Newsletter of the Asian Women's Resource Centre for Culture and Theology
Vol. 9, No. 2, October 2004

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AWRC holds 2 workshops on Women Doing Theology in Sri Lanka

“WHERE’S the airport?” asked an anxious AWRC staff, as the plane cruised to a stop on a cleared landing strip in the middle of nowhere, surrounded by green bushes and armed soldiers-in-waiting. Our group of five had landed in Jaffna, Sri Lanka, in the civil war-torn territory of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE) to conduct the first of two AWRC workshops on ‘Women Doing Theology’ Oct 19-24. Tension was in the air as the packed bus trembled out of Palaly, the Sri Lankan Air Force high security zone, passing through barb-wired areas, sand-bagged watch posts, dug-outs, soldiers clearing grass and several check-points.

Having just come out of a 20-year war (a ceasefire was called two years ago and peace talks are on-going), the Jaffna people are still struggling to catch up economically with the rest of the country. We had a VERY slow start to our first afternoon session on ‘Women in the Bible’ held at St James Anglican Church parish hall. The 30-odd women trickled in, some more than an hour late past the set time. Sessions were further slowed down by the language barrier. Most of the women only speak and read Tamil, so the responses had to be translated by two parish priests.

But despite it all, the workshop was a success. The Jaffna women showed great interest in hearing the biblical texts interpreted the feminist way and hoped for more workshops in the future. They were surprised they had held so many misconceptions as told by the traditional church, through films and radio, especially in relation to Mary of Magdala: “We didn’t know there were so many ‘Marys’,” they laughed.

AWRC coordinator Yong Ting Jin had just taken the group through a Bible study on ‘Mary Magdalene: 1st Witness and Apostle – Reclaiming the Empty Tomb Tradition’, using colourful charts and slowly drawing out the story from them using the Bible. This participatory method of learning together worked well as the participants themselves became actively involved in reading the text, rather than being passive listeners.

Ting Jin also did a study of Judges 19: 1-30, a text of terror and wantonness, to get participants to reflect on reclaiming woman’s sexuality towards wholeness.

Monica Jyotsna Melanchthon, an Old Testament lecturer at Gurukul Lutheran Theological College in Chennai, India, introduced the story of the Canaanite woman in Matthew 15:21-28 as a lesson to overcome barriers to experience healing; and the courageous, wise woman in 2 Samuel 20: 14-22 who interceded for peace and saved a community from slaughter. 

THE second workshop on ‘Celebrating Our Sexuality’ was held in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. Sexuality being a sensitive issue, Ting Jin sought to loosen inhibitions with a simple body activity that got the 30 participants, especially the Catholic nuns, to let their hair down, literally. Then followed exercises that questioned who defined and controlled women’s sexuality.

The next day, Monica led in a study on ‘Female Sexuality in Biblical Law’ to show how laws in the Hebrew Bible had contributed to a demeaning view of the female sex. Participants were divided into groups to read texts in Leviticus, Exodus, Deuteronomy and Numbers to discuss what issues are addressed, how laws curtail or enhance female sexuality, and to what extent and how the spirit of these laws is still observed today.

The participants liked especially Monica’s analysis of The Song of Songs. Many said they had never read the ‘Song’ in that manner. Some were embarrassed by the strong erotic imagery used, but all found Monica’s interpretation of the ‘Song’ from an Asian woman’s perspective, liberating. The woman protagonist finds a way to celebrate her sexuality despite the confinements of that time – and that, says Monica, will be our justification for embracing this rarely-read Book.

Earlier, Ting Jin took the group through Judges 19:1-30, again drawing out the participants’ gut feelings on reading the horror in the text. The Colombo group appreciated the participatory method to study the text, which was later role-played with uproarious results: a tribunal was set up to try the Levite and seek justice for the woman. 

From the evaluations, both workshops had captured the imagination of the women of Sri Lanka who said they would now read the Bible more critically and share their new insights with others.

Our thanks to Rev. Malini Devananda, Audrey Rebera and Annathaie Abayasekera for organizing the work-shops.

Report by Woon Yoke Heng, AWRC member

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Two feminist theologians team up for KL workshops

IT was an eye-opening experience for 29 Asian participants attending two AWRC feminist theology workshops, held consecutively on Aug 12-15 and Aug 15-20 at Janda Baik, Malaysia.

Feminist theologians Lieve Troch of the Netherlands and Hisako Kinukawa of Japan enabled the participants to look at the Bible through new lenses, re-reading text from the gospel according to Mark to discover wo/men stories in them. 

From the first day, Lieve caused a stir when she asserted that the Holy Bible is not the inspired word of God (it being written by men with male interests in its authorships), but a tool for liberation and transformation of subjugated wo/men. 

She introduced the critical feminist theology of liberation which reads the Bible in the light of the experiences of the people. This method looks at experiences of oppression, analyses them, and reflects theologically on them. 

This method is in contrast to traditional, mainstream theology with its fixed concepts that are applied to reality, and with a white, male and Western mindset. 

The growing feminist movement in the 1960s and 70s saw women recognising the need to learn how to de-fine themselves, the world and the divine. Their vision is of an ‘ekklesia of wo/men’ which is an assembly of free-born citizens who make their own decisions as opposed to the existing hierarchical structure.

Lieve introduced the steps to a new circle dance of liberation and transformation. These begin with the deconstruction steps of reflection on experience and systemic analysis of oppression; suspicion and critical analysis; and critical evaluation and proclamation. These are followed by the reconstruction steps of historical, symbolic, conceptual, reconstruction; creative imagination; and liberation and transformation.

Dance of Liberation and Transformation

According to methodology of Elisabeth Schüssler Fiorenza

She explained four models of biblical interpretations: (i) the doctrinal which sees scripture as sacred text in which the Word of God is revealed; (ii) the positivist paradigm in which scientific methods are used to evaluate text; (iii) the cultural method calling for the reading of the Bible in a cultural context; and (iv) the critical emancipatory model, which presupposes that text is a product of power. The latter looks at a text and sees the power play in it used to control people and God, and the need to tear the text apart and see how it functions in the process of oppression and liberation.

Lieve dealt at some length on the differences between man and woman; nature or biological concept of femininity and masculinity; cultural construction of gender; and use of language to create or change reality.

She drew a pyramid to show multi-dimensional systems of oppression in terms of ethnicity, wealth, religion, class, age, education, language, position of women. Reiterating that the Bible is written in a patriarchal framework, she called for a critique of the pyramid and to read biblical text with a hermeneutics of suspicion.

Hisako guided the participants, particularly in the second workshop, through some biblical passages. If a woman appears in a text, the participants were asked to put on different lenses to re-read it and raise questions such as: Why is this woman allowed to be in the Bible in a story written by a man? Is it because she is exceptional and cannot be obscured or because she is ‘safe’ and won’t disturb the male thinking? The woman has to be deconstructed to see how she is used in that in-stance.

Passages taken from Mark gospel included Mary and Martha, the first women disciples, Jairus’ daughter, the healing of the blind and the demonic-seized boy. Participants were encouraged to re-read them in a different light, bringing out the hidden pyramid structure and the struggle of the marginalized to overcome that structure in the faith in the reign of God where all may have life abundantly.

The two workshops were well-received. Many were shaken, yet excited by the feminist biblical interpretation and resolved to re-read the Scriptures in a new light. 

Report by Woon Yoke Heng, AWRC member

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EAC, CTM meet in May

The Editorial Advisory Committee (EAC) of In God’s Image and the Coordinating Team Members (CTM) of AWRC held their respective meetings as scheduled in May 2004 in Kuala Lumpur.

EAC meeting

During their meeting on May 19-21, EAC members evaluated the editions of In God’s Image (IGI) of the past years and observed that IGI had improved greatly with attractive titles that capture the content of each issue.

As there are countries that have yet to have their voices heard in IGI, the EAC suggested workshops be held in these countries. This will help to establish contacts, widen our networks and provide the means to hear voices of the unheard through their sharing and theological discussions. However, the practical problem of sourcing translators and getting the resources needed for translations remains unresolved. The EAC also planned the themes for the succeeding years.

2005

2006

2007

2008

2009

2010

The mixed, open issues are meant for contributions from countries, e.g. Bangladesh, Cambodia, Nepal, Singapore, Thailand, East Timor, Bhutan, Vietnam, Laos, who have yet to contribute towards an issue.

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CTM Meeting

The CTM, which serves as executive body of AWRC, met on May 22-25. CT members heard the report and recommendations from the EAC and the AWRC coordinator Yong Ting Jin. They evaluated the work of AWRC in the recent past and deliberated on the recommendations.

Major programmes agreed upon for the next few years are :

CT members affirmed the great work put into the Asian Feminist Theologies project by the Planning Team (PT) and agreed to the 8 modules:

1. Introduction
2. Bible
3. New Images of God, Mariology, Christology, Anthropology
4. Women in Herstory
5. Women and Religions
6. Church, Sacraments, Liturgy, Ministry, Participation (Ecclesia), Mission
7. Spirituality and Sexuality
8. Social, Political Action and Leadership

The CTM adopted this as a 5-year project from Jan 2004, and gave priority to the following 4 modules:

1. Introduction (and Bible)
2. Women in Herstory
3. Women and Religions
4. Social, Political Action and Leadership

The CTM delegated authority to the PT to do the necessary and bring the modules to publication.

The workshop on Women’s History is planned to provide the resource materials for module 4 of the Asian feminist theologies project.

The ‘Young Women Doing Theology’ workshop was conceived with the aim of building and sustaining young women leadership within and through AWRC.

The CTM accepted the proposal of the Working Group (WG) to change clause 9.1.3 of the AWRC Constitution to read as follows:

The Coordinating Team will meet at least once every twenty-four months. In those years when it meets, it fulfils the functions of the AGM. In other years, the AGM is held in the following manner: The Coordinator’s report, the annual financial report and budget for the next year, a proposal for any necessary elections/cooptions and proposals for any new directions or projects not already approved will be posted, faxed or emailed to the Coordinating Team, along with a ballot paper containing any decisions which the Coordinating Team needs to make. (The ballot paper will conform with the requirements of Schedule 2 – Postal Ballots).

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Feminist Theology Modules Planning Team meets

The planning team (PT) on Asian feminist theology modules met on May 26-27 in Kuala Lumpur to go over the draft module and plan the follow-up action arising from the decision of the CTM.

The PT decided on the titles for the modules as prioritised by the CTM :

Book 1 : Introduction to Asian Feminist Theologies
Book 2 : Women in Herstory
Book 3 : Women and Religions
Book 4 : Women and Leadership
Book 5 : Women and Church, Sacraments, Liturgy, Ministry and Mission

The work on Book 1 is in its final stages, and the PT hopes for it to be published by the end of 2004. This first book is divided into:

Part 1 : The Woman Question
Part 2 : Asian Women Doing Theologies
Part 3 : Women in the Old Testament
Part 4 : Women in the New Testament
Part 5 : Feminist Interpretations of texts in the Bible

The PT also brainstormed and discussed at length the approach to the remaining Books.

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