The following reports give a glimpse into the first three days of the meetings. Next week’s issue will conclude our reports from the Gathering.
Sanctify yourselves, says opening preacher
“God Will Do Wonders Among you.” So goes the theme of the 2009 Presbyterian Women Churchwide Gathering that brought about 2,500 people to Kentucky for five days of worship, conversation, and communion July 11-15.
But not so fast, warned Magdalena Garcia, the pastor of Ravenswood Church, a multicultural congregation in Chicago, and the preacher during opening worship July 11.
In the third chapter of Joshua, just before Joshua promises that God will bring wonders, Joshua admonishes the people: “Sanctify yourselves.” In other words, hard work needs to be done first to get ready for the good stuff.
There will be references to hard work sprinkled all through this meeting — in workshops on oppression and exploitation of women and children, on hunger and disease, on spiritual growth and development.
The National Association of Presbyterian Clergywomen, meeting in conjunction with this gathering, which is held every three years, is exploring the implications and challenges of women in leadership in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) – recognizing that in many congregations, Presbyterian Women have helped nurture the gifts of those who have felt called to lead the church in new directions.
Presbyterians – used to thinking of themselves as upstanding, responsible Christians – might not be so thrilled about the “sanctify yourselves” part of the message, Garcia said.
But there are hints in that passage of Scripture of the sanctifying work that needs to be done before the wonders can come – hints about what it means to be purified, consecrated, made acceptable. Among those ideas, Garcia suggested: waiting upon the Lord; following wherever God leads; stepping out of one’s comfort zone; letting go of our illusions of control.
The future of the PC(USA) depends not on investments or political correctness, but a willingness to grow in faith, to follow God into uncharted territory, “and doing it hand-in-hand with the stranger who is our sister or brother,” but who is unlike us.
Garcia asked: “Isn’t that what Pentecost was all about?”
From words to action:
Women throw open the doors
Sunday worship started with pomp and ceremony.
Led by a woman carrying a cross trailing ribbons, with everyone singing “Lift High the Cross,” a parade of church leaders and international guests marched through the crowd – a colorful stream of women wearing capris and saris and bright African dresses, bedecked with sashes and turbans and flowers in their hair.
International partners at the Gathering were acknowledged on July 12 – women from Iraq, Kenya, Korea, Madagascar, Colombia, Nigeria, the West Bank, Portugal, France, Rwanda, Uruguay, Zimbabwe, and more places.
In part, this was a celebration of what Presbyterian Women has done and continues to do – and a direct challenge by the preacher, Margaret Aymer, for Christians to move from words to action on behalf of those who do not have access to power, justice, and mercy on their own.
As one sign of the impact Presbyterian Women can have, thanks was given for $60,000 in gift cards from national retail stores that those attending this Gathering brought with them and donated for use by Presbyterian Disaster Assistance and Bellewood Presbyterian Homes for Children, a Kentucky non-profit agency that works with abused, at-risk and homeless youth. The gift cards will be given to people in need to buy clothing and household supplies, paint or construction materials – a simple, direct way to help.
Aymer, who preached during this worship service, is an assistant professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center.
Using as her text the second chapter of Mark’s gospel, Aymer told the story of four men who brought their paralyzed friend to see Jesus – but couldn’t get in to see him because too many people were packed into the house. So they climbed onto the roof, dug through it, and dropped their friend down to Jesus.
What was at stake there, Aymer said, was access. “What the five wanted was access to the house, access to the teaching, access to Jesus.”
And today, more than 2,000 years later, the question of access remains central, Aymer said. What would happen, she asked, if Christians left off preaching and started meddling – pushing for access for all people to health care, medicine, education, food and shelter?
Racism, human trafficking: Women challenged to fight the worst evils
Educating folks about key issues is a part of the Presbyterian Women’s mission. So when members get a chance, they talk — about hunger, racism, tainted water, AIDS, poverty, the many forces that keep women discouraged and oppressed.
Some of what they have shared:
Women at seminaries. The offering from this Gathering will be used to create scholarships for women, particularly those of color, who will be attending seminaries related to the PC(USA).
In part, that’s because of Presbyterian Women’s long-time commitment to meeting the needs of women around the world “whose lives have been devastated by circumstances beyond their control,” said Louise Davidson, Presbyterian Women’s vice moderator for justice and peace. And as Presbyterian Women looked at discrimination against women in other countries, it also turned attention to its own house, and found that too often women of color “were not at the table when decisions were made,” Davidson said.
“Institutionalized discrimination is racism,” Davidson said. And such discrimination “is alive and well in this country. Racism is definitely still with us.”
So the organization has made deliberate, intentional efforts to become more diverse, including in its leadership roles. At its business meeting July 12, for example, representatives voted to add a new immigrant representative to the organization’s Churchwide Coordinating Team.
Presbyterian Women plans to establish scholarships for women pursuing theological education at PC(USA)-related seminaries, with an emphasis on grants for women of color. “Women of color are the least-represented group on our (seminary) campuses,” Davidson said.
Of the 2,300 students now enrolled at PC(USA)-related seminaries, 184 are women of color, she said. Five of the 75 students in doctoral programs are people of color, and Davidson said she was not able to determine how many, if any, of those are women.
In addition, 82 of the 277 faculty members at PC(USA)-related seminaries are women, Davidson said. Just 20 are women of color, and seven of those teach at Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary and the related Interdenominational Theological Seminary, traditionally-black institutions based in Atlanta. The other nine PC(USA)-related seminaries have only 13 women of color on their faculties, Davidson said, and two have none at all.
Sex trafficking. Carol Smolenski, executive director and a founder of ECPAT-USA (Ending Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking) gave a quick tutorial on the economic conditions that feed human sex trafficking; on international child sex tourism; and on child sex trafficking in the United States.
“Three depressing subjects,” she said, but also issues on which people aware of the problems can organize to take action.
Estimates are, Smolenski said, that 2.45 million people are trafficked across international borders each year, half of whom are under age 18. Some may be trafficked for forced labor or sexual exploitation, sometimes with no pay at all, “literally a modern form of slavery,” she said. Some may be drugged or physically confined for transport; some are sold by family members; some don’t realize until they get to their destination that they are being deprived of their freedom. Among the forces feeding this kind of trafficking, she said, are poverty, the demand for cheap labor, and the desires of the sex trade.
Since the early 1980s, globalization has brought tremendous change in the economic climate — with companies investing where operations are cheapest and easiest, and other places losing jobs as a result, Smolenski said. Often people cannot migrate easily to where the jobs are. Internationally, 1.2 billion people live on just $1.25 a day. There are countries where people without enough food or medical care, short on hope – “will grasp at any chance” at a job, even if it means sending their daughters off to work in strange places for people they do not know, she said.
When such a girl ends up far away from home, often “it’s easy for her to get caught up in human trafficking,” Smolenski said. “Her passport is taken away, she is threatened or frequently beaten,” forced into the sex trade or to work in a factory for almost no money. The trafficker, the person who took her away, may threaten to harm her family if she does not comply.
Some “sex tourists,” including Americans, travel abroad intentionally to take advantage of the sex trade, usually going from wealthier countries to poorer ones. Organized tours go to Thailand, Mexico, the Dominican Republic, Costa Rica and elsewhere, and UNICEF estimates that 1.2 million children across the world are being sexually exploited. Internet sex tour companies don’t specifically advertise offering sex with children, but travelers “know that when they get to a destination, anything goes,” Smolenski said.
In the United States, it’s estimated 200,000 to 300,000 children are at risk for sexual exploitation, Smolenski said. Under federal law, any child under 18 who is involved in a commercial sex act is considered to be a victim of sex trafficking. But often the system still treats them “as bad children” if they’re caught, she said, instead of offering them support to get out of the sex trade.
Smolenski said her organization has tried to find out, “How do American teenagers end up in the hands of pimps, and why do they stay there?”
That investigation has found that many of the children involved were sexually abused before they entered the sex trade, typically by someone close to them, often by members of their own family. “Unaddressed sex abuse contributes to girls’ feelings of self-loathing and low self esteem,” Smolenski said, and “pimps search the streets looking for vulnerable girls. One pimp said that some girls have been raped so often “they feel they might as well get money for it.”
So what can Presbyterians do to help?
• The first step, Smolenski said, is “be willing to talk about it.” She asked each of those in attendance to speak with at least 10 others about what they had learned.
• Buy fair trade products that allow greater opportunities to make a living for families in economically-deprived areas.
• Mentor a child. Many girls who are vulnerable to sexual exploitation don’t have role models or adults with whom they can talk.
• Patronize hotels and travel companies that have signed a code of conduct through which hotels and others in the travel and tourism industry promise to train their staffs to recognize sex trafficking involving children, to raise awareness about it, and to take other steps to try to protect children.
Go! Enthusiastic crowd
commissions mission co-workers
The idea of international mission took on flesh-and-blood meaning on July 13 as the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) formally commissioned 20 international mission co-workers who will begin serving three-year terms.
They will represent the PC(USA) in countries from Colombia to Bangladesh, doing everything from teaching in seminaries to working along the U.S.-Mexico border to health ministry. And, according to Hunter Farrell, the PC(USA)’s director of world mission, they will join 18 others who have already gone into service since the 2008 General Assembly.
The 2,500 people attending prayed for them, blessed them, promised to support them with prayer and money — and gave them a standing ovation.
Also commissioned were two long-term mission volunteers and 59 young adult volunteers, some of whom will work overseas and some in the United States.
“With your help, we are reversing the 50-year downward trend in the number of mission workers. Thank you, Presbyterian Women,” Farrell said.
Presbyterian Women has supported mission work financially for generations – providing generous support in part through the Birthday Offering and Thank Offering, said Linda Valentine, executive director of the General Assembly Mission Council. About two-thirds of the denomination’s mission co-workers are women, she said.
After the commissioning, the crowd sent them off by singing “We are Marching in the Light of God,” sung in English, Zulu, and Spanish.
