A sampling of resources written and recommended by the NNPCW
The Presbyterian Layman, January 15, 1999
The following quotations are from Young Women Speak, a resource published by the National Network of Presbyterian College Women and recommended by them to Presbyterian young people.
“God is letting me know that it doesn’t matter whether I have a relationship with a man or a woman, just as long as I remember that God is the center of the love.
“I view the message of the Bible to be very helpful and relevant to my society. However, I also understand that there are issues of both long ago and today that are uniquely distinct to the particular period of time.”
From Young Women Speak, chapter on “Sexuality and Spirituality.”
“Thus it would seem that loving members of the same sex is neither more nor less sinful than loving members of the opposite sex.”
“Is it possible that all you need is a good gay lover?”
“If you’ve never been sexual with a person of the same sex, how do you know you wouldn’t prefer that?”
From Young Women Speak, chapter on “Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual Life.”
“Who do people say we are?
Partner to our Sister God…
Mothers of mothers who age and die and
return to our Primeval Mother…
Daughter of the Daughter of God,
the Christa of the New Creation”
From Young Women Speak, “A psalm affirming identity,” chapter on “Feminist/Womanist Theology.”
The following quotations are taken from speeches and books of people who have been recommended as resources by the National Network of Presbyterian College Women.
“We must keep in mind as we go, now and forevermore that the body of Christa cannot be, and should never become, an exclusively or uniquely Christian body.” (p. 117)
From Touching our Strength: The Erotic as Power and the Love of God, by Carter Heyward.
“We are learning that to be ecumenical is to move beyond the boundaries of Christianity. You see, yesterday’s heresies are becoming tomorrow’s Book of Order.”
From a speech made by Mary Ann Lundy to Voices of Sophia during the 1997 General Assembly in Syracuse. Lundy, former director of Women’s Ministries in the PCUSA, established the NNPCW when she was a Louisville staff member. She also got the Presbyterian Church to divert $66,000 from its Bicentennial Fund to help finance the first ReImagining Conference in 1993. Ms. Lundy resigned under pressure from the PCUSA and became a deputy general secretary of the World Council of Churches.
“I don’t think we need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff.”
From a speech by Delores Williams at the 1993 Re-Imagining Conference. Williams is a Presbyterian professor at Union Theological Seminary in New York and author of Womanist Theology: Black Women’s Voices.
“Jesus in reality was not God … Jesus was human like us, and also, like us, he was infused with God, with sacred spirit, and in that sense was divine, and he had a clue.”
From a speech made at the 1998 ReImagining Conference by Carter Heyward, a self-described lesbian activist and professor at Episcopal Divinity School in Cambridge, Mass.
“In view of the overwhelming patriarchal cast of the Bible, we must ask whether it is possible for feminists to maintain a belief in the centrality of Scripture and its authority.” (p. 63)
From Reformed and Feminist, A Challenge to the Church, by Johanna W.H. van Wijk-Bos, professor of theology at Louisville Theological Seminary.
“My understanding of God is not primarily defined by the doctrines and ritualistic practices of Christian churches, Buddhist temples or any other religion. God is found in the life experiences of poor people, the majority of them women and children, and She is giving power …” (p. 69)
From Chung Hyun Kyung, Inheriting Our Mothers’ Gardens: Feminist Theology in Third World Perspective, edited by Letty M. Russell et al.
“… a Marxist view of Jesus gives the Gospels afresh both to Christians and to atheists and so provides each group with new insights of itself and the other. Such readings contribute responsibly and beneficially to global issues.” (p. 6)
From God and the Rhetoric of Sexuality, by Phyllis Trible, professor of sacred literature at Union Theological Seminary in New York.
“Personal growth for either wife or husband may well require intimate friendships besides that with the partner … Intercourse cannot arbitrarily be excluded.” (p. 146)
From Embodiment, by James B. Nelson, professor of Christian Ethics at United Theological Seminary in Minneapolis-St. Paul. Nelson was the consultant to the PCUSA’s Task Force on Human Sexuality, which delivered a report reflecting his idea of a “Reformed Christian ethic of sexuality.” That report was rejected by the 1991 General Assembly by a vote 523-17.
“I do not claim Christian spirituality encompasses all truth or the only truth. In my prayer life, I also use devotional material from other faith perspectives.” (p. 21)
From Coming out to God: Prayers for Lesbians and Gay Men, Their Families and Friends, by Chris Glaser, former moderator of Presbyterians for Lesbian and Gay Concerns.
To advise teenagers against pre-marital sex “represents an ethic of control … of judgment …To do that to teenagers one more time because they are teenagers violates what we’re trying to do with this whole report.”
From remarks by Sylvia Thorson-Smith, member of the Task Force on Human Sexuality, during debate in 1994 on the Task Force’s report. Ms. Smith, a member of Voices of Sophia, was the keynote speaker at the August 1998 meeting of the National Network of Presbyterian College Women – two months after the Network was the center of controversy at the 210th General Assembly.
“But Jesus is not, as dominant christology has insisted, the possessor of a unique relationship with God.” (p. 262)
“Young people living together in ‘trial relationships’ … should be encouraged as positive and ethically appropriate.” (p. 109)
From Making the Connections, by Beverly Wildung Harrison, professor of Christian Social Ethics at Union Theological Seminary (NY). During the 1998 ReImagining reunion, Harrison confessed her embarrassment over being a Presbyterian at a time when the denomination is beginning to reaffirm biblical standards for its faith and life. “Don’t get me started on the heartbreak of being a Presbyterian,” she said.