Baptismal Ministry and Grassroots Empowerment

I write this from New York City, just a few blocks from the United Nations, in the midst of the 56^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women. I am one of the Anglican Women’s Empowerment delegates. Thousands of women and men have converged for this two-week session: listening, sharing, and learning about how to empower rural women across the globe. Such a hubbub to this rural woman who is accustomed to the quiet of the mountains and the slower pace of rural Maryland.

It truly is exciting to be in the midst of so many advocates – mostly sisters and some brothers  -- for the voice of women.  I listen to my sisters’ stories and join in singing our common melody of being encouraged by others who believed in us. I realize how much my international sisters’ stories parallel the baptismal ministry stories that I share and hear in Western Maryland or in the company of other missioners involved in team ministry.
 
As missioners, we seek to empower others. We seek to break down the mindset that ministry must radiate from an ordained leader. We seek to empower others to follow their callings to ministry -- the ministry of all the baptized. We each have a voice. We each have gifts. We are called to use those gifts as God intends. It is just a matter of listening to that voice,the story,and then having the strength and support to follow that call.

It strikes me how much this sounds similar to what I am seeing around me here at the CSW and AWE meetings: the stories of my sisters breaking down walls and following their calls to live into where God is calling each of them. Perhaps this mountain girl of Western Maryland is not that different from her sisters here at the CSW meetings and through AWE.

Theresa