Reflecting on the 2015 Living Stones Partnership Meeting

            It has been two months since I departed San Antonio, Texas, and the 2015 annual meeting of the Living Stones Partnership meeting. It was a gathering of friends and colleagues involved in ministry development. Many of those gathered identify as ministry developers; others lack that identification. But each of us gathered believe that God calls each of us to different ministries and empowers us with the gifts that we need to live into those ministries and thus live into serving the Missio Dei—the Mission of God. What a beautiful gathering of people filled with the spirit and love for God, God’s Mission, and the ministry of each and all!

            Yet, there also are challenges, and one of those challenges is in informing others about our passion for this “thing” we call “ministry development” and assisting each other in companioning our colleagues in the discernment and nurturing of their gifts in accordance with God’s call and mission. In that vein, I recommend that people read an article on our time together in February 2015, whether at the International Symposium or the annual Living Stones Partnership meeting. Follow this link to read an article by Carole Bell, of the Diocese of Northern Michigan, on both events. And if you wish to engage in conversation and further exploration of your thoughts, please explore further the Living Stones Partnership website and the various resources referenced on that site.

 

Theresa+

More Reflections on Being Rural, attending the UN Commission on the Status of Women (CSW)

The gears of my brain just keep a-runnin' as I continue to attend parallel sessions as an Appalachian member of the Anglican Women's Empowerment (AWE) delegation, meeting still more women living into their callings to serve and empower their sisters. This week has been filled with boomerang days, as I heard repeated expressions of fear, joy and courage.

A woman working with rural women across the globe, and based in Geneva, shared on Sunday her "three Cs" of what the media should highlight instead of the three Ss of sex, scandal, and more sports: courage, creativity and compassion/collaboration.  I reflect on the face that these three Cs continued to weave through many of the talks today, as I heard other CSW delegates speak of their creative approaches to resolving concerns when the routes available to men were not options.

The well-crafted art of invisibility is critical to what so many of us have done and many of my sisters continue to do to effect change. Listen unnoticed. Create cooperative partnerships. Act. The ideas that bring about results may be unexpected by our urban sisters and brothers, but blossom into effective actions when unveiled by my rural sisters. And we unveil them with unknown courage--courage that perhaps was not self-evident except in retrospect as we think back and wonder how in the world we did X or Y.

I keep hearing references to common thoughts, common skills, common abilities--ones learned without our being aware and apparently without attracting attention by others. These are easily identified by my "middle aged" sisters as being the means by which we broke down our own barriers. The real question for our younger sisters and daughters is: How do we assist them in doing the same but without having to be invisible or courageous? Perhaps I will learn that as well over the remainder of my week here at the CSW sessions?!

Theresa

Rural Life and Ministry—the Global View

The 56^th session of the Commission on the Status of Women officially opened Monday, Feb. 27, after several days of orientations, meetings and conversations across the aisles and globe. One day into the official session, it remains daunting to imagine the variety of experiences and languages involved.  

Perhaps the most astounding thing for me thus far, however, is the realization that the official languages may vary from country to country but the native language of rural life and ministry spans across the globe with astonishing similarities. The impact of NIMBY (not in my backyard) strikes so many of us across the developed and developing world. Further, the value of rural life in terms of tradition, family and community is a common song of joy for so many of us attending the session.

The sacrifice of material wealth is more than offset by the choice—yes the choice—to live where the pace is slower, the family is at the center of life, and the value of community remains intact. If only the NIMBY principle did not mean that those industries and practices that are the most devastating to the visual, mental and physical health of people were not always destined for rural locales. Not only are the rural locales the locations for nuclear plants, alternative energy testing, and the mining of energy sources that keep the world “running,” but we rural dwellers are also the most dependent on the products of these efforts, with limited access to public and lost-cost transportation. Not to mention the fact that it is our land, water and air that tends to be the most subject to violation by corporations .

But the humility and confident choice to choose the rural life ring through the songs of my sisters and brothers here at the CSW meetings, echoing much of what I hear and see through my sisters and brothers back home, in Western Maryland. Funny that I had to travel all the way to the United Nations to find myself “back home” with people just like me!

Theresa

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