new ministry

[joyfulwomyn]

Greetings y'all,

I work for a community of womyn religious (aka Catholic nuns), launching a new initiative charged with "listening and responding to the spiritual needs of young womyn."

Without giving too much context, I am interested in hearing some of your insight, ideas and suggestions for this new work.

Thx much!

 

[Shannonkish]

I have a question... this is the second time I have seen this and I was wondering if there was any logic to it.... What is womyn?? Is that supposed to be Women? If so, why isn't it spelled correctly. Just curious.

 

[joyfulwomyn]

Using the spelling "womyn" instead of "women" is a linguistic choice I make based on my own perspective as a 3rd wave feminist.

 

[Shannonkish]

interesting.. thank you

 

[Mr.Cheese]

Hmm...I don't know about spiritual needs, but I can say that it would help the young ones out a lot if their parents told them they loved them more and even tried to show it once in a while.

 

[hotarugari]

Without sounding like too much of a goober, I think it would help to start small womens groups to focus on prayer and reading through the Bible as the Spirit leads.

My home church in St Petersburg Florida does this and they have a non-denominational web site dedicated to this (http://saltandlightgroup.com/). Granted, not the most professional looking site, but an outreach doesn't have to be or look professional. It has to be God's and if it is something that belongs to and is submitted to Him on a regular basis, then it is definitely something God can use.

Bible reading is and has always been important. Without Bible reading we lose track of who God really is in our lives (and what He is capable of doing). I think in the context of a study, God's love will and does overflow as we seek Him.

 

[Multi-Elis]

What are third wave feminists?

 

[Shannonkish]

do a google search.. you will find LOTS of information about them. I am not sure I understand how you can be a Christian and a feminist at the same time.. but hey..I am not here to judge.

 

[joyfulwomyn]

The heart of feminism is womyn's equality. I believe the heart of Christ's message is equality for all - we all can go to heaven (if you believe in heaven), can be saved, can engage in works for justice... faith is not dependent on race, class, gender.

3rd wave feminism has all sorts of definitions since it is based on a pluralistic ideology. For many of us it means carrying on the struggle for justice and equality that our foremothers started in the contemporary context.

 

[hotarugari]

Yes, it seems funny how all these minority movements work. I understand there have been times of injustice and inequality, and in some way, shape form I'm sure there still are.

Even still, I don't see any of these minorities being happy until the entire white male majority is beaten into a dead bloody pulp.

Not saying I hate anyone for it, but sometimes I feel like I'm supposed to be wrong just because I'm white or male or something insane like that. Or maybe that I'm insensitive to others for not blindly swallowing thier views and accepting them as my own.

 

[joyfulwomyn]

As someone who's an apparent member of a "minority movement" I can assure you that my involvement isn't about "beating the entire white male majority into a bloody pulp."

For me its about long term, systemic change. We have, unfortunately lived in a patriarchal system for thousands of years. That system has inherent privilege for some based on the oppression of others.

My aim and that of many of my colleagues is to even things out - to move to an egalitarian system whereby we value people over things, be inclusive of all perspectives and offer equal and equitable opportunities to everyone.

 

[hotarugari]

For me its about long term, systemic change. We have, unfortunately lived in a patriarchal system for thousands of years. That system has inherent privilege for some based on the oppression of others.

I can't agree with your conclusion. The fault is not in the guys leading the planet or the girls leading the planet. The fault is with the entire human race.
I forget who said it but "Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely."

To say that the world would somehow be better as a patriarchal or non-patriarchal society is largely irrelevant as I see it. Besides that, if you want to blame patriarchal society for everything wrong, then you should at least give it credit for everything it has done right. Let me be a little chauvanistic and give total credit to the patriarchal society for mathematics, medicine, chemestry and all the other sciences and discoveries out there. We should also get credit for putting down such genocidal countries as former Iraq and Germany in WWII.

I'm speaking as an idiot because I know that there were some female contributions, but it doesn't really matter if guys or girls had better accomplishments or who contributes more to science.

But regardless, going back to my earlier quote "power corrupts". If you think women need some power to balance what all these guys have done, then you're going to see alot of women screw up too. I would guess alot of them did with feminism and the whole "free love" movement that seemed to happen at about the same time, the burning of bras, and all the like.

My aim and that of many of my colleagues is to even things out - to move to an egalitarian system whereby we value people over things, be inclusive of all perspectives and offer equal and equitable opportunities to everyone.

What makes you think things aren't even? I can't get a job that most women can get largely because of EEOC. I've seen women that have the same job as me totally accepted in the workplace when they yap on the phone for an hour or two on the clock to family, then some to thier peers and then finally decide to commit to some real work. Meanwhile I'm working my tail off. Still, they're preferred to me and for what reason? A couple years seniority? EEOC?
You tell me.

Still, I would say that if there's a real battle worth fighting it's not giving or taking preference to/from people. Rather it's giving preference to God. If He is the one that we center our lives on then we'll realize we're all a bunch of greedy hording people that need to live lives of generosity to each other.

 

[Multi-Elis]

Obviously, if a woman is being payed less than a man for the same services, that needs to be fought against. And obviously woman need to be looked at as being just as capable as men in the science (only usually uninterested, but that shouldn't stop the encouragement) (my mother finished third in her class when she graduated from a high physics-chemistry University in Paris). And it really gets me when boys aren't encouraged to do ballet because "that's not supposed to interest them" and when girls are discouraged from wanting to be mechanical engineers, because it "isn't supposed to interest them",

But...

I find that most of the oppression I feel as a womAn comes from myself, my own expection to be considered stuped, childish and illogical. I don't believe that most men (and correct me if I'm wrong) think "now here we have an illogical childish stuped girl to deal with". (well maybe they do in my case, because I look 4 years younger than what I am and look like any moment I'll brake into a dance of splits in the air, but I believe I am the exception) I think most men have a relatively neutral view of women, but it is we, or I, who expect to be treated this way, and end up acting strange.
I mean, isn't a lot of the opression blacks have (and I know they do get real opression) due to their fear that I, for example, disslike them for being black?

 

[joyfulwomyn]

Instead of discussing the existence of oppression, I really posted the initial message to get people's, mostly womyn's, thoughts on our new ministry - what would you want and what do you hear that other people want?

I don't want this to be about what you think other people need - that's a position based on our own perspective of what other people should have according to our own lives.

 

[Mr.Cheese]

Ok. Feminism is not a bad thing. I'm all for Feminism. Like anything, some can go too far with it.
But let's keep the thread to the topic at hand.
Perhaps we can begin a separate thread on feminism if any of you wish to discuss it further.

 

[Multi-Elis]

Frankly, as a young woman, I don't feel any need for any exceptional ministry, other than that which my church provides. There, there is a young adult's group led by two pastoral assistances, one of whom is a woman, and I usually go to her for any private theological questions I wouldn't feel comfortable asking a man. Things like how to fight the sin of laziness, for example. But it's not like I would like to have a whole bible study on that, just a private conversation.