Vol. 23 No. 1, March 2004

In God's Image is an Asian Christian women's effort to provide a forum for expressing our reality, our struggles, our faith reflections and aspirations for change.

Guest Editorial

We will with boldness envision the church anew!

A cozy and small coffee shop situated opposite the Methodist Guest House in Seoul, Korea, in a way represented the way Asian women would model the church! This coffee shop became our home, as we met there first for breakfast and then for coffee and then slowly for all the group sessions and social evenings. It was managed and run by two women who welcomed our presence and allowed us to literally take over the space, even closing it to the public at times, maybe because they recognized among us a sisterhood, a passion and commitment to the church that empowered them too! We had many moments of fun, laughter and of dancing. We had powerful worship experiences that held us together in our common quest for a new church. This was the spirit in which the CCA/WCC Asia Regional Meeting on the theme, “Women’s Voices and Visions on Being Church,” was held in October 2000. The cozy coffee shop was a welcoming space, which allowed the space for dreaming and envisioning a new community. It created the climate for speaking of the church that has no place for hierarchies or for systems of exclusion and control.

It was against this backdrop that we listened in plenary and group sessions to the women pastors from Korea speak of the exciting and creative new ways in which the minjung church, with many women in leadership, leads the communities to respond to the struggles of the poor. We listened to the women from the Philippines speak of the deep spirituality that accompanies them in their search for a justice-seeking church. We listened to the Dalit woman from India speak of the Dalit face of the church which challenges the dominant theological and ecclesiological paradigm of a largely upper caste driven church. We listened to the Maori image of the church as truly the church in the round – a circle of caring and support. We listened to the women from Indonesia reminding us of the need for a church open to people of other faiths, of the need to build sisterhood with all women so that we can be an effective witness in the world that divides us as women. We listened to the women from Hong Kong who reminded us of the church of the future being a space of those who proudly live their faith as gays and lesbians. We listened to a Sri Lankan image of the church engaged in a ministry of healing, compassion and acting for justice in a society torn by internal conflict. We listened to the voices of feminist women who envision church as community of women, men and children equally valuing each other as created in God’s image and relating with care, respect and responsibility toward one another and creation. Through carefully planned group processes there was ample space for all of us to speak of and describe with paint and paper our visions of the church.

Once again, in an Asian gathering the violence that pervades our countries was the overarching concern. Whether it be politically motivated violence between religious communities, economic violence that leaves such large sections of our societies struggling to survive, violence unleashed against Dalits and Indigenous Peoples by those who wield economic, political, religious and cultural power, violence against women and children in times of war, or violence in the home and society and even in the church – it leaves heavy wounds on the bodies and souls of women.

This Asian women’s consultation was part of a global reflection and action process, on Women’s Voices and Visions on Being Church which intends to bring before the churches some insights into women’s deepest aspirations for community (koinonia), justice and solidarity. A process of regional consultations and small discussion groups on the local level provides the opportunity for a group of women to articulate their alternative vision of the church. The hope is that out of this listening to and engagement with women’s voices and visions there will be impulses for renewal of the churches and the search for greater unity. This process is a follow-up of the Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women, which concluded in 1998.

With women (and men) around the world, this new study explores: what it means to be called by God to live in and for the world; what forms of spirituality would nurture the life of the church as community; how the ministry of the whole Church might be renewed to include the gifts that God gives to both men and women for service; and what structures would better equip the Church for faithfulness in its task of witness and service in the world. This exploration and reflection will inevitably raise challenges that require action.

Women’s perspectives on being Church are explored by:

We thank the Steering Committee's presence in this Asian gathering: Elizabeth Amoah of Ghana, Cristina Breaban of Romania, Nancy Cardoso-Pereira of Brazil, Shannon Clarkson of USA, Janet Crawford of Aotearoa-New Zealand, Isabelle Graessle of Switzerland, Letty Russell of USA and Chung Sook Ja of Korea.

The women gathered in Seoul, Korea crafted together Asian women’s visions of an alternative church where its theology, liturgy, and forms of ministry will all point to a transformed church and community. This edition of In God’s Image, for which we are grateful, includes some of the papers presented at the event and encourages greater discussion and reflection on the themes this process engages in at the national and local context.

Acknowledgement

It is a wonderful opportunity for the Asian Women’s Resource Centre for Culture and Theology to publish in In God’s Image reflections by women theologians in Asia on their experiences and visions of being church. While it has become a tradition of AWRC to invite different women’s groups to do special editions of IGI, many of these editions have focused on women in their national contexts and facing various issues. This time, our edition focuses on ecclesiology from the women’s perspectives, a topic that cuts across countries and ethnic groups in Asia. We are grateful to Aruna Gnanadason of the World Council of Churches and Corazon Tabing-Reyes of the Christian Conference of Asia who co-organized the conference on new ways of being church for which these papers were prepared. Thank you very much for letting us share these papers with others. We hope that these will generate a genuine quest for and envisioning of a truly relevant and living church in Asia today.

Publications Secretary

If articles listed in the table of contents interests you, and you would like to have a copy of this journal, please write to igi@awrc4ct.org.