The work of Re-Imagining continues
By Paula R. Kincaid, The Layman, July 10, 2012
Those attending the Voices of Sophia breakfast give the Sophia blessing to GA preacher Rev. Margaret Aymer and speaker Sylvia Thorson-Smith.
PITTSBURGH, Pa. – Opening with the prayer, “Divine wisdom, Sophia, god of creation, bless our time together around these tables. Be with us as we remember our foremother in faith … bless Sophia, amen,” the 13th Voices of Sophia breakfast was held July 3 in conjunction with the 220th General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA).
The “Sophia blessing,” was given to two women: The Rev. Margaret Aymer, who was scheduled to preach at the GA worship service later that day, and to the event’s speaker, Sylvia Thorson-Smith. It reads, “Bless Sophia, dream the vision, share the wisdom dwelling deep within.”
An elder at St. Mark’s Presbyterian Church in Tucson, Ariz., Thorson-Smith, is a founding member of Voices of Sophia. She taught sociology, gender and religious studies at Grinnell College in Iowa.
“Twenty years ago in 1992, I was positioned between two major happenings in the PCUSA,” said Thorson-Smith. “One year earlier the Baltimore GA tried to put the genie back in the bottle by a whopping defeat of the human sexuality report.”
She said that she and 16 others had spent three years crafting that report, titled, “Keeping Body and Soul Together.” The report, she said, “breathed a welcome, grace-filled spirit into the church for many people, just as it aroused contempt and outrage by those who were successful in defeating it.”
While she said she was teased by her friends about being the “centerfold for The Layman,” she discovered how “tenaciously some Christians cling to traditional norms and how ecstatically others find release from them.”
Another storm was also brewing, one that, she said, “would bring the General Assembly to the brink of schism in 1994. A small group of women and men were meeting to plan a global ecumenical event called Re-Imagining, to be held in November, 1993. … Looking back, I can honestly say that, to all of us working on women’s advocacy at the time, it seemed so exciting and no big deal!”
Thorson-Smith described the 1993 Re-Imagining Event as “2,000 women and 200 men sitting at round tables covered with white paper on which we could doodle on during the proceedings. … women on the stage painted free hand drawings. We worshiped, sang, danced, showed our glee with shaker eggs, laughed, cried, attended workshops and heard brilliant presentations by women from around the world.”
The name — Re-Imagining – she said “was chosen to reflect the conviction that theological work is artistic work, and that it’s everyone’s work, in this case, women’s work. … Feminist, womanist and mujerista theologies were discussed with a passion. God was imagined, and re-imagined, by many names: Baker Woman God, Strong Mother God, Warm Father God, She Who Is and Who Will Be, Holy Wisdom, and Christ Sophia.”
It didn’t take long, she said before representatives from mainly Presbyterian and Methodist conservative groups, “exploded in outrage and mobilized to denounce the conference. Several of them had attended, and they weren’t thankful for the experience. The PCUSA had provided a substantial amount of seed money, and the director of the Women’s Ministry Unit – Mary Ann Lundy – had provided key leadership. Resignations were called for, and before long, Mary Ann was pressured to leave her position.”
Sylvia Thorson-Smith Thorson-Smith spoke of the praying and weeping of the staff and of their fear of being fired. They rang small bells on green ribbon “signifying we will not be silent. All the while they knew that the pressure on women to keep silent would only grow in the coming weeks and years.”
“What was it about ‘Re-Imagining’ that created a tsunami in the Presbyterian Church and rippled across other parts of Christianity,” she asked?
1. “The liturgical use of the Biblical image of Sophia – but blown up as evidence of goddess worship.”
2. “The milk and honey ritual – an ancient part of early Christianity, but attacked as a pagan substitute for communion.”
3. “Theologian Delores Williams’ reimagining of the Atonement, denouncing the idea that Jesus was a substitutionary ‘surrogate’ who had to die for our sins in order to satisfy the demands of a patriarchal Father God.”
4. “The most challenging — a large group of women gathered on a stage and ‘came out’ as lesbians, prompting a standing ovation and cheers from all who celebrated their liberating act of truth-telling.”
What followed, she said, was a “contentious 1994 General Assembly, followed by endless conflict over theology, language, sexuality and most of all, an aversion to risk-taking. It’s as though the PCUSA pulled back from the brink of split and resolved never again to give women the freedom to let their imaginations roam wherever God’s Spirit led them.”
Thorson-Smith asked the group,.“So where is the power in our heritage that is Re-Imagining? And how will we direct our power for love and justice in the next 20 years?”
First, she wondered if there would even be a Presbyterian Church in 20 years. “Many thinkers are analyzing the signs of the times and predict that Christianity is going to look much different in a matter of decades.”
Thorson-Smith spoke of author Phyllis Tickle, who has suggested that every 500 years or so the church has a giant rummage sale and discards its old practices and ideas.
“We may not know where this is going, but we know that we have a role to play in the process. We who carry forward the heritage of the Re-Imagining community can think of a number of practices and ideas that we’d like to include in the rummage sale,” she said. “So what do passionate feminist/womanist/mujerista justice-lovers do to help shape the future, not only of the PCUSA, but Christianity and even the world?”
· “We need to remember what made Re-Imagining so powerful and profound for so many. For one brief moment, we experienced an entire space as sacred, as filled with the holy. … It was what so many of us desire from church – the Divine Lover-God weaving us together in her web of creative, passionate energy for praise, community and transformation of the world.”
· “We need to remember that people live in bodies with particular experiences of race, gender, sexuality, age and ability. As much as we might like to smooth over the rough edges of the differences, Re-Imaginers know that only by giving voice to the particularities of difference can we honor them all and truly be a community of equals.”
· “The church has really lost ground on the energy to Re-Imagine our language for God and worship. The PCUSA has policies on inclusive language – now known as expansive language. But too often, Presbyterian worship has slipped back into the same old comfort zone of masculine names and images. What happened to Sophia – Wisdom? To all of the rich female images that we were bringing to speech?”
· “The church of the next 20 years needs to speak truth to power and resist violent solutions to conflict more than ever. The earth on which
we live is an endangered species. If we don’t do more to restore the earth … the future of the next 20 years is going to be mostly bleak.”
· “We need to build coalitions with Re-Imaginers in other denominations and around the world… Just as Re-Imagining was a global ecumenical partnership, so are these coalitions a priority.”
· “We need stay connected to our heritage of risk taking. We need to ring our bells, shake our eggs, and wear our bracelets. We need to resist our inclination to keep silent. We need Sophia God’s wisdom to help us sort out the stuff and put some of it in the rummage sale. … We may not have a clear vision of what’s ahead for our church and our world, but we do know that pain sets the agenda. Our struggle for love and justice is a priority for us to Re-Imagine.”
Thorson-Smith spoke of Re-Imagining the work of the General Assembly, including marriage, immigration, health-care, the Middle East and other business.
Thorson-Smith, along with Manley Olson, were named as the new co-moderators of Presbyterian Voices for Justice.