Women Bishops, Malala and Mary Robinson

On the day that Ban Ki-moon appoints Mary Robinson as the special Envoy for Climate Change and Malala celebrates her birthday by reminding us 'let's show the world that we are stronger than violence', it's great, at last, to see the vote to allow women bishops by the Church of England's Synod. An amazing amount of energy has gone into this debate over the past 20 years. 

To me, it's all astonishing! I was brought up in a family where my grandmother was a deacon in the Congregational church and my mother was an elder in the URC. There were women ministers in the Pentecostal churches of my youth and teenage years, many of them wonderful characters, ministering in ways that brought hope in tough, tough places. In my extended family, we had women philosophers, doctors and musicians. During my childhood I met the most amazing Ghanaian women leaders and business women who were friends of my parents. It was the Church in Wales and Church of England that introduced me, as an impressionable young woman, to the idea that women could not be teachers and leaders. This has been one of the most psychologically damaging influences in my life. Yet I also found the catholic and reformed theology of the Anglican and Lutheran churches life-giving. While posing many unanswerable questions about the nature of a God who, I instinctively felt, encompassed the feminine as well as the masculine, it spoke profoundly of relationship between the Divine and human beings in ways that helped me to live my life as a young woman involved in the care of the dying. Despite having great respect for Roman, Coptic and Orthodox theology, if you are young and female, it's really quite difficult to understand how preaching, sacramental theology (especially around marriage) and governance that come exclusively from a male perspective are life-giving and transforming. My patristics tutor  once countered such a question with 'well there's always Mary'. Yes, Mary is a wonderfully inspirational character but about as ambiguous as it is possible to be, if you are a woman. The Gospel ('good news') is about finding life in the most unexpected places and welcoming transformation; it seems to me that the inclusion of women in the whole life of the church is key to this becoming a reality for all women in both society and church.

In my early twenties, I used to organise ecumenical summer play schemes for children; I have very fond memories of summers spent in Aberystwyth, Bermondsey and Byker (Newcastle). Always, we worked with the local Roman Catholic priests who, even in those days, used to say, 'the Roman Catholic Church will ordain women one day.' Some of them graciously invited us to participate at Mass. As a young lecturer for the Cambridge Theological Federation, I was truly inspired by a female Orthodox colleague who, I think, struggled greatly with the attitude of her own church to her as a teacher yet clung on to the belief that women had an, as yet, unsung and significant contribution to make to Orthodox theology, digging out the riches that are already there. Over the years, working as a priest, I have had a rich partnership with Jewish colleagues, some of whom have been amazing women Rabbis and others of whom have helped me unlock the strong but often unrecognised vein of female insight that runs throughout the Hebrew scriptures.

For younger people who look to the future of the churches, the Church of England's decision today opens up new potential. Many of us will be truly glad that our daughters as well as our sons will now grow up expecting spiritual and theological leadership to come from women as well as men. We will celebrate the healthier balance that brings; given the shocking revelations about sexual abuse in society and in the churches it can only be healthier that, in future, there will be bi-gendered leadership.

I know from personal contacts and experience that the fact the Church of England has taken this step will be a tremendous encouragement to women in other parts of the world. It is really important that we acknowledge the lead taken by the churches in Aotearoa, Polynesia, New Zealand, Australia, Canada. South Africa, USA, South India, Cuba and Ireland. And equally important that we empower and support women in churches where they find themselves powerless, uneducated, voiceless or constrained by customs that undermine health, well being or ability to earn.

For older women, it's important that we don't resort to either bitterness at lost opportunities or an attitude that wants to control what happens next. Let the Spirit be free! My mother never felt at home or truly welcome in the Anglican Church because of its refusal to ordain women; today she would have joined my father (an Anglican) and me in celebration. And probably she would have said, 'What took you so long?'! But I know she would have thought, 'What's important is that the leadership of the church is strengthened to communicate and encourage everyone in discipleship of Christ.' 

Today, I am just delighted that we have taken one small step in the direction of marking women's experience, voices and contribution to theological, social and political life. 




    

The Gender Gap

The World Economic Forum has just published its annual report here which shows that inequalities between women and men are gradually becoming fewer. If you can measure such things, then there has been, specifically, a 2% reduction worldwide in the past 12 months. The report caught my eye because Finland comes out as the second best country for equality between the genders, after Iceland, and I am in Helsinki as I write. While here, I've been reading the autobiography of Malala Yousafzai, written with Christina Lamb (published Weidenfeld  and Nicholoson 2013). I had no idea how much of a political activist she was, speaking about opportunities for women's education from a very early age - long before she became internationally known. In her society, people become adults at the age of 14 but Malala had been outspoken and active in the pursuit of girls' right to education long before she officially became an adult and then, as a woman, found her movement and freedom restricted in ways we can't imagine. At the age of 15, even though she continued not to veil her face, she felt had to send a younger girl who was still a child to buy a snack for her as it was not acceptable for her to be out on the street alone.The book gives a really  fascinating and detailed insight into the daily life of a family who are clearly bonded by love and by belief in the power of education for all. Although Malala's mother was not literate (she was due to begin a course to learn to read and write on the very day Malala was shot) she is an intelligent and deeply spiritual Muslim woman. For Malala, encouraged by her father who is a dedicated and passionate educator, to have achieved so much in a setting where she had enormous pressures to keep quiet, not least for her family's safety, is quite amazing. The book gives a surprisingly penetrating account of the political tensions in northern Pakistan and there is no sense that this is a naive story because it is told by one so young.

Published Weidenfeld & Nicholson 2013

The BBC has just completed its 100 Women Season with a conference for 100 leading women from around the world here Sigridur Maria Egilsdottir of Iceland gave a challenging address. Although she comes from the country where, for 5 consecutive years, the WEF has reported the lowest levels of inequality in the treatment of women, she encouraged her audience never to sit down and think the struggle is won. 70% of those living in absolute poverty in the world are women and 66% of those who are illiterate are female. Speaking of her own profession as a musician, Sigridur's painted the picture of a three generation family process - it took one generation of women to climb out of poverty, one generation to get an education and then a third to learn the instrument!  She urged us to continue to challenge 'society's deeply held view that women are somehow inferior' which leads to women being denied opportunities for education and proper health and maternity care, girl children being aborted and violence against women. You can see her full speech on the link above. She threw out a question you might like to think about, 'What message would you send to your granddaughter?' Her answer - 'get an education.' 

Icelandic Singer and Debater Sigridur Maria Egilsdottir
www.youtube.com 

Where are the best and worst places to be a woman? To see a comparison of the gender gap across the continents, go to 'Women gain as gender gap narrows' here   Of course, we might argue that we want to see the removal of poverty and the provision of education for all regardless of gender but the conference and Malala's book gave very powerful examples of why and how women suffer doubly because of their place (or lack of place) in society.

EDL Defending Who From Whom?

Once upon a time it rained (quite a lot) in a peaceful northern city. A group of activists travelled to the city bent on defending the rights of the disenfranchised. About two hundred of them disgorged from trains, buses and cars onto the streets. But the people of the city went about their business in co-operation and harmony. The activists wandered about a bit. No one took any notice. The activists left. It rained some more. The end.

Not much of a story? What were the English Defence League doing in Bradford yesterday? Why did they think their presence was needed? And perhaps most intriguingly, what do they believe they are defending England from? When I walk around Bradford (or Leeds or Nottingham or Derby, for that matter) I am so intensely proud to be British. I relish the diversity of cultures and the sight of people of hugely different backgrounds enriching each others' lives through work and commerce and education. My husband and I have friends and colleagues of many faiths, languages and ethnic origins, all of them thoroughly British. In Bradford there is an extraordinary sense of entrepreneurship among the young. I don't want to romanticise things - there are times when different parts of the community remain isolated or aloof in ways you wish they wouldn't. People can be scratchy. That happens everywhere I meet people; it happens along social and economic and historical and educational fault lines and it happens between people with different accents and aspirations.

Why do we need a group of activists to defend anyone from anyone? The people of Bradford questioned this too. Why are they coming to our city? So they took action. On Friday there was the most marvellous day of coming together when the people of Bradford showed the nation what it means to be a mature, vibrant and varied British city that is comfortable with itself. They took to the squares and streets in a quiet way to witness to the fact that Bradford can do more than handle difference and the opposition and the opprobrium difference attracts from people who feel threatened by anyone not like themselves - Bradford is a community that celebrates the way of life great diversity brings. 

The day before the EDL demonstration-that-wasn't over a thousand people came together in Centenary Square to emphasise the hopes and faith of the city. They held a vigil, distributed two and half thousand green ribbons around the city centre, wrote moving messages on a peace wall and boosted trade in the city. Lots of the participants were taken by surprise but joined in enthusiastically. Bradford Together had organised the event working with Bradford Women for Peace, Bradford Women's Council, HOPE not Hate, Unison, the TUC, and many of the mosques and churches.  Bana Gora of Bradford Women for Peace, Selina Ullah, Director of Bradford Women's Muslim Council, Ratna Lachman of JUST Yorkshire and Bishop Nick Baines all spoke enthusiastically of the event which exceeded expectations and demonstrated how strongly the people of Bradford feel about their city - a place where all faiths, ages and colours work together. This was the real story.

Well done Bradford!

Thank you for showing the way!  

End Go-It-Alone Eating

There's a shop in Harrogate that donates its end of day bread to one of the churches. This then gets given out the following day to those who need it. I bumped into a man outside the supermarket. He was displaying a bag with a lovely, day-old wholemeal loaf and some French batons. Artisan bread. 'What I really like', he said, 'is white sliced. You buy some and I'll swap yer?'

That set me thinking about today's article in the Independent Red Cross Launches Emergency Food Aid Plan for the UK' Hungry . We are now witnessing the Red Cross organising aid for the half a million of us in the UK who regularly turn to food banks to keep the wolf from the door. And yes, I say 'us' because even if we are not one of the individuals or families who use them, there is likely to be someone quite near you who goes sporadically if not regularly to a food bank. For a lot of people and quite probably people we know, it's a choice between fuel and adequate food, even if (despite Michael Gove's take on it) you juggle your resources to best advantage. It's even more sobering to learn that there are reckoned to be 43 million people across Europe who do not get enough to eat each day. Greece, Spain and Russia are among the places where the number of hungry is rising at an alarming rate. But even the wealthier countries are seeing an increase in those who range from out and out hunger (often as they try to feed their children) to the kind of dependency on food banks of my friend outside the supermarket - not being able to exercise any choice in what you are given to eat. It might sound less serious, but imagine being diabetic or having a severe nut allergy. 

A friend who's living in Greece describes communities coming together to harvest olives and chestnuts, to bake bread communally and to share goats' milk, eggs and, eventually, chickens. Here in Yorkshire we have neighbours who bring us homemade cakes, honey and eggs and we share apples and harvest veg with neighbours and go blackberrying. But, as a nation, we seem to be slowly loosing the art of a community pulling together to feed itself and to make sure the stranger and the person with less to eat is included. Has the time come to recognise this and actively to look for opportunities to ask our colleagues, neighbours and friends what we can share with them and they with us?  Make go-it-alone-feeding or me-and-my-family feeding a thing of the past. 

Some ideas

Place on the table once a day something you are going to share outside the immediate household and make sure it gets shared by the end of the week. As well as food, this could be recipes, cookbooks, kitchen or gardening equipment, plants, money, toys or a pledge of time.

Count the number of times you have been given food by friends in the last month and give thanks.

Make an extra portion of something and freeze it for a Red Cross coffee morning or Oxfam cheese and wine evening or dinner party.

Visit the local food bank if you have never done so and find out what they need.

Plan a meal/tea/picnic and invite people you do not usually eat with.

Find someone to swap produce with - it's amazing how much of a bond this can create.