Dr. M. Shawn Copeland

The Women’s Center is grateful that Dr. Copeland is able to include the Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture in her active scholarly and public speaking schedule, and we look forward to hearing from her in September.

The Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture is set for Sunday, September 23, 7:00 p.m., in Hundley Hall, Gardencourt, on the LPTS campus. Dr. Copeland will lead a workshop on Monday following the lecture at 10:30 a.m. in Laws Lodge. We are also looking forward to Monday worship, 9:00 a.m. in Caldwell Chapel, with Alumna preacher Kerri Allen. Monday’s events will be capped by a closing lunch and worship in the Women’s Center.

For additional information and pre-lecture registration, contact the Women’s Center, 502.894.2285. We hope to see many of our readers there!

We ARE looking forward to this seminar, which -- although it is shaping up to be one of our best-kept secrets of the year -- deserves to be well-attended!

. . . The Vagina Monologues by Eve Ensler!  There are two opportunities to see the show!

Dress Rehearsal (open to students):  $5,  Thursday, February 16, 8:00 p.m., Hundley Hall, Gardencourt, LPTS campus.

Performance:  $10, Friday, February 17, 8:30 p.m., Hundley Hall, Gardencourt, LPTS campus.

Proceeds will benefit La Casita Center in Louisville, Kentucky, and Eve Ensler’s 2012 V-Day spotlight campaign.

Tickets will be available for sale at at the Box Office (Gardencourt lobby) thirty minutes before each show opens.  Or, click on the link below to purchase tickets online (before February 15):

https://co.clickandpledge.com/?wid=39864

‘Tis the Season . . .

For colorful, hand-knit scarves,

Pretty homemade pottery,

And beautiful beaded jewelry.

‘Tis the season . . . 

For sharing gifts and treasures with the ones you love,

A pretty pair of earrings for a friend,

A warm knit hat for a Stranger.

‘Tis the season . . .

For giving gifts that reflect the love and care of the people who made them,

And that symbolize the love of the Holy One for all who will receive them.

This year, consider donating a treasure that you’ve created to the Women’s Center Fall Arts & Crafts Sale, which will be held on December 9, 2011.  That’s less than two weeks away, so start working on your treasures now!  We would like to receive all donations by Wednesday, December 7.

Proceeds from the sale will support the work of the Women’s Center.  Drop by the Women’s Center* or email for an appointment to drop off your items.

* Women’s Center hours: M-F 9-12, MWF 12:30-5:30

Thank you!

Amy Hartsough

Student Coordinator

Women’s Center at LPTS

http://wimminwiselpts.wordpress.com/

WOMENSCENTER@lpts.edu

A Call for Peace

During Advent, we are already poised to proclaim the need to prepare the way of the Holy One in concrete ways, by repenting of our violent or thoughtless commissions, our hard-hearted or apathetic omissions, and by renewing our commitment to transformation in our own lives, our congregations, and our world.

This Advent, the Women’s Center at LPTS calls upon the preachers of our community to make December 4, the Second Sunday in Advent, a day to preach as “an activist and transformative response by the church to violence against women.”¹

Specifically, we invite those who will preach on the Second Sunday of Advent to incorporate explicitly the three goals of preaching against sexual and domestic violence identified by John McClure in his essay on that topic:

• to “speak a word of hospitality, resistance, and hope to victims and survivors;”
• to “send a message that the church will cease to be a place of easy rationalization adn cheap grace for abusers;”
• and to “invite the congregation as a whole to consider how it might become a ‘safe place’ and a force for compassion and resistance in relation to sexual and domestic violence.”²

We invite preachers to name violence against women as one of the wrongs we work to eliminate as we “prepare the way” for and live into the coming Reign of God; to call for repentance from our own acts of violence, and from the attitudes and practices that promote or facilitate them, like continued support for violence as a means of resolving conflict, or persistent acceptance of men’s legitimate control over women; and to identify the elimination of violence against women as a mark of the shalom towards which bend our efforts. We further invite preachers to make this Advent the beginning of a regular practice of preaching against violence against women.

Rationale
We issue this call because we recognize that preaching is a form of activism, and that it calls the people of God to further transformative action; because the ongoing reality of violence against women cries to heaven for the active justice- and peace-making of the church, and because the church is called to active engagement in the continuing effort to eliminate violence against women; and because preaching that names violence against women as a wrong is a way to stand in solidarity with women and men around the globe who will be participating in the international effort “16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence.” We believe that global effort will benefit from our solidarity, as will we. Finally, we believe that explicit preaching against sexual and domestic violence, and against the structures like militarism and patriarchy that perpetuate it, is itself a form of repentance that is appropriate to this new beginning of the liturgical year.

Repentance: Breaking Our Silence
All too often, the topic of violence against women and girls – whether it is domestic or intimate partner violence, sexual assault, or other forms of coercion and abuse of power and control directed at women – is absent from the pulpit. This silence creates the impression that the church either does not perceive the reality of violence against women and girls, or countenances it, or has no word to say in the face of it. Despite the PCUSA’s official stance of opposition to domestic violence in particular, despite the General Assembly’s 2000 resolution calling for comprehensive efforts at all levels of church life to confront domestic violence and to promote healing for persons affected by it, and despite the General Assembly Mission Council’s passionate theological statement against it, many congregants have never heard a word spoken against violence against women from the pulpit. When the church, through its preaching, remains silent, its members cannot see it standing in solidarity with survivors of violence, nor hear it calling perpetrators to account, nor feel it challenging bystanders to become more actively involved in building a non-violent world.

The Second Sunday in Advent, December 4, is an opportunity to commit to making a change, by joining with others preaching on the same theme at the same opportune time. It is an opportunity to embrace the larger goals of preaching about violence against women, and to commit to incorporating the challenge of facing and eliminating it into future preaching.

Relevance
Christians are sometimes tempted to deny the relevance of violence against women in the life of the church. Christianity, as we like to remind ourselves, is a religion of love and peace; most of us think of ourselves as peaceful people who, insofar as it is up to us, live at peace with all people, in accord with Romans 12:18. We imagine our congregations as violence-free zones.

In fact, however, the prevalence of violence against women means that experience with violence is predictably present in our congregations, albeit usually silenced. In the United States, National Institute of Justice statistics indicate that 1 in 4 women will experience intimate partner violence during her lifetime. (The corresponding figure for men is 1 in 13.) 1 in 6 will be a victim of rape.

The United Nations defines violence against women as any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or mental harm or suffering to women, including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation of liberty, whether occurring in public or in private life.

Globally, 1 in 3 women will experience such violence in her lifetime; in a warring world, that violence will often be an effect of armed conflict.

The Advent anticipation of peace speaks directly to this experience of violence, calling Christians to understand the demands of peacemaking as specifically including binding up the wounds of women who have experienced violence, and calling for justice in a world that positions women and girls as convenient and acceptable targets of violence.

Why December 4?
We are calling for a concerted preaching action on December 4, the Second Sunday in Advent, to coincide with the international effort 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence. This effort to focus attention and action on the cause of eliminating violence against women and girls was inaugurated in 1991 by the Center for Women’s Global Leadership at Rutgers University. The 16 Days run between November 25 – International Day Against Violence Against Women – and December 10 – International Human Rights Day – and were chosen to emphasize the linkage between violence against women and human rights, to dramatize the understanding that violance against women is a violation of human rights, and to make possible an international effort to raise awareness and focus energy towards the elimination of violence against women. The Center for Women’s Global Leadership annually outlines themes that unite women working for an end to violence around the world; this year, the theme continues its focus on the linkages between militarism and violence, under the heading “From Peace in the Home to Peace in the World: Let’s Challenge Militarism and End Violence Against Women!” [Read the 2011 Theme Announcement here.] We are excited about the prospects of bringing the voice of the church, with its specific promise of hope and ultimate healing, to this worldwide effort.

Resources – Links

More statistical information on violence against women is available from:

Centers for Disease Control – Violence Prevention [CDC resources include a fact sheet for the United States and a comprehensive report on the Cost of Intimate Partner Violence]

Domestic Violence Resource Center

National Domestic Violence Hotline

National Institute of Justice

Rape, Abuse and Incest National Network (RAINN)

A valuable collection of resources addressing violence against women from a theological perspective is available through the FaithTrust Institute

For resources available from the PC(USA), visit

Presbyterians Against Domestic Violence Network (PADVN)

and consult Turning Mourning Into Dancing!, the 213th General Assembly’s Policy and Study Guide on Domestic Violence

References
¹ Barbara Patterson, “Preaching as Nonviolent Resistance,” in John S. McClure and Nancy J. Ramsay, eds. Telling the Truth: Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence (Cleveland, OH: United Church Press, 1998) 99-119, 99.

² John S. McClure, “Preaching about Sexual and Domestic Violence,” in John S. McClure and Nancy J. Ramsay, eds. Telling the Truth: Preaching About Sexual and Domestic Violence (Cleveland, OH: United Church Press, 1998) 110-119, 110.

1)  I’m a first-year M.Div. student at LPTS, in the ordination track with the PC(USA) — that’s the Presbyterian Church, USA.

2)  Today in chapel, I was reminded of the simple pleasures of honey, when I asked a friend to drizzle said substance on my communion bread.  (My hands were full, as I was holding an apple and a banana as well as the bread – the Table at LPTS is filled to point of overflowing, amen?)

3)  I am a coffee drinker.  I try to be a consumer of locally sold, fairly-traded coffee when I can.  But today, I made what might be a seasonal shift for me.  Today, I am drinking tea.  Carmel apple flavored tea with, you guessed it, honey, and a splash of milk.

So, now that we’ve been properly introduced — (I’m trusting our readers to leave comments introducing themselves!) — let’s talk a little bit about my presence on this blog.  Allow me to share something else about me, this time, some insight into my sense of passion and purpose.

I am passionate about language.  I remember reading one of Emily Dickinson’s poems in college; her words prompted a sort of mental “gasp” within me.  I “got” what she was saying.  It resonated with my own experience.  And then I thought, “how remarkable, that a woman in a particular time and place in the past wrote these words, and I’m reading them now, and they’re becoming my words — they’re about my life too.”  Since then, I’ve been fascinated by the way that human beings use language to create meaning and connections across these chasms of space and time.  As an English major, I became very aware of the privilage and power that I have because I know how to use words.  I can read, write and think about an endless number of things.  I can participate in so many conversations in my culture, because I have access to the tools of meaning-making.  I am a thinker, feeler, lover, friend, daughter, woman, human being.  And because I am also a student, speaker, writer, poet, liturgist, I am in a position to share my experiences with the world.  Or at least with particular parts of the world.

I continue to be in awe of the position in which I find myself.  As I continue in seminary, and with this blog, I hope to be guided by the unending purpose and hope of working towards the realization of a world in which all people’s voices are heard and celebrated, as mine has been and continues to be.

May it be so.

What's scheduled for Fall (most of it, anyway)

Think Advocacy

September seems like a good time to elaborate some on each of these larger kinds of activities, which together might be summed up as: “Advocate, Educate, Celebrate, Congregate!”

Many people do think of the Women’s Center as an advocacy organization of some kind – where advocacy means something like “The act of pleading or arguing in favor of something, such as a cause, idea, or policy; active support.” Sometimes people think of advocacy as roughly equivalent to “shouting” – which can make people uncomfortable – or “always going on and on about, you know” – which can be boring.

We think of advocacy as something a little quieter (well, sometimes), and more interesting. Advocacy means creating a base of supporters who are educated about women’s issues, their relationship to fundamental theological, ecclesial and pastoral concerns, and their implications for the living out of Christian faith. These supporters are then in a position to become advocates as well, advocates of a more inclusive and comprehensive vision of the transformed world towards which Christians are called to bend their efforts. Advocacy involves taking the persuasive case for something to people who otherwise might not have heard it, or realized how glad they would be once they did.

A main message of Women’s Center advocacy is that women’s issues and gender issues are relevant, important, and concern everyone.

That’s a simple message, really. It doesn’t seem controversial. And yet – it is not always obvious that women’s issues are relevant. It is still easy to think that when our main concerns are theology or Scripture or designing worship, gender is really beside the point. It is still easy to fall into the trap set by our culture, of ignoring gender except for when it’s in the “right” places, like the family, private life, intimate relationships, or shopping for gender-appropriate clothing. We can then imagine that if we don’t think about or refer to gender, our theological reflection and ideas are gender-free, our construction of the political life of the church has nothing to do with gender, and so on. Advocacy is how we remind our collective self that whether we ignore the influences gender has on us, or whether we pay attention to them, they are there in everything we do – and if we ignore what we do with them, we’ll miss whatever chance we have to do anything new and better with them.

It is not always obvious that women’s issues are important. It is easy to think that what is most important is what appears – in newspaper headlines and TV trailers, on seminar agendas and reading lists, in all the best commentaries and the classic theological sources. Women’s issues don’t always seem to rank up there with the economy and the environment, or global mission and evangelism, or ethics and the Christian life, or whatever we recognize as things that really matter because we know the people they matter to really matter. But. As we learn to see how gender is relevant, we come to realize that in every human issue we know is really important, there is always already a women’s issue present; women are human, and every human issue is a women’s issue. There is no significant justice issue that does not reveal significant gender dynamics – when we bother to look. There is no significant intellectual issue that does not sound profoundly different in gendered conversation – when we bother to listen.

It can, in fact, happen that the ubiquity of gender influences masks their importance. Presuppositions about gender are woven into basic aspects of human life – appearance, gesture, language. Individually small but continuous, ubiquitous practices, that operate at a glacial pace, have a large effect. Efforts directed at changing those influences can seem like a focus on trivialities. Until – for instance, in the matter of “inclusive language – someone is challenged to count up the instances of masculine language used for God in the average worship service, and then multiply that by the number of all the worship services someone attends in a year, or 10, or their lives, and then to consider whether the influence exerted on a person’s understanding of the divine is or is not a sizeable one.

It is not always obvious that women’s issues and gender issues concern everyone. It’s still easy to dismiss the language of “gender issues” as code for things people who are not straight men would care about. It’s easy, because gender still defines many people to such an extent that “gender” itself seems like those people’s exclusive property. Advocacy insists that gender is a property of everyone’s humanity, that each of us has a particular gender through which we interact with everyone else in our lives. Each of us has an experience that gender — our own, and others’ — has had a hand in crafting. So “gender issues” are everyone’s issues. If we want to understand ourselves, and others; if we plan to counsel others; if we anticipate attending or planning or leading worship that will speak to people where they live; if we hope to extend the welcome of Christ to anyone in the body they live in, then we will do well to pay attention to how gender affects the way we do those things, and how people respond to us when we do.

Some people think that the time for advocacy around women’s issues has long since come and gone. According to that story, “all that ‘women’s liberation’ stuff” is so that 70s show; women have votes and jobs and grad school and pastoral calls now, so what is left to advocate for? According to us: just things like an end to violence against women and girls, access to education for women and girls around the world, the flourishing of lively and profound worship that fully incorporates women’s experiences and revelations, and all the other tremendous things that people who recognize that gender is relevant, important, and concerns everyone become able to wish for and work for.

It's almost here!

Note that this Fall, the Katie Geneva Cannon Lecture comes first in a full schedule of Women’s Center events, which continues in September with:

Light + Lunch with Rev. Melissa DeRosia on Friday, September 23; Melissa will share the story that led to the publication of her new book, Girlfriend’s Guide to Minstry, over lunch in the Women’s Center.

Participation in the Louisville AIDS Walk on Sunday, September 25. Now is the time to JOIN TEAM WOMEN’S CENTER, WOMEN AT THE WELL, AND MORE LIGHT AT LPTS, and raise money that will benefit people living with HIV/AIDS and their families in the Louisville area. The Team will gather on Sunday, September 25 at 2:00 p.m. at the Belvedere for the walk, which gets underway at 3:00 p.m.

We are looking forward to a scintillating September — sparkling speech, setting fire to new ideas, and next steps.

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Thank you!