hile I've been known to liberate one or two in dire situations, normally when I see the word "men" on a door, it does not enter my lady-like mind to enter.
Today folks are puzzled about whether the word "men" can or does include "women" in our worship if it does not do so in our rest rooms and canons. Whether "men" includes women has been a key issue for over 150 years. In the first and last quarters of the 20th Century, it almost rent the Episcopal Church in two. And so in 1976 the General Convention clarified the canons by resolving that the ordination process was "equally applicable to men and women."
That means the word "men" does not include female Episcopalians. Non-males are, therefore, invisible/excluded (choose one or both) when that simple, three letter word is utilized.
The language of our liturgy, hymnal, and wherever "man" is intended to include everybody--in fact excludes over 60 percent of the adults in Episcopal pews on Sunday. A lot like that odd little expression, "all men are created equal...." Is this why the US is the only industrialized nation not to ratify the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women? Even our General Convention has approved it!
Yet three years ago the Executive Council's Committee on the Status of Women (CSW) submitted a resolution to the 2003 General Convention to form a committee to explore the problem and report back possible answers. The resolution was supported but alas,
never funded. It quietly died and the Episcopal Church hummed on, with its head in the clouds and exclusionary language in its music and worship. Women remain linguistically invisible in ECUSA.
But the issue has not gone away. The Committee on the Status of Women has reintroduced the resolution for consideration by the 2006 General Convention. Caucus members are urged to talk with their bishops and deputies about this resolution and emphasize the need for funding.
Tell them you will want to hear the outcome in June.
"In the name of....."
Using certain images - such as God always being male - shows our adherence to a canon of correctness that has controlled Christian worship for centuries, despite the fact that the Bible does contain many images of God as female, especially in the Hebrew Scriptures.
But if you don't use the "correct" images, you just might violate the canons of proper speech and behavior. You might wind up with "God... she...." for example, When Susan Rich was president of the Episcopal Church Women in the Diocese of Washington some 30 years ago, she was invited to preach one Sunday morning in the St. Joseph Chapel in the basement of Washington National Cathedral. She opened with: "in the name of the Mother, Daughter and Holy Spirit..." As she looked across an astonished congregation, she asked, "What would it mean if you heard this every Sunday morning?"
The Washington Post's religion editor was present. Her story flashed around the world, headlining papers from Madrid to Tokyo. Susan was bombarded by hate mail. Although nothing changed, it started a lot of people thinking.
"As we pray, so we believe"
If we sincerely believe women are made in God's image, we will have to do something about the age-old adage, "As we pray, so we believe." The metaphors and images in our worship and educational materials do shape our thoughts and our faith--especially those of children, because language is formative. Until they are 10 or 12 years old, youngsters think in concrete terms only--to them, God is clearly a man because that's how God is always described. They miss the subtleties invented to exclude their mothers and sisters and them.
Check out the liturgy, music and educational materials your congregation is using. What do they tell you about the roles, participation and opportunities for females and males, people of color, the physically handicapped, youth and senior citizens? Who is pictured? Are some folks linguistically invisible?
Who?
Language is one of the most significant tools we have for creating and shaping perceptions. It not only describes; it prescribes--like a medical prescription.
It prescribes prejudices, roles, stereotypes, perceptions.
That is what makes language so powerful!
Using a certain set of images--such as God as male--shows our strict adherence to a canon of correctness--a canon that has controlled Christian worship for 21 centuries. It reflects a closed church with closed minds locked up behind closed doors.
Is Our Vision of God Too Small?
When the Episcopal Women's Caucus headed up the International Women's Witnessing Community at the 1988 Lambeth Conference, we heard British theologian Sarah Coakley tell bishops from around the world,
that the central question to the Anglican Church at that time was "are you in fact presenting to the world a vision of God that is too small?" A myopic vision that stretches back to a Roman document claiming one had to be male to represent Jesus. Centuries later it's still officially keeping Roman Catholic women out of the priesthood.
In 1989 the New Zealand Prayer Book swept Anglicanism off its feet by being a "deliberate attempt to allow a multitude of voices to speak..." by responding to "an increasing need to choose language which is inclusive in nature and which affirms the place of each gender under God..."
Hospitable language
Over the years, I have become convinced that we need a new framework---a language of hospitality.
Hospitality is a requirement in both the Hebrew and Christian scriptures. It's been a guiding virtue throughout the Middle East from ancient times to the present. To use language that includes you and me and a diversity of people is simply an act of hospitality. Being comfortable with expansive and inclusive language enables Christians to develop more embracing ways to think and behave, ways that honor women as well as men.
Little girls need not wonder, as I used to, whether they are included when they sing hymns and say prayers. Nor will persons of color or those from a non-Anglo heritage. We will raise up and celebrate the lives and ministry of all people. We will address God in language that is not masculine, not exclusionary, but comfortable and hospitable and loving. We will embrace ways to think and behave and speak that honor women as well as men.
What will the 2006 General Convention decide about the inclusion of women in the liturgy and life of our Church? Will it have enough money to be hospitable to women--"God love `em"--or will it save money and maintain the status quo? In which case, Caucus members will have to liberate the convention center's men's rooms until a positive vote comes through.
A more detailed treatise, The Power of Language, from the Committee on the Status of Women, is available at no cost and in large quantities for distribution, from the Office of Women's Ministries at the Episcopal Church Center. 1-800-334-7626. It is also available on the Women's Ministries link of the Episcopal Church website.
St. Margaret's, Washington, DC is one of many congregations that has explored its position on language. The following statement appears every Sunday in its worship booklet. Consider this or something similar for your congregation.:
St. Margaret's Church makes every effort to make the language of worship conform to our conviction that the nature of God embraces both male and female and that men and women are equals. Therefore, in our worship, we take our Bible readings from the New Revised Standard Version, the best translation currently available, and Psalms from inclusivelanguage sources. In our liturgies, we make minimal but symbolically important changes in the language of the prayer book in accord with our commitment to inclusive expression. Some historical texts that are widely known and loved are left unaltered, as is copyrighted material, such as hymns and anthems. In those texts, as in the ones that are changed, we recognize and affirm both the masculine and feminine in God.