life in general and about her life in particular. For Russell the »ost significant paradigm shift in her life was her decision to go to East Harlem to minister. This experience was the one which most clearly jarred her presuppositions about life. She also points to the importance of her childhood experience of perceiving herself as a misfit as the basis for her decision to go to East Harlem. She reflects on why she was willing to be involved in subversive activity that challenged the assumptions 91 o-f her family: hy -first clue to such subversive activity comes -from long experience with being a misfit . I-f you are a tomboy and -five feet eight inches tall in the seventh grade, you never do -fit -female cultural norms. Most certainly a white middle-class woman never -fits in a New York ghetto neighborhood, nor does she fit in a Christian Brothers men's college or (■for that matter) in the ministry. Sometimes this being on the margin can give the -freedom to breathe, even the freedom to maintain a self- critical stance toward the use of your own inheritance, if indeed this is a place where you find it worthwhile to continue the struggle. (47) These views are echoed in her response to my interview question about the seeds of liberation found in her early life: I think that everything pointed in that direction. I was always a' person who didn't feel that she fit in and who always had ideas about what she wanted to do. And they didn't necessarily fit the stereotypes of what people thought. (I asked her how she survived not feeling as if she fit in.) I had the support of my family. They said it was O.K. to be me.... I think my own sense of myself that it was O.K. to be a misfit was simply that it was O.K. in my family, and I didn't feel insecure about that . . . . When I later asked her about embracing Feminist Liberation, she said she saw it as a natural extension of that earlier paradigm shift when she decided to go to East Harlem Protestant Parish. In other words, she became a liber at ion ist first and then a feminist: I think that the basic shift in my worldview came from going to work in East Harlem in 1952, and so there haven't been any basic shifts since then because that was a basic shift from a middle-class point to view to the point of view of Black and Hispanic poor, urban people. I have learned a world about my own prejudice and my perspective and my own privilege in the last 10-15 years, but my basic commitment to work on issues of race, sex and class aren't much different from 15 years ago. ... In a sense because I am a white, middle-class North American, I will always be a liberal feminist, because liberalism is part of the bourgeois tradition. It's individualism. It's being rational, open- minded. I grew up in that culture. I don't think I am ever going to get beyond that probably, but I came to feminism when I was already an advocate of liberation. ... I became a feminist liberationist and then became more and more aware of the way in which my class and my color still played out.... Like many feminists of my age, I came out of the Civil Rights Movement and various renewal movements post war, and those movements were basically concerned about justice issues so feminism was added to the justice issues.... 92 In some ways Soelle^s experience was similar to Russell's in that she was committed to other justice and liberation issues before she embraced -feminism. I have already quoted Soelle's response to my question about the seeds of liberation, which were planted earlier for her Feminist Liberation perspective. She points to her early childhood in Nazi Germany and how that has determined her struggle for peace, justice, and liberation throughout her adult years. She explains then how she came to feminism: If you ask me whether my concept of justice has changed over the years, I think it has become broader. The places where I saw God moving -in history through the liberation movements of justice have changed. They are much broader. The first challenge to me was feminism. After a long time I worked with and for justice in terms of international solidarity work, in terms of fighting against the Vietnam War and other atrocities in my lifetime. This has changed because of the clearer picture of the repression inside the First World and its societies. ... If we understand injustice as a form of violence against those weaker than others, in other words, those who are further down on the hierarchical pyramid, I don't 1 think the old themes of justice which were in my mind have changed too much. It's like a tree planted by the waters which has grown over the years: it has more branches now and a little more foliage now, but it is still the same tree. And in a way my roots in the tradition have deepened over the years. (48) As we can see in the lives of Heyward, Russell and Soelle, many factors might push one in the direction of Feminist Liberation, whether it is a sense of not fitting, the trauma of war, death of loved ones, serious illness, recovery process in relation to addiction, or travel in the Third World. Something causes us to turn around, to be converted to a new way of life called Feminist Liberation. It is not an easy life, but it is one which provides us with hope and promise. It makes us vulnerable in new ways, ways that are essential to passionate living. Having said that, I »ust restate that the journey to Feminist Liberation is not automatic or smooth. I became aware of just how difficult the process 93 of movement toward Feminist Liberation is when I met with a group o-f my colleagues and peers — other white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen. Although we have some of the commitments, analysis, and worldview which I associate with Feminist Liberation, we fail to embody that worldview consistently in our lives and ministries. I wish to describe the issues and themes which emerged in our work together so that I might move on to a new understanding of what needs to happen in order for Presbyterian clergywomen to better manifest the passionate living made possible in Feminist Liberation. 94 Endnotes 1. Carter Heyward. Our Passion -for Justice; Images of Power. Sexuality and Liberation (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1984), p. 163. 2. Interview in December, 1988. 3. Letty Russell, Growth in Partnership (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1981), p. 85. 4. Rosemary Ruether, "A Feminist Perspective," in Virginia Fabella and Sergio Torres, eds.. Doing Theology in a Divided World (rtaryknoll: Orbis Books, 1985), p. 70. 5. Carter Heyward, Our Passion -for Justice , p. xv. 6. The Mudflower Collective, God's Fierce Whimsy: Christian Feminism and Theological Education (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1985), pp. 63-4. 7. Letty Russell, The Future of Partnership (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1979), p. 19. 8. It was at the Theological Opportunities Program at Harvard Divinity School that I -first heard Katie Cannon describe how her mother instilled in her, at an early age, a. hermeneutic of suspicion, an awareness that the system was not made to work for her as a black girl. In hearing her describe this training, I began to realize that most white women do not have this hermeneutic of suspicion. As a result, we believe that the system is supposed to work for us if we just do the right thing. When the system does not work for us, we blame ourselves. 9. I wish to use Carter's understanding of revolution as reflected in Revolutionary Forgiveness: Feminist Reflections on Nicaragua : I should never even have been able to speak the word: revolution. White southern ladies do not give a damn about revolution. Debutantes do not speak of revolution unless we are deranged. Randolph-Macon Women's College girls have seen "revolution" only as a ten-letter word in textbooks that we hurry on through. Christians don't approve of revolution unless it refers to the spiritual war in heaven between, in the racist imagery we know so well, "the children o-f light" and "the children of darkness." Patriotic 4J.S. citizens do «ot Relieve in the virtues of any revolution, except «ur own little fracas some two hundred years ago against England, the bloody battle we've cleaned up in our historical memory out of respect for those nice white English gentry who are, after all, our right-cultured ancestors. I should never have even come upon the word, certainly not to linger. But I lucked out. fly tenth-grade world history teacher understood that the history of the world cannot be comprehended apart from students' willingness to study revolution. Thus, in 1960, at age fifteen, I became a student of revolution — specifically, of the 9 C" turbulence in the Congo, which my teacher, in her wisdom, would not allow us to dismiss as part of a communist plot. Since then I have always assumed that behind every revolutionary lurks a teacher, parent, -friend, someone who knew how to teach people how to think. Not what to think, but how. Rule number one: You. must begin with an open mind. I am clear, as a teacher, that an open Bind is the most precious gi-ft I can offer, and certainly the most valuable o-ffering I can receive, in relation to those who go with me into unexplored terrain and who discover there, with me, something we have not known before — and something we would not know today had we begun our travel with a closed set of assumptions. A revolutionary is a participant in the historical process of social transformation in which basic institutions — that is, government, cnurch, family — become something other than what they were. A revolutionary teacher knows that we are apt to find something new, an image we have not seen before in quite this way. A revolutionary teacher knows the revolutionary meaning, hence the social value, of what she teaches. She knows that knowledge is never neutral and that all we say, write, or read — and all we do not say, write, or read — does some service or disservice to the well-being of the creation in which we live. Carter Heyward and Anne Gibson, eds., Revolutionary Forgiveness: Feminist Reflections in Nicaragua (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1987), p. 46. 10. Dorothee Soelle, Of War and Love (haryknoll: Orbis Books, 1981), pp. 45- 6. il« Interview in December, 1988. 12. Letty Russell, et. al., eds.. Inheriting Our Mothers 7 Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1988), p. 147. 13. Carter Heyward, Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1989), pp. 54-5. 14. Taped interview in August, 1989. 15. Ibid. 16. Interview in April, 1989. 17. Ibid. 18. Carter Heyward, Touching Our Strength , pp. 150-2. 19. Letty Russell, et. al. eds., Inheriting Our Hothers' Gardens , pp. 143-4. 20. Interview in December, 1988. 96 21. Nelle Morton was a good friend of mine, and she said this during one of our many conversat ions. 22. Taped interview in August, 1989. 23. Carter Heyward and Anne Gibson, Revolutionary Forgiveness , p. 38. 24. I am aware of the class privilege that such travel may reflect, but rather than say that we should not affirm the crucial impact which Third World travel aakes on the lives of feminists, I think that it is important for us to find ways to insure that clergywomen are able to travel regardless of their financial situations. I believe that a few people can have similar experiences by totally investing their lives among the poor of this country. The danger is that the middle class values are so pervasive in our society that one will succumb to them, leaving behind the new consciousness. I will write more about this in Chapter 5. 25. Interview in April, 1989. 26. One* 5 consciousness determines how such experiences function in our lives. For this reason, it is urgent to have programs and other opportunities through which clergywomen can grow in our awareness and learn to apply those new worldviews in old and new settings. Chapter 7 will indicate some strategies to insure the development of our consciousness. 27. Dorothee Soelle, Of War and Love , pp. 150-1. 28. Dorothee Soelle, The Arms Race Kills Even Without War (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1983), pp. 75-6. 29. Ibid., p. 104. 30. Interview in December, 1988. 31. Letty Russell, Household of Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1987), p. 71. 32. Carter Heyward and Anne Gibson, Revolutionary Forgiveness , p. 99. 33. Ibid. 34. Letty Russell, Growth in Partnership , p. 27. 35. Letty Russell, Household of Freedom , p. 65. 36. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Letters and Papers from Prison , enl., ed. by Eberhard Bethge (Macmillan Publishing Co., 1972), p. 17. as quoted by Letty Russell, Household of Freedom , p. 66. 37. The notion of eapoweraent is one embraced by feainists, but the following quote indicates that the issue is complicated. 97 A good many -feminists have seized upon this concept o-f empowerment as relevant to their experience and more congenial than the usual concepts o-f power. To be empowered is to experience the value of oneself, to take the self seriously in the totality of one's reality- body, mind, history, vision, and dreams. To be empowered is to feel oneself expanding, getting in touch with one's own needs and goals, developing powers of decision, acquiring new skills, becoming able to do things formerly feared or viewed as impossible. As valuable as this process of empowerment has been, it has tended to keep us from coming to terms with the realities of our own power and powerlessness and our use of power. Many feminists have tried to distinguish sharply between empowerment as development of one's own strength and power as "power over" another. Thus women have separated "personal power" and "social power," approving the former as "control over my own life" and disowning the latter as "control over others." But the case is not so simple. Modestly, I may claim only the right to control my own decisions without wishing to control others, recognizing, of course, that the other has the same rights as the self. But my needs conflict with the real needs of others; human beings are interdependent. If I want wholesome food to eat, clean air to breathe, pure water to drink, to say nothing of adequate health care, a living wage, an end to racial discrimination, I need social power; that is, a real voice in the allocation of resources and services, which in turn involves a measure of control over others. This returns women to the question of how to behave when rightful self-affirmation meets resistance. The Cornwall Collective, Your Daughters Shall Prophesy: Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1980), pp. 80-1. 38. Interview in April, 1989. 39. Dorothee Soelle, Of War and Love , p. 101. 40. Dorothee Soelle and Fulbert Steffensky, Not Just Yes & Amen: Christians with a Cause (Philadelphia: Fortress Press, 1985), pp. 62-3. 41. Letty Russell, Human Liberation in a Feminist Perspective: A Theology (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1974), p. 45. 42. Dorothee Soelle, Of War and Love , pp. 45-7. 43. Moranga, Cherrie and Anzaldua, Gloria, •ds., This Bridge Called fly Back: Writings by Radical Women of Color (Watertown: Persephone Press, 1981), pp. 208-9. 44. Carter Heyward, Speaking of Christ: A Lesbian Feminist Voice (ed. by Ellen Davis) (New York: Pilgrim Press, 1989), pp. 83-4. 45. Dorothee Soelle, The Arms Race Kills Even Without War , p. 23. 98 46. Interview in December, 1988. 47. Letty Russell, et. al., eds., In heriting Our Mothers" Gardens , p. 149, 48. Taped interview in August, 1989. 99 Chapter IV The Lived Experience o-f White, Middle-Strata Feminist Presbyterian Clergywomen Introduction : As I mentioned in the introduction, I felt that it was extraordinarily important -for me to write this thesis in a way that reflected my own experience; however, I also wished to write on behalf of and from the perspective of other white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen. These women are "my people" in a very significant way, and it is our experience that is central to this thesis. I felt very strongly that I .had to have a group to whom I was accountable in some significant way. In addition, I was convinced that feminist research and writing could not rightfully be done in isolation; therefore I wanted to find a way to have my work emerge out of the corporate group of women in which I am a participant. It was these women who could provide me with support as well as with information and correction as I worked on the thesis. As a result of these convictions, I invited a group of white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen to meet with me to discuss some of the issues that pertained to my work. I selected 17 clergywomen, whom I knew and with whom I felt I could work, from whom I hoped I would get 10 to be in the group. They were all feminists who had political acumen in the Presbyterian Church and who were willing and able to give the time and energy necessary to be part of the group. Any combination of these 17 women would have been pleasing to me and would have worked. As it turned out, there were nine of us, including me. We mere quite a varied group even though we shared race, class, gender, political perspective, denominational identity, and occupation. We ranged in age from late ? 30s to late '60s. We had had diverse career experiences that included parish ministry, denominational staff work, church-related organizations. interim ministry, and campus ministry. We had served in all regions of the United States over the years of our ministries. We had been ordained as many as 25 years and as few as three or four years, although the one ordained for the fewest years had worked for many years on the national staff as a lay woman. Three of the women identified themselves as lesbians. Two were officially retired and one was on disability. Six had been married and three of those were divorced, none having remarried. Following their acceptance to be members of the group, they received a packet cf articles by feminist liberationists to provide a common base fpr our discussions when we gathered together. Also I sent out a series of questions which I wanted them to think about or even write some notes on before we came together. They would later respond to those questions in writing following our retreat. Both these questions and the ones used during the retreat were posed in order to elicit responses that would reflect the elements of Liberal Feminism and/or Feminist Liberation as defined in Chapter II. The questions I sent to them were as follow: 1. Describe yourself right now in terms of where you are personally and interpersonal ly. What are your priorities? What are your burning issues 9 Where do you spend your energy 9 2. What are the basic norms of your ethics? Have they changed much over the years? If so, in what way have they changed? 3. What difference has your particularity (gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, etc.) aade in your life and ministry? In what ways do you remind yourself of your particularity and value it, and in what ways do you avoid it and deny it? In what ways do you honor the particularity of others? 4. What is your sense of vocation? How is your sense of vocation fulfilled in the work you do now (whether paid or not)? When has your sense of vocation been in conflict with your actual job? How did you experience this conflict? 5. What were the stated and unstated assumptions about work in your family? How was worked viewed? Was it ever talked about? What work 101 did your parents do? Do you know what your parents actually did on their jobs? If not, why not, and how did that shape your own attitude about work? 6. What are your attitudes about work? If you had an absolute choice, not related to earning money, what would you most want to do? When you think of "workers," what is your image? In what ways are ministers similar to and different from other workers? 7. Have there been significant shifts (shifts in paradigm or worldview) in your adult life, especially in the last 10-15 years? If so. describe these shifts and the impact they have had on you. 8. What does the phrase, "Making the Connections," mean to you? How does it impact your life and ministry? 9. Have you participated in civil disobedience? If so, what were .'the factors which influences you to do so? How did you understand your action? What impact did this experience have on your life in general? If not, what circumstances, if any, would compel you to participate in civil disobedience? 10. In what ways in your life has the erotic/sensual/sexual been experienced as a source of creation/liberation/power? Are there ways in which the erotic, spiritual, and vocational have been linked in such a way in your life as to be empowering to you and others? Where have they been in conflict? Please describe. 11. Where has liberalism been helpful and supportive of your feminism? Where have you experienced contradictions or conflicts within Liberal Feminism? Are there ways in which Liberal Feminism has prepared you. to move on to a. more radical analysis of the political dynamics you meet in the church or society? What risks might be involved in your embracing a more radical or a Feminist Liberation analysis? 12- When you envision yourself 20 years from now, who do you see? How would you have liked to have spent your time and energy? What personal and societal issues will have received most of your attention? We finally came together in Louisville, Kentucky, on April 21-23, 1989. (See Appendix J for the design.) We followed this design very closely, partly because our time together was relatively short. Some of the questions used for discussion sessions were similar or exactly the same as the ones included in the series of questions I asked the women to respond to in writings. The feel of the gathering was one of warmth, trust, cooperation and 102 high energy. All of the women knew me, and most of the women knew at least one other woman in the group. The pace was exhausting, but complaints were few, even though two women were in physical pain. I could not have asked for or planned for a better group feeling and eager individual participation. Some talked more and some less, but I detected that that was a function of personality rather than feeling left out. As a matter of fact, everyone seemed to encourage everyone to participate. In some sessions, each person was directly asked to respond to a particular question in the whole group. I sensed little in the way of competition or serious conflict among us. I felt that ail the women were glad that they had come and some indicated that the experience was restorative. As already mentioned, I participated in the same way as any other member of the group except that I clarified the questions at the beginning of each session. I also recruited some of the women to help in taping the sessions, participating in the rituals, writing questions on newsprint, organizing the snacks, etc. Even though I had a lot to do, I felt very much supported and as though the responsibility weight of the retreat was shared. I did have to keep the overview in mind, but continual willingness to pitch in on the part of all of the others made the experience a joy. I had asked, prior to the retreat, that the clergywomen plan to have their written responses to the set of questions I had sent them earlier to «e by June 1st, and most responses got to me on time. Hy «ethod of gathering information from the clergywomen was inductive. I asked them a series of questions that I hoped would indirectly elicit responses reflecting their inclinations toward Liberal Feminism and/or Feminist Liberation. This chapter will reflect both the individual work done in writing and the corporate work 103 done at the gathering in Louisville. I had hoped that we could do some further work by computer, but that did not seem to be feasible. Issues Reflected in the Corporate and Individual Work of the Clerqywomen ; When I had read over all of the material gathered in writing from members of the group and had the transcripts of all of the sessions of the retreat, I wrote up a statement of composite themes that seemed to emerge from the material as I read it. I also included some of my assumptions from, questions about, and responses to that work. It is that summary statement which is the base for this chapter. The categories I have chosen as sub- topics for this chapter reflect the material as it presented itself to me rather than the elements of Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation discussed in Chapter II. Still and all, there are interconnections between the sub- topics and those elements. Under each theme, I will describe the responses of the clergy-women and then make a brief analytical statement. In some cases I will pose some questions. Before I share that work, I wish to make clear two factors which had an impact on my interpretation of this material. First, I very much identify with these women. They are "my people" in a special way, and each has had her important impact on my journey as a white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywoman. They are some of my closest colleagues, and my respect for them is profound. What I reflect in this chapter is built on my respect and affection for each of them and is not to be interpreted as a negative response to them as a group or as individuals. The frustration which is sometimes reflected in my comments is one I have had and continue to have with myself in my journey toward Feminist Liberation. Second, I have had a difficult time both keeping my sense of identification with these sisters while still 104 acknowledging wherein I am in a different place -from the composite described here. For this reason I have not included myself in the description of the material unless clearly indicated. There are times I have used "we" in the analysis and questions when what I have written rings true for me at this point in time. I am deeply indebted to my colleagues for sharing with me experiences and stories, precious parts of their lives, which have been invaluable to me as I have worked on this thesis. 1. Particularity and Privilege Description ; The acknowledging and affirming of their own particularities is one important way that these women have become able to accept, respect and honor the particularities of others. As a matter of fact, they seem to enjoy the richness and stimulation which such diversity brings. One woman describes it this way: 1 value my particularity very highly. All I have to contribute to the world comes from what is unique about me. It is the lens through which I see the world. I neec to be conscious when I am acting out of that lens so I can honor the particularity of others and not harm them in the process. I am very much aware of the particularities of race, sex and sexual orientation... (Janelle) (1) This perspective is counter to the way in which many of them were brought up to value similarities and to attempt to blend into their significant groups. The result of this kind of upbringing can be seen in the admission of Lark: Most of my work is "business as usual" in a style that seeks to blend in. Mostly I do not know well any whose particularity is different from my own. I can work with a variety of people if the boundaries of work are already set; I am not able to create these opportunities. Some of the clergywoiaen have greater difficulty than others in grasping the concept of privilege, the advantage in power and status assigned to certain groups because of their racial, gender, age, class, professional, 105 national identities and particularities. They are more able to understand the concept of privilege in those areas where they lack privilege than in those where they have privilege. However, even then it is a concept that some resist. During our gathering, I spent about half an hour trying to explain to Deborah why her physical disability was an issue o-f privilege. There seemed to be no way to explain it to her so that she could understand that those who were temporarily able-bodied had privilege she did not, for the time, have. Analysis ; Although these women have learned to embrace variety, -for some the impact of being "taught" to be like everyone else still lurks. On some level they have chosen to be different in that they are clergywomen, and they obviously value their own uniqueness and that of others. On another level, how to affirm and live with the difference of race, class, or sexual orientation is still a puzzle for most of them. I do not believe that the women's inability to grasp the concept of privilege was so surprising, because we humans do not tend to recognize easily the privilege we have unless it is pointed out to us by those who do not have it. It has been said that one reality of those with privilege is that they can remain ignorant of their privilege. Wherein we have power, status, or advantage because of our race, class, gender, etc., we tend not to realize it because it seems all so normal to us. However, I am somewhat surprised that this particular group of clergywomen is not any more aware of the concept of privilege than they are. I believe that this resistance to the concept of privilege among white, middle-strata clergywomen may very well be due to their race, class, national, and professional identities; all ones imbued with privilege. Privileges are the carrots used by society and its institutions to coopt us; to assure our 106 co-operation with the way things are. If we have many privileges, we have •uch more to lose, by society's standards, if we challenge the carrot system by whi:h we have been rewarded. Ironically, it may be because we are generally so privileged in this society that we do not easily see our own lack o-f privilege when it exists. I also believe that many clerqywomen 7 s difficulty in grasping the reality of privilege comes from a tendency to see privilege only in terms of personal relationships (where power and status differentials do exist) rather than also in terms of interqroup dynamics. As a result, there is a tendency to focus on how they treat individuals who do not have the same race, gender or class privilege as they have, whether it is in the form of polite social interaction, tne assuring of job possibilities, or the election of persons of less privilege to public office. In reality, all of these efforts may make life a little better for everyone, but they will not make any measurable difference, for the power dynamics will remain the same. The social, economic, and political order will remain as it is. Quest ion : How do the structures of privilege impede our capacities to feel privileged and to see the power dynamics of our privilege? How can those structures of privilege be effectively challenged? 2. Civil Disobedience Description : None of these women has been involved in Civil Disobedience (CD.), although all have commitments to justice and have taken actions of various types (marches, demonstrations, speeches, etc.) to express their views and advocacy. Some were open to doing CD. but felt that they had not been in the right place at the right time to participate in CD. while others saw it as a most serious step to be taken only as a last resort. Some feared that 107 they would automatically go to jail or probably be treated violently if they did CD. Here are illustrations of the kinds of responses they gave: I r ve been in marches and demonstrations but not in civil disobedience per se, nor do I plan to be. I have no desire to go to jail. It is possible that something could compel me to civil disobedience, but I'm not sure what that would be. It would have to come as a deep conviction from within me, and I am not there yet. (River Woman) ...I have marched and demonstrated, but I think I would be stretching the truth to say that what I have done has been civil disobedience. I would participate in civil disobedience to witness for women's rights, gay rights, racial equality, and peace. If I were in a situation where civil disobedience was being used for purposes in which I believed I would feel compelled to participate. (Dweller) I have a hard time with violence of any kind. It would take a lot. for me to put myself in the situation where I am voluntarily likely to experience violence. At the same time, I am very much concerned about the policies and practices which the country is following. I might engage in civil disobedience if I were convinced that it was part of a strategy which would bring about change. I feel that some of the civil disobedience activities can actually strengthen the system which people feel they are trying to defeat. (Janeile) ...Even when I have felt strongly about an issue, I have not chosen that path.... I would have to be persuaded of the ultimate value of the disobedience before I could enter into such an activity. It seems to me that there are so many ways to make views known that only after all of tnose had been exhausted would I be able to take that final step. (Red. ! AnalyslE ; I find myself pondering whether these views may reflect a real hesitancy to break the law unless it is unquestionable that that is what should be done. It seems that some of the women may have some authority issues around this subject and that they want to know for sure that they are doing the right thing and that they will be successful in »aking societal changes. That seems very much like playing, "Mother, May I." I also find •yself wondering whether attitudes toward CD. nay be an indication of the level of radicalization which a person has reached. I say that thinking that those who seriously do contemplate and do decide to participate in CD. Bust have had some of their categories jarred because our society is such a "law 108 and order" environment. To break the law intentionally requires questioning the authority of the law in our lives and our society. Still and all, I am aware that everyone is not meant to do CD. no matter how radical they are. 3. S £ x u a 1 / Erotic / Sens u a 1 Description : Most of the women could see the erotic/sensual as creative and liberating power in their lives and could connect it to their work/ vocation. For example, Virginia indicates that she experiences the power from her sexual/erotic/sensual self: "My sensual and sexual life is a source of liberation and creation often. My sense of who I am, as woman, created in God's image, leads me to being creative with ideas, with education, with people." A couple of the women felt that one of the most erotic experiences they had had involved intense and challenging mental engagement. However, some saw little or no connection between their work and the erotic, sensual and sexual. Lark makes this clear when she says, The erotic/sensual/sexual has not been perceived by me to be a source of creation/liberation/power except during my two pregnancies. I enjoyed those times. Otherwise, sexual issues have been divisive, distracting and destructive. The erotic — spiritual — and daily vocational concerns are disparate boxes without connection: that's how I have kept them out of conflict. My erotic and spiritual capacities are stronger now since I attended seminary (where I felt these qualities to be valued), but they are still underdeveloped, as is my private self in general. I'm about 12 years old. Analysis : I sensed in some of these women little comfort in their bodies. I was profoundly impressed by the reality that none of the heterosexual women reflected much sense of joy around their sexuality, and some actually shared that this was a problematic and painful area in their lives. Daisy, while pondering the question about how the sexual/erotic/sensual was a source of creation/liberation/power in her life, said to the rest of us: 109 ...The early part of my life, I was a singer and was very much aware of the erotic/sensual/sexual as a source of that. It was very much put together. It was a very -focused kind of experience. I have never found any experience like it at all. Ever since that time I have searched for some other way of expression. I never found one. There is nothing else that focuses everything, physical, emotional, oental and sexual. That has been a real loss for me. The other thing is that when I got my first dog, I could hug that dog and he loved it. That was a very- freeing experience. He was so important in that respect. That was after all those other losses. That physical expression was terribly important. Interestingly enough, the three lesbians in the group seemed to be more in touch with and joyous about their sexuality and saw it as a source of power in their lives and ministries. One of these women made this kind of integration clear when she wrote: I find that ray sexual orientation has been a real source of power for me. I feel that I am not so much a captive to the white male system because of my affiliation and affection for women. I do not have to compromise my ideas, beliefs or actions in order to be acceptable to men. I realize that they cannot give me what I need. I am grateful that women are also developing our own economic systems so we can further reduce our dependence on men. The church may perceive that there might be some conflict between my vocation and my erotic/sensual/ sexual life. I do not. I feel that God made me a whole human being and that I have the responsibility to be a good steward with how I express ay humanity. It is fascinating and paradoxical that the lesbians should feel so much at home with their sexuality despite the fact that they are oppressed in church and society because of their sexual orientation. Questions ; Could it be that the lesbians have been forced by their oppression to struggle more profoundly with the issues of their sexuality, thereby coming to the point of security and contentment in this area of their lives? In what ways is the experience of the sexual/erotic/sensual different for lesbians? 4. Political Sense and Involvement 110 Description : These women all have experience working in one of the most patr larchal institutions in our society, the church, and they nave learned a lot from that experience. Half of them began their ministries before they were feminists, in many ways unaware of the political dynamics of the church and the impact those dynamics would have on them and their ministries. I think that all of them, with possibly one exception, came to ordained ministry with liberal commitments, thinking that the system could be changed by incremental steps if they just knew the right formula. A good illustration of this effort was Ruby Fruit's description of the work she and others did on behalf of Church Employed Women: That reminds me of the time that Church Employed women asked permission to have input into the EEO/AA Plan of the United Presbyterian Church so we would be assured that women and racial ethnic persons would be guaranteed justice as employees in the UPCUSA. And we went and got a lesson from the guy who was in charge of the EEO/AA in Albany, New York. Then we flew out to Denver. It was the craziest thing I had ever done. We (Annette and I were the co-chairs of CEW. ) sat up until 2:30 a.m., and had to catch an 8:00 a.m. flight to Denver. When we got out to Denver, we realized that Leon had gone through and told us of every- place in the Presbyterian document that had to be changed. We discovered that the people we were talking to didn't know a damn thing about EEO/AA. As a result, we (the two of us) wrote the entire document. It was incredible. That was because we had people behind us, the small motley crew of Church Employed Women. The EEO/AA Committee made every single change that we proposed even though the document was pages long. They didn't know what had hit them because they didn't understand what they were doing. So often I think about the importance of being corporately involved and secondly not assuming that other people -know more than you do. Annette and I were not trying to trick this committee. We had just done our homework and knew our stuff.... But it shows what can be accomplished by just plain grit. Even though it took a hell of a lot of energy to go and learn all of that and then to go and explain it to others, that plan, as we wrote it, stood as the EEO/AA Program of the (JPCUSA for 10 years until the merger. In other words, the system could be made to work for them! It was only after a number of years of working in the church that »ost of them began to ask whether the system, as it was, would ever work for them without radical 111 change. For example, the above EEO/AA Plan that Ruby Fruit helped to write, was completely undone with reunion between the UPCUSA and the PCUS. It shows how ephemeral the hard -fought -for accomplishments really were. Similar experiences have occurred in other liberation movements. Another important -factor missing in the thinking of several of these women is an adequate power analysis; therefore, they are sometimes forced to act naively and blindly, which hampers their effectiveness. Daisy gives an illustration of how the power dynamics of race and gender affected her deleteriously, some affects of which she still didn't understand: The congregation (she was the pastor) was unable to vote at a certain point whether or not to sell the church building. (In the middle of a large urban area where the property was worth millions) They had a deadline they had to make. The Strategy Committee of the Presbytery recommended that we go to the presbytery and ask permission to sell, pending the vote of the congregation. There was a Korean congregation meeting within the building. We had talked to the Korean congregation about building together within the new space which was proposed, but for the proposed owners, it became awkward and they said positively no building would be done inside the complex. Therefore, there was no longer an option to have any space; so the only option was to sell or not to sell. The Koreans immediately said, "You are the ones who got us to be Christians in the first place, now you owe us this space." Then they made us an offer for the building which was less than half of what it was worth. . . . When we went to the presbytery meeting, unfortunately, the elder from our congregation, who was chosen because of his ability to speak and reason, was not prepared and did a lousy job. When the Strategy Committee made its motion (to allow the congregation to sell the building on the open market), before the chairman even sat down, the Stated Clerk called upon the Koreans for their protest. In the ■eantime, the Korean Staff person, who was the staff person for three presbyteries, got up and engaged "the «oderator in conversation. The Koreans demonstrated all down the aisle, all dressed up. The emotional people were asked to come and speak. Two Black men spoke. They had been asked to do this. They were the two most vocal. They both put on this show par excellance. They made several speeches. When I talked to C.G. later and I said, "What in the 'H' are you doing this for?" He said, "I don ? t even know what it is about. They just told me to get up and make a speech against it." The other thing that was very bad was the fact that they asked our session to come forward, and the only ones that would come down were the white women. All of the Blacks remained under the balcony. We had these two Black men, a bunch of Koreans, and 112 white women, so of course we lost. They had been trying to resolve it (the issue o-f selling the building) -for 14 years. The first year 1 came, it was in December, and in June the building was condemned by the Presbytery. We went to work and did all the things we could do to rescue the Building until they made us an example to all the churches that were in the same boat. I think that is another reason why they shot us down, because we were a successful congregation by their standards and some of those folks couldn't stand it. They couldn't stand the success of the congregation. They couldn't stand the fact that we could have possibly gotten that much money (from the sale of the building). In our plans to sell the building, we had said how much we would give to the presbytery. After I resigned, I went all over the country (looking for a job). Nobody is going to touch a white woman who is 62 years old. I met,J.F. (a seminary professor) on the street one day. He said, "How are you doing?" I said, "Gee, I don't know when I am going to stop eating." He took out his wallet, handed me a. $20.00 bill and said, "I just want you to know that a lot of people wish they had the guts you have." Everyone said, "Don't resign." But it was the only way I had any energy left. That church was going to die for sure if I had stayed so I had to leave as soon as possible. Analysis : Somewhat surprisingly, we clergywomen choose to remain in the church even though we critique it, but few of us are really doing anything radical enough to bring about any real change. One factor that creates this contradiction is that, unlike our racial ethnic sisters, a hermeneutic of suspicion, complemented by a hermeneutic of hope, was not instilled in white, middle-strata women at an early age. We never knew deep within us that the patriarchal system wouldn't really work for us; therefore we never sought our hope in a new social order. We have been led to believe that if we are just "nice" and take the advice of those in power, the old system will finally work for us. Even those of us who know intellectually that this premise is false have a hard tine leaving that hope behind in order to take action consistent with our knowledge. Questions : How can the hermeneutics of suspicion and of hope be cultivated in white, middle-strata clergywomen before we get disillusioned 113 and/or destroyed by the system? Why have we been so resistant to a power analysis of the dynamics we find in the church? 5. Personal and Communal Issues Description : The clergy-women with whom I met all have some sense of the importance of community, especially when it comes to counting on other women, particularly feminists, for support and nurturing. However, what seems to be •issing for some of them is auch mention of their capacity and/or inclination to collaborate and strategize with other women when it comes to political work. However, most are aware that working with others in a corporate ''conspiracy" would be much more effective politically, and some can point to experiences which prove that point. Deborah points out how working witn just one other woman helped as the two of them worked to bring about change in their presbytery; In 19/0 in our presbytery we were trying to get the issue of women before the presbytery as a priority. The first task was getting women on the docket and then keeping them there. It came down to myself and one other woman sitting on a Long Range Planning Committee. We simply- refused to go home every time we had a meeting until we were back on the docket. But, it took at least two of us. If either of us was sick, we called each other so fast. We had to be there even if we were sick. So the corporate starts with two. Later we had a great task force because we had more numbers. But whether it was two or many, it was collective. I really believe it is very i«portant. They seem, however, to have very little sense of a community to which they are accountable, and this say be related to their lacking a sense of who their people are. They seem to share with aany other white, aiddle-strata women the assumption that all people are their people, which is a false premise. It •eans, in effect, that they have no real sense of a particular people. 114 Many of these women have worked very hard -For justice within the church and the world, to the point of burnout for some. All indicate a need for spiritual renewal and for time and energy to work on their own self-esteem and self-actualization. Still and all, the focus on personal growth does not seem to mean isolation from others, for their concern for building relationships with family, friends, colleagues and co-conspirators seems to be of prime importance to them. They see their own personal growth very much related to their desire for, commitment to and work on justice. Virginia shows this kind of integration of the political and personal when she images herself 20 years from now: I will have continued to be involved in justice issues and have spent time continuing my own growth, my relationships, and my vocation. I would probably have lost my mother and so will have spent energy dealing with her estate and moving on without her. She has been a very- accepting, supporting parent/friend, and I will miss her. I would hope the church is more open to those "cast-out" — the poor, disenfranchised, gay and lesbian, etc. Analysis ; I am not sure whether the difficulty these women have in working together politically is due to a sense of competition with other women or whether it is a reflection of the dislike many women have of other women. The former tendency is reinforced by the individualism advocated within liberalism and within the white, middle-class U.S. society. Lark points to the role of competition in her life: I grew up with the notion that if I had it, that it wasn't necessarily true that other people had it also. There wasn't enough to go around. It wasn't a case of my being able to honor other people's, let's say, academic ability, if I had academic ability. It was always competition. I was terribly programmed with a competitive kind of affect. If there was a shortage of it, we couldn't all be honored. I don't know whether that fits for anybody else or not. I hear about this collaboration that we women have always had, but competitiveness was the name of the game for me. 11 c- The latter tendency may reflect internalized oppression through which a voice within us undervalues our sisters and us, as women, making effective collaboration difficult. E>weller reflects her own early dislike of women, which she has worked to counter in her adult years: In seminary, I did not experience sisterhood, but I really experienced the hope, the description, the body of literature, the poets, the awareness of a worldwide group of women who know each other. I graduated from college in 1972. So my adulthood in the '70s was a success as judged by male models.... By many of those standards, I was relatively successful. I got all the right recommendations for seminary and the kind of life experience that got me a good amount of support in seminary. I didn't like women very much. Partly I didn't like that I had grown up a female and knew that it was a disadvantage. ... The seminary experience itself did not do a lot of bridging, but it really got my expectations up. It got me living with God attitudes and language attitudes about myself and being a woman, getting some of that in place in a real life-giving way. 6. Ethical Norms Description : What really surprised me was that in responding to the question regarding the bases of their ethical norms, many of the women reflected that their ethical norms hadn't changed throughout their lives. In some cases, they feel that the expression of those norms or their understanding of what those norms require has changed — but not the essence of the norms. We can see this attitude in River Woman's response: The basic norms of my ethics haven't changed much over the years: treat others respectfully; share what I have; put my weight on the side of justice, tty awareness of what all that means specifically has changed as I have become more aware of what the other person considers respectful, for example. I'm learning to listen and to question my assumptions. I also see that respect has to be extended to all of creation. Daisy echoes this notion: Norms of my ethics: My parents' example, 10 Commandments, Jesus' teachings. They haven't changed much. 116 I have a sense of my ethical norms having changed drastically over the years, so this phenomenon is puzzling to me. Dweller comes the closest to re-Fleeting my experience o-f changing norms when she writes: Yes, my basic ethical norms have changed radically. From "Do unto others what you want done unto you" to something like this: "Find out ■first what the other persons want; believe it or not, they may not want what I want! Then consider if I can help them achieve their desires. And then treat them as they want to be treated. Analysis : I have struggled with whether this lack of change and/or the lack o-f the awareness o-f such change mean that these women have not reflected much on this issue or that they have not been challenged to change or thfat what I think of as change is not at the base level. To say that my ethical norms have not changed would be (for me) the same as saying that my faith has not changed for 50 years. I have often thought such a statement about faith was a sign of immature faith development. However, knowing these women, I Go not think of them as immature ethically. Still it would seem that until one is willing and able intentionally to question one's ethical norms in a profound way, one is not ready to change one's deepest attitudes and take radical political risks. Questions : Could this lack of change have anything to do with their level of radicality? What enables women to take the risk of making changes in their ethical norms? Who benefits from the lack of change in ethical norms? 7. Paradigm Shifts Description : Host of the wo»en are aware of significant shifts in their lives brought on by traumas in their personal or career lives, recovery process, living outside the U.S., identifying as feminists and/or lesbians, etc. Janelle describes how her recovery process in relation to alcoholism was an experience of paradigm shift for her: 117 There has been a major worldview shift in the past -five years in uy lite. The experience centers around my getting sober. I -feel that I am more open to my own experience and those experiences o-f others. Previously, I -functioned in the world by using my intellect aione. Now I am open to my feelings, what they tell me and how to interact more humanely with others, hy work is more effective now that I am more open to my feelings. I am certainly having more fun. Some see the result of such shifts as being cataclysmic in the sense of turning their worlds upside-down while others see them having a profound, but more subtle, impact. They have a sense that their openness to such paradigm shifts and willingness to take the risks involved depend on a number of factors within and external to themselves. One factor that has enhanced their chances of experiencing such shifts is being a part of a community that encourages such openness and risk-taking and in which radical changes in one's life are not considered unusual or weird. They also feel that such shifts happen in people's lives when the old ways have stopped workings so a. susceptibility to new alternatives/options is created. River Woman shows how she came to a real shift when ner old ways of looking at an issue became futile: I have to tell you a. little of the history first. When our denominations were reuniting, some of us women in the Atlanta Office would get together and try to figure out where we were in the midst of all this. What were our dreams and visions for the future of the denomination. We never really got any clarity about that. Although we got clear about some of our values, we couldn't ever get clarity about how those values could be played out in the new structure. One of the jokes we had going at that time was about the little kid who is shoveling shit out of a barn and shoveling like his life depended on it. A passerby said, "What are you doing?" The little kid said, "I know there is a pony in there somewhere." That is the analogy me had of what was going on. The pony was not materializing. I did, a long time later, end up finding the pony. I suddenly got this, probably a simple insight but for me a world-shifting, insight; that the pony was me and each of my sisters. The shift that it made in my life is that, that is what I've been working on ever since. That feels right, it feels on target. Trying to find a pony out there only leads to frustration. Once I started realizing the pony was in each one of us, the God Spirit or whatever you want to call it, and started living with that 118 reality, my life is different. It is different on & daily basis. In the things that I think are important. My faith is not in our political systems or in the structures or the institutions we live with anymore. I think a lot of my life, it was. But now my faith is in the God Spirit in each one of us. That means I spend a lot of my time in prayer, in reflection, in meditation and in journaling. My focus is not on what do I need to do when something happens, but on what do I need to understand. What is going on? Not rushing into some activity just to be busy, or just to have something to do. The difference it has made is a very personal one that impacts whatever I do. Another factor that supports such shifts is a strong sense of self- esteem, because the person feels that she is a person for whom it is worth taking risks. Also having a grounded sense of what one feels called to do gives one the kind of confidence, serenity and staying power needed in a time of such shifts. Facing death-rendering realities, whether physical or emotional, seems to jar the categories that are central to the very being of a person. Suddenly what was fear-provoking loses its power, and one's whole sense of reality changes. The question is what it takes for us to realize that the potential for death on this side of the chasm is probably worse than the death that might happen when we take the leap of change. The women also identified some factors that block them from embracing opportunities for such paradigm shifts. One is an inordinate need for acceptance, so some women continue to do things and live their lives as they think others want them to. They may be discouraged from paradigm shifts by- current relationships or by tapes resulting from past relationships, which may have been running for years and which tend to control their behavior. For example, one woman said that she had to have conversations with the fearful little child within her who tends to prevent her from taking risks. They also felt that the social institutions of this society keep things as they are by controlling any "deviant" behavior, thereby discouraging any 119 stepping out of line. Being geographically isolated -from other -feminists or being clobbered in the power struggles among women can both mitigate any tendency toward risk-taking. Having too sheltered a life can work against the probability that one will move out away from one's own reality because there is nothing to motivate taking the risks involved in such change. Virginia reflects such an experience during her growing up years: I am pondering on your talking about growing up knowing you couldn't trust anybody. I grew up trusting everything. My parents were honest. My Dad in the '50s was walking in marches. That in itself encourages me to do whatever I want to do. I think that it has also hindered me in seeing the truth. My Dad died just after I graduated from college. My involvement in the church and the sins that I saw are not anything I could ever talk with him about. He also saw those. It wasn't until I was at Union that I began to say to myself, "I can be responsible for determining what I see in the world, and I don't have to just take what I have been told." It was tnen when I first started learning. Lastly, fear is a block to risk-taking, especially when there are observable reasons for being fearful, such as threats to one's life and well-being. Analysis : These clergywomen seem to be able to articulate what creates the psychic atmosphere in which they are blocked or enhanced in making paradigm shifts. However, I believe that most of them seem to be blocked from making what I would call significant shifts. The kinds of shifts mentioned by some of the group gathered in Louisville were changes that take place as a normal flow of life rather than worldview shifts, which tend to be experienced as an overthrow of one's way of looking at and interpreting events in one's life. For example, Daisy mentions the following as paradigm shifts: Shifts in the past 10-15 years: Was ordained, left "475" (National Headquarters of UPCUSA) , and took churches which required more self- starting and self-governing. In my last congregation there was no ■team" to be part of, and I missed that dreadfully. Red also reflects this less dramatic understanding of paradigm shift: Probably the most significant shift in paradigm for roe is my understanding of alternative. Graduating from college in 1961, I could 120 picture very clearly the world in which I expected to live and work. My role and those of my -friends and neighbors could be easily identified, and we all fit into that picture. Before I completed seminary in 1964 that had begun to shift. Women no longer were preparing to work "someday". They were now charting their own life course. Gradually those old role identities have been erased. Now I have few expectations as I encounter others because each life and lifestyle has to be seen separately. The effect of this shift has been to become more curious, more open, »ore able to hear what others are saying. Others mentioned shifts in their lives that I would associate with significant worldview changes, such as those brought on by becoming sober, identifying oneself as feminist and/or lesbian, or going through a transformation of one's theological perspective. Even with these significant shifts, there seems to be a block to acting out of that new place in ways that contribute to the bringing in of a new social order. As a matter of fact, there is little or no mention of structures when considering paradigm shifts. Questions ; What are the ways in which the blocks to paradigm shifts or to the resulting trans-format ion can be reduced in clergywomen' s lives? In what ways can the risks associated with such change be off-set and superceded by the risks of staying in the society and church as they are? How can clergywomen learn to incorporate the structural and systemic into their understanding of paradigm shifts? 8. Global Sense Description ; It was striking to »e that any mention by the clergywomen of the global situation seemed to be tangential to other considerations, with a couple of clear exceptions. One of those exceptions was Dweller's strong commitment to doing something about the situation in the Middle East: ...I said that there were two things I was willing to work on in retirement. One was the Middle East, specifically, Palestinian and Israeli Resolution.... But even Dweller, after this brief aside, goes on to talk about building 121 r el at ion ship s with her -family and her work on AIDS rather than expand in g on her work on the Middle East. It seems as if those who do take notice of tne global scene -find themselves overwhelmed with more immediate concerns in their own homes and in this nation. Analysis : This omission of the global nay have been due, in part, to the type o-f questions I asked, but as I examined the questions, it seemed as i-f there would have been ample opportunity to re-flect global concerns. It is interesting that one of my consultants to this thesis said that she felt that the only way that white, middle-strata clergywomen from the U.S. could be truly radicalized and moved into a Feminist Liberation commitment and analysis was by spending time in the "Third World". I resisted that notion, at first, even though spending a lot of time in Latin America has had that very impact on me. I think that spending a lot of time with the poor in this country might have the same impact. However, it would be easier to return to one's safe, middle-strata zone while still here in tne U.S. It may be that we have to be out of the radius of the white, middle-strata, U.S. mentality in order to be free to make the kind of radical shifts needed in our lives so as to move more completely toward Feminist Liberation. After our gathering. Dweller went on a trip to the Middle East, and I asked her to reflect on how the trip had impacted her life and ministry. She responded: DISTURBED, DEEPENED, ENRICHED, ENERGIZED In '48, '49 & '50 I could «ake a clear distinction between being Anti-Zionist and Anti-Semitic. I no longer can. I now must be very- sensitive to and very supportive of the historically caused fears and insecurities of my Jewish brothers and sisters both here and in Israel. AND I must also speak and act to oppose the policies and behaviors of the State of Israel that not only deny Liberation but also seek to destroy another people - the Palestinians. And I MUST help U.S. Christians not to equate the secular political state of Israel with the fulfillment of Biblical prophecy - even when others do. For several years now, the voices of Christians in Lebanon, Syria, i nn and Israel-Palestine have rung in my ears: "Are you with us? You have •forgotten ue« What are you going to do'?'!- The Great Liberator calls US to be in solidarity with the "forgotten faithful.™ May bod -forgive us ; Question : Could it be that we can more clearly see the impact o-f the dynamics o-f domination in settings that aren't so -familiar to us and in which we are not so enmeshed? 9. Making the Connections Description : When I asked the question about making connections, I left it open-ended so I would get a "word association" response. However, the phrase did have associations for me related to seeing the connections arrrong the various oppressions and the need for building coalitions among persons and groups working on various issues. What is interesting is that two of the women had no associations with the phrase at all while a couple of others responded out of a more personalistic place with comments such as, "We connect ourselves to the Creator God and to one another as sisters and brothers in faith." (Red) Some combined the personal and the political nature of this phrase. They were apt to mention making connections between women, seeing themselves as part of all creation, or seeing connections between what is happening here in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. Only two women seemed to see the relationship of the phrase to systemic change. Virginia responded in this way: Making the connections means making sure I have women friends who help •e connect with myself and with them; aeans using whatever systems to which I have access, Beans making sure I connect with God's people who are hurting or suffering from injustices. Analysis : I believe that the reason that "Making the Connections" does not have a lot of immediate Meaning for «any clergywoaen is because they do not have a real sense of community from which they move out into society. They also do not have much of a power analysis; therefore they do not see that there are connections among the oppressions which they and others experience. The sources may be the same -for all o-f the oppressive and dominating systems which they encounter in their lives. Without a sense o-f community and a power analysis o-f their institutional relationships, a term such as "Making the Connections" could have only very personal and private meanings. Questions : Why is it so hard -for white, middle-strata clergywomen to see the political implications o-f our lives and ministries? Is it because we are overwhelmed by the responsibility which comes with that level o-f consciousness? Are we blocked because we think we have to do it all alone rather than as a part of a community? Why is it so hard for us to make the connections; cognitive, emotional and political? Why do so many of us have little or no awareness of the power dynamics that are so key in our lives? 10. Sense of Vocation Description : Most of the women articulated a sense of vocation, and several saw it as central to the work they do. Some see work/vocation as an instrument for personal fulfillment, for making contributions to society and for doing justice. There were two who understood vocation as not related to their work, one of whom lost her sense of vocation through the treatment she received in the church. Daisy recounts her experience in this way; "I have no sense of vocation. I had a strong one until I was fired from the national staff in 1973." She regained that sense of vocation in serving two churches, but then lost it again in the last church she served before retirement. On the other hand, there was one woman who had no sense of vocation apart from her job in the church. She goes on to say that "job satisfaction and vocational commitment have meant the same thing in my adult work life. 124 Insofar as I am interested, challenged, and growing in the work I do, then I determine to stay." (Lark) Another mentioned that she -felt that each person has a vocation which is God given and that she -feels that it is a real shame that clergy are often perceived to be the only ones having a sense of vocation. She feels that this is a real perversion of the theology o-f vocation. (Dweller) Some -felt that their sense o-f vocation had never been in conflict with their jobs while others had had painful conflicts between the two. They were in work settings in which their vocation could not be expressed. Virginia wrote about such an experience: My sense of vocation was in conflict with a position I had in Illinois where most of my work was not accepted by my colleague. He was very threatened (by me? by life in general?), and I met many closed doors. I experienced this conflict with anger, frustration, new learnings about myself, and clearer expectations of positions for the future. Some have a real sense of being betrayed by the church, as well as becoming aware that they have been duped by their own illusions about the church. Analysis ; What is amazing to me, knowing the painful career experiences some of these women have had, is why they have a continuing sense of vocation or call. Several of them mentioned that in the future they might not stay in church employment or remain ordained. It was unclear to me what would determine their decisions around this issue. I face the same issue, and I cannot answer it. We clergyworoen seem to be able to articulate the possibility of leaving the church, but not process it or act upon it. It may be that because we often operate from an individualistic place, we can only see our leaving the church as our own personal failure. Questions : Why do we remain in the church as ninisters? If we were to become more radicalized, would we stay? Is this an illustration of an .25 addiction to an organization? Is it the perversion of commitment? Or is it appropriate stick-to-it iveness and commitment to the struggle? How does one evaluate whether one's continuing involvement in the ministry is a sign o-f health or illness? 11. Liberal Feminism Description : These women saw the values o-f Liberal Feminism with its -focus on the individual's value, development and rights had been help-ful in opening employment doors -for them. They also said that Liberal Feminism had moved them toward a clearer understanding o-f the political realities they -faced and toward a commitment to struggle -for women's rights. Some felt that within Liberal Feminism were found the seeds of Feminist Liberation, but they tended to resist the radical implications o-f Feminist Liberation. The writing of Lark illustrate this point of view best: Liberalism, in so far as it encourages individuals to develop their potential, has pushed me along on the feminist road. It has taught me to look for systems and how persons operate in those systems. It has given me space to move and grow and blessed my private pursuits. Liberalism only goes so far; it uses up a lot of time and energy. I shy away from radical analysis; I avoid conflict. I back down if someone disputes my beliefs. They also recognized the limitations and contradictions found in Liberal Feminism, such as a worldview based on the assumption that the experience o-f some people, namely, those who are white and middle-strata, is normative. They recognize a general disregard in Liberal Feminism for the experience of women who are racial ethnic, poor, disabled, etc. Dweller tells how her liberal views had to be corrected by her racial ethnic sisters: ...my liberalism certainly supported my feminism. However, it took my Black sisters and my Native American sisters and my Hispanic sisters and some Asian sisters to teach me my blindness to my own racism, classism, and even my oppression o-f others. Third World Women also spoke vigorously about Western Women's failure to hear their/our Third World sisters and to work for the liberation of ALL women in ways and on terms 126 that have meaning to and for women of each national group, race, class, age, sexual orientation, and marital status. ... the greatest risk -for me now is that I may have to give up some o-f my creature comforts as well as some of my remaining prejudices. A couple of women felt that they and others had been hurt and rejected by Liberal Feminists whose definition of feminist didn't include them. One woman felt that Liberal Feminists had a tendency to use patriarchal methods in order to make an impact on the system, and in the process hurt their sisters. Red expressed these hurts clearly: Within Liberal Feminism I have experienced some of my deepest hurts. It was a Presbyterian clergywoman who asked me why didn't I become a '.'real" minister when I was feeling excitement and satisfaction with my ministry as a. church educator. (None of the men ever asked me that!) Liberal Feminists seem to me to have adopted all too often the male system in order to make a dent. The problem is that much of the valuable feminist outlook gets lost in the process.... However, another woman stated that it was often the Liberal Feminists who early on named the oppression of sexism and pointed out the need for advocacy for women in both church and society. It is a. mixed bag from the standpoint of these clergy women. Analysis : It is not clear to me how much these women have moved from Liberal Feminism (toward Feminist' Liberation) although they can critique it. It seems as if they can perceive how "those Liberal Feminists" failed in certain ways, but they do not tend to question where they now stand on the political spectrum or the impact it has on their lives *nd ministries. They have moved intellectually, but it hasn't yet seemed to have made much of a difference in their actions. Janelle reflects the most awareness of moving to a new place when she writes: Initially I found my liberalism was supportive of my feminism. I was a liberal in my political life long before I was a feminist. My liberal attitudes became a logical extension into my feminism. Now I feel there is a discontinuity between my liberalism and my more radical political analysis. I am not sure how I crossed the bridge. I feel that I am in 127 a new place. Perhaps it happened when I began to see how what this country did affects other countries and vice versa. I also see how my individual actions have a collective effect. This new awareness may have contributed to the change. 12. Feminist Liberation Theology Description : These ciergywomen were, on the whole, very supportive of Feminist Liberation Theology and saw it as changing their way of thinking . As a matter of fact, they affirmed in our gathering most of what they see as central to Feminist Liberation Theology: moving from incremental change to revolutionary change, being more aware of particularities and privilege, seeing things from a global perspective, asking the structural questions'; needing to work within community, raising the issues of power, power lessness and authority, acknowledging the economic issues and becoming aware of the poor, making the connections, asking the difficult questions, etc. Analysis : What is interesting, however, is that when these women are writing their own responses to my questions, they do not mention many of these themes while describing their ideas, lives and ministries. It is almost as though they need to be reminded or supported by the presence of the group to bring these commitments to mind. Indeed, they are clear about the liberation project, but this theology does not seem to permeate the essence of their lives and ministries: it is not compelling them to new action, haybe, as is typical of Presbyterians, they are able to study and digest the ideas in Liberation Theology, but it doesn't seem to make ouch difference in their everyday lives. There are a few notable exceptions, some of which I alluded to earlier. It is almost as if they have been inoculated to resist the radical implications of Feminist Liberation Theology in their lives. 128 Questions : Does their liberal upbringing have anything to do with that resistance? Do their places of privilege keep them in line even though they are drawn to Feminist Liberation? In what way might they be encouraged to choose to be infected with the lively virus of Feminist Liberation so that it would become a significant motivator to radical action in their lives and aimstries? 13. Envisioning the Future Description : I asked this question (#12) in order to gain some sense of the hopes and dreams o-f these women unencumbered by the limitations o-f the present. Some of them lifted up the financial and physical limitations which they would face as they got older, but always there was the determination to be as active as possible in their living. They exhibited the desire to grow personally while still remaining committed to building and nurturing significant relationships and to doing justice in a variety of endeavors, such as women, economic justice, AIDS, Middle East, health care and ecology. Dweller's statement during our gathering indicates the intermingling of the variety of aspirations revealed in the group: ...In 20 years from now I will not be the 91 year old, but I will be less than 1 1/2 years from being 90. I do not plan to be in a wheelchair. I plan to be more active, «ore physically able than I am now, with more energy. In preparation for retirement, I said that there were two things that I was willing to work on in retirement. One was the Middle East, specifically, Palestinian and Israeli resolution and the other one was AIDS. People keep asking me to work on woaen's issues. I say I have been there.... I really am not going to get pulled off in that direction, but I couldn't stay away from the March on Washington. My vision of 20 years from now, really keys into and supports some of the things that I am hearing and reading about a more holistic future, rather than the doomsday sayers. , I really want to go with that. I want to energize that in «y own personal life and in the society and in political dimensions. I have been working on reconnecting, and I am planning to continue the reconnecting with persons. Family is where I started first. I just had been working so hard and investing myself in other ways. Reconnecting is an important concept for »e. Reconnecting 129 is not only external, but it is also internal. So much o-f the time there is this internal conflict and this internal split between what might be called, in some words, the esoteric, in other words out of the spiritual, internal, meditation, all of these kinds of things. Then there is this more political activist side of me. ... Instead of being holistic and integrating, I continue to find them in opposite directions. I don ? t know in 20 years whether I will be in the church. I guess 20 years from now I am not sure whether the church will be. I really have a holistic vision.... I will continue to work on the societal problems that I see. AIDS is certainly one of the aost painful. Somehow I see, in 20 years from now, some of that. I see mclusiveness in the Church, I see healing, I see inclusiveness in society.... I dorrt know where I'll be in personal relationships. Freedom is very important for me. Whether Rob and I are together, that is something I will continue to work on and have worked on repeatedly.. There is no virtue in staying married 50 years. Twenty years from now our older birth grandson will, by then, either have restored his life in some way or he will be a lifer, incarcerated, and too personally damaged... I see a better world 20 years from now, and I am going to do whatever I can to help make it. At times I think, "My God, I have been here before. Is it worth the effort?" Being here this weekend, I'll give it another try. Analysis ; On the whole, these women see the next 20 years as ones with the potential ior self-awareness and spiritual growth, increased energy, freedom frorri some of the present restrictions of employment and family responsibilities, and a world which is more peaceful and liberative. A time to do wild and crazy things: The question is whether these women will become more radicalized within the next 20 years; if so, they could be real leaders in bringing about significant and radical change in both the church and society. Questions : How will Feminist Liberation Theology get acted out in their lives?" What kinds of notivation and support will they need? Conclusion : As I aentioned in the introduction, I had drawn this group together thinking that they certainly would deaonstrate the journey from Liberal Feminism to Feminist Liberation, however tentative. Well, it is even 130 more tentative than I thought it would be. I believe that this group of clergywomen was decidedly made up of Liberal Feminists, most of whom are not intentionally moving toward Feminist Liberation. When consulting with Ann DuBois, whose job (on the national staff) it is to work with women employed by the Presbyterian Church, I asked her i-f she could think o-f another constellation of white, middle-strata feminist Presbyterian clergywomen that would have been more geared to Feminist Liberation. She indicated that she did not believe such a constellation existed. In other words, this group was representative as a "progressive group of feminists." Certainly there are glimpses of Feminist Liberation in the inclinations of these women, but they are few and far between. It is because of these conclusions that I have decided to use this material to reflect the Liberal Feminist experience that clergywomen, including myself, have had since the early "70s. It will be the task of this thesis to see how to move all of us more intentionally toward Feminist Liberation. 131 Endnotes 1. Assumed names have been taken by the women to protect their identities. I have also sightly modified material, at points, so as to make it less obvious who is speaking. However, I have been faithful to the original meaning of the written or spoken statements. 132 Chapter V Resistances to Feminist Liberation Feminist Liberation is sc attractive to me that I often wonder why we white, middle-strata F'resbyter ian clergywomen resist it or have trouble embracing it. (1) It has been a real puzzle to me, as I have reflected back on ■y life and career, why it has taken me so long to incorporate Feminist Liberation into my being and doing. In this chapter I want to reflect on my own experience of struggling to move toward Feminist Liberation, on the insights offered by my clergysisters, both white women and women of color, by lay national staff women, and on the writings of other feminist authors. These resources may help us to understand how we get tangled up in our attraction-avoidance relationship with Feminist Liberation. I will also suggest ways in which we can respond creatively to those resistances to Feminist Liberation. 1. Fear : One of the greatest blocks to Feminist Liberation is fear. Fear can come in many forms, such as 1) withdrawal reaction to rapid change and/or to tremendous cognitive dissonance; 2) dread of economic loss resulting from underemployment or unemployment because of being perceived as radical; 3) anxiety that comes from possible rejection by the general public or the even more painful rejection by persons close to us; 4) the sense that we will become crazy not only in the minds of those who reject us but also in our own self-perceptions; and 5) our concern that Feminist Liberation will lead directly or indirectly to our premature deaths. Heyward spoke to some of these fears when I asked her, during our interview, what would block her from moving to embrace Feminist Liberation more completely: The main thing holding me back has been my own fear... of being killed. I also fear that when I am myself, doing what I really believe, I wind up alone; a fear that no one understands, that I am going to be perceived as crazy. .. .that even my sisters will -finally have had it and think that I've -flipped out. One o-f my -fears is that there won't be anyone there in the end. Then there is this terrible -fear that I a_m crazy, that I have imagined it all. Fear is a well internalized force.... As long as tear can be sustained, who needs police, or prisons? Fear comes with our mothers" milk — -fear o-f going too -far, and o-f being too much, too radical, too passionate. ... And our -fears aren't paranoid.... How do we begin to address these -fears so that we are able to embrace Feminist Liberation? Ignoring our fear or denying it is not the answer. Our fear must be faced. Audre Lorde reflects on how her fear diminished when she was faced with cancer: In becoming forcibly and essentially aware of my mortality, and of what I wished and wanted for my life, however short it might be, priorities and omissions became strongly etched in a merciless light, and what I most regretted were my silences. Of what had I ever been afraid? To question or to speak as I believed could have meant pain, or death. But we ail hurt in so many different ways, all the time, and pain will either change or end. Death, on the other hand, is the final silence. And that might be coming quickly, now, without regard for whether I had ever spoken what needed to be said, or had only betrayed myself into small silences, while I planned someday to speak, or waited for someone else's words. And I began to recognize a source of power within myself that comes from the knowledge that while it is most desirable not to be afraid, learning to put fear into a. perspective gave me great strength. I was going to die, if not sooner then later, whether or not I had ever spoken myself. My silences had not protected me. Your silence will not protect you. But for every real word spoken, for every attempt I had ever made to speak those truths for which I am still seeking, 1 had mace contact with other women while we examined the words to fit a world in which we all believed, bridging our differences. And it was the concern and caring of all those women which gave me strength and enabled me to scrutinize the essentials of my life. (2) Lorde' s words made a great impression on me. They helped me understand that the possibility of death on this side of the chasm of self-revelation and political commitment was much greater than the potential death on the other side. I had to take the leap — in my case to end my silence as a lesbian clergywoman. What would ay silence aean if I preserved my life while losing my soul? Our fears need to be faced and named in the presence of others. 134 We cannot -fly while still incarcerated in the cocoons of -fear manufactured by the systems o-f this world, including the church, which silence us. 2. Liberal Ideology : Another cause o-f our resistance to Feminist Liberation is the overwhelming impact o-f the liberal ideology that controls much of our thinking and living in this country. I have described Liberal Feminism in Chapter II. I believe that many of the elements of Liberal Feminism reflect ways in which feminism has absorbed and manifested the liberal ideology and has been co-opted by this ideology. When I speak of ideology in this way, I am defining it in basically negative terms, as .■ expressed by William Kennedy: ...Since its introduction into Western discourse in the period of the French Revolution, "ideology" has been an ambiguous term. It refers to the process by which every human being internalized a basic understanding of the world from growing up in a particular society. ... the process is largely an unconscious one. Persons "breathe in" the framework by which they interpret their world and their experience. The symbolic structure of the mind is not freely chosen, but is inherited and appropriated through the institutionalization of symbols. . . . Ideology, then is deformation of truth for the sake of social interest. Baum identifies it with the collective blindness, the corrupting religious trends that emerge to protect the community against hostile forces and in defense of its power elites ( Religion and Alienation , pp. 75ff). These trends "tend to attach people uncritically to their tradition, protect them from coming to self-knowledge, defend the authority of the dominant classes, create a false sense of superiority over others, and produce dreams of victory over outsiders 71 (Ibid. ,, p. 75.). (3) Since I had heard the term "ideology" used in both positive and negative ways, I was helped by the distinction which Douglas Kellner made between controlling <or hegemonic) ideology and liberating ideology. (4) This kind of distinction is also made by Gibson Winter, who writes: Ideology. . .-faces in two directions. ... Ideology nay be primarily oriented to preserving and legitimating the established powers in a society. It may also face primarily toward the future and project a Utopian model for a more just society. In either case, ideology draws upon the symbolic powers that generate a people's identity. ... (5) 13 c It is important to understand the dominant liberal ideology in this society which seems overwhelming hegemonic to me and reflect on how it keeps us -from moving toward trans-formative change- We must initially acknowledge that although most of us who are white, middle-strata feminists say we want significant change and try to bring about some change, we seldom seem to make more than minor adjustments to the social dynamics surrounding us. Audre Lorde warns us that such efforts won't work: For the masters 7 s tools will never dismantle the master's house . They may allow us temporarily to beat him at his own game, but they will neve" enable us to bring about genuine change. (6) Deep down we know we have problems with too much change in the way things are. We do not want the power dynamics of the master's house to change too much. We benefit from them in most respects, even though there may be some ways in which the established power dynamics hurt us if we happen to be lesbian, disabled, old, single, etc. Freire points out how threatening it is to the non-poor for things to change in relation to class: The freedom of the poor is in their process of liberation. Every attempt at liberation of the poor appears to the rich as a. threat, and every attempt at liberation of the poor is seen by the rich as a restriction of their own freedom= The understanding of this dynamic relationship throws some light on how the process and the pedagogy of liberation of the poor differ from the process and pedagogy for the non- poor or the rich. When somebody asks who educates the rich, I say "the rich," but the irony is that the rich educate themselves to continue rich and they educate the poor to continue poor. And the rich educate the poor to accept their own poverty as a normal and natural thing. (7) Freire helps us to see how insidious are the forces that would block us from bringing about a new social order. We not only hold onto what we wrongly have, but we teach the poor to see our ownership of disproportionate quantities of things as "normal and natural." Even if we are among the remnant who really want to change the power dynamics of our society and world. 136 "all of us -fear our own liberation because the liberation which results, -from successfully countering the controlling ideology also brings accountability. " (8) Even though it is frightening, how might white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen move away from the controlling liberal ideology toward a vision of Feminist Liberation? Robert Evans has helped me think about what some of the essential elements to such transformation might be, and they are as follow: 1. Encounter with the Poor 2. Experiential Immersion that Challenges Assumptions 3. Openness to Vulnerability 4. Community of Support and Accountability 5. Vision and Values 6. Cycle of Critical Socioeconomic Analysis — Reflection/ Act ion /Reflection 7. Commitment, Involvement, and Leadership 6. Symbol, Ritual and Liturgy (9) (See Appendix K for my summary of quoted descriptions of these elements.) This comprehensive description of the components of transformation challenges us to be about the task which will bring us to a new day. This vision might help move us beyond our "stuckness 1 ' in the controlling ideologies which distort our world as well as our dreams. However, Susan Griffin proposes that there is a sameness about all ideology; therefore moving away from a controlling ideology may not Tree us of our resistance to Feminist Liberation. As a flatter of fact, even what looks like a liberating ideology is easily transformed into a controlling one: ...This is the way of all ideology. It is Bind over body. Safety over risk. The predictable over the surprise. Control over emotion. But the history of ideologies is also a tragedy. For in the beginning a political theory is born of genuine feeling of a sense of reality.... A theory of liberation must be created to articulate the feeling of oppression, to describe this oppression as real, as unjust and, to point to a cause. In this way the idea is liberating. It restores to the oppressed a belief in the self and in the authority of the self to determine what is real. 137 But when at theory is trans-formed into an ideology, it begins to destroy the self and self-knowledge. Originally born of feeling, it pretends to float above and around feeling. Above sens&tion. It organizes experience according to itself, without touching experience. By virtue of being itself, it is supposed to know. To invoke the narrie of this ideology is to confer truthfulness. No one can tell it anything new. Experience ceases to surprise it, inform it, transform it. It is annoyed by any detail which does not fit into its world view. ... Begun as a theory of liberation, it is threatened by the new theories of liberation: slowly, it builds a prison for the mind. (10) Griffin voices my fear that Feminist Liberation can become an ideology and lose its capacity to be liberating and transforming. What can be done to move us away from the dominant ideology des) in this society while not replacing them with an equally death-rendering one? Griffin proposes that ...we may have to relearn thinking. We have to learn to tolerate questions. .. .We may even have to learn to cultivate paradox, welcome contradiction or a troublesome question. We may have to learn to love knowledge for its own sake, not as means to power. This is not to srgue that one cannot argue. This is not to argue against thought. But rather to argue against the old dualities. Against ideology. And for the intellect. For the cle&r intellect which explores the self ana the world with a genuine desire to know. (11) Opening ourselves to this new wa<y of thinking and knowing hopefully will free us to live out Feminist Liberation in such a way as to m&ke it lioeratmg for ourselves and others. 3. Sexism : The third source of resistance to Feminist Liberation is sexism, which in both our lives and society acts to reduce the chances of our being Feminist Liberationists. Sexism has been defined as "...cultural and economic structures which create and enforce the elaborate and rigid patterns of sex-marking and sex-announcing which divide the species, along lines of sex, into dominators and subordinates. Individual acts and practices are sexist which reinforce and support those structures, either as culture or as shapes taken on by the enculturated animals. ... u (12) In her metaphor of oppression as a bird in the gilded bird cage, Marilyn TO •-■u Frye has given us a powerful metaphor -for sexism: Cages, Consider a birdcage. If you. look very closely at just one wire in the cage, you cannot see the other wires. If your conception of what is before you is determined by this myopic focus, you. could look at that one wire, up and down the length of it, and be unable to see why a bird would not just fly around the wire any time it wanted to go somewhere. Furthermore,, even if, one day at a time, you myopically inspected each wire, you still could not see why a bird would have trouble going past the wires to get anywhere. There is no physical property of any one wire, nothing that the closest scrutiny could discover, that will reveal how a bird could be inhibited or harmed by it except in the most accidental way. It is only when you step back, stop looking at the wires one by one, microscopically, and take a macroscopic view of the whole cage, that you. can see why the bird does not go anywhere: and then you will see it in a moment. It will require no great subtlety of mental powers. It is perfectly obvious that the bird is surrounded by a network of systematically related barriers, no -one o-f which would be the least hindrance to its flight, but which, by their relations to each other, are as con-fining as the solid walls of a dungeon. It is now possible to grasp one of the reasons why oppression can be hard to see and recognize: one can study the elements o-f an oppressive structure with great care and some good will without seeing the structure as a. whole, and hence without seeing or being able to understand that one is looking at a cage and that there are people there who are caged, whose motion and mobility are restricted, whose lives are shaped and reduced. (13) Most feminist clergywomen would have little trouble identifying with these notions of sexism. We get caught, however, in internalized sexism. This ''voice", experienced as either faint or loud within us, tells us that our sexist oppressors are right. The oppressor no longer needs to be present for oppression to continue. We hold it in place by believing, for example, that we are weak, stupid, crazy, dumb, evil. (14) We believe, therefore, that we deserve what we get at the hands of individual men and the sexist institutions that have been created by them, whether in the form of discrimination on the job, dismissal of our ideas in academia, non-voluntary committal to a mental institution or other violence to our bodies, minds, psyches, or spirits. These tapes are not easy to erase. As a »atter of fact, we do participate in 139 our own oppression, often never perceiving our part in perpetuating our pain. This internalized oppression gets played out in our lives not only in the collusion in our own individual oppression but also in our horizontal violence against other women, it comes in many forms, such as in lying to other women, competing with them, and putting other women down in various ways. It can take the forms o-f accepting sexist stereotypes when applied to other women and o-f interpreting violence against other women as their own ■fault. Susan Griffin reminds us that we should not be too surprised by our behavior: And in all this, do we forget that we have swallowed the old paradigms, been raised in the same woman-hating culture? We ourselves have learned to associate woman with nature, dark skin with dangerous knowledge. In a part of us, we are afraid of all that masculine society fears. We tear female power, in ourselves and in others. And we fear separation. We do not like another woman to think differently than we do. We confuse ourselves and our own integrity with that of other women, whom we confuse with our mothers, whom we confuse with nature. That which m society has created conditions which imprison us also determines the shape of the dialogue we have between us, the shape of our efforts toward liberation. Just as society has separated the idea of "women" from the idea of "knowledge," we cease to be able to accept our own thoughts, feelings and sensations as a source of authority. (15) Adrienne Rich's description of women's lying makes this phenomenon even easier to grasp: Women have been forced to lie, for survival, to men. How to unlearn this among other women? "Women have always lied to each other." "Women have always whispered the truth to each other." Both of these axioms are true. "Women have always been divided against each other." "Women have always been in secret collusion." Both of these axioms are true. In the struggle for survival we tell lies. To bosses, to prison guards, to police, men who have power over us, who legally own us and our children, lovers who need us as proof of their manhood. There is a danger run by all powerless people: that we forget we 140 are lying, or that lying becomes a weapon we carry over into relationships with people who do not have power over us. (16) Rich's question about how women can unlearn lying to one another is profound. It also helps us realise other ways in which we treat each other violently. We must work on affirming and valuing ourselves as women, for it is in validating our own existence and personhood that we are able to embrace other women as sisters. Put this internal work must be done in the context of a community from which we receive support anc to which we feel accountable. Then we can support each other in challenging the structural sexism in our society. 4. Social Privilege : Another major force I see working against our becoming Feminist Liberat ionists is that of social privilege. As mentioned earlier, one of the reasons this obstacle doesn't come readily to mind is that we who have privilege can choose to ignore or deny its reality. It seems to our advantage as white, middle-strata clergywomen to leave things as they are, because we personally benefit from our race and class privilege. However, Feminist Liberation challenges this privilege so as to make it impossible for us to continue in our dreaming "innocence" or our ignorance. It is painful to become aware that the oppression of poor people and people of color is required to maintain our class and race privilege, fiy first real awareness of this privilege came in my growing recognition of the connection between my access to economic survival resources and the poverty of most Latin Americans. This became clear to me the year I lived in Peru. As »y dollars appreciated, ■y Peruvian friends' soles were devalued. One of the North American theologians who has helped tie understand my privilege as a U.S. citizen has been Robert McAfee Brown throuqh his writings about his own struqqle with 141 privilege. It is obvious that to hear something involves a willingness to listen. It is less obvious, but more important, that we may not like what we hear; the new song may be such a threat or such a challenge, that we want to stifle it. The Lord's song is clearly a threat . It is a threat to our personhood, suggesting that we are on the wrong side or the oppressor- oppressed dialectic; it is a threat to our -faith, suggesting that we co- opt -faith to allow us to side with the privileged rather than the needy; it is a threat to our nationhood, suggesting that we use our power -for exploitive rather than creative purposes; and it is a threat to our will to change, suggesting that the price of change is more than we are willing to put on the line. For many, the last point is the heart of the problem. Many of the structures of society that benefit us are structures that destroy others. Their backs and lives are broken producing the food we eat and the gooes we purchase. They will never be able to stand as long as our feet are on their necks. Their exploitation seems to be necessary for our comfort. And unless we are callously insensitive, we cannot help being threatened by that discovery. We would like to change the world so that such conditions do not continue and we are further threatened when most of the things we are prepared to "do" are looked upon as cheap palliatives or trivial evasions of the real problem. Our concepts of "help," "charity," and "doing good" are interpreted as ways to salve our consciences without changing our lives. We attack the symptoms rather than the causes. This makes us feel better but nothing has changed . (17) One insidious thing about privilege is that we can choose to hear or not to hear the cry of our brothers and sisters who do not share our privilege and suffer because of it. As Marilyn Frye contends, this phenomenon occurs even among feminists who choose to hear: Nonetheless, many white feminists have to a fair extent responded to the demand; by which I mean, white feminists have to a fair extent chosen to hear what it was usually in their power not to hear. The hearing is, as anyone who has been on the scene knows, sometimes very defensive, sometimes dulled by fear, sometimes alarmingly partial or distorted. But it has interested me that I and other white feminists have heard the objections and demands, for I think it is an aspect of race privilege to have a choice — a choice between the options of hearing and not hearing. That is part of what being white gets you. (18) She reflects further on the difficulty we have in perceiving our options and prerogatives as white women in relation to women of color or poor women. The 142 difficulty is rooted in our systemic relationships to those (white) men through whom we gain our privilege: ...Members of dominant groups are habitually busy with impressing each other and care more for that than for actually knowing what is going on. And again, white women can learn from our own experience a propos (most often, white) men. We do much o-f what we do with a great anxiety for how we will be received by men — by mentors, friends, husbands, levers, editors, members of our disciplines, professions or political groups, tenure-review committees, fathers. With our attention focused on these men, or our imaginings of them, we cannot pay attention to the matter at hand and will wind up ignorant of things which were perfectly apparent. Thus, without any specific effort these men can turn white women to the work of falsification even as we try to educate ourselves. Since white women are almost white men, being white, at least, and sometimes more- or-less honorary men, we can cling to a hope of true membership irr the dominant and powerful group, and if our focus is thus locked on them by this futile hope, we can be stuck in our ignorance and theirs all our lives. (Some men of color fail into the parallel trap of hoping for membership in the dominant and powerful group, this time because of their sex. With their attention focused on power and money, they cannot see women, of their race or any other.) Attention has everything do with knowledge. (19) When we choose not to hear our poor or racial ethnic sisters, thereby- failing to understand the impact of our privilege on their lives, we perpetuate the oppressive systems in this society and around the world. In an oppressive system, a few "token" subordinates usually are encouraged to become honorary members of the dominant group. In her written interview, Margaret (a racial ethnic lay staff member whom I interviewed) reflects the experience of being made an honorary white person: Even I, myself, as half American and half Chinese feel I am "given privileged" status because I do not look Chinese; this bothers me. I want to be known as Chinese also, but our privileged status is often given to us by others who want to have us be like them. Not only is the honorary member of the dominant group made to seem like a •ember of the dominant group but she is also expected to be beholden to the dominant group and to behave appropriately. The honorary "man", "white", "straight", or "rich" constantly must have her/his attention on the dominant 143 group to be sure that her/his behavior is acceptable. In order to be part of the trans-formative -forces that are growing ail around us, we -feminists must struggle to have attention -focused correctly. We oust choose on which side we will put our time, energy, reputation, money, and commitments; on the side o-f those who struggle to do justice or with those who perpetuate the unjust systems which give privilege to some and none to others. Any attempt to be neutral rein-forces the status quo that sa-feguards things as they are. This route guarantees the preservation o-f our privilege and the non-privilege o-f others. Phyllis (one o-f the racial ethnic clergy-women I interviewed) indicates her frustration with white Christian women who ignore their race privilege: ...I am increasingly impatient with white Christian women at whatever state of consciousness or condition or ordination who fail to see, own and deal with the real and present danger of their privileged status as a powerful social construct derived solely from ''ace in North American culture. To give up one's privilege (20) and its prerogatives is difficult not only because of the forces in society that deceive us about the way things are and that attempt to maintain the status quo but also because our attempts will marginalize us, separating us from those with whom we have been closely associated. For example, one of the hardest things about writing this thesis is questioning Liberal Feminism and its failure to challenge our privilege. I fear it will threaten ay relationships with those who are dearest to me, even some of my -feminist colleagues. The nature of privilege is such that when we dare to question it, we are often ridiculed and rejected by others *ho share our privilege and do not wish to question it. -Already I have experienced being marginalized because of my feminism, leftist politics, and lesbianism. This marginalization has been painful. It has been even more difficult for me 144 to challenge my closest -feminist colleagues about ways in which we fail to pose the probing questions concerning how we oppress others. In -fact, in the process of trying to liberate ourselves, we have left others behind. It is scary for me to speak this truth. In doing so, I do not claim to have all the answers about how we move away from our privilege; but I am sure that, unless we find such courage, we will not help to bring about the transformation we desire. Angela Davis, in a provocative speech at Simmons College in the fall of 1989, challenged white, middle-class women to face the assumptions that : reflect our race and class privilege. She also challenged women of color to become active in a transformed feminist movement. Her words ring in my ears: ...We continue to conceptualize the problem of women'' s equality as one that requires us to understand the relationship between women or gender and race and class. When we conceptualize the problem as one of women and then race and then class, there is a possibility of a continued and hidden marginalization of women from our (racial ethnic) communities and of poor women from all racial and ethnic backgrounds. The formulation itself indicates that there are women, and then there is race and then there is class. If you can add on race and class, you can also subtract race and class. Once you subtract race and class, you end up with something like pure unadulterated womanhood. It usually turns out to be white. Unfortunately if you look at the world of many white feminist theorists today, they persist in formulating the issues in such a. way as to render us invisible. Finally we will hear the voice of woman, but I don't see me there. I dorrt recognize myself. Because of the ideological nature of our educational process, there is a tendency to utilize concepts which are abstract universais which usually turn out to be concrete particulars because they camouflage the fact that what is really being talked about is white, ■iddle class or bourgeoisie. When these concepts are used in the Feminist Movement, they do violence to us who aren't white, who aren't •iddle class. .. .What I think is so ironic is that some of the same feminists who so passionately challenged the use of the purportedly generic term, "Man", because Man relegated women to the status of invisibility. They do the same thing when they use the term, "Woman," because it renders those of us who are Afro American, Latina, Asian, working class, welfare mothers, and homeless women to that very same status of invisibility. (21) Davis critiques the feminist movement because she feels that it must be 14 c- trans-formed in order to lead the way to a new social order. (22) Elizabeth Spelman, philosopher and teacher at Smith College, also struggles with the issue of "adding on ,! class and race to the issue of gender. She believes that any discussion of "women" — i.e., the "essential woman" — which does not acknowledge class and race realities is, in fact, always about white, middle-strata women. According to Spelman, white, middle-strata feminists tend to assume that, when we talk about "woman", we are somehow getting down to "the essence" of womanhood in a way that is not possible when we include poor and racial ethnic women. This leads us to assume that there is a homogeneity among women. This "desire to deny differences among women may be an expression of a desire not to expose one's status as the norm from which others differ, or it may be an insistence that all women are after all basically just alike--u.ndernea.th, everyone is just like me. "(23) Spelman advocates that we lift up the reality of the "inessential women 11 — racial ethnic, working class, lesbian--so that the feminist movement will reflect the needs, concerns, ar.c visions of ail women. 5. Three Additional Resistances : I want to mention briefly three other reasons we white, middle-strata clergywomen may fail to embrace Feminist Liberation. a. Lack of Information: One is quite simple; some clergywomen have had no exposure to the Feminist Liberation perspective. They have not had the option to consider the possibility of such change in their lives and worldviews. This is one reason that I am writing this thesis. The final chapter will suggest some strategies at various levels of the Presbyterian Church which I think will help inform clergywomen about Feminist Liberation. b. Despair? Another possible cause of resistance is despair and 146 discouragement. At times, we look at "the powers and principalities" of this society and -feel that, no matter what our woridview, it will make no read difference. Our sense of the great power of the death-rendering -forces we oppose is not exaggerated. What's more, we can see it echoed in the experience of the Women's Movement in the early 1900s. Sharon Welch addresses this reality: The Women's Peace Party avoided the error so often identified as the cause of women's defeat, the appeal to reform the public sphere because of dangers to the home, yet they were defeated as easily as other women's groups. Schott goes on to name the external causes for the death of the Women's Peace Party. 'The failure of that vision to materialize was due less to faults in the theoretical basis for women's action and more to the powerful structural barriers of a patriarchal society.' The defeat of the Women's Peace Party and other women reformers was not primarily due to the inadequacies of theory or strategy. They were, quite simply, outmaneuvered. Hen had greater economic and political power, more control over newspapers and publishing, and thus more control over popular perceptions. Any theory, any strategy, any definition of woman could be turned against feminists. (24) Welsh goes on to challenge us not to despair because of this reality but rather to use it to make us stronger and more hopeful as we develop our theories, determine our strategies, and implement our actions: This could seem grim, but my conclusion is not pessimistic. I see it rather as a call for suppleness of mind, clarity of vision and purpose. We can think, organize, and act with greater focus given this awareness, doing our theoretical work well, but holding it lightly, valuing the human connections it serves more than the cerebral connections it makes. ...Just as theory separated from community can be most easily distorted, theoretical work grounded in community offers a better chance for political success, and this for several reasons. If demonstrated faulty, incomplete, or even distorted, the base remains for engendering other theories, other theologies and thealogies, and future resistance — the experience from which critical thought is developed. ... (25) c. Isolation: The last reason I shall cite here for the resistance to Feminist Liberation is isolation. During our gathering in April, 1989, the white, middle-strata clergywomen with whom I met identified 147 isolation as one of the greatest obstacles to risk-taking and paradigm shifts in their own lives. The isolation can be geographical, theological, political, structural, emotional, etc. Janelle (one of the ciergywomen at the gathering) reflected this isolation when she described an experience she had while working within the national structures of the Presbyterian Church. She felt isolated and rejected by women related to Church Employed Women when she remained on the staff while other women executives were laid off: ...I had no political savvy or political base. I was really a very new feminist* ... The cost from that battle was ten years of diqqinq out from underneath because a lot of the bad stuff that got going between me and Church Employed Women, I think, came out of that mess... .It was a cycle that I could not seem to break.... The part that I needed to look at in response to your question is what was the payoff for me in all of this, as much pain as it was. The part I had to face up to is that the payoff might have been that 1 had some excuse not to be more effective in the system. It is like I had this anchor on me. It was somehow their fault because we were not making this energy work together but it was getting pulled apart. But there must have been something inside of me that was contributing to keeping the cycle going. The fact was that I felt hurt and angry not to get the support from the very group that I needed support from. It meant that I felt very vulnerable for years. Janelle was unable to take many risks during this period because she was too isolated from the support she needed. Again, some of the strategies in Chapter VII, I hope, may help us think about how we can reduce the chances of isolation. By no stretch of the imagination have I offered an exhaustive list of reasons we might have for resisting Feminist Liberation as a perspective around which to organize our lives and ministries. To move beyond our fears, our bondage to liberal ideology, our failure to understand the full nature of sexism, our refusal to acknowledge our privilege, and our incapacity to overcome our isolation and despair will bring dramatic changes in our lives. The decision to move in this direction is frauqht with anxieties and danqer; 148 yet to do so can be transformative and life-giving. The challenge of Feminist Liberation is for us to take the risk. 149 Endnotes 1. In the last three chapters I will address myself directly to white, middle- strata Presbyterian clergywomen because I wish to stand with them as I consider how Feminist Liberation may impact our lives and ministries. 2. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Freedom: The Crossing Press, 1984), pp. 41-2. 3. I read this book after I wrote Chapter II, and I was pleased to see how my views paralleled some of those in this book. Alice Evans, Robert Evans, and William Kennedy, Pedagogies for the Non-Poor (Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 1989), pp. 234-5. 4. Douglas Kellner, "Ideology, Marxism, and Advanced Capitalism," Socialist Review 8 , No. 6, Nov. /Dec, 1978, p. 38, as quoted by Alice Evans, Robert Evans, and William Kennedy, Pedagogies for the Non-Poor , p. 268. 5. Gibson Winter, Liberating Creation: Foundations of Religious Social Ethics (New York, Crossroad Press, 1981, p. 97. as quoted by Alice Evans, Robert Evans, and William Kennedy, Pedagogies for the Non-Poor , p. 235. 6. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider , p. 112. 7. Paulo Freire, Consultation on "Pedagogies for the Non-Poor," at Claremont School of Theology on November 17-18, 1983, as quoted by Alice Evans, Robert Evans, and William Kennedy, Pedagogies for the Non-Poor , pp. 219-20. 8. Alice Evans, Robert Evans, and William Kennedy, Pedagogies for the Non- Poor . p. 270. 9. Ibid, pp. 275-282. (See Appendix K for expanded summary in which I have quoted brief sections of Evans description of each element needed for transformation. ) 10. Susan Griffin, "The Way of All Ideology, Signs Vol. 7(3), Spring, 1982) pp. 647-8. 11. Ibid., pp. 659-60. 12. Marilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality: Essays in Feminist Theory (Freedom: The Crossing Press, 1983), p. 11. 13. Ibid., pp. 4-5. 14. Women often see what is wrong in our lives as our individual -failure rather than as a social and political reality. 15. Susan Griffin, Signs , p. 659. 16. Rich, Adrienne, On Lies. Secrets, and Silence: Selected Prose 1966-1978 (New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 1979), p. 189. 150 17. Robert McAfee Brown, Theology in a New Key: Responding to Liberation Themes (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1978), pp. 133-4. 18. Harilyn Frye, The Politics of Reality , p. 111. 19. Ibid., p. 121. 20. It is not really possible to set aside one's privilege because it is often an immutable aspect of one's identity, but one can put aside the prerogatives which go with that privilege. 21. Taped speech given at Simeons College in the Fall of 1989. 22. Isn't it fascinating that it would be Angela Davis, through her books and speech, who would contribute so significantly to my new understanding of feminism? In looking back in retrospect, I am proud of the Legal Defense Fund Committee of the United Presbyterian Church for its action in 1971 to matce a grant to Angela's legal defense. I now understand in a new way why it was the right thing to do even if we had known the price we would pay in the loss of hundreds of members and millions of dollars. As a black, feminist, communist woman, Angela Davis represented many of the groups who have no privilege in this society. What better way for the Presbyterian Church, whose membership is primarily made up of people with race and class privilege, to act out its commitment to justice. How tragic that this event in our history is interpreted in such negative terms! 23. Elizabeth Spelman, Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988), p. 175. 24. Sharon Welch, "Ideology and Social Change," in Judith Plaskow and Carol P. Christ, Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1989), p. 339. 25. Ibid., p. 341. 151 Chapter VI The Vision for and the Implications of Feminist Liberation in the Lives and Ministries, of White, Middle-Strata Presbyterian Clergywomen In Chapter III, I have brought together eight elements of Feminist Liberation with the lives and works of three Feminist Liberation theologians. In Chapter V, I indicated some of the resistances that often block white, •iddle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen from daring to embrace Feminist Liberation. In this chapter I will focus specifically on what it means for us to say "NO" to our old relationship with the Presbyterian Church and what difference it would make in our lives and ministries if we withstood the temptations to resist Feminist Liberation. Saying "NO" to Our Old Relationship with the Presbyterian Church : When we dare to say "YES" to Feminist Liberation, we are definitely saying "NO" to many other things. We endeavor to say "NO" to that which is not liberating and not a part of passionate living. As I have mentioned, this may mean that we have to say farewell to certain types of employment, to particular personal relationships, to various of our privileges, to specific ideologies and theologies, to many of our commitments, to some of our views about ourselves, and even to our very lives. Probably most threatening to many clergywomen is the fact that we may have to say "NO" to our present relationship with the Presbyterian Church or with the Christian faith for that matter. 1. Fear of Reprisals mnd Losses ; To challenge the nature of our relationship with the Presbyterian Church may mean finding ourselves under- employed or unemployed, for there will be those who will perceive this challenge as too radical. We «ay be seen as unfit to hold positions in the Presbyterian Church. Having experienced underemployment most of my career and having known unemployment for months on end several times, I do not wish to understate the risk and stress of such economic hardships. I do know, however, that it is possible to endure such hardships, especially when they are directly or indirectly related to one's commitments to justice and liberation. We may -find ourselves having to be resourceful about finding employment, sometimes outside the church; to live more simply, and to find supportive persons with and from whoa we will continue to find vision and hope to sustain us when the going gets rough so we can keep on keeping on. So what's new, sisters? Many of us have already had to face such frightening times merely because we are women, regardless of our political or theological perspectives. At the General Assembly of 1971, I attended a conference for professional women employed by the church. At this conference, one clergywoman shared that she didn't know where her next bite was coming from, another told of a miscarriage she had just experienced because of the stress she was under, and one of the educators said that she had worked in the same church for 14 years and her salary was less than the custodian's (a man) who had just been employed the year before. I became so angry and appalled by what I saw the church doing to the women it employed that I declared myself a feminist before the end of the meeting. The rest is history. It may now be that if we are feminist liberationists, we will experience similar economic hardships because of our political and theological perspectives. This gives me some real comfort and strength; I no longer feel like a victim, for I have made a choice to hold to these liberating political and theological perspectives regardless of the consequences! What's more, a decision to take risks with our economic security may make it easier for us to practice the theology of relinquishment, in which we willingly open our hands and release what has always belonged to those who have nothing. Marie Augusta 153 Neal makes this point clearly: When the gospel is re-read in view of current data about population and resources, two distinct messages are revealed, one for the poor and one for the non-poor (Senior and Stuhlroueller, oottwald; Gutierrez, 1983). For the poor, the good news is that the land belongs to them (Lev. 25). For the non-poor, it is that God will not abandon them as they release their grip on the things poor people need to survive. (1) Another frightening aspect of becoming Feminist Liberationists is that we will find ourselves even more marginalized within the Presbyterian Church than we may already feel ourselves to be. We all know what that feels like because we are women, and many of us also experience other marginalizing realities in our lives. We know it can be lonely and fear-provoking to be forced to the margin by those who, by reason of their privilege, hold on to their position in the center in a way reminiscent of the game, King of the Mountain, I used to play as a child in the Mojave Desert. In this game, the biggest, strongest, or fastest child would keep the rest of the children off the top (center) of the hill usually by flinging them off. We often feel as if we are being flung out of the church. Such an experience may lead us to a new understanding of our relationships with one another and the church. 2. The Possibility of Leaving the Church : Embracing Feminist Liberation forces us to face yet another frightening prospect that brings most of us a lot of pain; the possibility that we may not be able to remain clergywomen in the Presbyterian Church or in any other church for that matter. A number of the clergywomen, with whom I met in April, 1989, and whose views and ideas are reflected in Chapter IV, indicated that 4hey may not be mile to stick it out with the church in the future. For me, it is a daily question whether I will stay or leave. I find, as I get further and further away from the "traditional dogma" of the Presbyterian Church, that I have to ask whether or 154 not my personal integrity is badly threatened. It is not only that I am far afield from much of that to which the institutional church holds but it also appears that the Presbyterian Church is drifting further away from where my spiritual and political commitments are. The institutional church often contaminates my sense of what I am to do and be in order to be faithful to •yself, to others, and to God. Yet I know that I am not yet ready to leave the church. When one of «y former students in Peru and one of the first Methodist clergywomen in that country says she may leave the church in the near future, I know I am not ready to take that step. Too many resistances come up for me. I don't want her to leave the church, but I know that she may have to leave for her own sake. And I must stay for my sake, at least, for now. Why do I stay in the church at this point? Because I will always be a Christian even if I leave the church. Even if I wanted to declare myself a non-Christian, my life would continue to be imbued with Christian values and assumptions from which I could not escape. I can question, and even reject, some of those Christian values and assumptions, but I will find them springing forth at the most unexpected moments. Ouite practically, I also realize that the church provides me with a base from which to operate in the world and even with funds, at times, to do what I want to do, such as those which helped me get groups of women together to discuss the issues of this thesis. It is also in the church where I have my connections with many women who believe as I do. And lastly, I also have a very deep sense of not wanting to leave the church to those whose commitments are antithetical to my own. To leave would be abdicating ay power and my responsibility to work toward change and radical transformation within the Presbyterian Church. 155 3. Questioning the Viability o-f the Presbyterian Church ; In addition to deciding whether I wish to continue in the church, remain ordained, or identify myself as Christian, I must consider whether I believe the Presbyterian Church to be viable and able to embody the justice and liberation that are its very reasons for being. I have a deep apprehension that unless the PCUSA changes drastically within the next ten years, it will die or implode as a result of its own internal corruption. Transformation is desperately needed. It may be those of us who answer the call of Feminist Liberation who can help lead the rest of the church to a new day. If we accept such a role, we will probably be part of the remnant, but a large remnant — because we are not alone. Others share our vision. It is a vision that compels participation in the struggles of people of color, of gay men and lesbians, of those with lower incomes, of persons with disabilities, etc. The Presbyterian Church will have to decide whether it wishes to follow the same old fruitless routines and die as a result or whether it will move into a new day. Such a vision was grasped by Walter Brueggemann in his address at the dedication o-f the Presbyterian Center (new national headquarters building) in Louisville, Kentucky, in October, 1988. He was aware o-f many of the risks which Presbyterians faced as we moved into a new location, and he used Isaiah to challenge us. He closed his comments with these words: My suggestion is that our dominant tale has run out in exhaustion and displacement. In such a situation there is no easy or quick response. There is only the slow, hard work of poetic alternative. This poetic alternative begins in recognizing our true situation: it •oves by subversive evangelical lips uttering hopes and possibilities; it may end in new people, new community, new creation.... Hy thought is that this fresh beginning in Louisville is no simple bureaucratic maneuver, though it can readily be reduced to that. This new beginning is only partly a looking back to end the war (Civil War) that has wrenched us so painfully apart. It is more an act of hope, a 156 hunch that the narrative which has run out Bay be re-entered in a -fresh way. It is an act of hope that there might be birthed a new -faith, a new mission, and a new worship which can again -feed and nurture the body politic back to health. ...We can only stand in readiness for what God may do. But that standing in readiness requires the use of intentional disciplines which in every case are marked by danger: ..dangerous memories reaching all the way back to our barren mother Sarah; ..dangerous criticism which mocks the deadly empire; -.dangerous promises which imagine a shift of power in the world; ..dangerous songs which sing of unexpected newness of life; . . dangerous bread free of all imperial ovens; all leadinq "to; ..dangerous departures of heart and body and mind, leavings undertaken in trust and obedience. <2> In the same spirit, Letty Russell suggests how we can survive in the present situation while anticipating the transformed reality: ...To live in the present setting but to be constantly living out of an alternative future reality is to be bi-cultural . . . . By knowing the social structures and psychological dynamics of the old house of bondage, we can work to subvert those structures and to limit their power in our lives and institutions. Subversion is most certainly one way of standing against the powers in this time before the full realisation of God's eschatological household. (3) Our hope comes in our living as if it were true that liberation is possible and that we have an urgent part in it. For those who decide to stay with the Presbyterian Church, there is much subversive work for us to do. (4) The saae is true for those who decide to leave. We also have much to do wherever we put our energy, time and commitment. We are all called to live out a life- giving vision that calls for real change and offers real hope. It is true that as a result of embracing Feminist Liberation, our relationship with the Presbyterian Church must change. Our conversion to the radical transformation called for in Feminist Liberation seems momentarily to shrink our world by catapulting us away -from familiar locations and relationships but it paradoxically also expands our consciousness and our 157 world. For example, as I -find myself leaving behind some o-f my old friendships, commitments, and prerogatives, I find that new ones are taking their places. Although I sometimes mourn the loss of the familiar, I am learning to rejoice in the new opportunities. Increasingly, I am realizing that I have many more relationships with other marginalized persons in the church, in our society, and around the world; relationships of trust and love. I have so much to learn, and I have the support and friendship needed to make myself vulnerable to new people and open to new ventures. I only wish this period in my life had come sooner, but I am grateful that it has come at last! Saying "YES" to Feminist Liberation : When we embrace Feminist Liberation, both our lives and ministries are changed in dramatic ways. 1. The Healing of Our Beings : The integration of Feminist Liberation into our lives causes our most basic sense of ourselves to be transformed. Our very beings are scarred and wounded from the dehumanizing contortions we have suffered in our effort to survive both in the church and in the society. We need healing from the wounds that have resulted from the hatred of women in our society, from the rejection we have experienced because we dared to be clergywomen, from the dualism of body and spirit which is manifested in our lives, from the stress we put ourselves under to be "superwomen", and from the broken relationships we experience due to sexism, heterosexism, racism, classism, able-bodism, ageism, etc. Barbara Deaing expresses so well the feelings of emptiness and fear which emerge in these experiences: I lie at the bottom of my spirit's well And try to still my breath And still my heart That staggers in my side Like an uneven wheel. Above me, agitation of the waters. Some of this motion is life, 158 Some is death. Each is mistaken for the other, In panic, often, that turns to wrath, I see that wrath cut back Everything new, green, that we try to begin. And will life or will death prevail? hy fear is asking the question And the answer to fear, of course, is Death. I lie at the bottom of my spirit's well. If I lie quiet here Can I elude my fear? (5) We often find that our pain and fear keep us from finding the healing we need. I can remember a time when the clergywomen of a presbytery of which I was a member could not find time to be together, even though many of us were hurting. We just had too much to do, and we needed to preserve whatever space we had for ourselves. Feminist Liberation points out that we cannot heal ourselves in isolation. Our healing occurs in community. For too long we have been unsuccessful in trying to heal ourselves by ourselves or in insulated relationships, such as traditional therapy. Rita Nakashima Brock, an Asian American theologian, offers some wisdom: ...In our pain is the power of self-knowledge that brings us to a healing wisdom and compassion. We will not be made whole and healed until the truth of our lives can be seen and told. Asian American women have begun to understand this in our own journeys of speaking bitterness, of telling our own pain in a community of sisters who hear our gentle murmurs of loneliness and suffering and mirror ourselves back to us. We understand this mirroring as a way of embracing all suffering. The capacity to suffer with the world leads us to a sense of the community of all creation. However, in acknowledging suffering, I prefer to make the focus not so much as cross-centered suffering, but a community-centered one, the global community of all creation. (6) When such healing occurs in our lives, we will be healthier because our bodies, minds, psyches, and souls will be more nearly experienced as whole gestalts, with integrity. We will no longer tiave * sense of being dis- integrating fragments with no sense of wholeness. In fact, we will be truly 159 embodied. We actually will be living out our commitment to Feminist Liberation. As a result, our high stress levels will give way to greater serenity and peace. We will actually have time -for joy and play! Our healing will be profound. We will be ready to step out in a healing way toward others,, toward all of creation and toward our God. This kind of healing power is reflected in a poem by Elizabeth Tapia, a Filipina: WHO AM I? I am a woman I am Filipino I am alive I am struggling I am hoping I am created in the image of God just like all other people of the world; I am a person with worth and dignity I am a thinking person, a feeling person, a doing person. I am the small I am that stands before the big I AM I am a worker who is constantly challenged and faced with the needs of the church and society in Asia and in the global community. I am angered by the structures and powers that create all forms of oppression, exploitation and degradation. I am a witness to the moans, tears, banners and clenched fists of my people. I can hear their liberating songs, their hopeful prayers and decisive march toward justice and freedom I believe that all of us — women and men young and old, Christians and all others — are called upon to do responsible action; to be concerned to be involved NOW! I aa hoping I am struggling I am alive I am Filipino I aa a woman. (7) 160 2. Trans-forming Our Theology and Ethics : Another great impact which Feminist Liberation will have in the lives and ministries of those of us who ar white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen is in our theological and ethical perspectives. In our work, most o-f us have already challenged the theology and ethics which have predominated in the Presbyterian Church and in most other churches in the United States. However, most o-f us have been working on the basis of a Liberal Feminist perspective. This has enabled us to make some adjustments to, but not to transform, the prevailing models of theology and ethics. Turning to Feminist Liberation, we find that nothing is too sacred to be questioned or challenged. Alison Cheek, one of my colleagues, says that in Feminist Liberation Theology, "the sacred cows bellow." It is frightening to do this work because we do not know exactly where we are going. We fear we will have nothing left if we put everything up for question. Even if we do come away with something to which we are committed, we will once again, experience the void of having no language and images which express our new commitments and experiences. (8) I find this particularly threatening because since becoming a feminist nearly 20 years ago, I have not yet found language and images which offer me meaningful rituals. Although I have described some of the essential elements of Feminist Liberation, I believe that it is important for me to describe here specifically how my theology and ethics have been modified as Feminist Liberation has become the motivating force in ay life and ministry. (9) a. Theology and Ethics Hust Be Justice-Centered : Doing justice has always been important to my understanding of being a Christian. For some lime, »y attitude has been if our theology and ethics do not result in the 161 doing of justice, what good are they? It seems to me that we must be about eradicating the violence done to the most vulnerable and powerless persons/groups by more dominant persons/groups caught up in the cycle o-f violence manifested in the structures and institutions of our society. There is no safe place for the oppressed within an unjust situation. Without justice there is no moral solution. Feminist Liberation has re-enforced my commitment to justice and has helped me understand how justice is the way in which we restore right-relation with other human beings, with all creation, with ourselves, and with God. Beverly Harrison boldly makes the claim for a justice-centered theological ethic: The basic theological hermeneutic, or principle of interpretation, of liberation theologies places justice, as communal right-relationship, at the center of a proper understanding of spirituality. On this reading, theological utterance evokes our shared passion for justice. Our common longing for a world ''where there are not excluded ones'" as literally the form divine presence takes among us. (10) God is seen as being a just God who demonstrates justice in liberation, and we are called to participate in that liberating process. b. Theology and Ethics tiust Generate Horal Agency : Our theology and ethics, if they are to be consistent with Feminist Liberation, must strongly hold up the truth that people are subjects of history. We are not objects who are to be acted upon as though we do not matter. Human beings are moral agents who together have responsibilities and rights to bring an end to alienation and violence and to participate in the creating of a vision of a new social order toward -which we move communally. This understanding of moral agency has called me to demonstrate confidence in the power of communities to be self-determining and self-transforming. This new understanding forces me to interrupt ay maternalistic tendencies which reveal my deep-seated belief 16: that I really know better how to guide the liberating process through which someone or some group is going. Ada Maria Isasi Diaz and Yolanda Tarango challenge us to a profound sense of moral agency: In its attempts to develop an adequate social ethics, Hispanic Women's Liberation Theology starts by asserting that the individual as a moral agent is 'responsible for both interpersonal and social life.' This does away with separating the private from the public sphere of morality. Furthermore, Hispanic Women will no longer allow themselves to be confined to the private sphere. They will adamantly insist that, because they are moral agents, they have an active role to play in social transformation. <11) Without this belief in moral agency, there would be no base on which to build a commitment to mutual and just relationships. There would be no base for a liberating and transforming theology and ethics. c. Theology and Ethics Must Encourage Risk-Taking : Feminist Liberation involves risk-taking in relation to our theological perspectives. The ethical principles that emanate from these perspectives in turn lay the base for how we live our lives. I have found it difficult to "relax" into risk-taking, for there is so much about my background that tells me to be careful, to do the right thing, to be good, to be nice, to be Christian. It feels as if I am either willing to take only the risks which do not matter in the long run or take risks for the wrong reasons. It is an endless struggle to discern which risks to take and how to take them so that they will have the liberating effect for which I would hope. Recently I experienced a risk-taking opportunity to which I responded. I was in a gathering of women struggling with Feminist Liberation theology and ethics in which one of the women of color called one of the white women on what she considered to be maternalistic and racist behavior. The response of the group was typical: there was dead silence -for at least two minutes, which 163 seemed like two hours. Then one of the other white women initiated a response which related to the woman of color's comment but took us obliquely in another direction. After several exchanges in the group, I finally screwed up my courage and commented, with fear and trembling, that it seemed to me that when women of color call white women on our racism, we almost always respond with dead silence and guilt and/or we change the subject. I went on to say that I felt that was what we had done in this exchange. Another white woman picked up on my comment and suggested that we do it differently this time. We then went on to have one of best conversations (in terms of openness and insightfulness) between white and racial ethnic women in my experience. I could never had seen clearly the dynamics of this exchange, nor felt moved to take this risk, if it had not been for Feminist Liberation. This perspective challenges me to grow in my understanding of the relationships among women of various races and classes and to take risks involved in building right relation with women who are different from me as well as with those who are not. d. Theology and Ethics Must Help Strengthen Communal Right-Relation : Feminist Liberation leads us to a theology and an ethics which call us to work in a "communal conspiracy." We cannot bring about justice and transformation alone. We must work in community and solidarity with others, especially those who have been most oppressed and excluded. Kasuke Koyama has said, "I am because we are, and, because we are, I am. "(12) Me must seek a "we-ness" with the poor and oppressed which empowers both them and us as we address the issues of injustice in our society. Creating a "communal conspiracy" will not be an easy task for us, for as Sally, one of the racial ethnic clergywomen with whom I consulted, warns, 164 white, a id die-strata women usually have very little sense of the communal: ...As a class o-f people, white, middle-strata, -feminist clergywomen have never been socialized into a concept o-f "my people" -for survival or any- other liberating purpose. They have only been socialized ambivalently about class and race issues in opposition to "the other" so as to protect whatever they were told was the status quo.... The implications are seemingly no community o-f accountability and little support in the sense o-f "so great a cloud o-f witnesses" even when nobody is physically around to give a hug. Yet the need for white, middle-strata clergywomen to break through this barrier o-f individualism and isolation is pro-found. It is a matter o-f li-fe and death -for others and -for ourselves as well. Separated, we have no power to save ourselves or bring about the changes we desire in our communities. We cannot limit ourselves to working communally only with each other as white middle strata clergywomen. We must move out to build coalitions and alliances with other justice-loving groups. Even when we recognize our need •for coalitions, we sometimes either romanticize the process, believing naively that it is easy or we think it is something we can initiate unilaterally. Spelman has -formulated some questions in relation to the building of coalitions between white women and women of color. They are disturbing questions which reflect how difficult the process of coalition-building is: ...What is the need (to hear from women of color)? Is it to give legitimacy to a movement that already reflects the priorities of women not yet heard from? Is it to make other women feel as if they count, regardless of how well we listen or what we decide to do with what we hear? Does the fact of our having a need mean they ought to satisfy it? Is the reason we haven't heard them before that they haven't spoken, or that we haven't listened? Is hearing from them the same thing as talking with them? Are we really willing to hear anything and everything they might have to say, or only *hat me don't find too disturbing? Are we prepared to hear what they say, even if it requires learning concepts or whole languages that we don't yet understand? (13) Having been involved in groups that thought we mere really trying to honor the importance of building coalitions, I believe that there is a real 16 c; sense in which white, middle-strata women often want to have the increased credibility of having women Df color and/or poor women present at our events — but we still want to call the shots. We still want to control the process of determining what the major issues are, planning and implementing our strategies, and getting most o-f the credit. Many times we participate in coalitions in good faith, but our privilege shows up over and over again. Coalition building between white women and women of color and/or poor women can be enormously difficult, as Bernice Reagon's illustrates in her description of white women inviting women of color into our "room": The first thing that happens is that the room don't feel like the room anymore. (Laughter) And it ain't home no more. It is not a womb no more. And you can't feel comfortable no more. ...You don't do no coalition building in a womb. ... Inside the womb you generally are very soft and unshelled. You have no covering. And you have no ability to handle what happens if you start to let folks in who are not like you. Coalition work is not work done in your home. Coalition work has to be done in the streets. And it is some of the most dangerous work you can do. And you shouldn't look for corn-fort. Some people will come to a coalition and they rate the success of the coalition on whether or not they feel good when they get there. They're not looking for a coalition; they're looking for a home!. ..You don't get fed a lot in a coalition. In a coalition you have to give, and it is different from your home. You can't stay there all the time. You go to the coalition for a few hours and then you go back and take your bottle (baby) wherever it is, and then you go back and coalesce some more. ...If coalition is so bad, and so terrible, and so uncomfortable, why is it necessary?. .. Because the barred rooms will not be allowed to exist. They will all be wiped out. This is the plan that we now have in front of us. (14) As Reagon suggests, however, as difficult as coalition-building is, we must suffer through it because there is no other way to survive. e. TheoloQv and Ethics Hust Reflect and Celebrate Our Embodiment ; Beverly Harrison makes a strong statement about the importance of embodiment in our theology and ethics: If we are being, as feminists must, with 'our bodies, ourselves,* we recognize that all our knowledge, including our moral knowledge, is body-mediated knowledge. All knowledge is rooted in our sensuality. We 166 know and value the world. If we know and value it, through our ability to touch, to hear, to see. .. .Feeling is the basic bodily ingredient that mediates our connectedness to the world.... If feeling is damaged or cut off, our power to image the world and act into it is destroyed and our rationality is impaired. But it is not merely the power to conceive the world that is lost. Our power to value the world gives way as well. If we are not perceptive in discerning our feelings, or if we do not know what we feel, we cannot be effective ©oral agents.... In the absence of feeling there is no rational ability to evaluate what is happening. Failure to live deeply in 'our bodies, ourselves" destroys the possibility of moral relations between us. (15) We white, middle-strata clergywomen are challenged by Feminist Liberation to affirm our sexual/sensual/erotic selves. In so doing we begin to carry out our moral obligations within our personal and societal relationships. When I look back on my own career and life, I am aware that it has been in those periods when I was most in touch with my body and my sexuality (usually when I was in a mutually loving relationship), that I have been the most involved in bringing about political and social change. During those times in my life, I have been the most willing to take risks, the most astute in my perceptions of the political scene, and the most effective in my political strategy and action. I don't believe that this has been an accident. Neither do I not think it was coincidental that my first genital/sexual experience (with a dear friend) came only hours after we both participated in a powerful demonstration in Riverside Church on behalf of Episcopal women and their inclusion in the life of their denomination. I believe that one of the ways in which things stay the way they are is that the oppressive systems within our society keep us out of touch with our erotic, sensual, sexual selves. As a result, we are out of touch with the vital life force within us, and without it our lives are anemic and sterile. Lorde's vivid description of the erotic shows how essential it is "for us to embrace the erotic with all of its power: 167 During World War II, we bought sealed plastic packets o-f white, uncolored margarine, with a tiny, intense pellet o-f yellow coloring perched like a topaz just inside the clear skin o-f the bag. We would leave the margarine out for a while to so-ften, and then we Mould pinch the little pellet to break it inside the bag, releasing the rich yellowness into the soft pale mass of margarine. Then taking it carefully between our fingers, we would knead it gently back and forth, over and over, until the color had spread throughout the whole pound bag of margarine, thoroughly coloring it. I find the erotic such a kernel within myself. When released from its intense and constrained pellet, it flows through and colors my life with a kind of energy that heightens and sensitizes and strengthens all my experience. (16) To be embodied with a strong sense of the erotic life force within us, we are not only put in touch with ourselves in a necessary way but also with others, with all creation and with God. To know God is to live our lives passionately, fully in touch with our whole selves. Indeed, our experience of our erotic power is an experience of sacred power as Heyward suggests. She describes the struggle involved in affirming and experiencing this reality: ...Our relational vision remains unfulfilled. The erotic continues to be distorted, wreaking abuse and confusion among us. We do not yet live perfectly in the realm of the sacred and, in this world, we never will. Yet we are drawn toward the possibility of living more fully together as friends and lovers. We believe that this possibility is within our reach, and our faith is not merely idle speculation. We are not deluded. We move toward that which, through intimation and glimpses, intuitions and relationships, we know already to be real. ....Daring to risk sharing this life together, coming into our YES, anointing one another's wounds as healers, each in her own way, we discover with greater confidence the authority among us that can be trusted to help us sustain our power in mutual relation. Steeped in the sacred relational spirit that has moved and empowered friends and lovers from the beginning, we yearn to be true to ourselves in relation, touched by and touching one another in the soul of who we are together and in each of our deepest places. (17) Feminist Liberation theology and ethics declares that we can only enter into just right-relations with ourselves, with others *nd with our God if those relations are embodied. Me are called to incarnate God's new creation. 168 ■f. Theology and Ethics Must Be Contextual ; Feminist Liberation calls us beyond the assumption of much theology and ethics that they can be universally applied to all persons in all settings. Rather Feminist Liberation insists that our theology and ethics can only be developed and applied within the particular context in which we live and act. Theology and ethics, according to Feminist Liberation, are not culture-, society-, or social location-neutral. In other words, our theology and ethics cannot be applied unaltered, i-f then, to other cultural contexts. The theology and ethics which -fit a particular people in a particular place and time must be developed by that people as they re-flect upon their particular experience. This does not mean that one group or culture cannot learn -from the theology and ethics o-f other groups or cultures, but, in the last analysis, each group must struggle to find the words and actions which best reflect their experience theologically and ethically. Doris (one of the racial ethnic clergywomen with whom I consulted) helped me to see how one's context impacts one's theological and ethical understanding when she shared how the concept of "chosen people" reflected in scripture is oppressive to her and to others: ...when one is a participant in, draws identity from and enjoys the privileges of the system, then it is hard to recognize that the historical fabric of the institution is interwoven with injustice. Injustice is at the very root of the Church and in some ways Christianity itself. Any institution that starts from the premise of "chosen persons" (My note: The notion of the Israelites' being chosen people and then extrapolated to Christians) or a particular community who are worthy to receive its message, becomes -fertile ground for bigotry of all types. Doris' words ring in my ears, -for her statement reminds me, once again, how my racial context and privilege tiave protected me -from knowing how the concept of "chosen people" can be and has been perverted and used to underscore and 169 >..* rein-force privilege. The concept was -first applied to an oppressed people (The Israelites were oppressed by the Egyptians.), but now it has often been contorted to enhance the privilege o-f those in power. Doris' own context within the Black community has helped her to identify the dangerous implications of a much used theological concept within the Christian community. She has also helped me to see the concept in a new way. This brings me to the seemingly paradoxical realization that Feminist Liberation also calls us to resist the temptation to develop our theology and ethics in isolation within our own groups of identity. We must always be open to the theology and ethics being developed outside our own groups. Our theological and ethical development may begin within the context of our own lives but always within the larger arena of the many contexts found in our society and world. The Mudflower Collective reminds us that the context of our theology and ethics must be our lives in community: ...In asserting that we must begin with the study of our lives, we incur the danger of turning inward, even when the inwardness is toward our people and not only into our individual selves. In terms of accountability, feminist theory and feminist theology cannot merely be the weaving together of a person's, or a group's experiences.... Beginning with our lives, we must do so in as diverse a cultural situation as we can find — if not face to face with people of different cultures, then at least through engagement with their books, art, music, and rituals. Educationally, this pluralism requires that we learn to listen more astutely, that we suspend the urge to idolatrize our own perceptions and beliefs, and that we challenge one another rather than acting like passive receptors. Ada (Ada Maria Isasi Diaz) maintains, U I don't want my diversity simply to be respected. I want it to challenge you, to rub against you. "(IB) Itfe must hold our own context in a creative tension with those of other persons we encounter. When we dare to allow their contexts to impact our context, then the theology and ethics that emerge will avoid the danger of parochial thought and will have a ring of truth which results from that dynamic 170 encounter. g. Theology and Ethics Must Be Connect ional ; Feminist Liberation brings us to an understanding that all things are connected. There are no isolated persons, events, or ideas. Everything is connected to everything. We cannot develop or live our theology or ethics without seeing that there are connections among all aspects of our beings, among all the peoples o-f our global community, and among all parts of the created order. We no longer honor the dualisms, such as body vs. spirit, public vs. private, personal vs. political, enemies vs. friends, humans vs. creatures, etc. My travels in "enemy" countries (Nicaragua and the USSR) helped me to see how dualisms are defined for us by the powers that be. We are told who our enemies are to be. When we dare to transcend the barriers set up between us and our enemies we discover that there are many more connections than barriers between us. Such experiences inculcate in us a sense of global family which is not possible so long as some people are defined as enemies. Sally (one of the racial ethnic clergywomen who responded to the white, middle-class clergywomen' s work) indicates her strong sense of this connectional reality, especially as she works with international students on a campus: Making Connections means understanding my own and my communities of affinities' particularities and moving from those centers to the disclosures of the particularities of others. It is the opposite of the dualistic hierarchies which seek to isolate and separate people... In the last eight years in campus ministry on a large urban, working class and racially diverse campus, this sense of "making connections" has been very strong and growing increasingly each year. This growth has not necessarily come as a result of the things I have done, but more often as a result of who I an and how I have enlarged and been enlarged through my own struggles and those of persons and groups not like me. . . . Having visited the homes of students halfway across the globe in some war-torn area or being confronted with the total physical vulnerability of the urban ghetto and its violence in my immediate 171 workplace, I have come to feel that I have no time for those who seek safe places or want to retreat from risk, i.e., ideologies/theologies of the liberal or status quo constituencies. That does not mean that I am fearless! It just means I can't go home again. It also means that I prioritize my personal, spiritual and political relationships on a different basis, although I would be hard pressed to describe the difference as it has actually been realized. One manifestation, however, is that I no longer try to be everything... to everyone — colleagues, parents, students, lovers, friends, etc. I thereby have more with which to make the connections. This is the sense of connectedness to which Feminist Liberation beckons us. A consciousness of the interrelationship of all that we experience and perceive with all that we have not yet experienced enables us to participate in mending the social, global, and creational web which is life-sustaining for the whole of everything. h. Theology and Ethics hust Be Visionary : Feminist Liberation calls us to be a visionary people, to "see" the goals toward which we are moving. Without such vision, we thrash around with little intention or direction, reacting to injustices which those in power continue to perpetrate and in which we continue to collude. In Proverbs 29:8 (KJV) we read, "Where there is no vision, the people perish." How true! As Christian feminists, I believe that we get some sense of our vision when we are challenged by the life and ministry of Jesus of Nazareth. Carter uses her childhood understanding of Jesus to articulate a vision for the transforming of our world into one of justice, love and peace: ...I heard the Jesus-story as a love story, a tale about people taking people seriously, an image of life as we should live it together: a call to solidarity, our daily lives spilling over with concern for one another; advocacy for the poor, anger at hypocrisy and empty rituals and what I would later hear Adrienne Rich call the 'lies, secrets, and silence' which glue us together in societies dominated by unjust power- relations. I heard the Jesus-story as an invitation to marginalized people, outcasts, nonconformists, different sorts of .people, all those sitting outside the gates of our public, consumer-oriented lives. ... (19) 17 n Our new theology and ethics of the Kindom(20) -focuses its attention on those who have traditionally been excluded -from the theological and ethical canon. They are now to be at the center, -for it is in their midst that God is doing a new thing! I have had the strongest sense of this reality when I have traveled in countries in Latin America in which military dictatorships have used the most repressive means to control those in the opposition. While visiting in Argentina, Chile, and Bolivia in 1980, I became aware of the courage, hope, and vision of the people, which was indefatigable in the face of incarceration, torture, and even death. It was through their faith that I experienced the Presence of God in a uniquely penetrating way. And so it is that this new theology and ethics will take us from our safe enclaves into our bodies, into the global arena, into creation, into relation with those who are different. It is an experience of conversion and transformation. With the healing of ourselves and the transforming of our theology and ethics which take place within the context of Feminist Liberation, we are ready to think together about how Feminist Liberation may be manifested in particular strategies related to our lives and ministries. We must develop ways in which the passionate living found in Feminist Liberation can be shared and expanded. In Chapter VII I will offer some suggestions for where we might begin our strategizing. 173 Endnotes 1. Marie Augusta Neal, The Just Demands of the Poor; Essays o-f Socio-Theoloqy (New York: Paulist Press, 1987), p. 74. 2. Walter Brueggemann, Disciplines o-f Readiness (Louisville: Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), 1988), pp. 24-5. 3. Letty Russell, Household o-f Freedom: Authority in Feminist Theology (Philadelphia: The Westminster Press, 1987), p. 93. 4. Robert McAfee Brown has expanded ay notion o-f subversion in his comparison o-f subversion and super-version: So we begin to discern a content to praxis, although it is not a content neatly determined in advance; it will grow out o-f, respond to, condition and be conditioned by, the situation. But since it is praxis committed to the poor and to the trans-formation o-f the world, undertaken -from "the view from below," we can describe it, in the precise technical meaning o-f the word, as subversive action . Vertir (in Latin) means "to overthrow, to turn upside down." The Christians described in Acts 17:6 fit this very well. "Those who turned the world upside down" is the way they were pictured. But from what stance does one turn the world upside down? There are two possibilities: one would be super-version , turning the world upside down "from above," for the benefit of the affluent and the powerful; the other possibility would be sub-version , turning the world upside down from below, for the benefit of the poor and powerless. Christian praxis is clearly sub-version, transformation "from below," on behalf, but finally by, "the wretched of the earth," the poor and dispossessed. Robert McAfee Brown, Theology in a New Key: Responding to Liberation Themes (Philadelphia: the Westminster Press, 1978), p. 72. 5. Jane Meyerding, ed., We Are All Part of One Another: A Barbara Deming Reader (Philadelphia New Society Publishers, 1984), p. 206. 6. Rita Nakashima Brock, "On Mirrors, Mists, and Murmurs," in Judith Paskow and Carol P. Christ, Weaving the Visions: New Patterns in Feminist Spirituality (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989, p. 204. 7. Elizabeth Tapia, "Who Am I" in Iben 6jarding and Katherine Kinnaaan, eds., No Lonoer Strangers A Resource for Woaen and Worship (Geneva: World Council of Churches Publications, 1983), p. 53. 6. When aany of us were first -feainists and challenged exclusive language in worship, we found that we were left with a void when we were not always able to replace such language and iaagery with that which expressed our new reality. 174 9. I am indebted to all of my professors here at Episcopal Divinity School -for my understanding o-f the theological and ethical implications of Feminist Liberation, for it is in their lives and work that I see it so clearly embodied. They are Katie Geneva Cannon, Joanna Dewey, Carter Heyward, Sue Hiatt, and Fredrica Harris Tompsett. 10. Beverly Wildung Harrison, "Agendas for a New Theological Ethic," in Churches in Struggle: Liberation Theologies and Social Change in North America , ed. by William Tabb (New York: Monthly Review Press, 1986), p. 90. 11. Ada Maria Isasi Diaz and Yolanda Tarango, Hispanic Women: Prophetic Voice in the Church (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1988), p. 77. 12. From a lecture at EDS in January, 1989. 13. Elizabeth Spelman, Inessential Woman: Problems of Exclusion in Feminist Thought (Boston: Beacon Press, 1988), p. 163. 14. Barbara Smith, ed., Home Girls: A Black Feminist Anthology (New York: Kitchen Table: Women of Color Press, 1983), pp. 359-362. 15. Beverly Harrison, Making the Connections: Essays in Feminist Social Ethics , ed. by Carol Robb (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985), p. 13. 16. Audre Lorde, Sister Outsider (Freedom: The Crossing Press, 1984), p. 57. 17. Carter Heyward, Touching Our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God (San Francisco: Harper & Row, 1989), pp. 91-93. 18. The Mudflower Collective, God's Fierce Whimsy: Christian Feminism and Theological Education (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1985), pp. 25-6. 19. Carter Heyward, "An Unfinished Symphony of Liberation: The Radicalization of Christian Feminist Spirituality for Justice," Journal of Associates for Religion and Intellectual Life (Winter: 3(2), 1986), p. 58. 20. Kindom is a new way of reflecting what has long been reierred to as the Kingdom of God. It suggests an all encompassing understanding of the interconnection of all beings in creation as we move toward a new social vision. As Isasi Diaz and Tarango put it, "The word "kindom" makes it clearer that when the fullness of God becomes a day-to-day reality in the world at large, we will all be sisters and brothers — kin to each other. Ada Maria Isasi Diaz and Yolanda Tarango, Hispanic Women . Footnote 8 on p. 116. 17! Chapter VII Strategies -for Moving Toward Feminist Liberation m the Presbyterian Church Working on this thesis, I have -formulated some strategies I believe will facilitate white, middle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen in our movement toward Feminist Liberation. To assume that it will happen without specific strategies would be naive. Such change requires some awareness of the issues of Liberal Feminism and Feminist Liberation. It also requires the support and input of a community committed to liberation and justice, and a willingness to take the risks involved in personal and social transformation. Each of the strategies below addresses some of the elements of Feminist Liberation that I have discussed in this thesis. This is not an exhaustive list of strategies. I will describe each strategy and indicate how I believe it would aid Presbyterian clergywomen in our journey toward Feminist Liberation. I will state how, in many cases, the building of coalitions would be necessary. I will not attempt to solve the budgetary issues. These would have to be worked out by the clergywomen committed to such strategies. (See Appendix L for the "mind map" of my development of these strategies.) Clergywomen' s History Project ; During my work at Episcopal Divinity School, especially with Katie Cannon, I have become mindful of the importance of the "ancient wisdom" available to us, but which we often fail to recognize. To turn our back on our people and history is death rendering. *4e cannot live isolated from our community and from its myth. White, «iddle-strata women are particularly vulnerable to this danger because we do not always have a strong sense of our community, much less its "ancient wisdom". As we approach the 35th anniversary of the ordination of women as ministers of the Word and Sacraments in the Presbyterian Church, we have an opportunity to recognize and honor our past. It is important -for the history of the -first Presbyterian clergywomen to be recorded. Each o-f these women has a story which can impact the -future o-f other clergywomen and o-f the Presbyterian Church. Too often our foremothers and foresisters are appreciated only after it is too late to hear their stories from their own lips. For this reason I am suggesting that we clergywomen initiate a project involving an extended video taped interview with each of the first 100 women who were ordained (combined) in the Presbyterian Church, U.S. and the United Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Since the first 100 clergywomen are all white, it is important also to interview the first ten women to be ordained from each racial group. The clergywomen from each racial group would be interviewed by one of the clergywoman from that racial group. The stories of the first clergywomen in our denomination would reflect much excitement and joy and also much grief, rejection, and oppression. Many of us assume that we know those stories, but without the specifics recorded by the women themselves and without some analysis of these stories, the value of these women's years of service, commitment and struggle will be lost. The analysis of the interviews would be done by the interviewers with a view toward what could be of most value to the denomination and to future clergywomen. The interviews eight include such issues as what led the women to become ministers, i.he relationship of their personal and vocational commitments, the political dynamics in the local church and at other levels of the denomination, spiritual and theological development, various types of ministry pursued, -feelings about having been in ministry, and any problems encountered in ministry, such as lack of acceptance, difficulty finding positions, 177 compromises made, conflict between personal life choices and ministry, etc. Not only would such & project help clergywomen to learn from the wisdom of those who have gone before but these interviews would also invite an analysis of the problems that many have faced. On the basis of this study,, clergywomen could challenge the denomination to change its ways in relation to clergywomen. Such a study would also change our understanding of ourselves and would have an impact on our strategies. To make this project a reality, we would need to work with the Women Employed by the Church Committee (WEBC) and the Committee of Women of Color (CWC) of the Women's Ministry Unit of the F'resbyterian Church. This particular strategy would involve especially the following elements of Feminist Liberation: 1) Community: We would be working together to gather and analyze this material, especially the Women Employed by the Church Committee, the Committee of Women of Color, and the women hired to do the interviewing. 2) Particularity: To interview only the first 100 clergywomen in the F'resbyterian Church would not be satisfactory since we are all white. It is essential that the first clergywomen from each racial ethnic group be represented as well. Their experiences of being the first within their group are probably quite different from those of the white clergywomen. The strategies that -feminist clergywomen (of all races) might develop would be quite different if we take the racial ethnic clergywomen" s experiences as seriously as we have taken the experience of white clergywomen in the past. It is also not enough to take the first racial ethnic clergywomen "across the board." The experiences of the first Black clergywomen will not be the same as that of the first Asian, Hispanic, or Native American clergywomen. 178 3) Transformation: Knowing our history is basic to working toward a trans-Formed present and -future within the Presbyterian Church. This strategy «akes clear the importance o-f transmitting to -future generations the history we are now making and have made during the last 35 years. Con-ferences on Privilege ; Because the concept o-f "privilege" is so hard •for white, Kiddle-strata Presbyterian clergywomen to comprehend and to act upon, it is crucial that some time, effort, and money be spent on holding some conferences which will focus on "privilege". Since it is, in fact, the privilege of persons in dominant groups in society to deny that privilege exists, some significant consciousness-raising is required to overcome the barriers that protect white, middle-strata clergywomen from the awareness of our race and class privilege. I would suggest a steering committee composed of a variety of clergywomen appointed by the Women Employed by the Church Committee of the Women's Ministry Unit. It would plan a large national conference of clergywomen focused on the issue of privilege in which the reality of privilege would be addressed by clergywomen, who for different reasons, have little or no privilege in the Presbyterian Church today; e.g., women of color, lesbians, single women, older women, unemployed women. A lot of time would be spent in small groups in which resistances and barriers to recognizing one's own privilege could be addressed. There would be opportunities for informal conversations and other consciousness-raising experiences. An important group to include in the planning of this conference would be the National Association of Presbyterian Clergywomen <NAPC) and the Committee of Women of Color. This initial conference, designed primarily to raise issues, could be 179 •followed by five years o-f regional conferences in which specific privileges would be explored: Year 1 Racial Privilege — These conferences would bring together racial ethnic clergywomen, Third World clergywomen (actually doing ministry in other parts of the world), and white, middle-strata clergywomen. We would meet in snail mixed groups to struggle with the racial privilege and non-privilege which divide us. There might be a couple of keynote speakers to lay out issues. Host of the time, however, would be spent in small groups. We would be attempting to transcend barriers between us as we worked together on strategies to address the issues of race privilege in the Presbyterian "Church and in society. We will elicit help and support from the Committee of Women of Color of the Women's Ministry Unit (National level of the Presbyterian Church) and the various national Racial Ethnic Caucuses and the Global Ministry Unit (It does all of the work relating to other parts of the world.), Year 2 Age and Able-Bodied Privilege — These conferences would bring together clergywomen of different ages who are both able-bodied and differently abled to discuss issues of age and disability that impede our liberation. The format of these conferences would be similar to that of the conferences on race privilege, but the focus would be different. To facilitate our work in this area, «e would consult with Presbyterians for Disabilities Concerns, Presbyterian Gray Panthers, and Presbyterian Health, education and Welfare Association. Year 3 Heterosexual Privilege — These conferences would bring together lesbian and heterosexual clergywomen to discuss ways in which sexual preference privilege impedes our liberation. These conferences would be very 180 difficult because there are so -few lesbian clergywomen who are "out" within the church because the Presbyterian Church has declared that homosexuality is sinful and no one who is open may be ordained as a clergyperson or as an elder or deacon (the latter two offices are filled by lay persons in the PCUSA).(5ee Appendix M for the legislation.) This puts tremendous stress on lesbian clergywomen because even if there are no witch hunts, there are informal networks that may insure no employment for known lesbian clergy. These conferences might have to be smaller, and the lesbians might have to be moved into geographical areas where they are not serving. It is a very complex issue, and one way in which some of the problems would be resolved is to have these conferences envisioned and planned entirely by Presbyterian Lesbian Clergywomen (PLCW) with the support of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns. Year 4 Class Privilege — These conferences would bring together clergywomen from different class backgrounds. Since the issue of class shapes us when we are children and continues to separate us throughout our lives, it is important to focus on our early class identities. There might also be soae opportunity for discussion about how these issues continue to confuse us when some of us are victims of underemployment and unemployment while others move more smoothly along the career ladder. There are no groups in the Presbyterian Church working on the issues of class to whom we could look for support and input as we plan these conferences although the Presbyterian Health, Education and Welfare Association might be of some help. Year 5 Clergy Privilege — These conferences would explore the relationship of clergywomen and lay women as one of privilege and non- privilege. This would be a great culmination to the -five-year cycle, because 181 I would envision that this same cycle o-f conferences would be sponsored -for lay women through Presbyterian Women, an organization o-f women's associations across the denomination. If this were to happen, it would be a significant step in the movement toward Feminist Liberation within the Presbyterian Church. It would mean that both lay women and clergywomen would be dealing with the issues of privilege in parallel conferences over a four-year period and then end by dealing with power dynamics between clergy and lay. These are rarely dealt with in any church setting. Included in this conference would be not only Presbyterian Women but also lay employees of the Presbyterian Church at all levels, e.g., secretaries, educators, musicians. Thinking about this cycle of conferences, I wonder whether a closing national conference might be an appropriate way to culminate this endeavor to understand our privilege better and to begin to reduce the power differentials among women within the Presbyterian Church. If we were to come out of these conferences with commitments and tools to accomplish this task, then we, indeed, would have something important to share with our sisters in other denominations and with those feminists outside the church. (Certainly while planning such a cycle of conferences, we would also want to check with clergywomen in other denominations who might have already planned conferences on privilege in order to gain from their experience.) The elements of Feminist Liberation addressed in this strategy would be: 1) Marginality: In «*ch conference those with little or no privilege would be the ones who would do the naming. They would be central to the process of identifying the reality of privilege which results in oppression and of recommending the process of liberation on which all clergywomen need to be working. Those on the margin would move to the center of these liberative 182 endeavors. 2) Interdependence: It would become obvious as we move through these conferences that we are interdependent in both positive and negative ways. The well being o-f each person is tied to that of the rest of us. 3) Transformation: Through the process of becoming mindful of the reality of privilege and of how such power dynamics can be diminished, all of us will be better equipped to contribute to transformation in our own lives, in the lives of our communities and in the society as a whole. 4) Particularity: In becoming aware of the differentials in privilege, we clergywomen would become cognizant of the particularities which play a significant role in our lives. To deal with the issue of privilege, we must be able to name our own particularities and recognise those of others. 5) Revolutionary Change: These conferences would make way for women to become radicalized and to move, through a power analysis, to counteract the oppressive relationships which predominate in the church and in the society Travel Seminars : Since I consider travel crucial to the whole process of Feminist Liberation, it is logical that I would suggest that we find ways to help clergywomen travel outside this country. (1) The best plan, in my estimation, would be for small groups of no more than ten Presbyterian clergywomen to travel together in various parts of the Third World. There might be some occasions when clergywomen from other denominations would be invited to participate in these trips. Each group would have to have at least one-third racial ethnic clergywomen and under »ost circumstances the groups would be led administratively by racial ethnic clergywomen. (2) The actual period in the Third World countries would be under the leadership of clergywomen/theologians from those countries, and the time would be divided 183 between travel and classes. Each group would do preparatory reading, attend an orientation session be-Fore departure, and participate in a de-briefing a month after returning to the U.S. There would be an expectation that upon their return, these clergywomen would share their learnings with others in this country, especially other clergywomen. Some of the things that I hope would be accomplished through such travel would include jarring of consciousness, increasing understanding of global political and economic issues, and learning about the theological and ethical issues emerging among the women of the area. The elements of Feminist Liberation which would be addressed through this strategy would include: 1) Global Awareness: The clergywomen would learn how small this world is and how great is the impact of the foreign relations of the United States. Awareness of being part of the global family would no longer be an abstraction, but rather an experienced reality. 2) Marginality: Through having racial ethnic women from here and abroad, as leaders for the seminars, the experience of those who are marginal, by the world's standards, would become central within the group. 3) Interdependence: It would become very clear in traveling how much we human beings are connected across national and cultural barriers. This would be felt, on the emotional level, in that the white women would be putting our well being in the hands of those with whom traditionally we would not have been closely related. Seminary Quarter for Women : There was the Seminary Quarter at Grailville (SOAG) from 1974 to 1978 in which 84 women seminarians of various denominations participated. SOAG was a brilliant program that embodied many 184 •feminist ideals and was significant in the future lives and ministries o-f many women. It allowed seminary women to spend a summer together and get credit through United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. As described in Your Daughters Shall Prophesy , SOAG was a model program with the -following elements: — women theologians as role models — the building of a living/learning community in which everyone shares in the decision-making by which the group constitutes itself — a self-directed learning model in which individuals and groups focus their own questions and methods of study — a wholistic and experimental approach to learning, uniting intellect and emotion, using all modes of perception and expression — a focus on feminist perspectives, both in critiquing traditional studies and in breaking new ground by theological reflection on women's experience. (3) The major problems facing this program were that it had to meet the challenge that the program remained a predominantly white, middle-strata women's experience, to deal with the tension between self-directed study and covering specific content required by denominations, and to struggle to get financial backing. (4) Whether as Presbyterians alone, or as an ecumenical endeavor, we need to develop a program modeled after the best of SOAG. One of the primary endeavors of such a program should be to involve racial ethnic women seminarians and clergywomen/seminary professors in the organizing, planning, and implementing of the program from the beginning. I would think that each year the program might be in a different location of the country, in different types of settings, *o that flif+erent ^women could and *ould take advantage of it. This type of program would provide women seminarians with exposure to Feminist Liberation early in their careers. The leadership team would be made 18 e up of & mix o-f women of color and white women, seminary professors and parish ministers, U.S. citizens and citizens of Third World countries, lesbians and heterosexuals, etc. It is important that women who have been teaching and/or in ministry for a period of time have the opportunity to share from their experience with seminarians while also learning from the "new generation" of seminarians. This program would be a "laboratory" in which new paradigms and strategies of Feminist Liberation could be developed and tested. The students and the leaders would be strengthened in their understanding of, commitment to, and embodiment of Feminist Liberation. The elements of Feminist Liberation which would be addressed in this program are as follow: 1) Community: The teaching and learning would be accomplished by both students and resource persons in such a way as to develop a community of learning. The communal nature of Feminist Liberation will be experienced directly rather than merely discussed. The hope is that this would inform the women as to how theological and ethical perspectives are developed within community rather than by isolated individuals. 2) Transformation: This program would provide an alternative worldview, especially in contrast to most theological education within the Presbyterian Church. It is through embracing such a worldview that one gains the tools to bring about transformation in the church and the wider society. The need for justice as a norm for one's theology and ethics would become profoundly clear. 3. Interdependence: Living in a community of learning -for a summer would provide a powerful opportunity *for the women to learn how what happens to one person impacts everyone. Lesbian Clergy Political Caucus : There has been a little organizing done 186 among lesbian clergywomen in the Presbyterian Church. There needs to be a concerted effort made to gather lesbian clergywomen together and to strategize about what we can do within the Presbyterian Church. Lesbian clergywomen, on the whole, are a very politically keen group. Our group includes some of the brightest and best of the Presbyterian clergywomen, but our voices have been silenced by the oppression o-f heterosexism. Such a group would give us voice. Lesbianism has given me and other lesbian clergywomen a special lens through which to look at the Presbyterian Church and the political dynamics we •find there. (5) Each way in which we have little or no privilege gives us one ■ore lens through which we can see more clearly the power dynamics in our church and society. Because o-f the virulent nature o-f the oppression against lesbians and gay men within the Presbyterian Church, the lens o-f lesbianism can provide a stunning clarity. The vulnerability of being lesbian in heterosexist patriarchy also means that lesbians have less privilege to lose. For this reason, we may be more willing, at times, to take risks involved in embracing Feminist Liberation. Because of our choices, we lesbians challenge the heterosexist assumptions of this society. We are threatening to many; therefore we experience homophobic responses. As a result, most lesbian clergywomen have been forced to "pass" as heterosexuals, except with our «ost trusted friends and colleagues. Only one clergywoman is "fully "out" in the Presbyterian Church! Liberal Feminism supports our passing by teaching that what we "do in bed" should not «ake any difference. Liberal Feminism calls us to «end the crack in the pot by covering up the contradiction that, although it should not ■ake any difference what we "do in bed"; we, in -fact, will be punished if it is revealed. We reinforce this liberal "cover up" in our failure to see and 187 acknowledge the contradiction. For example, when asked about lesbian clergywomen who "come out" and their -future role within the Presbyterian Church, one of the clergywomen in my study responded: If lesbianism or heterosexism becomes the key focus in feminist liberation, the battle is lost. .. .Given the setting of the Church, if a number of lesbian clergywomen come out in the PCUSA and then take up the fight of feminist liberation, the focus will be shifted from the main issue to that of homosexuality. The battle lines will be drawn, and feminist liberation becomes synonymous with lesbianism. As a result, there probably would be a loss of support from feminist clergywomen. Living as a lesbian clergywoman for the last 15 years has instilled in me a growing hermeneutic of suspicion which can be contained no longer. Liberal Feminism generates denial and confusion within me and leaves me with contradictions which provide me with none of the spiritual sustenance I need. Feminist Liberation offers me passionate living, joy, and vision. When lesbian clergywomen make a choice for passionate living, we can see more clearly what is going on politically because we are pushing out through the cracks in the liberal pot. We car, begin to recognize and question the assumptions that have heretofore contained us. Bringing lesbian clergywomen together to study the liberalism that has contained most of us might empower us to act politically with more effectiveness. We might see more clearly the broad range of issues which are connected in our lives and thus .understand better how Feminist Liberation benefits everyone, not only lesbians. - - It also is important that lesbian clergywomen provide * "home" "for each other. I recently have come to a renewed awareness that most of us search for "home" most of our lives. We can never go home in the sense of going back to what is often an idealized •emory of the past, a home which probably never existed. I want to affirm the notion that our life journey is home. <6> This is particularly important for lesbian clergywomen who have often been cut off 186 -from home in various ways. Our communal participation in La Luc ha — the struggle which is life itself — becomes home. Home is where we are now, especially when we are free to love and accept ourselves as we are. The elements of Feminist Liberation addressed in this effort are as follow: 1) Revolutionary Change: The empowering of lesbian clergywomen in the Presbyterian Church would, in and of itself, be revolutionary. The changes resulting from the political work done by lesbians would be multitudinous and profound in nature. Certainly it would be a significant step toward turning upside down the culture of domination. 2) Embodiment: Lesbianism is a way of embodying the whole reality of Feminist Liberation. Therefore the empowering of a group of lesbian feminist clergywomen must deal with embodiment. Our valuing of an embodied theology and ethics in passionate living is a way of manifesting embodiment. 3) Marginality: Lesbian clergywomen are marginal in the Presbyterian Church. This program to organize lesbians brings us to the center in the struggle to bring liberation and justice to the church as well as to the society. 4) Particularity: Within such a caucus, lesbian clergywomen would be able to affirm our own particularity and to gain the strength to "come out". In "coming -out", there would be wore possibilities of sharing our particularities with others. Intensive One-honth Study Leave Program : Since each clergywoman normally receives two weeks of paid study leave each year which can be accumulated up to eight weeks, it is reasonable to imagine the possibility of clergywomen attending a month-long program. Such a program would be focused on Feminist 189 Liberation. Each month-long experience would highlight one element of Feminist Liberation, such as embodiment, revolutionary change, particularity, interdependence. There would be intensive courses involving self-learning through a variety of methods (e.g., formal presentations from resource persons, small group activities, body movement, artistic expression, liturgical experiences.) When possible, the leadership teams of these programs would include white and racial ethnic clergywomen and seminary professors. This program would be accredited through a seminary so that the women could receive seminary credit to be applied later to post-graduate work. These study leaves could very well constitute feeder programs into the Feminist Liberation D. Min. degree programs in seminaries, such as Episcopal Divinity School and San Francisco Theological Seminary. (7) Three of these month-long study programs would be offered annually at different times of the year in different parts of the country with different areas of focus. Every effort would be made to obtain scholarship funds to enable clergywomen who are underemployed or unemployed to participate in this program. Each of the elements of Feminist Liberation would be covered in a three- year cycle of study leave programs. Presbytery and Synod Clusters : To provide a denomination-wide network of support *nd communication for those committed to Feminist Liberation, it is imperative that clusters of clergywomen be gathered within presbyteries, among presbyteries or even Synodwide. <8> These clusters Mould be crucial in the sense that they would provide a place in which clergywomen could raise, explore, struggle with, and live with issues which Feminist Liberation poses. In addition, these clusters would be a place in which learnings from the 190 programs mentioned in this chapter could be shared with other clergywomen, especially those newly ordained. This grassroots organising plan would be particularly appropriate because it could be linked to the organizational structure of Presbyterian Women, the group of lay women organized at all levels of the Presbyterian Church. If this program of Feminist Liberation clusters can be supported by staff women around the country, attached to the Women's Ministry Unit, it can be more easily facilitated than if it were linked to the presbyteries where there might be some resistance and little or no staffing provided. This model would also allow for closer and more trusting relationships between clergywomen and lay women to develop because the same staff persons would be working with both groups. The elements of Feminist Liberation which this program would address are as follow: 1) Community: This cluster program would be the living out of the importance of the social web for our strategizing, organizing, healing and transforming. It would be evidence that we can not bring about change or live our lives in isolation -from each other. We need to reach out not only to those most like us but also to others who are quite different yet who may have some of the same concerns and commitments. 2) Interdependence: Especially in building coalitions between clergyworoen and lay women, our interdependence would be experienced. 3) Revolutionary change: If such ^coalitions between clergywomen and lay women do develop, the Presbyterian Church's transformation will be well underway. Conclusion: A Call to the Passionate Revolution : There are those who 191 •ay ask, "Why bother with all of these strategies when they may never get implemented?" We do not have the luxury of deciding whether or not we will plan for ways in which we can embody the vision of Feminist Liberation in our world. We must! On a recent panel about Feminist Liberation, Joanna Kadi, a student at Episcopal Divinity School, said, "We are out to make revolutions. . .Political activism must go with Feminist Liberation Theology. We must get to the streets and respond to the wants and needs of the common people." Carter also points us in this direction when she writes, "And 'I love you 7 means, let the revolution begin! "(9) We are already involved in a revolution! When we began to ask questions about the very nature of God, it was a new kind of revolution, as Anne Hebrew Bennett's writings reflect: Granted that ideas about God have changed in revolutionary ways since Sarah and Abraham set out for an unknown land; yet there is something new, wholly new, a woman's challenge to the Judeo-Chr istian tradition, Scriptures, and structures. Women are taking seriously the commonplace that a culture's idea of divinity is central not only to that culture's religious life but also to its social/political/f amilial institutions and relationships. Women are looking at the male God who has dominated the Judeo-Christian world and who is a fundamental part of our culture, and women are seeing in that male God the instrument of our invisibility, our oppression, our pain. (10) And I might add that that male God is also the instrument of the invisibility, oppression, and pain of many other marginalized persons around the world. We have already opened up Pandora's Box, (11) and we cannot close it again. We can try to ignore the chaos. We can bury our beads in the sand out of fear. We can hide our eyes from the pain surrounding us and in us; but when we peek, we will find the potential revolution still there. We have been taught in our culture that revolution is a negative and dangerous reality, but do we have to accept that narrow conceptualization? In aost ways our world is a mess. Why 19 n can't we see the revolution — the turning upside down — of such a world as glorious and redemptive? Why can't we discover as did Pandora, when she opened up the box, that hope is -found in the midst of the mess? I think that we often shrink from the vision of revolution, because we think of it as synonymous with violence, and sometimes it is. But my sisters, we are already involved in violence. We do not need to pick up a gun to shoot someone to be involved in violence. Living our lives as usual, we contribute to violence. We cannot be involved passively in liberation. Our passivity only contributes to the status quo — and it is a violent status quo. You and I can fail to see this reality because much of the oppression in our world is hidden from us. If each day we are not finding significant ways to counter the violence in ourselves, our homes, our communities, our country and around the world, we are helping to escalate the violence. People are dying daily of starvation, torture, domestic abuse, drugs, and neglect in our own communities and elsewhere in the world. And there are those who wish they were dead because they are lonely, forgotten, sick, alienated, and addicted. They too are in our own homes and everywhere else in the world. In contrast to this reality, why is revolution such a frightening vision? Could it be that the powers that be have planned it that way? How do we learn to perceive clearly what is at stake in our refusals to see? Feminist Liberation challenges us to see, to think, to act in revolutionary ways to help bring in the day of peace, love, justice and liberation in our world. Yes, there are risks, but they are not as great as the ones we face in this very moment. We can not allow our ■emories of the violence, done in our name each day and many times with our tacit consent, to fade. It is re- membering our world through deeds of justice, through commitments to 193 liberation, through acts o-f love-making that the revolution comes. Indeed, let the revolution begin! 194 Endnotes 1. As I mentioned in Chapter IV, I am well aware that there is a class issue involved in recommending travel seminars as a means -for moving into Feminist Liberation. Rather than dismiss this means for raising consciousness, I would rather insure means by which clergywomen, with little or no -financial capacity could participate in such seminars. 2. To guarantee that this would not just be another "rip off" of racial ethnic women to the benefit of white women,, the administrators of the program would be given a small stipend in addition to their travel expenses being covered. 3. The Cornwall Collective, Your Daughters Shall Prophesy; Feminist Alternatives in Theological Education (New York: The Pilgrim Press, 1980), pp. 136-7. 4. Ibid., p. 140. 5. One of my colleagues at EDS, Judith Carpenter, also suggested the many- facets of a stone as another way of imaging the increased clarity one gains from the vantage point of various experiences of no-privilege. 6. I am indebted to Nelle Morton who has developed the notion of the life journey as home building on Ruth Duck's words, "we are still God's people, the journey is our home," found in her feminist hymn, "Lead on, Cloud of Yahweh." Nelle Morton, The Journey Is Home (Boston: Beacon Press, 1985), p. xvii. 7. SFTS has had a D.Min. focused on feminist issues, but it is presently dormant. 8. There are 183 presbyteries and 16 synods across the country and Puerto Rico. Each presbytery includes representatives (clergy and lay) from the local churches in a given geographical area. Synods are composed of the presbyteries generally within one or more state(s). 9. Carter Heyward, The Redemption of God: A Theology of Mutual Relation (Washington: University Press of America, 1982), p. 162. •- ** 10. Anne McGrew Bennett <ed. by Mary E. Hunt), From Woman-Pain to Vtoman- Vision: Writings in Feminist Theology (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1989), p. 7. 11. I had used Fibber McGee's closet at this point until Ann DuBois suggested Pandora's Box, which is a «uch better fit -for this thesis. 19 c Appendix A Memories o-f Annette Wall on Pre-CEW days in Philadelphia When I began attending the luncheon meetings at the Witherspoon Building, the topics under discussion were more likely to cover recipes, diets and child rearing practices than employee concerns, grievances, problems, etc. .. Probably the result o-f my wheelings and dealings with various peace organizations (she was secretary with the Emergency Ministry on Conscience and War), it occurred to me that the Women's Committee might be the medium -for some of the solutions to what I saw as injustices visited on the non- executives by everyone who had more power which was just about everybody in the place, including the stray dog who used to sneak into our lobby -from time to time. .. although it was clear that the Women" s Committee was not even close to a feminist perspective, we were able to obtain enough of a majority to represent a constituency to legitimize an approach to the Professional Women's Caucus... the Professional Women's Caucus had opened its arms to take in the ragtag stragglers of non-professional, non-e;;ecs. Yet back at the Witherspoon Building the Ladies Club attitude still prevailed at the meetings. When the committee's president began to understand the implications of Knsheim (a Presbyterian Conference Center in Philadelphia where the Professional Women's Caucus had met), she felt the committee's future might be too time consuming &nd she resigned. I was elected and began efforts to turn member interest away from recipes for a low-fat Chicken Soup and toward a more pragmatic wider political view. I was meeting with little success until the "Ins", true to the gospel according to Aimsky ("Don't worry about creating issues for your constituency, the Have's will do it for you."), stepped in, and opened Sesame as wide as we could ever want. I came to work one morning to find management had distributed throughout the building, in very office, on every desk, in every nook and cranny, proposed plans for handling the future restructuring. While the Execs were to receive benefits from here to forever, provisions for the nons (nonexecs) seemed limited to little beyond a goodbye wave. Management, in its infinite arrogance, stupidity, and total indifference to the human factor, had managed to tap into the mother lode of the conscience of the UPCUSA at the Witherspoon Building. The Women's Committee called an open luncheon meeting for that day, and, despite the last minute invitation, the large conference room where it was held overflowed with both non-execs and embarrassed execs. The Women's Committee had, at last, outgrown its church- lady limitations. Appendix B CEW Prospectus and Purpose October, 1972 The National Steering Committee o-f CEW, meeting at Krisheim Study Center in Philadelphia on September 11, 12, and 13, adopted the -following prospectus and proposal to obtain an office and funding in the new Vocation Agency o-f the UPCUSA... In January o-f 1971, the Task Force on Women appointed a committee to convene women ministers, Christian educators and other women professionally employed by the church. A study o-f women ministers revealed that although the church had agreed to ordain women, it had not concerned itself with their employment after ordination nor had it provided access to the same opportunities in ministry enjoyed by men. Women have never served a church larger than a 250 membership as the sole or senior pastor. Currently, only 16 clergywomen serve as sole or senior pastor; 23 are undesignated (clergy not working in parishes or staff positions). Only four committees of the national church have women ministers serving on them, only one on a major agency. It has also become clear that women brought up in this culture which socializes boys and girls quite differently have re-forming contributions to make to theology, pastoral counseling, social action, teaching and administration. The gifts they bring are neither unavailable nor alien to men, only unencouraged. Seminaries have been male-oriented and have given scant attention to the historic and contemporary contributions or styles of women. Attempts to reach those Christian educators who are women disclosed that the church has no complete register of those who carry out its educational ministry. The only complete up-to-date listing of church professionals is one for ministers. What corporate responsibility does the church have for these others, most of them women? Further, in a church which has denied both the existence of these problems and the significance of the statistical and experiential facts gathered, women need a support community in which their perception can be validated and through which they can affirm all women throughout the churches and the secular world. A year later the Task Force aembers began to raise many questions regarding the women employed by the church in secretarial and clerical jobs (those traditionally known as non-professional). A survey was conducted using a questionnaire developed with the women themselves. The results showed that women do indeed want »ore voice in decisions that affect them and that personnel policies need to be reviewed and revised. It was also discovered through studies of the handbooks for executives and staff in the Boards and Agencies that wide discrepancies exist between the attitudes of the church toward each group. The church assumes the executive is mature, responsible and trustworthy — in contrast to its prevailing attitude that the other staff is none of these and «ust, therefore, be closely regulated. Yet surveys show that many of these women whom the church, by its treatment, has characterized as irresponsible have served the church for many years and in many offices have "broken in" numerous executives. There are also wide discrepancies between secretarial and executive salaries and fringe benefits, such as vacation time, continuing education opportunities, study leave, etc. Perhaps the church cannot deal immediately with salaries; it can remedy the wide gap in its provision of benefits. The church has unquestioningly and almost vigorously adopted the class system of society. Should we be proud that we borrow our pay scale from the secular world? Should we be proud that we borrow the assumptions about women from the same source? Every profession defines man as that which leads, woman as that which is led. Women are assigned a role secondary to men, and it is this assignment which legitimizes women's lower pay, lessened status and the lack of authority. Women have begun to ask why women's lower pay, lessened status and lack of authority. Women have begun to ask why. In January, 1972, the professional and non-professional women's groups merged to form the Church Employed Women's organization (CEW) . To continue in two separate groups would have perpetuated the divisions imposed on us by society. The group has many separate agendas but a common concern for women and the health of the church. During the entire period of restructuring, CEW, through staff and the Task Force, tried to introduce their concerns to the Commission on Restructuring and its various sub-committees. Sometimes they were heard. At other times they were not. As the 184th General Assembly (1972) met, we were told that CEW would have a place and a staff in the Vocation Agency. Tnrough this General Assembly, the church recognized the existence of CEW and referred its 1972 h-j.dqet to the General Council which, in turn, referred it to the GAMC where it is to be heard in October. Meanwhile, the structural questions were re+erred to the Commission on Restructuring which received them without comment. A verbal "gentleman's agreement" was made: Just as the Task Force was to have a Consulting Committee in the Program Agency, CEW would have a Consulting Committee in the Vocation Agency. Since then we have found no written evidence nor has the agreement been passed on to the Vocation Agency in any form. We therefore submit these papers in good faith that the past year's negotiation had meaning and that the verbal agreements will be honored. We therefore submit to the Vocation Agency the following budget for the establishment of an Office for Employed Women in the Vocation Agency with a Consulting Committee to advise the Vocation Agency in all matters relating to the concerns of employed women. There are no specific programs offered by the church now for these women in the established structures and no programs for the church-at-large in matters relating to sexism. The church has spoken boldly of its concern which grows out of its commitment to Christ for all these who are oppressed or discriminated against. It has spoken boldly of freedom in Christ, of the loving community, of equality and justice and of self-determination. But the eyes of the church have a history of astigmatism, focusing on foreign missions, on distant injustices. The church began its concern for others by sending missionaries to other lands. It then moved its mission to the dispossessed in this country. Only recently has it begun to look within. An equal employment statement and committee is only a beginning. Racism and sexism run deeper than -fair representation and statistical quotas. They command our intellect and determine our life styles. toe must be fearless enough in our -faith to root out these sexist/racist practices and compassionate enough to care about all those affected by such practice. The world is awake to our struggle. If we ourselves harbor injustice within, how then can we bear witness to that which is loose without? The Task Force works on the issues in general. It is therefore fitting that it asked CEW to turn its attention to employed women in particular. The Task Force members' 1 belief in self-determination mandated that they entrust these issues to the women involved. Thus, CEW now addresses these concerns to the church Other institutions in our society are being forced to respond to these issues by law and pending litigation may soon impose a like enforcement in the church. The church has a. need to hear from these women whose problems are being so closely scrutinized by the church. It has a need to work with them for its reform. The health of the church and the credibility of its faith depend on our casting out this beam in our own eye. The books are clear in relation to the church's intent regarding women. We hope that what legal measures have imposed on the secular world. Christian Borality will impose or. the religious. CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN Serving Employed Women and the Church We believe that by grace we are free to be co-creators with God and all people. If we are co-creators with God, we can be nothing less in relation to any man. We believe that all persons are equal and that in the life of the church should be so seen and treated. We witness to the church and the world as advocates for all women seeking justice for employed women within church structures and joining those working for justice in other structures. The church in the past has been both an instrument of women's liberation as well as subordination. Will the church continue to perpetuate subordination by its unchallenged traditions and "benign neglect"? Or, will the church choose to join those forces of the Holy Spirit which throughout Salvation History have struggled to liberate women? The constituency of Church Employed Women in the UF'CUSA includes: ordained ministers, educators (DCEs, seminary and college personnel;, secretaries, lay employees (para-professionals), musicians, agency and judicatory staff, seminarians, retired employees, mission personnel, and others employed by the church. The purposes of Church Employed Women are: 1. Developing among employed women a community for psychological and economic support. 2. Opening of doors for the contributions and influence of church employed women so that the church no longer need be deprived of the gifts of these women. 3. Acting as advocates for all women. 4. Humanizing our various work systems. 5. Taking our place beside and working with employed women of other institutions. Because equal employment opportunity is a primary concern in the restructuring of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. and acted upon by the Assembly; Because the need -for expanded job opportunities, more equitable advancement and improved personnel policies has been documented and demonstrated by the Task Force on Women and by Church Employed Women themselves and acted upon by the General Assembly; And because o-f the e-f-forts of employed women scattered throughout the church who need a -focal center and a way to relate to the ongoing work of the institution in order to be effective; Church Employed Women has sought an office and funding in the New Vocation Agency. (CEW never was in the Vocation Agency structure as COWAC was in the Program Agency structure. I believe to pacify us, the GMAC gave us $5,000 from the Salvage Fund at the end of 1972. This money was used to print a brochure to recruit members, to survey constituency groups, and to hold regional meetings. ) Appendix C Church Employed nomen AN ORGANIZATION RELATED TO THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CO-CHAIRWOMEN: Linda B. Brebner Room 1244 475 Riverside Drive New York, NY 10027 Fay Noack P. 0. Box 96 Rolla, MO 65401 Church Employed Women, an organization whose membership reached 350 in 1974, has experience and expertise in the structures of the United Presbyterian Church, U.S.A. which we are happy to offer for reflection, contact, and exchange to women of other churches and other nations. In 1971-72, when we were known as the Profes- sional Women's Caucus, we —met as a few women clergy, Christian educa- tors, and laity at General Assembly (6. A.) thanks to the Task Force on Women of the G.A.; —constituted a working steering committee of employed and employable women; —sent delegates to Ministerial Placement workshops, offices, and committees to raise questions and make proposals for servicing women; —proposed to the 6. A. Task Force on Women that the W.C.C. be overtured by our denomi- nation to convene a conference on sexism in churches and in society; —built support, job, and newsletter networks in regions and at General Assembly; —initiated compensation legislation reform and advocated with the G.A. Task Force on Women the proposals for United Presbyterian Pension Reform. In 1972-73, we joined with a group of clerical employees from national denominational offices to become known as Church Employed Women (CEW). From that time, we —organized five regional mettings of employed women in clergy, Christian education, secre- tarial, overseas positions to identify prob- lems and elect representatives to a national steering committee; —asked the Eastern Regional Newsletter editor to publish a national newsletter; •surveyed local church secretaries to find that out of 2,488 who returned questionnaires 37% were over SO years old 85% were not on any private pension plan 35% were not having any church funds paid into the government social security system for them (in many cases this was propably illegal on the part of the church) 11% only indicated that the church provided access to medical plan coverage 25% received no paid vacation 50% of the full-time (40 hours a week) and nearly all of the part-time (though some work 30-35 hours) re- less than $5,000 a year (welfare family level in the U.S.A.) — surveyed women in Christian education to find that out of 193 returns: — the median salary per year was about $7500 as compared with their senior pas- tor colleagues at $15,500 and associate pastor colleagues at $11,500 —that housing and fringe benefits are con- siderably less for educators than for pastors and in many cases educators re- ceive no housing or other fringe benefits — wrote Overtures C and D, which were passed by the G.A., requiring nominating (calling) com- mittees seeking pastors for local churches and staff for presbyteries to report to the presbytery asked to approve the call whether or not the committee has complied with the Church's equal employment opportunity pro- gram (considering persons for jobs without regard to race, ethnic origin, sex, or mari- tal status). Committees are also instructed to use the services of official Church groups representing minorities and women in the hiring process; — wrote the legislation on non-ordained Per- sonnel Committees which passed the G.A. and requires presbyteries to review the employ- ment situations and terms for these employees and to set standards and policies; — negotiated through a 20-woman sit-in a Con- sulting Committee on Employed Women to the Vocation Agency, to which CEW sends 5 of 12 members (others are from the Vocation Agency Board, Third World Women, and Headquarters Staff Association); --carried out a clergywomen 's therapeutic seminar; — advocated the placement of clergywomen and laywomen at presbytery, synod, and national levels in the denomination's restructuring process. (One clergywomen and only a few laywomen — mainly in women's program and Chris- tian education—had been visible in these judicatories when the process began.); —negotiated feminist resource persons and courses into synod summer schools. In 1973-74, we —nominated clergy and lay women to the Per- manent Nominating Committee of the G.A. for the second time— we hope for better results! —carried on with the writing of women's af- firmative action program guidelines for the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity of the G.A. and negotiated consulting service con- tracts on writing guidelines for Ministerial Relations committees, compiling an equal op- portunity and affirmative action bibliography on women, designing surveys of the employment (and unemployment ) experiences of female clergy, licensees, seminarians. There are plans for other consulting service contracts as well . •-did a survey on clergywomen for the Compensa- tion Committee of the G.A. With 67 returns (out of 144 clergywomen), we discovered that: — all in congregational positions were at the median pastor 's salary for the en- tire denomination or lower — all the way down to nothing for doing pastoral work — less than half listed having housing and pension benefits (which are usual for male pastors) — about half received car or travel allow- ances —only a third had continuing education as a benefit — only one-sixth listed vacation (some are unemployed, some work temporarily as a waitress, librarian, day-care worker; some can find only part-time church work; some have 2 or 2 church jobs) — none get maternity leave or unemployment compensation (significant issues for our women) — those who work as co-pastors with their husbands (3 couples) either receive half salary and half pension for full-time work or no salary and no pension but an annual baby-sitting allowance. — provided CEW resource people to the Council on Administrative Services (which trains middle judicatories in hiring processes); — gained official autonomous status as an or- ganization related to our denomination and represented ourselves at the Moderator's Conference ; —re-organized ourselves by synods to reflect the new distribution-of -power structure in our denomination; -carried out a model of a church secretaries' conference; -negotiated with the newly formed national Council on Women and the Church for $10,000 program grant for two women to carry out a rural team ministry; -recommended to the Consulting Committee on Employed Women the following: — Successful 1974 Budget Items : J. Management Associates Program for Women and Minorities for Presbytery, Synod, and G.A. levels; budget funds supplemented by the offices in which Associates are placed 2. Male clergy consciousness-raising sem- inars 3. A contribution the National Council of Churches ' Creative Ministry for Women 4. Employed Position of Co-ordinator of Employment Opportunities 5. Interim ministries program (rotating unemployed clergywomen around a presby- tery for leading in worship 6. Regional skills training events for women employed by the denomination —We also recommended the upcoming Consulting Committee consultation with the U.P. Board of Pensions to review the psychiatric limi- tation and contracts for diagnosis (under the medical coverage plan). —We suggested the elimination of sexist language and sex preference options in the Church Information Form used in placement. —We raised the concern for the review of the evaluation instruments of ecumenical church career centers which were known for using tests based on male/female cultural stereo- types and producing results charted on sex- stereotyped job profiles. These centers were known to be recommended to women who could not find employment in the denomina- tion due mainly to discriminatory attitudes and employment practices. We went on record publicly as a group which requested women not to collude with their own referrals in such situations. -- Proposed 1975 New Budget Items 1. Financial aid grants for supporting femin- ist publishable scholarship in various fields of theological training — i.e . , history of employed women in the UPCUSA, hermeneutics , Biblical theology, practi- cal theology (counseling, etc J 2. Teaching Associates program for women in theological seminaries —we are currently proposing a collective self- help series of events for women working in na- tional offices. May 30, 1974 Material prepared by Joyce L. Manson CEW Newsletter Editor: Carol M. Ames Box 427 Forest Grove, PA 18922 Appendix D CEW REPORT, 4/6-7/73 Meeting of the Committee on the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity The following are recommendations of CEW which committee members of the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity agreed to pass on to their respective boards and agencies for approval. In Policy Statements and the Support and Vocation Agencies 7 Affirmative Action Programs: The addition of "women," "race," "creed," "minorities, " "sex," "age," and "marital status" where previously omitted. "Marital status" is to include "family responsibilities." The substitution of "women" for "female" where applicable. The Office of Equal Employment Opportunities and all agencies are to have update lists of minority and women's caucuses for recruitment sources. The substitution of the following EEO general objective: "It is the policy of the United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America to provide equal opportunity in employment and upward mobility for all qualified persons, to prohibit discrimination in employment because of race, creed, color, national origin, sex, age, or marital status, and to promote the full realization of equal employment opportunity through a positive and continuing program of affirmative action." The addition of the following to be added to the specific EEO objectives: "Affirmative action is the execution of a set of specific and result-oriented procedures designed to eliminate frequent unconscious discriminatory practices in the employment of women and minority groups." The recommendation that bona fide occupational qualification be limited to "creed" only. To be added to methods of external dissemination of the EEO policy regarding the use of pictures in employment brochures that such pictures include women and minorities in non-stereotype roles(i.e. women stereotyped as secretaries). That statistics on employed women be included in samplings for goals and timetables. Goals and timetables for all agencies are to be set after availability studies have been done by the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity. The addition of sources for women candidates. To the AAF' of the Support Agency: the suggestion that the skills inventory done by the Vocation Agency for women include non-working experience. To be added under "Purpose," the establishment of grievance procedures. Separate goals for women and minorities. Goals more clearly delineated. Under "Definition," to "plan of action" add, "to insure the employment of women and minorities at all levels." In the guidelines, under "Outreach Recruitment," we asked that the words "good faith" be more clearly defined in order to clarify the requirements of outreach recruitment. The sentence reads: "Judicatories do not show forth good faith effort merely be advertising staff jobs in various publications." Under "staff Development and Training," in the following paragraph: "The Vocation Agency will initiate a program whereby employees will assist in the planning of their own career development. The program will include, but not be limited to, 1) an assessment of career goals and definition of needed training experiences to achieve mobility and promotion potential, (this will be undertaken with minority and female employees for future transfer or promotion. This will be achieved within the first year of employment." CEW requested clarification as to whether this process was to be initiated in all agencies or only the Vocation Agency, and further requested that, if only the Vocation Agency, it be adopted for inclusion by all agencies in their AAP. In response to CEW" s recommendation that women and minorities be considered together in policy but separate in implementation processes, the committee requested member-at-large Rev. G. Aubrev Young to work with Linda Brebner and Annette Wall to establish such a process for recommendation to the agencies. This group's considerations will also include the adaptation of the Womenpower Consultants" AAP for Women for church uses, the possible establishment of a position with the program for women as the core of the job description, and methods of combating the traditional and discriminatory general practice of limiting promotions of women to those with secretarial/clerical experience. To the expressed CEW concern that some procedure for the availability of the AAP compliance procedures be established for the individual employee, it was decided to consider this during the May meeting of this committee in Omaha, Nebraska. A process for monitoring and evaluating, as well as the grievance procedures, will also be explored at that time. Appendix E QUESTIONNAIRES TO LOCAL CHURCH SECRETARIES Summary of response from 2,468 secretaries A£e:. Under 20 • C,"j 20-30 10. o$ 31- 40 I9.O3& 41-50 33. of, 51-60 26.0$ 61-65 6.0$ over 65 4.o$ No response .6$ Education: • High School 393 College 33$ Post-Graduate 3$ Business School 24$ Other .02$ No Response .06$ Fringe Benefits: Social Security - Yes 52$ it n No 35$ No Response 12$ Yes 3$ n No 85$ No Response 12$ Medical Yes 11$ 11 No 76$ No Response 12$ Paid Vacation: None 24$ Less than one week .4$ One veek 5$ Two 'weeks 42$ Three weeks 12$ Four weeks 4$ Over four weeks 5$ No response 9* Length of Employment: Less than 1 year 13$ 1-5 years 45$ 6-10 years 21$ 11-15 years 12$ 16-20 years 5$ 21-25 years 2$ 25-33 years .&o Over 30 years .3$ 1.0 response 1$ irial only 65$ Secretarial + Bookkeeping 21$ Secretarial chores Secretarial calling .Gi Secretarial (calendar and building) Secretarial (other) No response I -2- Adult Study: Work related 8* Church related 20$ Academic 3* Other fy None 22£ No response 39£ Continuing Education: Have opportunities 15* No opportunities 63£ No response 22$ Time off 0f> No time off* 72£ No response 22£ Financial assist- 3* ance No assistance 1% No response 22$ Involvement in church life: 73£ No 22$ No response % Involvement .of Members: Church officer 1C# Choir-Organist 12$ Clerk of Session •3* Study Groups l1o Church Committees 12$ Youth Adviser ) . S. S. Teacher ) ie$ Couples' Club H UFW 27^ Other 9$ -3- Snlary: Full time (annual salary) 880 secretaries - 35^ Part-time - 622 secretaries (25? Less than $1,000 10 $1,000 - $1,999 LOSS r, 2,000 - 2,000 .7* % 3,000 - 3,999 4.0£ % 4,000 - 4,999 10.0J& i« fi 5,00-0 - 5,999 12. Of, •555 6,000 - 6,999 6.c# .o£v$ 7,000 - 7,999 2.0£ .010 8,000 - 6,999 (or more) .J$ Full time (hoixly rate) - 49 secretaries - 2$ Part-tine — 537 secretaries - $1.00 - 1.U9 .04£ .8* 1.50 - 1.99 .2 <f> 4.o£ 2.00 - 2.49 •7 $ 10.0f 3 2.50 - 2.99 J* 4.o£ 3.00 - 3.49 .ii 2.0fb 3.50 - 3.00 .04£ *H More than $4.00 .0l£ Full time (Volunteer) •95* • Part-time (Volunteer) 5$ No Response (itdl time) ft No Response (part time) 5£ Appendix F A CREATIVE NEW V7AY TO DO MISSION — PROPOSAL FOR A NINE-MONTH EMPLOYMENT SCHEDULE / "God is calling His church. "This .General Assembly hears that call. "It is a call to be and a call to do. "In the plainest words possible, we believe the call of 'being' is heard through the Assembly Committees in a call to repentance and renewal. To turn from our preoccupation with ourselves and our systems, from our wealth, our comforts, our fears, and our suspicions. To re- pent of all we have been that we should not be, and to recommit ourselves to Jesus Christ and to be God's people." Clinton Marsh A group of staff people trying to be faithful to that call have been meeting and have developed a creative alternative for increased staff interaction with our constituency, which also has favorable budget impli- cations in our present crisis. After checking the plan further with ■ several dozen staff persons from all agencies and receiving positive responses , it was decided to submit the plan to the Administrative Cabinet of the Program Agency for possible use in rebuilding the 1975 budget options that will go to the Program Agency Board in September. We believe the church must struggle to express its faithfulness and to offer the %forld a new option which is the good news. 2/A CREATIVE NEW WAY TO DO MISSION... I. CONDITIONS ADDRESSED BY THIS PROPOSAL: A. Necessity of cutting budgets at the national level by 20-30%. B. Necessity of retaining proper balance between personnel and program in the total picture. C. Desire to act creatively with a forward look instead of simply acting defensively and retreating to the idea of "safe" ground. D. Desire to maximize use of all available resources including personnel in place now, with some skills and background, without wasting non-essential or low-priority resources that happen to be on hand today. II. PROPOSAL: Beginning in January 1975, the exempt staff and program specialists in all three national agencies would be employed on a nine-month basis (Plus one month paid vacation) with the understanding that staff are free to seek additional employment for the other two (or three) months of the year - as is the present pattern in academic institutions. The proposal addresses conditions A and B by reducing salaries 20 - 25% and placing staff on three-quarters time. Vacation time would be negotiated as implementation details are focused. The proposal addresses condition D by retaining most of the present exenqpt staff (see "Implementation Details") #< but requires re-evaluation of most job functions currently carried to allow some reduction of staff and functions and to correct imbalances in the present structures. The proposal addresses condition C by providing the forward-looking benefits and affirming the potential of a majority of staff persons and functions. Further, it addresses condition C by providing the following forward-looking benefits: 3/A CREATIVE NEW WAY TO DO MISSION... A. A model to correct present work-load imbalances for the world as well as for the established church structures. Idris Hamid, a Trinidadian minister of the Presbyterian Church, speaks to this point: TDur growing unemployment is considered by experts as the number one problem of the 1970' s. Why do we have to maintain the present socio- economic system in which some are employed and others not? Is it not possible to orient our employment pattern so that work is treated as .a commodity to be shared by all? If there is limited work, then it must be shared. This would mean that instead of having three (persons) work full time and one totally unemployed, that the work would be so disbributed that all four (persons) would work nine months of the year, the salaries adjusted so that they would be the same during the off period as during the working period. For some this would mean a smaller salary, but for all it would mean the possibility of an off period which would be used for leisure, rest, hobbies, study, creative and cultural activities (and other kinds of interesting work) etc. "Time" would be considered a form of payment. What a different society this would be! As it is now, some work to death — a laborious life — and others vegetate to death — a wasted life... Work would become a shared privilege, and all would have more time to develop latent or neglected faculties." B. Potential to increase the credibility and capabilities of national agencies' staff persons by providing time and opportunity for work "in the field" and "at the grass roots" for a minimum of two months each year - on a staggered basis. This would enable us to be visible to constituency and expose us anew to needs and ideas at congregation and middle- judicatory levels, working in secular jobs, continuing education, "tent-xnaking" ministries, or extended periods of rest and relaxation. 4/A CREATIVE NEW WAY TO DO MISSION... C. Potential to rethink and evaluate patterns by which national agencies are involved in mission and providing additional oppor- tunities for strengthened relationships with judicatories and local churches. In addition, a two-month salary or consulting arrangement may be easier for judicatories and churches to budget than longer-term options. Judicatories might move to a similar time plan and consulting base for -their own staffs. Possibly, national agency, staff could be employed by the Support Agency ' as its new fund-raising consultants in the judicatories. D. Potential for developing "tent- making ministries as seminaries are now recommending. III. IMPLEMENTING DETAILS: A. GAMC would be asked to approve a change in personnel policies to redefine "full-time" on the nine-month basis with the same one month paid vacation as currently exists. If all three national agencies approve the plan, there would be no reason for GAMC to refuse it. B. Vocation Agency offices, assisted by the personnel offices of other agencies, would need to be redefined to handle the additional pool of available persons for a staggered work schedule. This new opportunity to define inter- relationships with middle- judicatories ruVht be valcomd if properly intcr^ratsd. 5/A CREATIVE NEW WAY TO DO MISSION... C. Existing job functions should be assessed to 1) eliminate unnecessary functions, and 2) to encourage staff flexibility and support. Such an assessment would inevitably mean that some staff positions would be eliminated. Staff job evaluations should also be used as tools for necessary termination of ineffective staff. D. Non-exempt staff positions would continue on a 12-month basis, with the option available for negotiation of the same plan if * desired. It is assumed that the majority of non-exempt functions now planned to be eliminated or combined would follow the present plan and time schedule'and would not be affected by this plan. E. it is assumed that the Administrative Cabinet would provide budget detail and specific figures to justify and authenticate the proposal for 1) the Program Agency Board, and 2) the GAMC. m F. There should be an opportunity, as soon as possible , to share the nature and details of this plan with the staff at large - through reports of persons attending the Administrative Cabinet meeting August 23, 24, and 25, and before the Program Agency Board meets September 6 and 1 , for the purposes of furthering support and seeking feedback. IV. SERVING AS A MODEL IN THE WORLD: A. The plan could serve as a aodel for other institutions facing crises of reduced budgets. 6/A CREATIVE NEW WAY TO DO MISSION... B. The Church would find itself in a prophetic role seeking to enable more humane and workable methods to help individuals and institutions discover and provide meaningful fulfillment and employment for persons in our society. C. Staff persons would continue to develop their own leadership abilities and skills, as well as provide opportunities for leadership development in the church-at-large. D. The Church would provide a witness of stewardship of time and energies, strengthening its role as a "servant people." E. The plan would serve to affirm a willingness of staff to share equally the burden of the crisis situation and affirm the unique and individual contributions of many staff people. V. THE FUTURE: A. If the financial situation of the church improves and the resources available for national expenditures increase, many staff persons might want to consider a 12-month schedule. Others, however, might elect to stay on a nine-month plan because of the creative possibilities which have been opened to them. B. The Church would live out its commitment to be a confessing Church. From the Confession of 19 67; "In each time and place there are particular problems and crises through which God calls the church to act. The church, guided by the Spirit, humbled by its own complicity, and instructed by all attainable know- ledge, seeks to discern the will of God and learn how to obey in these concrete situations. " 6/22/74 ESSENTIAL FEA TORES OF THE TEN-MONTH STAFF PUN 1. Participating stafi would work nine months and have one month paid vacation. They would receive salary for ten months' work (tho payments might be spread over twelve). Because of present budget reductions, the number of functions/ jobs is going to be reduced - say, from 120 to 100. One way to reduce staff accordingly is to terminate 20 persons. This plan proposes another way - let the 120 staff persons go on 5/6 of full time and thereby spread 120 persons over 100 jobs. T\e jobs are still full time, a year's worth of work; th y carry full salaries appropriate to that work; the difference is that both the work and the pay are given to part-time workers. 2. Work schedules would be arranged individually so that the jobs would be covered at all time. A worker's time out of the office would not necessarily be in one three-month period, but could be a month at a time if that worked out better. Scheduling would be complex, but this plan contends that it would be worth the effort; it also contends that the staff members have the flexibility to cover several related functions as needed thruout the year. 3« The plan is not a way to preserve the whole present staff, which would not be desireable or possible. It is a way to keep staff cuts to a minimum, recognizing that a great deal of the "program" of this Agency is in fact its skilled personnel. U. This plan is a way to preserve the balance and diversity of the present staff with its attention to equal employment opportunity for both sexes, all ages and races. Cutting out whole individuals risks losing this balance; keeping more individuals on a 5/6 time basis allows preservation of much more diversity. 5« This plan is a way for the Agency's staff to share the unemployment - a situation some believe will be with us for quite some time ahead - by each person losing 1/6 of a job rather than some people losing whole jobs. The plan allows the staff to express their solidarity with colleagues in the understanding that each one brings humanity and diversity that enrich us all. 6. The plan encourages participating staff to find outside work for the two or three months they are not working for the Agency. For some, this could result in a higher total income than they now receive. For others, it could mean a chance to try out new types of work, thereby increasing their flexibility and value to the Agency. If the plan were adopted GA-wide, possibly the Vocation Agency and other personnel offices could direct some attention toward locating useful placements that would contribute to the skills of the staff and the welfare of the whole Church. This factor is an added attraction, not essential to adoption of the plan, however. ?• F^r maximum budget effect, the plan would have to apply to all exempt staff of the Agency (with the possible exception of the top administration). However, it could still have some effect if individual units were given the option to make their personnel-cost reductions in this way instead of terminating valued individuals completely. Unless the plan were adopted fairly widely, it could be psychologically difficult for those who did participate; hence the stipulation that it be made mandatory in the present version of the plan, with provision to negotiate particularly difficult situations one by one. A total plan with negotiated exceptions has a different psychology than a volunteer plan with a few participants. Any person about to be terminated has to renegotiate his/her financial commitments; having an option to go on a ten-month's plan also requires adjustments, but much less severe. For some, even this would prove impossible and they wouid prefer to resign and seek twelve-month work, but this plan at least gives them that option. In the present world economic situation, renegotiations of commitments may soon be required of everyone; this plan could let the Church encourage a facing of this reality and help those involved to deal with it in community. gg:9/5M N Appendix G The CEW Response to the G.A. Agency Staff Terminations in October, 1974, The budget cut o-f *6 million at the national level of the UPC is news you have been reading about in many places since the General Assembly met in June. The crippling tension, grief, etc. which has pervaded the Agencies' offices in the intervening period has not been widely publicized and must be "read between the lines" of official reports. Various units, cabinets, councils, boards, went through deliberations all summer to decide which "functions" the Agencies were performing could be cut. The persons who proved to be related to these "functions" were told of their terminations in September. As far as I (the editor) can determine, seven CEW members were terminated, including three members of the Steering Committee and one male associate member. A number of questions have been raised about the entire process of budget cuts (both program and staff). CEW members and CEW as an organization have joined in this questioning in several ways. As an organization. General Assembly Mission Vocation) urging them employment of women by adopted by the G**C. F this concern, and after dismay at the number an Program Agency Cin this have ail been left with another unit was terminat unit— although the over a 1 exempt level dropped by The CEW S.C. heard a rep terminated women; sever a Committee on Women. CEW wrote in early August to the Directors of the Council and the three Agencies (Program, Support and to take seriously the Church's commitment to the following equal employment opportunity guidelines ollow-up letters have also been sent, re-emphasizing the terminations were announced, expressing CEW r s d positions of women terminated, especially in the Agency, three units and a sub-unit of a larger unit no women exempt (executive) staff; a position in ed, but the one woman there wa? reassigned within the 1 percentage o-f women employed by the Agencies at the only two percentage points (an unofficial report], ort on the terminations at its meeting by one of the 1 concerns were channeled onward to the Consultinq CEW has been one of the constituency groups represented by the "Coalition" which itself joined with the Council on Women and the Church and the Council on Church and Race, and representatives of terminated staff whirh brought a joint statement to the Coordinating Cabinet (the combined General Directors) in September. This statement and the presentation which accompanied it raised questions about the way EEO policy seemed to have been set aside in the termination process and the limited role of the Office of EEO. This group also raised the crucial questions about the lack of clearly defined, adopted and publicized priorities for aission of the church at the national level, and the resulting difficulties of cutting certain "functions" without such clear priorities. Included were a series of requested actions. The reply by the Coordinating Cabinet was disappointing to the combined petitioners, who felt that the Cabinet denied any miscarriage of procedures, quoted unanalyzed EEO figures, and did not deal with the question of mission priorities. The Coalition and Councils continue their discussions concerning other avenues of action. During the last nine months or so, sever*! CEW members have joined with some other women staff of the UPC in New York to meet informally, initially discussing areas of staff development not currently provided in the Agencies" structure, in which they might be of mutual help. When the budget crisis "broke", this group worked together to consider issues and alternatives: they wrote a statement on EEO in the current situation which was presented to the GAMC; they developed an alternative plan to reduce budget by staff and create a new work/life style, proposing that agency staff work on a nine-montn schedule, having then three months for study, leisure, or consulting jobs with judicatories or congregations, and together with other supporters of this plan distributed it widely in the Program Agency; they helped raise questions about the mission priorities and style of the Agencies. This group also became increasingly important for support as tension grew and as finally over half the women involved in the group were terminated. Appendix H CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN'S STATEMENT AND PROPOSAL PREPARED FOR THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MISSION COUNCIL / July 13, 1973 Denver, Colorado Some clarity concerning the status of Church Employed Women is needed. 1. Church Employed Women i6 an organization of women vhose con- stituency is and whose purposes are: ordained ministers educators (DCE's, seminary and college personnel) secretaries lay enployees (paraprofessionals) musicians agency and judicatory staff seminarians retired employees mission personnel others employed by the church. 1. Developing among employed women a community for psycho- logical and economic support. 2. Opening of doors for the contributions and influence of church employed women so that the church no longer need be deprived of the gifts of these women. 3« Acting as advocates for all women. k. Humanizing our various work systems. 5. Taking our place beside and working with employed women of other institutions. At the l&hth General Assembly in 1972, the following action was taken in relation to Church Employed Women: Whereas, the General Assembly has defined the place of women in the life of the church as one of its more urgent concerns: and • Whereas, opportunities for women to contribute and participate at all levels of ministries within the church have been severely limited: and Whereas, the church has been deprived of the leadership and resources of women committed to the call of Christ to serve the church as their vocation; and Whereas, a national support group known as Church Employed Women has been voluntarily formed to deal with the unique situation of women employed in the church today, including church musicians, seminary students, church secretaries, other office personnel, Christian edu- cators, commissioned church workers, clergywomen, and others: and -2- Whereas, the Church Employed Women need to find ways to challenge policies and practices of personnel agencies, to bring about equal opportunities and fair employment in parishes and Judicatories across the church; and Whereas, new models of ministry must be explored and developed: and Whereas, there is a need for continuing training, internship, career . counseling, and regional support conferences; and Whereas, there is a need for communication - liaison and leadership development in parishes and judicatories across the church: Therefore, the standing committee recommends : 1. That the l8Uth General Assembly (1972) recognize Church Employed Women and affirm a need for this support community. 2. That with the advent of the new structure a Consulting Committee on Church Employed Women be formed administratively related, funded by, and staffed by the Vocation Agency of the General Assembly, with a liaison relationship to the Women's Office of the Program Agency. (This was designated Reference 10 . ) Two-thirds of the members will be elected by Church Employed Women and one-third appointed by the Vocation Agency. 3- That General Assembly allocate funds to provide for services such as volunteers, additional staff services, regional conferences, resources, and consultants during the interim period. (This was designated Reference 11 . ) It needs to be noted that the organization of Church Employed Women was recognized by the General Assembly and is distinct and different from the Consulting Committee on Church Employed Women which will be administratively related to the Vocation Agency. Secondly, it needs to be noted that it was voted that the General Assembly allocate funds to provide for additional staff services during the interim period. Subsequent to this action, $5,000 was voted for Church Employed Women. In 1973 > Church Employed Women, having been recognized by the church, re- ported through the Standing Committee on Women. We have since been informed that in subsequent years we are to report through the Committee on Minutes and Reports. In the confusion of restructuring General Assembly Committees, this word did not come to us in time to make our report through this committee in 1973* However, the Standing Committee carried the report of Church Employed Women to General Assembly; its report was received., and the following recommendations were voted: 1. That the Vocation Agency call upon the organization of Church Em- ployed Women (CEW) to develop some recommended procedures for profes- sionalism in hiring and employment practices for employment of non- ordained full or part-time church personnel in local churches, and request that these recommended procedures be reported by Church Employed Women to the l86th General Assembly (191k): -3- 2. That the l85th General Assembly (1973) express its concern to the local churches regarding the widespread lack of fringe benefits in employment available to non-ordained church personnel. Of par- ticular concern are such important items as: a. Pension protection; b. Hospitalization and medical insurance coverage; c. Continuing education benefits; d. Adequate vacation time; e. Federal Unemployment Insurance coverage. 3« Whereas, the restructuring process has provided the pragmatic medium for the evaluation of women' 6 employment in the UPCUSA in the follow- ing statistics gathered from the new structure: Of the top 87 staff positions, 6 have been filled by women, one of whom was employed in the Women's Program. There are no clergywomen in these top staff positions. number of women total number of employed in the top positions The Support Agency l^i The Program Agency 2 18 The Vocation Agency 2 8 A. D. 1 5 The U. P. Foundation Office of the General Assembly and the General Assembly Mission Council 1 1? The Council on Administrative Services 3 The Council of Theological Seminaries O 1 Synod Executives 17 6 87 In addition, there is 1 woman out of UO Presbytery Executives, and women who are senior pastors in large city churches or suburban par- ishes. Whereas, Church Employed Women (CEW) surveys reveal further that women employees of the majority of churches have no fringe benefits such as pensions, no employment protection, and some receive less- than-mini mum wages, an') Whereas, in the coming years, the already critical une iplovment leve] of women will rise with the increased number of women graduating Pror. seminaries, and Whereas, the church has publicly avowee! its commt L"ient to the concerns of women through General Assembly actions and translation o r i.his rou- nd tment from rhetoric to realization requires extensive analysis of statistics on women employed by the church which, at this dale, Church Employed Women (CEW) has just begun to establish (Blue Book, pp. 182- lw; in mimeographed copy - pp. 13-15 )» and Whereas, the already completed hiring process precludes reined lal action, Therefore, the Assembly Committee on Women recommends that : a. The church acknowledge the need to redress the employment situation of women, and b. The church engage in a three-year activity of consultation and action to overcome the under-utilization of women at decision-making levels and to improve the situation of all women employed across the church. Such activity could include: 1) Establishing procedures and changes to move women from "qualifiable" to "qualified" (management skills development). a) Job training to improve the skills of women. b) Changing the attitudes in the church toward its wo:.ien employees attitudes of women toward employment, employers, and various levels of employees . c) Creating job environments and management styles that relate to the needs and life-styles of women. d ) Redefining the church employer's criteria of "competency." 2) Development of models and opportunities for new ministries on the part of women. 3) Enhancement of recruitment and employment of minority wo-ren. c. The Assembly Committee on Women requests the Vocation Agency, the Council on Administrative Services, the Office of Flqual Employment Opportunity, and the Council on Women and the Church, in consulta- tion with Church Employed Women, to give priority attention to improving the situation in the employment of women by the church. d. The Assembly Committee on Women of the 185th General Assembly (1°73) commends an>l supports the Vocation Agency in its efforts to facili- tate immediate placement of present employees at all ,'udi calory levels who have been displaced in the restructuring process. The com- mittee also recommends that the 185th General Assembly (1073) call to the attention of the Vocation Agency the pressing need to open up em- ployment opportunities at the level of national and regional ,'udi ca- tory staff to women and members of minority groups. Church Employed Women has received the report from the Vocation Agency, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, Council on Administrative Services as to their intent to carry out with Church Employed Women the actions of the last Ceneral Assembly. We look forward to working with them in the years ahead. but need some clarity and specificity as to how this can take place. It is clear to us that in order for Church Employed Women to best serve the church in its attempt to bring justice for women employed within its system, some funding is necessary. We are aware of Die General Assembly Mission Council's original aoUon not to provide funds for organizations related to the church in the Form of Government, Section 28, until guidelines have been established. However, we asked the General Assembly Mission Council to reconsider this decision and at a breakfast meeting at General Assembly presented the purposes, objectives and potential of Church Employed Women to the Council. Action was taken to deal with this issue at the July meeting. We feel that Church Employed Women because of the mandate they have re- ceived from General Assembly to work with the Vocation Agency, the Council on Administrative Services and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, has an obligation to the church which they inust fulfill. To do this, some admin- istrative costs will be incurred in order for Church Employed Women to function in the next two years for the following reasons. 1. Staff services originally provided through the Office of Women's Concerns of the Board of Christian Education will no longer be available to Church Employed Women. 2. Office services which were formerely provided by that same office will no longer be available. 3. Volunteer services by their very nature are limited in time and finances. T5 erefore, some staff services are needed by Church Employed Women in order to a. Continue communication with the constituency: b. Work with the Vocation Agency, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity and the Council on Administrative Servides in further specifying their efforts on behalf of women: c. Provide services to the National Steering Committee, facili- tating the planning for its meetings and the follow-up thereof: d. Identify the specific resources and skills available to the church within Church Employed Women; e. Interpret the findings of research already begun by Church Employed Women re women and their employment in the church. We recognize the non -programmatic definition of the General Assembly Mission Council. We believe this request to be non -programmatic in that it facilitates administratively the work that will be done programmatically by the boards and agencies of the church. Specifically, Church Employed Women request: Staff Services $10,000.00 Office Services and Supplies 3.000.00 Travel 2,000.00 $15,000.00 for each of two years. -6- An alternative buctget between now and November, In order to carry Church Employed Women through the transition Interim, would be Consulting Services $3,500.00 Office Services and Supplies 500.00 Travel 1,000.00 $5,000.00 If the General Assembly Mission Council at this meeting decides to put into operation the action of the General Assembly Mission Council, we would recommend the former budget. If the church wants to put off its decision until November, we would recommend the alternate budget. Over the years the United Presbyterian Church has indicated its commitment to self -development an<i to women. At its last General Assembly, it recognized its need in keeping with both of these decisions to consult with Church Employed Women, an organi- sation which is attempting to serve both women and the church for the mutual growth of both into the body of Christ. The church must somehow deal with the question of how to facilitate Church Employed Women in its mission tc and with the church with the understanding that this is an initial step to empower Church iCmployed Women and that in the next two years steps will be taken for this organization to be otherwise supported through the structures of the church and the commitment of women. Note : Church Employed Women looks forward to a liaison relationship with the Council on Women and the Church and recognizes the importance of the Council as the focal point for issues and policies relating to women. It is important, however, to distinguish the functions of the Council and of Church Employed Women, recognizing the unique contributions • Church Employed Women needs to make to the church on the very specific issues related to women's employment. BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION jWTttS R. Gailey, General Secretary H. Clayton Neel. Assistant General Secretary Ojcar J. Hussel. Assistant General Secretary OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WITHERSPOON BUILDING, 1323 Walnut Street Philadelphia, Pa. 19107 Telephone 215/735-6722 June 25, 1973 (Dictated June 22) To: Donald Smith, James L. Hogue, Robert A. Hoppe Dear Don, Jim and Bob: At the General Assembly in May, decisions relating to CEW (Church Em- ployed Women) were deferred to the July meeting. We understand CEW is on the docket for the meeting of the G.A.M.C. on the lUth and 15th in Denver and that at that time you will be asked to report on hov you plan to use CEW's consulting services in the year ahead. (We call your attention to the General Assembly recommendation — see pages 7 and 8 of the enclosed Report of the Assembly Committee on Women.) In determining our concern for making CEW effective in the church, ve need to know vhat your plans are. Could you please outline them for us in time for us to do some work before the lUth. *See belov for addresses. We appreciate your support and look forward to working together for getting a little closer to the Kingdom in the years ahead. Sincerely , Marjorie Heller Adler Patricia Budd Kepler MHA/PBK:km Enclosure S cc: Linda Brebner, Annette Wall •Ms. Marjorie Heller Adler 111 So. Hewark Street Ventnor, EJ 08106 Rev. Patricia Budd Kepler Room 730, Witherspoon Building Philadelphia, PA 19107 PROPOSALS FROM THE VOCATION AGENCY FOR POSSIBLE CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN CONSULTATIVE SERVICES The Vocation Agency is providing up to $1,500. for the Church Employed Women to meet in the fall of 1973 in order to secure from Church Employed Women as many specific proposals as possible regarding programmatic approaches to the Vocation Agency's "Priority to Ministry" Point 3, on affirmative action programs to improve opportunities for women in Church employment. Specifically/ these programs are to be formulated and channeled through the Vocation Agency's Advisory Committee on Women Employed by the Church, and are to include — creating a climate of acceptance for women in pulpit and other ministries, — the preparation of women for administrative posts in the Church, and — programs to enhance the actual placement of women. Details of these needs will be formulated by the Vocation Agency Staff, in consultation with the Vocation Agency's Advisory Committee on Women, and Church Employed Women. DPS/lm 7/3/73 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MISSION COUNCIL ,. .w Mfh.rrnii OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH R*^«lvMJ In the Orfic- 'f en* / TxEcuT.vt o,i. : -• -( IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA ASSEMBLY MIS&.0! Ct'JMCt^ R|VERS|0e DR|VE R0QM 1(J20 NEW YQRK N y 1Q027 Trtcphorw : 212 870-2102 JUL 6 1973 July 6, 1973 MEMORANDUM To: Leon E. Fanniel Prom: Robert A. Hoppe and Donald P. Smith Subject: CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN In response to memorandum to Don Smith, Jim Hogue, and Bob Hoppe from Mnrjorie Adler and Patricia Kepler, the adressees met on July 3, 1973 to draft a response that would give CEW some basis for proposing services to their respective units. Our first concern was to state certain principles regarding our responsi- bilities, our understanding of program funding, and any possible relation- ship to CEW that involved financial support. Our second concern was to state specific areas where it would be helpful to have assistance from women employed within the Church. The statement of these two concerns was to provide our response to Ms. Adler and Rev. Kepler. Our third concern was to indicate to General Assembly Mission Council the nature of our response to CEW, to suggest a way to fund any services delivered by CEW, and to provide time for us to review and evaluate proposals from CEW. Wo are sending to CEW pages 1 and 2 of the enclosed paper with attachments that state nature of services Vocation, EEO, and CAS desire. Page 3 in not being sent since we feel it is for the guidance of GAMC. If this process is followed, then we would anticipate making a recommendation to GAMC at its November meeting. RAHrmei ^^W^tiXy^ %,a£v6C CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN AS A SERVICE ORGANIZATION TO UNITS OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY The Committee on Women of the 185th General Assembly (1973) ma d © several references to the need for the United Presbyterian Church to more carefully study the plight of women employed within the Church, and to take some specific actions to remedy situations wherein women employees have been underutilized, discriminated against, denied full employment opportunity, etc. The General Assembly adopted the Committee's report, including a request that "...the Vocation Agency, the Council on Administrative Services, the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, and the Council on Women and the Church, in consultation with Church Employed Women, to give priority attention to improving the situation in the employment of women by the church..." The General Assembly Mission Council during the 185th General Assembly considered the possibility of funding Church Employed Women. The action of the General Assembly Mission Council was not to fund CEW, or other special organizat- ions recognized under Chapter XXVIII of the Form of Government until policy guidelines have been established and approved in accordance with the P/B/E process. However, it was agreed that GAMC and CEW would consider specific proposals in greater depth during the July GAMC meeting. In response to a letter of inquiry from representative of CEW, the Directors of the Vocation Agency, the Council on Administrative Services, and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity met to discuss how the consultative services of CEW might be used by their respective units. What follows is both a response to CEW and suggested basis for any action by GAMC. ********************************* 1. Three units related to the General Assembly ...The Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, The Vocation Agency, and the Council on Administrative Services.. * have been given specific responsibilities for enhancing employment opportunities for women within the United Presbyterian Church. All three are currently operative. The 185th General Assembly established the Council on Women and the Church to deal — among other things — with concerns that have been expressed by women employed within the Church. Until that Council is fully operational and can provide systematic imput on the concerns of women employed by the Church, General Assembly agencies might need such imput from other sources as well. 2. Church Qnployed Women is an organization of women who are now employed within the Church as clergy, commissioned church workers, other professionally trained staff, administrators, clerical staff, etc. Other women who have profess- ional training and would like to work within the Church are also members of CEW. C1W does not, however, represent all women employed by the Church. 3. CEW has not yet been "recognized" as a special related organization wrier Chapter XXVTH of the Form of Government in that they have not reported to General Assembly as prescribed by General Assembly. . 4*&C - CEV page 2 H-. Funding of programs (organizations) is done through the P/b/E process and through regularly established budgets of a General Assembly agency. 5. Any financial contribution to Church Employed Woman by the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, the Vocation Agency, or the Council on Administrative Services can only be made in terms of payment for specific consultative services or specific projects rendered to these bodies in line with their objectives in fulfilling their responsibilities. 6. To enable the Church Efcployed Women to formulate specific proposals for consultative services or projects, the Vocation Agency is prepared to provide up to $1,500.00 to assist the CEW Steering Committee to meet early in the fall of 1973 with an agenda to be established through mutual consultation among representatives of Church Employed Women, Council on Administrative Services, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity, and the Vocation Agency. 7» As basis for the formulation of this agenda, representatives of these General Assembly bodies are providing Church Employed Women with a list of potential areas of service which might be the subject of exploration and specific proposal by Church Employed Women. SUMMARY: IT IS THE COLIECTIVE OPINION OF THE DIRECTORS OF THE VOCATION AGENCY, THE COUNCIL ON ADMINISTRATIVE SERVICES, AND THE OFFICE OF EQUAL EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITY THAT THE SITUATION OF WOMEN EMPLOYED WITHIN THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IS ONE OF THE HIGHEST PRIORITIES. THAT IN SEEKING TO FULFILL THEIR RESPONSIBILITIES IN THIS AREA, THE COUNSEL AND ASSISTANCE OF WOMEN NOW EMPLOYED WITHIN THE CHURCH IS NEEDED. WHEN THE COUNCIL ON WOMEN AND THE CHURCH IS OPERATIVE, THIS COUNCIL WOULD APPEAR TO BE THE APPROPRIATE GENERAL ASSEMBLY BODY THROUGH WHOM SUCH COUNSEL AND ASSISTANCE SHOUID BE SOUGHT AND CHANNELED. CURRENTLY, THE ORGANIZATION OF CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN MIGHT WELL BE AN AGENT TO PROVIDE THE IMMEDIATE SERVICES REQUIRED. THIS PROPOSAL IS AN ATTEMPT TO STATE WHAT SPECIFIC AREAS ARE SEEN WHERE ASSISTANCE IS NEEDED, AND TO PROVIDE CHURCH EMPLOYED WOMEN WITH AN OPPORTUNITY TO MAKE SPECIFIC PROPOSALS ON HOW THEY MIGHT PROVIDE SUCH ASSISTANCE. RAH & DPS 7/5/73 GAMC - CEW Page 3 The proposal suggested on the preceeding pages answers one of three questions raised by the directors of Vocation Agency, Council on Administrative Services, and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity: The first question raised was: 1. What kind of assistance by women employed within the Church would be helpful to Vocation, EEO, and CAS in fulfilling their responsibili- ties regarding "under-utilization of women at decision-making levels and to improve the situation of all women employed across the church." The second question raised was: 2. How can such assistance be paid for? This question was partially answered by Item 5 on Page 2. The model for this kind of relationship can be found in the two year-old relationship of Project Equality, Inc. - first with the Council on Church and Race, and now with General Assembly Mission Council. A specific proposal of a service agreement is presented wherein the areas of service are spelled out, along with the cost of delivering such services. The General Assembly unit who receives the services pays for such services . The service agreement also contains "a participation grant" which is designed to assist the national office of Project Equality meet its need to have overall administrative support to enable them to provide the specific services. Tn 1973 the cost of this participation grant is being charged to the Office of IT.O through GAMC. The $1,500.00 "grant" of the Vocation Agency can be seen as an example of participation grant, or as enabling funds to develop a proposal. The third question raised was: 3. Is Church Employed Women the organization to deliver needed services? The third question cannot be answered until such time as CEW receives input arising from question one, and they can formulate a response in terms of types of consultative services and/or special projects they are prepared to deliver. After receiving specific proposals from CEW, Vocation, CAS, and EEO will evaluate and decide upon a recommendation to GAMC concerning a service agreement with CEW if this is considered to be an acceptable way to secure the needed services . RAH/ 6 DPS 7/5/73 THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MISSION COUNCIL July 6, 1973 MEMORANDUM OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA 476 RIVERSIDE DRIVE, ROOM 1020. NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 Tatophon* : 212 870-2102 TO : Ms. Marjorie Heller Adler Rev. Patricia Budd Kepler FROM : Donald P. Smith, Vocation Agency James L. Hogue, Council on Administrative Services Robert A. Hoppe, Office of Equal Employment Opportunity SUBJECT : Possible Services from Church Employed Women In response to your memorandum of June 25, 1973 the three of us met on July 3rd. In seeking to make a response we considered three things : The action of 185th GA (1973) in adopting the report of The Assembly Committee on Women. The action (s) of the General Assembly Mission Council in May 1973. Areas where our respective agencies might use assistance from women employed by the Church. Our response to CEW (through you) is found in the enclosed paper ,which is also our way of responding to the Steering Committee of GAMC. We are prepared to meet with representatives of CEW to further define the areas listed. You will note that each agency has provided a separate listing. If you have specific questions about each agency's response please call the respective director. If there are questions about the paper as a whole, please contact Don Smith. I will out of town from July 7th on and cannot be reached until July 12th at the Cosmopolitan Hotel in Denver. Sincerely, Robert A. Hoppe S * Encli Cyi Leon B, Fannie I BOARD OF CHRISTIAN EDUCATION James R. Gailey, General Secretary H. Clayton Neel. Assistant General Secretary Oscar J. Hussel. Assistant General Secretary OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA WITHERSPOON BUILDING, 1323 Walnut Street Philadelphia. Pa. 19107 Telephone 215/735-6722 Roo m T^O July 10, 1973 Rev. Leon Fardel Cosmopolitan Hotel Denver, CO 80202 Dear Leon; I would very much like to be with GAMC at their July meeting to speak in support of Church Employed Women, but the death of my father precludes my attendance. I think the Task Force and the Interim Task Force on Women have made clear that it is important for women employed by the church to speak on their own behalf and to offer the church their services in relationship to the policies regarding the employment ;of women. I am confident that the Council on Women will continue to welcome the voice of Church Employed Women, speaking on behalf of women who are employed by the Church. Because this Council "serves as a focal point for the identification of issues and church-wide policy relating to the status of women and their posi- tion within the church and in society," it is important for the Council to have a liaison with the Steering Committee of Church Employed Women which has been provided for in the representation of the Council. Also, because we are to "review and evaluate program and operations of General Assembly agencies and Judicatories in terms of their compliance with General Assembly approved policies concerning the status of women and their position within the church and report our findings and recommendations to the General Assembly, the General Assembly Mission Council, affected General Assembly agencies and affected Judicatories," we have a concern as to how the General Assembly Mission Council is going to enable Church Employed Women to carry out their mandate to serve the church. I personally concur with their request for administrative funding which will enhance their effectiveness in the service of the church. Again, let me say how sorry I am that I cannot be with you. You have my support in your difficult task. I look forward to working with you in the years ahead. I appreciate your efforts on behalf of women and know we will together be thinking of ways to strengthen the church and its mission. Sincerely, MKArDEL cc: Villard Heckel, Patricia Kepler Linda Brebner, Annette Wall Mar jorie Heller Adler Chairperson, Council on Women and the Church THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MISSION COUNCIL r OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA Uon E. Fenniel 475 RIVERSIDE DRIVE, ROOM 1020, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 Executive Director Telephone . 212 870-2102 August 2, 1973 MEMORANDUM TO: G. Annette Wahl, Co-Chairwoman Church Employed Women FROM: ■ Leon E. Fanniel RE: Request for Funding from Church Employed Women This is to inform you officially of the actions which the General Assembly Mission Council took during its July lU-15, 1973 meeting in Denver regarding the request for funding from Church Employed Women : The General Assembly Mission Council - VOTED to approve the following recommendations from its Steering Committee: 1) that Church Employed Women be requested to define precisely what they see to be their role in relation to the Council on Administra- tive Services, the Vocation Agency and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity. 2) that the General Assembly Mission Council take the position that the work of Church Employed Women is programmatic in nature and therefore should not be funded through the use of per capita. VOTED to reaffirm its action taken during the May 14-23, 1973 meeting in Omaha as follows: "that the GAMC not fund those Special Organizations (such as: Church Employed Women), which are recog- nized under Chapter XXVIII of the Form of Government until policy guidelines have been established and approved in accordance with the P/B/E process." The above is submitted for your information and guidance LEF:jw cc: Patricia Kepler Donald P. Smith James Hogue Robert Hoppe James Martin Kenneth Miller Arturo Archuleta THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY MISSION COUNCIL OF THE UNITED PRESBYTERIAN CHURCH IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA LMA E. F«nnl«l 476 RIVERSIDE DRIVE, ROOM 1020, NEW YORK, N.Y. 10027 Eacuth* Director Tatephon* : 212 870-2102 September 25, 1973 Ms. Joyce L. Manson Program Agency, United Presbyterian Church U.S.A. Room 1133-H 475 Riverside Drive, New York, N. Y. 10027 Dear Ms. Manson: I wish to acknowledge your letter indicating a concern for the action of the General Assembly Mission Council, taken in Denver on July 14, 1973, on the request of Church Employed Women for funding. I appreciate your sharing your views with me and I will report them to the Council. The Council was requested to approve $7, 800 for Church Employed Women. The Council did not approve the request. It is difficult to state why any deliberative body takes any par- ticular action. Each member has his or her own reasons. It seemed clear in July that conversations between CEW and the Vocation Agency, the Council on Administrative Services and the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity had not yet developed the ways in which the services of CEW could best be utilized. The Vocation Agency had agreed to grant $1, 500 to enable the Steering Committee of CEW to participate further in the definition of the services CEW can render. When the nature of those services are identified I believe the services will be funded. The GAMC be- lieves that the work of CEW is progra.Tnma.tic and therefore should not be funded through the use of per capita. In any event, the matter is not closed and your letter was not written in vain. I will see that the matter comes before the GAMC in November. Sincerely yaurs, Willard Heckel, Chair mar General Assembly Mission Council Appendix I An Analysis of the Early Years of Church Employed Women As I look back on the lite o-f CEW, especially during its early years, I see real evidence o-f an intuitive liberation tendency. Although we were all "products" of our liberal environment, we seemed to be looking beyond liberal parameters. In our efforts to Dove beyond class lines by making all employed women of the UPCUSA eligible for membership in CEW, we reflected "communal" and "marginality" elements of liberation. In challenging structures of the church to change in dramatic ways, such as questioning the psychological evaluation policy of the Pensions Board, introducing legislation to create Personnel Committees for non-clergy employees, in our key involvement in the development of the EEO/AAP program of the denomination and in our creation of new pilot ministries for women, we were trying to bring about transformative change, sometimes verging on revolutionary change. In our desire to build coalitions with the other women's constituency groups, with the Presbyterian Gay Caucus, and with the Witherspoon Society (an organization of liberal Presbyterians that aimed to keep justice issues before the denomination), we manifested our communal and interdependent understanding as to how change could occur. In sponsoring the Therapeutic Seminar for Clergywomen, the workshops for secretaries, and in surveying each of our constituency groups, we acknowledged the existence of and showed real concern for the particularities of our members. Our instincts were often in the right place, although rarely did we fully recognize the nature of our demands or proposals. We were inexperienced enough to be naive about our dreams and thought we could expect to see those dreams fulfilled. I think that in many ways we were the most radical constituency group of women within the UPCUSA at that point in history (1972-1974), and as a result we were the most threatening group to those of the established power base. The fear of our opposition could be clearly felt. I believe that is one reason we were never allowed into the structure or given substantial funding from the denomination. I am not surprised that all of those of us on the Steering Committee who were hired onto the national staff also were terminated a year later. We were perceived as a power to contend with and as troublemakers whom it was better to be without. Most of us were white women who shared class and race privilege with white men, yet we dared to question the very bases of that privilege. We were thought to be dangerous and needed to be neutralized by one means or another. When I think about the three primarily white women's constituencies of the UPCUSA, I believe that we manifested the conservative (traditional)/ liberal/liberationist (radical) political continuum. ("The pi* is good and we deserve our piece. It»s all going to be okay, ^ust give up a piece of the pie.") LIBERATION! BT 8 ("The pie stinks 1 Smash it.") COB8EKVATXVE8 ("The pie is falling!") There is a sense i strange kind of agreement United Presbyterian Women roles and power dynamics smashed. COWAC was the which compromised its rad and expectations. CEWd •embers were in enough p profoundly -from a proto-1 or status ironically left agreement that the pie w was a disaster and -for th level of liberation an everything was just fine, of the pie. n which the conservatives and liberationists aeet in , both disagreeing with the liberals. In the UPCUSA, wanted to maintain its established relationships, and was fearful of things being totally rearranged or new upstart group with official status and funding icality so that it remained liberal in its demands ) was still enough outside of the system and its ain so that it was able to challenge the system more iberationist perspective. (However, the lack of aoney CEW vulnerable to co-optation. > CEW and UPW aet in as going to be destroyed; however, for one group it e other it was a necessary step to aove on to a new d justice. In the seantiae, for the liberals, and everyone would be O.K. once they had their piece Elizabeth Verdesi described the history of each of the wo»en ? s constituency groups in the UPCUSA from 1970 to 1983. In each of those histories, she indicates the interrelationships with the other groups. She also draws out learnings -from the history of each to be used in the -future. She drew the following conclusions -froa CEVT s history: 1. effective Advocacy in the church requires soae kind of recognized status and location within the systea, with adequate budget -and staff. 2. Advocacy work is not always done «ost effectively by those who are suffering -from the problea, though *victias" should be involved in providing accurate, authentic information to those who advocate on their behalf. 3. The church probably identifies as coepetitive any two <or sore) groups of woaen unless their coaposition, agenda and purpose are very obviously different. 4. Bureaucratic systems do not readily tolerate "redundancies," i.e., whenever a pressure group advocates a particular course of action, the group must take heed lest it continue advocating tor something that has already been done--perhaps not in the -form or way that the group had wanted, but in a way that satisfies the system. (2) What interests me about Verdesi's conclusions is that they come from the person who staffed COWAC in the latter years. In other words, the staff person for one of the women's constituency groups described and evaluated the other three groups. (3) I believe that CEW ended up getting the short end of the stick in Verdesi's conclusions. One must read her conclusions mindful that COWAC, beginning in 1974(4) began to encroach on the issues which the Task Force on Women (predecessor body to COWAC) had actually requested CEW to oversee, namely, those issues that most clearly related to women employed of the church. In response to the first conclusion above, I would agree that it might be a lot easier to be an advocate if one has status and funds. However, there is always the danger that the status and funds may have to be bought at a price such that the impact of the group is totally compromised, resulting in no significant change in the structures of the church. As a matter of fact, the more money CEW received from the structures, the less able it was to declare clearly the changes that needed to occur and the more liberal became its identity. The CEW members who gathered near Philadelphia in December, 1989, agreed that the second conclusion listed above was totally inconsistent with Feminist Liberation; for instead of looking to those most marginalized to name the oppression and lead in the liberation process, Veraesi's conclusion would lead us to the liberal maternalism in which justice is done by those outside of the oppressed group. Somehow those outside know better ano are better equipped to bring about liberation. The fallacy of this notion has been demonstrated over and over. Verdesi's states that CEW "tried to become competitive with the one women's group in the church which had what it needed — legitimization, budget, staff and recognition. Had there been better communication between CEW and COWAC, perhaps some of COWAC s energy and resources could have focused on women's employment in the church, and CEW could have provided information and strategies which they were uniquely qualified to do.MS) This too is a crazy charge, for CEW was willing to do this communicating, but when we accepted COWAC s money, we sold our souls in a way that was not so different froffi what happened when we accepted money from the Vocation Agency or the Office of Equal Employment Opportunity. As a matter of fact, we were more vulnerable to being co-opted by COWAC because we trusted our sisters more than we trusted the church bureaucrats. In relation to Verdesi's final conclusion, I have already mentioned some factors that clouded CEW' s ability to see Ann Conrad's existence in the structures as necessarily positive following the 1974 layoffs. Although I would tend to agree that sometimes the system responds in a way that satisfies it that it has answered a demand from an advocacy group, I am not sure that 3 the group has to be satisfied just because the system is. However, it would be important -for the group to couch their demands slightly differently so that the system cannot slip out of its responsibility by just pointing to what it has already done to respond. (6) Lastly, I want to mention briefly that I believe that there was a great deal of horizontal violence (7) experienced by women within the UPCUSA during the years 1972-1974. host of us were new feminists, and we did not yet have a real understanding of how the institutional violence done by systems and structures could be manifested among those who were victims of that violence. We, within the various constituencies of women in the UPCUSA, violated women in our own groups and women in other groups. Our fears and our anger got directed against those most like us rather than toward those persons and structures responsible for our pain and suffering. We also failed to understand the power dynamics that were present in our relationships with other women as individuals and groups. As a result, we were often unable to work together in coalitions that might have provided us with greater support and strength as we challenged the system. Our intuitive liberat ionist inclinations were compromised not only by what the institutions did to us but also by what we did to one another. However, I am really fascinated that what seemed like Liberal Feminism in the life of Church Employed Women really was quite liber at ionist, however unconscious or undeveloped. It was a beginning to which we can look back for courage and insight. This group of women was up against great odds, but they continued to attempt to make changes on their own behalf and on behalf of all women employed in the United Presbyterian Church. Their efforts stand as a testimony that the call to justice and liberation is ever with us, that the cost of responding to that call is ever great, that the pitfalls along the way are many, and that the path toward liberation is not always well lighted. Still and all, I am impressed that many of the women who served on the Steering Committee of CEW between 1972 and 1974 continue to find ways to make our way, sometimes stumbling, down that path. Endnotes 1. TWWCC probably was also on the liberationist side, but I am less aware o-f their mentality and focus during those early years. 2. Elizabeth Verdesi and Lillian Taylor, Our Rightful Place: The Story o-f Presbyterian Women, 1970-1963 (New York and Atlanta: Presbyterian Church U.S.A.) 1985, p. 54. 3. One CEW member at the December, 1989, gathering felt that Verdesi had a typology she imposed on this data, and the rest of us tended to agree. 4. Up to that time, the relationship between CEW and COWAC had been a supportive and friendly one. For example, CEW participated in the first national conference on judicatory task forces on women held in March, 1973, at which we made an official presentation and led a workshop. Nine nembers of the CEW Steering Committee were present. (Newsletter in April, 1973) 5. Elizabeth Verdesi and Lillian Taylor, Our Rightful Place , p. 53. 6. As can be seen, I take great exception to Verdesi" s conclusions. I believe she should have acknowledged her own involvement in the later relationship between CEW and COWAC so that the reader could factor that reality into her evaluation of those conclusions. I think that what "bugged" Verdesi and other COWAC leaders the most about CEW was that it continued to try to be self- determining and liberationist whenever possible. 7. Horizontal violence is the violence done by individuals to each other within an oppressed group. 5 Appendix J The Design -for the Gathering of White, Middle-Strata Presbyterian Clergy-women Friday, April 21 Gathering at Dinner 15-20 Gathering Ritual 15-20 Getting on Board with Process 120 Question for the Evening: What di-f-ference does it make in your li-fe and ministry that you have a -feminist commitment? In what ways has liberation theology made a difference in your understanding in your feminist commitment? Ten minutes to reflect and jot down notes — then each woman shares for 10-12 minutes. 10-15 Brief closing discussion 5 Brief closing Social time Saturday, April 22 Breakfast 10-15 Gathering 60 Questions for session: What have been the significant shifts (shifts of paradigm or world view) in your adult life, especially in the last 10-1 years? What impact have these shifts had on your life and ministry? Choose one shift upon which to focus, and share within groups of four. (15 minutes for each woman) 20 Break 45-60 General discussion of this question: What are the factors in our lives — histories, contexts, people around us, etc. — that have prepared us or encouraged us to risk a shift in paradigm or world view? What factors have blocked such risk taking? What role has liberation theology had in these shifts? 90 Lunch 10-15 Gathering 10-15 With one other woman, help each other to identify your particularities. Make a list of those characteristics in terms of class, race. tr nationality, etc. that make you uniquely who you. are. Think o-f as many as possible. (Please turn these sheets in to me without names after the session. ) 45-60 General Discussion: Discuss why we don't o-ften think in terms o-f our particularity. Why are we more aware o-f our particularity in those areas in which we have little or no privilege? Why does being aware o-f and honoring our own particularity make us more apt to honor the particularity of others? How does the awareness of our particularity and that of others impact our ministries? 30 Break 80 Questions for session: In what ways in your life has the erotic/sensual/sexual been experienced as a source of creation/liberation/power' 7 ' Are there ways in which the erotic, spiritual, and vocational have been linked in such a way in your life as to be empowering to you and others? Where have they been in conflict? Each woman gives an illustration of when the erotic/sensual/sexual has been a. source of creat lon/liberation/power in her life (10 minutes each) . 20 Concluding discussion 120 Dinner 30 Keeping in mind a particular political situation you experienced in the context of the PCUSA, reflect alone on these questions. (Jot down your answers ana turn into me after the session.) 1. Who were those involved? 2. What were the issues? 3. Did you have any support? From whom? 4. What means did you use to analyze and strategize about the situation? 5. Did you act individually or corporately? 6. How did the issue get "resolved"? 7. What were the pay-offs and costs to you/your group as a result of your involvement in the political situation? 8. Did feminist liberation theology help you in your analysis or strategy? 60 General Discussion and Sharing 15 Closing Social Time Sunday^ April 23 Breakfast 50 Business Items 60 Questions -for the session: When you envision yourself 20 years from now, who do you see 9 How would you have liked to have spent your time and energy? What personal and societal issues will have received most of your attention? Each woman shares for 10 minutes 15 Break Closinq Ritual Lunch (Each session was opened and/or closed with a brief and simple ritual which I planned and led but with others also providing leadership. These rituals included a. lot of participatory aspects.) Appendix K Elements Essential to Trans-format ion 1. Encounter with the Poor : The initial revision of the map of reality -for the non-poor requires a direct encounter with the poor or oppressed, those persons who suffer as innocent victims of the structure of a society that protects the privileges of the non-poor. The controlling ideology is so powerful and pervasive that it is virtually impossible for the non-poor to educate themselves on issues of peace and justice, to pierce the ideological cocoon, apart from a direct encounter with the poor.... In addition, a personal encounter is often the only way effectively to challenge the non-poor's stereotype of the poor.... the poor and oppressed themselves are the indispensable teachers and eventual liberators of the non-poor.... 2. Experiential Immersion that Challenges Assumptions : The language of "conversion" and "reversal,'' the vision of countering the controlling ideology for the sake of justice, and the discussion of the necessity for adjustments in lifestyle all imply major shifts in perspectives for the non-poor. The research points to the need for an experiential shock that challenges previous assumptions, reduces one's resistance to change, and requires the exploration of alternative patterns of living. For those reasons some type of immersion experience appears indispensable to transformative education. The immersion experience shapes the conditions under which a personal encounter with the poor and oppressed people can be fully incorporated,... 3. Openness to Vulnerability : Vulnerability is impossible to assure in an educational design. Therefore, I have used the idea of openness to vulnerability as a feasible goal. The risk involved in placing oneself in vulnerable situations is an important component of transformation. This is especially true when the situation is likely to require one's temporary dependence on the poor, who are normally perceived as dependent on the charity or generosity of the non-poor. ... such risk includes for the non-poor a sense of danger, a high level of energy, and a desire to investigate alternatives. Yet one result which a risk-laden act evokes may be even more determinative for transformation. It is the willingness to be genuinely vulnerable to and dependent on the care and skills of a person in whom one would normally place no trust, especially concerning personal health and safety.... 4. Community of Support and Accountability : ...A community of support can provide the foundation for taking the risk to be vulnerable in an immersion encounter with the poor and oppressed. .. .a supportive community, especially a community of faith, allows persons to discern and respond to the demands of a biblical reversal for their own lives and institutions with a degree of honesty and integrity that would be impossible alone.... 5. Vision and Values : Articulating and sustaining the vision are essential to movements toward change. .. .Effective resistance to injustice and certainly the energy to act for structural change demand constant clarification of the new map of reality. ... The following relationship is demonstrable: the more demanding the prerequisites, the fewer the number of persons who will be willing to commit themselves to trans-format lve ecucation. Those who do may be described as a vanguard or a remnant. I personally prefer the image of an "anticipatory community of -faith." 6. Cycle o-f Critical Socioeconomic Analysis — Reflection/Action/ Reflection : ...Control over the non-poor by the dominant ideology is sustained by their experiential isolation from the reality under which the victims of poverty live. The reluctance on the part of the non-poor to trust their intuition and emotions when they are exposed to this reality contributes to that control. ... In addition to the need for the emotional, intuitive, and experiential components, there is a need for an analytical and critical element in transformative education. .. .A balance to the rhythm or cycle must be restored. This calls for a dual emphasis on critical, reflective preparation and follow-up plus exper lential-based action: that is, a cycle of reflect ion /act ion/ reflect ion. . . . 7. Commitment, Involvement, and Leadership : ...I think there is a strong connection between expected commitment, empowered involvement, and empowering shared leadership. The latter is facilitated not just by the formally designated leader of an educational event but by the developing and reciprocal leadership of the whole learning community as well. ... There are marks of leadership -for all participants in models of transformative education: (a) iifestyiee tested against the criteria for transformation; (b) styles of learning and teaching that are mutual: (c) ability to learn from and honor the gifts of the poor; (d) skills in articulating common alienation; and (e) sensitivity to empowering others. 8. Symbol, Ritual and Liturgy : ...There is often an interconnection between symbol and ritual that appears in the transformative experience. In the Christian community the liturgy or worship experience frequently becomes the event in which the symbols of the community and the ritual that dramatizes those symbols is lived out. Transformation of consciousness Py experience or reflection is enhanced by receiving and participating in illuminating and transforming symbols. ... In the process of transformation the vision of a new reality contains the symbolic declaration of the meaning and direction of human life. . . . 2 Appendix L Appendix M General Assembly Report on the Church and Homosexuality May, 1978 Conclusions I. Response to Overture 9(1976) The Presbytery o-f New York City and the Presbytery of the Palisades have asked the General Assembly to give "definitive guidance" in regard to the ordination of persons who may be otherwise well qualified but who affirm their own homosexual identity and practice. The phrase "homosexual persons" does not occur in the Book of Order of the United Presbyterian Church. No phrase within the Book of Order explicitly prohibits the ordination of self-af firming, practicing homosexual persons to office within the church. However, no phrase within the Book of Order can be construed as an explicit mandate to disregard sexual practice when evaluating candidates for ordination. In short, the Book of Order does not give explicit direction to presbyteries, elders, and congregations as to whether or not self-af firming, practicing homosexual persons are eligible or ineligible for ordination to office. There-fore, the 190th General Assembly (1978) of The United Presbyterian Church in the United States of America offers the presbyteries the following definitive guidance: That unrepentant homosexual practice does not accord with the requirements for ordination set forth in Form of Government, Chapter VII, Section 3 (37.03):... "It is indispensable that, besides possessing the necessary gifts and abilities, natural and acquired, everyone undertaking a particular ministry should have a sense of inner persuasion, be sound in the faith, live according to godliness, have the approval of God's people and the concurring judgment of a lawful judicatory of the Church." In relation to candidates for the ordained ministry, committees should be informed by the above guidance. II. Recommendations Consistent with this policy statement and conclusions, the 190th General Assembly (1978): 1. Adopts this policy statement and directs the Office of the General Assembly to send a copy of the policy statement to all congregations, presbyteries, and synods and to provide it for widespread distribution. 2. Receives the background paper of the Task Force to Study Homosexuality as a study document, and directs the Office of the General Assembly to provide copies to all congregations, presbyteries, and synods and to make such copies available to others upon request. 3. Urges judicatories, agencies, and local churches to undertake a variety of educational activities, using both -formal and in-formal church structures and organizations. a. Since homosexuality is one issue that helps clarify our general responsibility to God in the world and focuses many dimensions of belief and action, such educational activities should probe such basic issues as (1) the strengthening of family life: (2) ministry to single persons and affirmation of their full participation in the Christian community; (3) nurturing lifestyles in our families, congregations, and communities that celebrate the values of friendship with peers of one's own sex and the opposite sex, committed choice of life-mates, joyous and loving fidelity within marriage, the establishment of homes where love and care can nurture strong children able to give loving service to others, and the fashioning of an atmosphere of justice, truth, and kindness that signals Christ's presence; (4) understanding how to extend ministries of deep concern and challenge to those who through choice or circumstance are sexually active, homosexuality or heterosexuality, outside the covenant of marriage; (5) helping those whose ability to show loving concern is destroyed by homophobia — the irrational fear of and contempt for homosexual persons. b. Workshops in synods and presbyteries should be conducted both to explore ways to help homosexual persons participate in the life of the church and to discover new ways of reaching out to homosexual persons outside the church. c. Courses on sexuality should be initiated by seminaries, colleges, and churches to provide officers and members with a systematic understanding of the dynamics of human sexuality as understood within the context of Christian ethics. d. Contact and dialogue should be encouraged among groups and persons of all persuasions on the issue of homosexuality. 4. Urges presbyteries and congregations to develop outreach programs to communities of homosexual persons beyond the church to allow higher levels of rapport to emerge. 5. Urges agencies of the General Assembly, as appropriate, to develop responses to the following needs: a. Support for outreach programs by presbyteries and congregations to homosexual persons beyond the church to allow higher levels of rapport to emerge. b. Encouragement of contact and dialogue among groups and persons who disagree on whether or not homosexuality is sinful per se and whether or not homosexual persons «ay be ordained as church officers. c. Development of structures to counsel and support homosexual persons concerned about their sexuality and their Christian faith. d. Development of pastoral counseling programs for those affected or offended by the decision of this General Assembly. 6. Urges candidates committees, personnel committees, nominating committees, and judicatories to conduct their examination of candidates for ordained office with discretion and sensitivity, recognizing that it would be a hindrance to God's grace to make a specific inquiry into the sexual orientation or practice of candidates for ordained office or ordained officers where the person involved has not taken the initiative in declaring his or her sexual orientation. 7. Calls upon the media to continue to work to end the use of harmful stereotypes of homosexual persons; and encourages agencies of the General Assembly, presbyteries, and congregations to develop strategies to insure the end of such abuse. 8. Calls on United Presbyterians to reject in their own lives, and challenge in others, the sin of homophobia, which drives homosexual persons away from Christ and his church. ?. Encourages persons working in the human sciences and therapies to pursue research that will seek to learn more about the nature and causes of homosexuality. 10. Encourages the development of support communities of homosexual Christians seeking sexual reorientation or meaningful, joyous, and productive celibate lifestyles and the dissemination throughout the church of information about such communities. 11. Encourages seminaries to apply the same standards for homosexual and heterosexual persons applying for admission. 12. Reaffirms the need, as expressed by the 182no General Assembly (1970) for United Presbyterians to work for the decriminalization of private homosexual acts between consenting adults, and calls for an end to the discriminatory enforcement of other criminal laws against homosexual persons. 13. Call upon United Presbyterians to work for the passage of laws that prohibit discrimination in the areas of employment, housing, and public accommodations based on the sexual orientation of a person. 14. Declares that these actions shall not be used to affect negatively the ordination rights of any United Presbyterian deacon, elder, or minister who has been ordained prior to this date. Further the 190th General Assembly (1978) calls upon those who in conscience have difficulty accepting the decisions of this General Assembly bearing on homosexuality to express that conscience by continued dialogue within the church. Bibliography Books Andolsen, Barbara. Daughters of Jefferson, Daughters of Bootblacks: Racism and American Feminism . Macon: Mercer University Press, 1986. Andolsen, Barbara, Cudorf, Christine, and Pellauer, Mary. Women" s Consciousness, Women's Conscience: A Reader in Feminist Ethics . San Francisco: Harper & Row, Publishers, 1985. Bennett, Anr.e Mc. (ed. by Mary E. 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"Is a Self-Respecting Christian Woman an Oxymoron? : Reflections on a Feminist Spirituality for Justice," Journal of Associates for Religion and Intellectual Life . Vol. 3(2), Winter, 1986. I c iiiifSinV ■ ' UN JESU| T LIBRARY 3 0135 00204 7130