Newsletter of the Asian Women's Resource Centre for Culture and Theology
Vol. 12, No. 2, October 2007
THREE PARTICIPANTS REFLECT ON WORKSHOP
It was indeed a privilege for me to participate in the YWDT Workshop held at the Tainan Theological College and Seminary from August 17-25, 2007. As a theologically trained social activist working with women living with HIV/AIDS in India, the reflections on the experience of the broken body of women was for me more than an academic topic. Finding/giving hope and meaning, and learning from each other are important resources as we sojourn with our less privileged sisters in different parts of Asia. We experience healing as we share our tears, joy and pain with one another, and strengthen our struggles.
It was a great time for all of us to listen to the rhythm of our bodies and others’ bodies. We were able to identify, nurture, acknowledge and celebrate our bodies in the context of brokenness and empowerment. We named those experiences of brokenness that crush us, define us, situate us, and even mold us to behave in a certain way. Such naming of experiences of our broken/coded/imprisoned/exploited bodies helped in a process of healing and empowerment. It also gave us an opportunity to become aware of the tension that we experience between our body and our self. As women engaged in transformative praxis in different parts of Asia, the workshop was a real retreat to gather renewed strength and energy to continue our work in our respective communities. Further, we were challenged and inspired to translate the healing experience with fellow sisters back in our contexts who go through similar experiences.
Another remarkable experience at the workshop was the time of Bible studies in groups where we could bring/see new dimensions to the texts that we have been reading since our childhood. While reading from a feminist critical theological perspective, we were able to look at the texts critically and also with a hermeneutics of suspicion. We started echoing “Martha, Martha” when we explored the significant role that she played in leading the house church of the Jesus community. Similarly, when we read the healing of the woman who had been bleeding for 12 years and the healing of Jairus’ daughter, we saw how those women becoming the agents of their healing in the circle of Jesus movement. The time of worship, visit to the Aboriginal village, games, meals, were all times of fun and relaxation.
To conclude, I believe that we have a great responsibility to share this experience with other women. I think we need to initiate regional and local solidarity networks where we can continue similar get togethers of sharing and learning. It is also important that every year a new generation of young women become members of this network and bring in new perspectives and new energies to our community.
Anshi Zachariah, India
It is a month since I joined the YWDT’s workshop about the body and self, Tainan August 17-25, 2007. It was a great experience, especially to my body; it was an event to hear and to be aware of the voices of my body. I still remember so clearly the sharing of our friends about our broken body/self, coded body/self, exploited body/self and imprisoned body/self. These terms really helped and worked to process all my bodily experiences since then. A month after the workshop I felt more aware and sensitive to my own body experiences and the other’s body. The workshop gave us more rooms to celebrate our body and in the same time to be critical of the bodily experience.
Two weeks after the workshop I lost a friend who passed away. I met him in a healthy condition a couple of days before I went to Tainan. I stayed 4 days in Bali to follow the ceremonies of his funeral. Along those 4 days I stayed with his dead body around me turning me back to all our conversation about body and self. I had a long conversation with his dead body and self. What happened when the body and self split up forever?
Last week I visited a community called Dayak Bumi Segandu, West Java. This community is now in trouble because a local religious committee sent a letter to local government and judiciary office to ban and dismiss them. This committee said their beliefs are heresy. When I was in the community I was surprised by their beliefs. I found bodies of women – naked women – as their symbols. They believe that women (as mother and wife) and their children in the family are the center or the source of their beliefs. They believe women as a source of life. They live in unity with nature, such as being vegetarian; regarding water as holy; the males are naked on top; and following non-violence. I felt that “bodily” awareness is an important part for them.
Just yesterday I got a call from a friend asking me to accompany her to the police station. Her daughter was battered by her boyfriend and her body was injured. Again so many questions about violence against women and issue of women’s body came to my mind.
Even now I have not finished processing those experiences. Only a month after the workshop I have to deal with so many forms of bodily experiences. Surprisingly, I was more sensitive of my own body’s reactions. My body is clearly sending messages and speaking to me. Should I be happy with this kind of sensitivity? Yes, now I cannot ignore the voices of my own body which is speaking louder than before. But at the same time I am frightened as my body could be more restless than before now that I have learned more how the body is perceived and treated by the individual, the community (the religion), and the state. There, the body is in the middle of the battle, as a social body, political body, religious body…
I (me) without my body, is that possible? No, it is not possible as long as I am living in this earth! For me, the workshop helped me to open more paths so I can walk on the journey with the awareness that I (my-self) am carrying my body. Maybe 5 years from now, if we meet again and talk about the body/self, the conversation would be completely different.
Iswanti, Indonesia
All my life, I grew up with the idea that I am a sinful person since birth and I need to deny my own flesh to attain my spirituality. My culture and my church teaching moulded me to believe that I need to deny myself to get closer to God. Jesus’ death on the cross was used as a role model to emphasise that as Jesus sacrificed his body for our sin, so we must also sacrifice our body and our earthly desire to be spiritual. But by attending this one-week workshop, I learned that my body is my tool in liberating myself. I felt enlightened when I let go the burden that I was carrying within myself that I am a sinful person and need to deny my body to save my soul. There was a sense of freshness inside me when I realised that my female body which is considered week, oppressed, discriminated and vulnerable to sexual and physical abuse is now a tool for my own liberation and freedom.
Since attending the workshop, I realise that sacrificing myself to take responsibility at home is continuously making me unhappy. My past sacrificing attitude has been building up lots of anger inside me. The built-up anger has made me sometimes behave aggressively towards my parents and my siblings and I am unable to concentrate on my work. I have not been able to do any work with peace and happiness. My responsibility at home has been like a task which I force myself to do. But after fully participating in this one-week workshop and being exposed to doing theology with my body, I have made some decisions and have been slowly implementing it at home. Since I came back home from Taiwan, I learned to let go some of my family responsibility. I pass over some of my housework to my younger sister. I spoke and discuss with my siblings to share money to employ a part-time maid to do some house work. Although in the beginning my mom was against it I was very firm and insisted that she can’t depend on me to do everything at home because I need time for myself. I let my father do some housework, which my mom will never allow him to do in the past. Currently the household responsibility does not totally fall on my shoulders, for it has been distributed to my younger siblings and my father. I felt a sense of relief and I do not have any more anger inside me.
In my personal life, I learnt not to put myself down or let others put me down. I decided to give priority to fulfil my desires and wishes although it can be contradicting to what others want me to do. I learned that I do not need to deny my body to save my soul. I am created in the image of God, my self and body are one.
Jayamalar Samuel, Malaysia
Statement of EATWOT in Solidarity with Burma People and Buddhist Monks
We, members of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians, EATWOT, want to express publicly our solidarity and support to the People of Burma in their just claim for freedom in response of the deplorable dictatorship of several decades, and express our hope that the Buddhist spirituality will be a firm support in their struggle until the victory.
Our solidarity includes supporting the efforts of Buddhist Monks, because of their service to their People, leading their protest and awarding, with their monastic credibility, that the People could vivenciate this resistence against the dictatorship, in favour of Freedom and Democracy.
We feel ourselves very united with you in this struggle, and convoke all citizens of the World to support your efforts in order that Burma can obtain its much desired democracy, and with it, Freedom, Social Justice, Transparency and overcoming Poverty.
We wish that these courageous actions of yours, Buddhist Monks of Burma, be the start of a new stage in the History of your country, and be also the opportunity to begin a strong relationship of cooperation between you and EATWOT, both in the realm of engaged Spirituality and also in theological reflection and inter-religious dialogue to promote World’s Peace, Justice and Spirituality.
Available at http://www.eatwot.org/TheologicalCommission
Letty Russell passes away
Letty Mandeville Russell, one of the world’s foremost feminist theologian, died on July 12 at her home in Connecticut, USA. She was 77. She was known to many Asian feminist theologians as a mentor, ecumenical enabler and friend, and a global advocate for women.
Russell was a member of the Yale Divinity School Women's Initiative on Gender, Faith, and Responses to HIV/AIDS in Africa and co-coordinator of the International Feminist Doctor of Ministry Program at San Francisco Theological Seminary.
She authored, co-authored, edited and co-edited over 17 books, including Church in the Round: Feminist Interpretations of the Church, Dictionary of Feminist Theologies and most recently, Hagar, Sarah and Their Children: Jewish, Christian and Muslim Perspectives.
One of the first women ordained in the United Presbyterian Church, Letty was a leader in the ecumenical movement, particularly in the World Council of Churches and the World YWCA.
Marianne Katoppo dies at 64
Marianne Henriette Katoppo, a prominent Indonesian feminist theologian, passed away on 12 October 2007 at the age of 64. Her brother, Pericles Katoppo, was at her side when she passed away.
Katoppo served on the executive committee of the Indonesian National Council of Churches, PGI. She was a member of the Ecumenical Association of Third World Theologians (EATWOT) and gave a talk entitled “Asian Theology: An Asian Woman’s Perspective” at the first Asian Theological Conference in Sri Lanka in 1979.
Marianne was active in writing on various topics relating to social problems, especially those pertaining to women. Her Compassionate and Free is a ground breaking book, the first effort towards an Asian women’s theology. She translated this book into Bahasa Indonesia but passed away before it was published.
Marianne was a member of the In God’s Image Editorial Advisory Committee from 1983 to 1997.
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