Vol. 24 No. 4, December 2005

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.

Editorial

There are two reasons for our choice of front cover for this December issue of In God’s Image which focuses on Women and Mission. The more obvious one is that since December is Christmas month for Christians, the traditional religious image of the Madonna and Child, albeit with Filipino faces and garbed in Filipino attire, becomes an appropriate way for us to express our Christmas wishes to all our readers. The second reason is less obvious. How is the portrait of the young mother holding her babe related to our chosen theme, Women and Mission? To us, the portrait signifies Mary offering her child Jesus to all people of good will. The angel’s words spoken on the first Christmas night could very well be Mary’s: “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy for all the people” (Luke 2:10 [NRSV]). And that is precisely the essence of mission: to share the good news!

There was a time when this good news was brought by European and North American missionaries to distant foreign lands of the so-called “pagans,” “heathens,” and “infidels” to fulfill the commissioning of the disciples by Jesus found in Matthew 28:19-20. That time has passed and conversion is no longer the main goal of mission. Transplanting the Christian church is no longer acceptable or desirable. In our own vast continent of Asia – characterized by a multiplicity of cultures, a plurality of religious traditions, and a majority suffering from dire poverty, the mission task is being viewed in a different way. While proclamation is still important, the emphasis today is on inculturation to address the reality of many cultures, inter-faith dialogue to address the fact of many religions, and liberation to address the needs of the many poor. Mission ministry in Asia today fosters harmony, mutual respect, and interdependence, and takes the form of relationship building, advocacy and solidarity work, and collaboration. Sometimes risk-taking and prophetic witness are called for.

Asian peoples are believers. The world’s great religious traditions and their denominational divisions – Hinduism, Buddhism, Christianity, Judaism, Islam – are alive and vibrant in Asia, and even the Animist (cosmic) religions still have their practitioners. With the rise of fundamentalism in the religious sects of these traditions, doing mission now requires an increasing engagement in inter-religious dialogue to develop a sense of mutual respect for one another’s religious tradition as well as build a sense of common responsibility for each other’s safety, security and well being in a world threatened by terrorism.

Asia’s great religions formed and informed their different and differing cultures. For centuries, prior to the entry of Christianity, these religions lived in intermittent conflict and harmony with each other. They borrowed practices and beliefs from one another, e.g. the Hindu concept of Karma and the transmigration of souls. Asian believers are often perceived as syncretists because of the way in which they accommodate one another’s religious beliefs and practices. It is Christianity that has difficulty in entering Asia’s minds and hearts because the message it brought was embedded in European cultural constructs that the early missionaries could not disentangle from. Today, doing mission requires deep sensitivity for the cultures of peoples, their ethos and their way of life. Missionaries today need to observe the principles of inculturation. As they criticize harmful effects of culture so are they corrected by the cultural values of the people. It is in the area of the religious construction of gender that Christians can contribute towards enriching the message of equality and dignity of all humans. In return, Christian rituals, symbols, and texts need to be inculturated with Asia’s treasure trove of rites, symbols and texts.

Asia is a continent peopled by a majority poor. While there are industrialized and newly industrialized places in Asia – e.g. Japan, Korea, Taiwan, Singapore and Hong Kong – the vast majority are poor. The recent natural – tsunami, earthquake and floods – and man-made calamities – terrorist attacks, currency crisis, trafficking, and repressive governments – have wrecked havoc on the lives of the poor. There is an urgent call for social amelioration and action against poverty. This call challenges Christianity’s social teachings to become prophetic signs toward just peace and solidarity. Globalization’s neo-liberal policies that reduce Asian people, women most especially, into markets and commodities need to be exposed. The church with its long experience of global mission must take account of this trend and refuse to partner with the current global economic and political systems. This would mean examining benefits and donations received from these institutions.

As we enter a half-decade into the third millennium and face the challenges of Asia’s reality, Filipino women are taking a new look into mission and mission ministries. This they do by examining their various involvements with people and communities as part of their mission work. Some of these involvements remain for the most part evangelization of people, as can be seen in the Christian schools established in the many countries of Asia and elsewhere. 

Lilith Usog, a lay theologian, writes about lay programs as examples of attempts at mission where young women can volunteer half year to three years in the different local and foreign mission stations of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing, working and serving the people according to their training and expertise. 

Other involvements mean the pastoral care of those in need, e.g. the urban poor, street children, and migrant workers. Still others are involved in the Christian penetration of social movements among workers, peasants, women, and civil society. The articles of Emelina Villegas and Margaret Lacson, both members of missionary congregations, describe the efforts of individuals and centers to respond to the needs of these social groups and to contribute toward their empowerment. Emelina Villegas’s paper depicts three missionaries from her religious congregation to examine their missionary style and to mark the shifts in the missionary paradigms in the different mission periods – from transplanting European Christianity and customs to India, to living in a tribal community to show respect and appreciation of their culture by preserving their tribal artifacts, to immersing oneself among the peasants and workers to be in solidarity with them in their struggles.

Margaret Lacson, who works in a solidarity center for migrant workers in Japan, highlights the experience of one beneficiary, a survivor of domestic abuse as a migrant worker, and who later became a staff in the center helping other abused migrants. Mission work now involves the participation of the beneficiary not only in the work but also in the goal setting and implementation of activities and programs. 

New words have emerged in relation to mission. The Christian Conference of Asia (CCA) has coined the term “ecumenical accompanier” as it conceptualized Women’s Accompaniment for Vision and Empowerment (WEAVE) designed to bring women, especially from the South, as partners working together towards gender justice. Liza Lamis, coordinator of the Women’s Desk of the National Council of Churches in the Philippines (NCCP), documents the journey of one such ecumenical accompanier – Deaconess Dominica Faurillo – who works to support the women’s desk in the Kampuchean Christian Council in the area of capacity building for women.

Reflection papers on mission contributed by Mary John Mananzan, Leonila Bermisa, and Liza Lamis provide a look into the theological issues that mission brings. Their intention is not to give a theological or theoretical framework for mission; rather they raise questions and pose challenges regarding the theology and method of mission. Mary John Mananzan, prioress of the Missionary Benedictine Sisters of Tutzing in the Philippines, writes on the effects of mission on women from the Spanish colonial period to the present. While her article is written from a Catholic perspective, her comments on each period serve as a critique that can help present day missionaries avoid and rectify the mistakes and deficiencies of the past. 

Leonila Bermisa’s paper is a biblical reflection on Mark 5:41. Inspired by her former mission ministry in a shelter for sexually abused women, she makes a connection between Jairus’ daughter and the situation of women victims of sexual abuse in the family, in the community, and in religion. She presents an interesting contextual interpretation of Jesus’ words, “Talitha cum!” which roused the girl from the sleep of death, that now calls on women to rise up and go to live in shalom.

Liza Lamis has a second article that focuses on spirituality of people’s mission. She links mission with solidarity with people’s struggle. Joining the basic sectors in their struggle towards liberation, empowerment, and social transformation would achieve the goals of the people’s mission.

True to women’s ways of self expression, this issue includes a song composed by Silvana A. Gamolo, a medical doctor who comes from a musical family. Her song is in Pilipino, the Philippine national language, and is entitled Bayani which means hero. She composed the song in response to the seeming apathy and confusion the Filipino people are going through in the face of the current economic and political crisis. Her song calls on everyone to be heroes through acts of service, justice and solidarity.

A faithful contributor to In God’s Image (IGI), when poetic expression is asked for, is Bibiana Bunuan, a Maryknoll Sister now stationed in Namibia in Africa. She gives us two poems, “Grandeur of God” and “We Are for Each Other”, highlighting the challenges encountered by missionaries.

In place of a book review, we are concluding this issue with an open letter from three Filipino women to Asian liberation theologian, Aloysius Pieris, in response to his views on Asian feminism and Asian feminist theology contained in the first section of his book, Fire and Water: Basic Issues in Asian Buddhism and Christianity. 

As this issue is planned for December, the message of the angel given to the shepherds on that first Christmas night remains relevant and significant to all of us. “Do not be afraid; for see – I am bringing you good news of great joy….” In these times of crisis – local, regional, global, natural and man-made – there is so much anxiety and fear. The season of Christmas reminds us of the good news that is already with us, encourages us to celebrate amidst the gloom, and to remain hopeful in the face of adversity.

In conclusion, we want to express our gratitude to the contributors for sharing their thoughts and experiences, their advocacies and concerns, their talents and expertise with In God’s Image. We hope that they will continue to share them with us in the future. Thank you very much! Maraming Salamat!

We wish all our readers a peace-filled and fruitful 2006.

and
Guest editors

Acknowledgment

During the last meeting of the Editorial Advisory Committee (EAC) of In God's Image in 2004, members suggested themes for the next few years. When Virginia Fabella announced that she and a group in the Philippines were looking at the place and role of women in mission, the EAC gladly assigned the theme to her for this December 2005 edition. We are indeed very happy to have this edition put together by her and Arche L. Ligo. 

Virginia Fabella, a Maryknoll Sister, is on the EAC and is a member of AWRC. She writes and edits articles and books on feminist theology. Arche L. Ligo, a lay theologian, is a full time faculty member of St. Scholastica’s College, teaching Women’s Studies. Both are on the faculty of the Institute of Formation and Religious Studies and are active members of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT). 

We thank both of them for sharing their passion and talents as guest editors of this edition. We also thank the Filipino contributors for willingly sharing their stories and reflections on this timely topic of “Women and Mission.” May this edition of IGI inspire others to share their own stories and reflections.

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.