The Last Dance
By John H. Adams, The Layman Online, June 23, 2003
MINNEAPOLIS – To the tribal rhythms of bongo drums, about 200 women – plus a “few good men,” as they called them – swayed slowly into the room for the opening worship of the 10th anniversary (and final) Re-Imaginined god Gathering.
Sarah EvansThey came on this cloudless day, June 19, to praise water, tell their stories and be reminded that, as women, they have creative license to change entirely what has been an orthodox understanding of the Christian faith. After all, they say they believe the Bible is a product of a patriarchal mindset that oppressed women.
Waving blue and green streamers that depicted water, they moved rhumba-like through the doors into the meeting room. To the uninitiated, this procession resembled a geriatric variation of ribbon gymnastics choreographed for predominantly aging feminists.
Their stories included: One had been baptized by a morning shower; another had received the good news of Re-Imagining “across the waters;” another was thankful for the “juiciness of women;” and one rejoiced over the ecumenical connections created by the waters of baptism.
One of those ecumenical connections is the World Council of Churches, which sponsored the first Re-Imagining Gathering in 1993 – with some major financial help from the Presbyterian Church (USA) through the diversion of $66,000 from the denomination’s Bicentennial Fund, and more than 20 national staff participants whose expenses were funded by Louisville.
But there was a backlash from Presbyterians after the inaugural highlighted addresses that lifted up Sophia as a goddess, offered milk and honey as a substitute for the bread and wine of communion, and dismissed cornerstone doctrines of the Christian faith, including the atoning death of Jesus Christ. Feminist theologian Delores Williams said it most bluntly: “We don’t need folks hanging on crosses and blood dripping and weird stuff.” Her message was repeated in more moderate tones during the 10th anniversary gathering.
After the first Re-Imagining gathering, the 1994 General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (USA) terminated the tenure of Jim Brown, the General Assembly Council’s executive director who defended the Re-Imagining event, and fired Mary Ann Lundy, the former director of women’s ministries, who caught a safety net as a high-ranking staff member of the World Council of Churches.
‘Chicks on Sticks’ provided Amazon-type baptismThe organizers of last Re-Imagining event were mindful of the fallout. They strictly forbid the press from quoting participants who were not leaders. One workshop leader, Lauve H. Steenhuisen, who teaches women’s studies at Georgetown University, told reporters they were not welcome to attend her workshop, “An Investigation of Backlash Fundamentalism.” Another workshop on lesbianism also banned reporters.
The group that met June 19-21 in Minneapolis was a tiny remnant of the 2,000 women who turned out in the 1993 inaugural. Instead of a convention center, they celebrated their 10th anniversary in a cramped and poorly lighted corner of the Earl Brown Center in the agricultural section of the University of Minnesota.
Hence, announced Sara Evans, a member of the university’s faculty and one of the three women planning the anniversary event, this was the finale. No more gatherings. No more Re-Imagining Gathering corporation. No more office. No more staff.
She would not blame the backlash from Protestant denominations for the organization’s demise. Rather, she said, the work is done. Mainline church bureaucracies have incorporated the movement’s themes. Seminaries are full of women whose theology has been reshaped by feminist perspectives. Others carry on – like the Witherspoon Society in the PCUSA. Feminists have gained power they didn’t have before.
“What began as an organization in 1993 probably doesn’t need to exist any more,” Evans said. “We’re no longer so unique. Women no longer have to come to this to have their experience. This movement is, in a way, decentralizing itself.”
Decentralization had a price tag. The 10th anniversary participants were asked to provide a special offering to pay the costs of folding.
Of the 200 women at the closeout event, half were clergy and more than half were from Minnesota. The 1993 conference was international. The ’03 planners would provide no tallies of attendance from various denominations, but 10 people signed up for a Presbyterian caucus, the largest caucus registry of any of the denominations. Among the Presbyterians were Lundy and Manley Olsen of Minnesota, a member of the PCUSA’s General Assembly Council.
Ironically, Olsen maintains a leadership position in a denomination that has officially declared the Re-Imagining Movement beyond the bounds of the Christian faith. Because of its staff and leadership ties to Re-Imagining, the Presbyterian Church has lost millions of dollars in expected gifts, but the connection continues.
The last dance was literally that at the opening worship service, where participants were encouraged to be creative – theologically and physically. A quartet of liturgical dancers led the movements while members of the audience began lifting their hands and swaying. These occurred without reference to lifting hands to praise God.
They sang repetitive songs with catchy tunes – one repeated the same line seven times -and gave readings, including one by a girl about eight years old.
“Wade in the water, wade in the water,” they sang. “God’s going to trouble the water … Walk across the water … The water is wide.” They culled some of their tunes from African-American spirituals, but there were no blacks in the audience.
To a haunting melody, they sang, “By the waters of Babylon, where we sat down, and there we wept when we remembered Zion.” Clearly, they identified with Israel’s sense of oppression because of the exile to Babylon – but not the reasons given in the Bible for that exile. There is no sin in the lexicon of Re-Imagining, no need of atonement, no need of Jesus dying on the cross.
Asked by The Layman Online whether the Re-Imagining leaders, upon reflection, would back off anything said at the 1993 event, Evans responded sternly, “No.”
Instead of revealed Biblical theology, Re-Imagining promotes a storytelling theology. “We rest in the stories that we carry with us, and the stories that formed us and the stories that are to come,” one of the leaders said during the opening worship.
So they broke up into small groups, each given a “talking stick” of Indian tradition, holding the stick as she told her story and passing it on. Members of the group tied ribbons on the sticks, which were placed on the square stage in the middle of a room with octagonal seating around the stage.
After the groups, another leader urged: “Come share with us one incident, one part of your long, rich story … or tell us when you have been transformed by water.”
One spoke of a minister-professor who described her morning ritual. “She would get up and have her toast and coffee, and that was her communion … then she would take a shower and that was her baptism. I thought that was so wonderful. I tried it for several days. About the third time … that morning was so different. I felt the water on me. I was accepted exactly as I was. I didn’t have to change anything for God to accept me. That was richer than my first baptism.”
Another told about being in South Africa when the word about Re-Imagining 1993 “went out over the waters” by e-mail.
A third speaker said, “I want to say how much much I appreciated the liturgy [in 1993], especially the milk and honey … and all the juiciness of being female. In recent years, the group I’ve been involved in has been part of the Vagina Monologues. The juiciness is also related to water.”
A fourth described observing a woman pour water from a pitcher into a bowl. “Deep inside me welled up this huge sob. It was a connection we all shared, our common baptism.”
Minutes later, there was a baptism-like ritual. Two women entered the room on stilts that raised them to eight and nine feet tall. With bowls of water and leafy branches, they sprinkled water on the participants in Re-Imagining ’03. Recruited for the liturgy from a Minnesota group known as “Chicks on Sticks,” the two seemed to be latter-day Amazons, dispensing their blessing on other women who seek that status for themselves.