Breaking the silence
New director of women's ministries program
envisions another global women's theological conference
[8-22-01]
by Alexa Smith and Jerry L. Van Marter, Presbyterian
News Service
MONTREAT, N.C. - 22-August-2001 - Mary Elva Smith, the
new director of the Women's Ministries Program Area of the Presbyterian
Church (USA), said here recently that she'd like to see the denomination
push for another global women's conference that she said will restore
the validity of feminist theology in the church.
She said she doesn't want to allow the continuing
backlash to the legendarily controversial Re-Imagining God conference of
1993 to continue silencing feminist theologians in the denomination.
That conference, which marked the mid-point of the
World Council of Churches' "Decade of Churches in Solidarity with
Women," generated intense debate within the church after $30,000 in
Bicentennial Fund money was used to help defray the expenses of women
theologians attending it.
The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) was the only
Re-Imagining sponsor to fire a staff person as a result of the
controversy.
"Re-Imagining was a turning point for women in
the church, a flash point," Smith told the Presbyterian News
Service in an interview after speaking to clergywomen at pre-conference
event at the annual Montreat Women's Conference. "My goal is not to
create another flash point, but to give women an opportunity to come
together as women theologians around the world … to (contribute to)
the wisdom of the larger church."
Spokespeople from the right - led by The
Presbyterian Layman - objected that a Re-Imagining conference
speaker had questioned the historic interpretation of at least one of
the church's fundamental doctrines, the atonement; and expressed
revulsion at liturgies that celebrated the sexuality of women. Probably
the most provocative aspect of the conference was its repeated use in
prayer of the ancient name of "Sophia" to describe the wisdom
of God. Critics alleged that the women had been praying to a pagan
goddess - a charge conference organizers vehemently denied.
Smith, who attended the Re-Imagining conference, said
the silence that ensued in its aftermath was terrible. Although she
didn't agree with every speaker, she said, the sensationalized coverage
of it was erroneous: "I was there, and what was reported was not
what I experienced," she said. Smith, who was then a member of the
General Assembly Council (GAC), recalled former General Assembly
moderator Freda Gardner's comments to the GAC. In Smith's paraphrase,
Gardner said: "I'm sixty-something. I'm a professor at Princeton
Theological Seminary. And you still don't believe I can think for
myself."
That kind of (silencing), Smith said, was a slap in
every Presbyterian woman's face. "And I don't think we deserve
that."
What does Smith want now for the Women's Ministries
Program Area?
"I want them to be on the map," she told the
Presbyterian News Service. "... I want to make a place (where
their) voice carries weight and has influence. I want their voice to be
heard for the good it brings, and as a challenge to our weaknesses. I
want them to be treated with a sense of equity."
Problems have plagued the women's program area at
least since the reunion of the United Presbyterian Church in the United
States of America and the Presbyterian Church in the United States in
1983, when some constituent groups which relate to the women's program
area grew uncomfortable with advocacy work that was built into the
unit's structure.
Smith said she intends to be a reconciling agent, for
the program area and for the entire church, which is deeply split on
issues running the gamut from what is appropriate sexual expression for
faithful people to unease with a term like "feminist
theology."
"I'd love to build a bridge" between such
polarized groups as Voices of Sophia, a liberal caucus that coalesced in
defense of Re-Imagining, and Voices of Orthodox Women, a conservative
group that supports traditional interpretations of doctrine, Smith said.
But even she admits that dialogue may not be possible
between women who disagree so vehemently simply because it is hard to
sit down together and authentically listen.
After listening to clergy women at the preaching
pre-conference talk about loneliness in rural parishes, the rejection of
inclusive language and other problems of women in ministry, Smith
reaffirmed her support for "advocacy for women in ministry in any
form" - lay or clergy.
For now, she said, she is seeking suggestions from
clergy and lay women across the denomination as to how the program area
can tackle the racism and sexism that plague American society and many
American churches.
Smith was the final speaker at the recent Horizons'
Bible study conference at Montreat, whose theme was Come to the
Festival: Esther's Message for Such a Time as This, and her message was
informed by her commitment to feminism. She told about 250 listeners
that they - like the Old Testament women whose lives they had been
studying - do have power.
"Vashti stood her ground; she found her voice and
the power to stand up to the king," Smith said. "Esther took
power into her own hands to free her people. And we, too, have power.
"We often feel we have no voice," she continued. "... But
we have to find the courage to stand and face the acknowledged power of
the king."
Smith admits that how and where to make that stand can
be a tough call.
Vashti, after all, was the queen who simply told the
king, "no," and refused his invitation to appear at a drunken
brawl wearing only her crown, at least that is how some rabbis interpret
the reference. The punishment for her defiance was banishment, a penalty
about which the text is clear. Another result was the issuance of a
royal order specifying that men were the legal heads of households in
Persia.
Esther, on the other hand, worked quietly, inside the
system, to subvert the evil that was being done in her time - when men
were hoarding wealth, planning a pogrom to eliminate the empire's
minority Jewish population, and working to legalize the suppression of
women (partly in response to the Vashti fiasco).
Smith said the parallels with today are all too real.
"The result of using your power always carries
with it a risk," she pointed out. "We are called to use our
power with wisdom ... and to encourage and support one another."
She said there is nothing inherently bad in feminist
theology, no matter what its critics might believe.
"Feminist theology is within the Reformed
tradition, which is not [set] in stone," she said. "We're
'reformed yet always being reformed.' Feminist theology falls within the
Reformed tradition. ... It brings to it another perspective that needs
to be heard."
Smith said she is still formulating a vision for the
Women's Program Area. "I'm called to be here and be faithful to
where God leads," she said. "I want to be a good listener, to
not threaten by my presence either group. Yet I want to stand firm so
that women may have a voice (and an opportunity to use) our gifted
minds.
"The church needs us to be among its leaders as
well as its doers."
