Millennial Gathering of The Re-Imagining Community
by
Karelynne Gerber
A collection of hundreds of bright liturgical stoles encircled the ballroom
and provided a backdrop to the platform at the October 2000 gathering of the
Re-Imagining Community. The Millennial Gathering held from October 26-28th
at the Minneapolis Convention Center was entitled _From Vision to Vessel:
Creating Communities of Justice_. The Shower of Stoles project, a visible
reminder of those gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered people who have
been silenced by the church, was offered as just one of the ‘systemic
barriers to creating communities of justice” that the approximately 500
predominantly white, middle-aged women gathered to identify.
The gathering featured worship, ritual celebration, workshops, caucuses and
five prominent feminist speakers. Times of worship, led by Mary Preus and
Bread for the Journey, implemented songs that focused on a powerful God who
has many names. Participants, as the active agents of this God, are called
to strive for justice, inclusivity, love and peace by means of the spirit
who is left relatively vague or by God who ‘is the power within us.”
Pottery offered the prevailing metaphor of the conference as the theme song
_Vision to Vessel_ revealed. The metaphor was characterized by fluidity,
allowing participants to imagine themselves as the clay and God as the
potter. At other times participants were placed in the role of the potter
and given the task of breaking apart the clay of ‘old resistant structures”
in order to build and reshape new vessels from the dust. Clay was placed at
all participant tables and used in times of ritual throughout the gathering.
Kathy Black, the Gerald Kennedy Chair of Homiletics and Liturgics at
Claremont School of Theology, spoke first-hand on the ways in which people
with disabilities are discriminated against by the church. She critiqued
several traditional modes of making meaning out of suffering, claiming that
most in some way end up blaming the person with the disability. She took
issue with the belief that a disability is the will of God, and that God
will somehow make it go away, while her actions will either assist or hinder
God in the process. She argued that ‘the notion of an all powerful God needs
to be re-imagined.” Black objected to the belief in God as both the cause
and the cure of suffering, instead blaming ‘those who put profit ahead of
the earth and those who live on it” for contaminating the earth and
destroying life. She applied this point to the doctrine of the atonement
stating that ‘our problem with the atonement” is that we think God has to
cause the suffering and death for the resurrection to occur.
She objected to those who view disabilities as a curse or as a test of
faith, suggesting that those in faith communities seek some way to blame the
victim so that they can wash their hands of the matter. Black concluded by
suggesting that ‘God is present with us and wills our well-being.” This
well-being of which she speaks ‘is different for every single person at
every moment of their life.” And it is God who works to transform lives at
every moment ‘through the power of love.” How then can faith communities be
a place of healing, especially when a cure is not a likely possibility?
Black calls for communities to differentiate between healing and curing so
that they can accept people with disabilities for who they are without
trying to fit them into someone else’s standard of wholeness or holiness.
She suggests a theology of interdependence to honor the value of all
individuals–not by what they do but by who they are. This view would
acknowledge, ‘that God is dependent on us to create the vision and be the
vessels of God’s healing compassion in the world.”
The second morning opened with a presentation by Rebecca Walker, a leader in
Third Wave feminism, author, and founder of Third Wave Direct Action
Corporation. Walker drew from her forthcoming book, _Black, White and
Jewish_, and spoke of the role of memory in community making. Drawing on her
personal experience as a multi-ethnic girl who was shifted between white and
black cultures, she discussed how her memories have shaped her present.
Claiming that ‘those in dominant positions” taught her to hate herself, she
chose to cope by forgetting her childhood so as to avoid the ways she was
taught to hate herself. Coming to terms with her memories has led to a
confrontation with her parents about what they did wrongly. Her parents
experience Walker’s childhood differently than Walker herself. Walker asks
how she is to respond to their self-serving attempts to deny her experience.
How is she to stay close to those she loves while they are hurting her? The
conclusion that Walker has reached is that ‘there is no correct memory, only
infinite variations.” Therefore, memory cannot be used to ascertain
absolute truth. Walker’s presentation thus rejected the notion of absolute
truth.
Following the deconstruction of absolute truth, Walker offered ‘morphing”
as a new paradigm for healing and raised the hope this model could
eventually effect structural change. She suggested the importance of
narrative in the beginning of that process because it enables people to have
a voice and helps them ‘morph” between experiences of race, class or
gender. ‘Morphing” is possible because the soul transcends all racial,
class, and gender classifications.
Feminist foremother, and Associate Professor in the Department of Theology
at Boston College, Mary Daly was welcomed to a standing ovation. Her
presentation, however, was a jumble of ideas and followed no consistent
train of thought. Daly offered definitions of the words courage, nemesis,
patriarchy, dike, wild and reversal– definitions that appear in her
_Wickedary of the English Language_. In her comments on courage she called
for the ‘courage to sin” because ‘to be is to sin” and ‘to sin is to be.”
She included the courage to leave ‘outmoded institutions” like she did
thirty years ago. Following these definitions, Daly recounted her own battle
with Boston College and asked for financial support for her lawsuit.
Following this appeal Daly blasted the field of ‘necrotechnology,” her term
for biotechnology. Finally she gave a prelude of her forthcoming book,
_Amazon Grace_, and discussed the ‘sixth dimension” which she identifies as
quantum leaping. Through quantum theory Daly espoused the ‘fabric of unseen
interconnectedness” in the world and then suggested that all actions create
large systemic change, not because they build on one another, but because
they share in the unbroken wholeness that has united them all along. Daly’s
presentation received great applause, but participants later suggested that
the applause was not so much for Daly’s presentation, which was difficult to
follow, but for her groundbreaking work in feminist thought.
Thandeka, Unitarian Universalist minister and associate professor of
theology and culture at Meadville/Lombard Theological School, took the
podium to condemn racism. She recounted several stories from her book,
_Learning to be White_, in order to argue that racist acts are not
necessarily motivated by racism. Instead she suggests that the first racial
victim of the white community is its own child, who is threatened with the
removal of affection from caregivers if he or she fails to conform to the
community’s expectations. She considers this ‘racing” to be child abuse,
resulting in the death of the self. In this vein she ‘overturns the doctrine
of original sin” and asserts that we were not born bad, but our ‘toxic
environments” made us victims of being ‘raced.”
According to Thandeka, the attempt to re-imagine communities of justice
requires us, ‘to resurrect the broken, destroyed, and tortured aspects of
ourselves.” Thandeka called for the establishment of covenant groups as a
means of recreating communities. She then offered hope claiming that, ‘we
can do this because we are the ones for whom we’ve been waiting!”
Womanist theologian Delores Williams, arriving at her third Re-Imagining
Conference, provided the culminating address. Williams, the Paul Tillich
Professor of Theology and Culture at Union Theology Seminary (NYC), posed
the following question: What precisely must we do to birth our vision for
justice-building communities? Three possible answers stem from the Old
Testament, Audre Lourde, and an ex-slave woman. From the Old Testament
Williams raises Jeremiah’s questions: Is God not in Zion? In there no balm
in Gilead? She then adds to the prophet’s words her own ‘trinity” of ‘tough
love, tough justice and tough righteousness.” For Williams tough love means
‘the church opposing the church in a fierce struggle” to free it ‘from the
deadly virus of the right.”
Drawing on Audre Lourde, Williams continues a call for action, claiming that
when people just talk among themselves and do not act, their tough love,
justice and righteousness have no power. Moving from vision to vessel
requires action that upsets old reference points and such re-referencing
occurs as traditions, images and symbols are re-configured. Finally,
Williams cites the ex-slave woman’s word and wisdom as strength for the
journey as people learn to affirm the value of and celebrate the life of
difference. Williams then ends where she begins, echoing her initial
question and calling on each generation to provide its own answer even as
they reconfigure the question.
Interspersed between presentations both full days of the conference were a
choice of workshops for participants to attend. Workshops included:
· a replica of the labyrinth from Chartres Cathedral, available for
personal meditation offered as ‘a spiritual tool meant to awaken us to
the deep rhythm that unites us to ourselves and to the Light that calls
from within. In surrendering to the winding path, the soul finds healing
and wholeness.”
· a panel discussion of theological reflections entitled ‘Creating
Communities of Justice” featuring the Rev. Dr. Paula Lehmann (UCC
minister), the Rev. Dr. Rosetta Ross (professor of Christian Ethics at
United Theological Seminary and ordained United Methodist minister), Dr.
Mary Bednarowski (professor of Religious Studies at United Theological
Seminary and speaker at the 1998 Re-Imagining Revival) and the Rev. Dr.
Nadean Bishop (the first ‘out” GLBT clergy called to an American
Baptist church)
· a discussion of Congregational Models for Building Communities of
Justice featuring Community of Hope, Tulsa, OK, Our Saviour’s Lutheran
Church (ELCA), Minneapolis, and Spirit of the Lakes United Church of
Christ, Minneapolis, and moderated by the Rev. Sally Hill
· Girls’ Identities: Shaping Our Communities
· Economic Justice and Women
· a “hands on” pottery workshop
· a presentation of The Shower of Stoles project
· Poetry as Aperture: Shards to New Visions
· Dancing the Sacred Circle of Life
· Womansong a group that encourages participants to move toward community
through praying with the body by facilitating various spiritual
practices including Tai Chi
· Spirit in Motion: Meditation Through Movement
In addition to the workshops, participants were invited to gather for
caucuses addressing issues of their own choosing. Groups convened to focus
on a variety of common interests including:
· Health Ministries. How do we re-engage faith-based communities in health
and healing ministries?
· African-American Women– ‘Where Do We Go From Here: Chaos or
Community?” Can we share agendas yet respect the variety of
perspectives and experiences?
· Starting Re-Imagining Groups. How can you start a chapter of the
Re-Imagining Community? How can the Re-Imagining Coordinating Council
assist in setting up chapters on a grassroots level?
· History of the Re-Imagining Movement
· Question of the Goddess. What is the role of the GODDESS in the church?
· Re-Imagining a Network of Artists. How can artists work together for a
peaceful millennium?
· Intentional Ecumenism in a Benedictine Women’s Monastic Community
· Am I a Christian? Can I reconcile my non-theistic beliefs with Christian
doctrine?
· Theology and Bi-Sexuality
· CLOUT Christians, Lesbians and Bisexuals Out Together
· The Mystics and Me! Myth, Metaphor and Prayer
· Third Wave of Re-Imaginers a forum for younger generations
· Church Women United
· Voices of Sophia
· Denominational group meetings for UCC, UMC, Episcopalian participants
Vendors and displays reflected additional interests of participants. Amazon
Bookstore displayed a wide range of works by feminist theologians. Other
items for sale included Zen fountains, Celtic jewelry, notecards and pins
produced by those recovering from mental illness and benefiting the
organizations sponsoring their recovery, fair trade products from self-help
cooperatives in developing countries and ‘socially relevant” T-shirts,
posters, buttons and bumper stickers.
Having attended the 1998 Re-Imagining Revival I was struck with the ways in
which the Millennial Gathering differed from the earlier event. For the
first time the conference included speakers who are not professing
Christians. Mary Daly is a self-proclaimed ‘post-Christian” who expressed
some degree of surprise that her audience still choose to remain within the
church. Rebecca Walker, who is an ethnic Jew, currently describes herself as
a practitioner of Buddhist spirituality. This variety among the presenters
represented a topic of conversation among conference participants as many
wondered whether Re-Imagining should continue to work solely within what
they consider to be the boundaries of the Christian tradition or whether it
should become intentionally inter-faith in its scope. The answer to the
question will become apparent only in the years ahead.
The recent conference also differed from previous events in its focus on
practice and action. While past gatherings have offered a forum for creative
theological reflection, _From Vision to Vessel_ assumed creative theology as
its point of departure and proceeded to ask questions of implementation. The
reaction to the change varied with some women expressing disappointment at
losing what they considered to be their only space for doing creative
theological work. Others were pleased and claimed that had the event not
centered on social action they would not have attended.
A final difference that I observed was the intentional call for mission and
concern for establishing the movement on the grassroots level. I believe
this call came in response to the low attendance in general and the lack of
young people in particular. The strategy for growth employs the small group
model that hopes to create covenant groups, Bible study groups, women’s
spirituality groups they come with a variety of names on the local level,
both church-sponsored and independently. Such a move will make it much
harder for those who are troubled by the Re-Imagining Movement to gauge its
activity and progress. It necessitates the dissemination of information
about Re-Imagining on the local level so that concerned pastors and laity
can be trained to recognize the theological trends of Re-Imagining that
cannot be reconciled with the belief statements of their own denominations.
The task of renewal requires us to reach the ‘nominal Christians” and
explain to them the shortcomings of Re-Imagining theology before they become
involved on a personal level and put up barriers of defensiveness.
On a more personal level, I experienced moments of joy and moments of great
pain during the gathering. As a member of the press, I had to wear a bright
orange nametag signifying my identity, and I sat in the press section during
plenary sessions. During the workshops and caucuses I had to ask permission
to be in the room and then was asked to leave for times of ‘personal
sharing.” The Voices of Sophia caucus was one instance where I was asked to
leave. Although I do understand the desire to create a safe space for
personal sharing, my exclusion made for hurt feelings. As a Presbyterian
woman, in particular, it seemed somewhat ironic that Voices of Sophia who
purports to offer a place for Presbyterian women to be heard, had no place
for me. I did not seek to attend the meeting in order to record names and
comments or to get anyone in trouble. I would have been happy to refrain
from taking any notes or mentioning the names of those in attendance, but
this was not an option because I was defined by my identity as press, so I
was denied a place in the conversation
Similarly, during the closing dinner time I experienced another instance of
exclusion. One participant that I had spoken with during the day was unable
to stay for the evening presentation so she offered me her dinner which was
paid for as part of her registration for the conference. She did not want it
to go to waste and she knew that press members were obligated to find their
own food. At dinner time I approached a table of participants, including
several women who had been kind to me throughout the conference and who had
been open to having conversation, and I explained the situation and asked if
they would allow me to join them for their meal. As heads nodded around the
table, a member of the Re-Imagining Coordinating Council, who had apparently
overheard the exchange, interrupted and began shaking her head at me. Not
sure how much she had heard, I explained about the meal that I had been
offered and asked if it would be alright for me to join the table, seeing
that those seated at it agreed. Her response, ‘It is not permitted.” I
attempted to clarify whether she meant that I was not allowed to sit at the
table or whether I was not allowed to take the meal that I had been offered,
and again she replied, ‘It is not permitted.” After several more attempts
at clarification, which all met with the same response, I retreated to the
press section.
These moments of hurt feelings made the times that I was able to experience
genuine dialogue with participants all the more special to me. Several
minutes after my dismissal from the dinner table, one of the women who would
have allowed me to join the table caught my eye across the room and mouthed,
‘I’m sorry.” A connection had been made. Similarly, I was struck by one
woman who after several minutes of discussion commented how pleased she was
that I was not being mean to her! I was tremendously grateful to others who
sought me out and offered me their own insights into the weekend. But the
irony remains on the institutional level. In a group that claims that all
are welcome, I, quite simply, was not.
_____________
*Karelynne Gerber is currently pursuing her Th.D. in New Testament and
Evangelism at Boston University. She holds two Master of Arts degrees in New
Testament and in World Missions/Evangelism from Gordon-Conwell Theological
Seminary. She has a special interest in gender issues and religion and has
published several articles related to radical feminism and the Re-Imagining
Community.
*The foregoing report was prepared originally for the RENEW Network. The
RENEW Network is a women’s renewal network within the United Methodist
Church.*