Women of the ELCA

Earlier this week, my colleague Terri Lackey and I attended a Bible study introduction conference at Wartburg Seminary in Dubuque, Iowa. This annual event is one of my favorite road trips. We drive from Chicago to Dubuque, listen to Bob Wills music in the car (and sometimes sing along), and snack on Starburst and Chex Mix. But the best thing about this trip is meeting with the women who come to this conference—women who are steeped in the language of Scripture. They’ve been doing Bible study for many years, and it shows.

Some of the participants have been to the Bible study conference year after year. I met a saint there once who told me she’d been to 16 of these conferences! When Stan Olson, the president of Wartburg, asked for a show of hands of how many had attended for at least five years, it seemed that most of the group raised their hands. Then he asked about 10 years of attendance and many still had a hand raised. But there were also a group of first-timers—and that’s very exciting.

 This year the writer and presenter of the upcoming Bible study is the Rev. Patricia Lull. As she led the group through the study themes and sessions, the participants’ questions were rich with insight—gained from years of faithful study. It was really wonderful to share in a discussion of Scripture with women (and a couple of men).  To see photos from the event, click here.

So starting in September, we’ll be studying “To Follow and to Serve: the Gospel of Mark.” Join us!  To learn more about the study click here.  We hope you’ll be part of this conversation about Mark’s gospel and that you’ll be enriched by the first language of the faith: the Bible.

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Check out this post on the Lutheran World Relief blog, a personal observation about the power of faithful Christian women. While the author, Lisa Bonds, lifts up the women of First Lutheran in Litchfield, Minn., many of us will know other groups of women who fit that same wonderful profile.

For a great story about a woman with a vision and the quilting ministry that emerges from that vision, check out this story from Central Lutheran, Minneapolis, Minn.

Come join us on Facebook where the conversation is always lively!

It’s not too late to register for Renew, Respond, Rejoice!, the 8th Triennial Gathering of Women of the ELCA. Talk about community! One incredible community of women will be coming together in Spokane, Wash., July 14-17, 2011. We’d love to see you there!

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In an upcoming resource relating to our health initiative, the writer asks this pointed question:

How might you connect the enthusiasm of youth to the yearnings of midlife and the wisdom of the elder years?

That question really speaks to me because it describes the community that can (and does) exist within Women of the ELCA. It is our vision that within Women of the ELCA, women of all ages work together to fulfill our mission and achieve our purpose. 

In the best of situations, we encourage the enthusiasm of youth, we respond to the yearnings of midlife and we honor the wisdom of the elder years. I’m not totally naïve (despite what some may say). I know that my “best of situations” description doesn’t hold true everywhere.

There are places within our organization where the new ideas of younger women and their eagerness to try something different are squelched by older women. There are places where the yearnings expressed by those in midlife are dismissed or even where those yearnings go unexpressed for fear of dismissal. And there are places where the wisdom that elders bring is rejected or shelved summarily as “out of touch.”

Where does your unit of Women of the ELCA fall?

Are all ages active within your group?

How would other women in your congregation who are not part of your unit answer that question ?

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This week, I am in the middle of putting together a mailing to the nearly 200 women who have volunteered to sing in our Triennial Gathering choir. Hearing the voices of our musically inclined women is always a wonderful part of our triennial worship, and we have three great pieces selected for them.

When I was working with the musicians on what pieces to choose, it was indeed a daunting task.  The number of fantastic choral hymns is far too many to count! (And that’s just the Augsburg choral series!) It’s no wonder the choices are endless: The Lutheran choral tradition is long, and I’m sure for many of you, it was or still is an important part of your worship experience. 

From early on in my childhood, choral music has been an important part of worship for me.  My mother was the children’s choir director for years, and I always remember Wednesday night as church choir night! As a young adult, I continued to sing in choir and rarely recall singing the same piece twice! 

Lifting our voices in song is so core to who we are. It’s just a great part of being Lutheran! 

What about you? What do you think of our great choral tradition? What are some of your favorite choral pieces?

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I was never clear on why we went to war in Iraq. I remember how President Bush referred to Iraq, Hussein and 9/11 often enough in the same speech that a measurable number of Americans thought Saddam Hussein had something to do with the 9/11 attacks.

I also am unclear on the benefit of having successfully killed Osama bin Laden if we remain engaged in these wars. I want to look at his death as the end of something. I am just unclear of what that something might be.

If our aim is to end terrorism, I think we should look at what causes terrorism. I am talking about big-ticket items like hunger, poverty, racism, classism and disease. If any of these were halved, what impact would that have on terrorism in our world?

Sure, there will always be the ego-driven broken and defeated who garner followers and cause innocent people to die. Timothy McVeigh and his cohorts come to mind.

But just imagine with me for a second that we took the gobs of bucks we spend on waging war in Iraq (we still have like 90,000 troops there) and Afghanistan and directed those funds to … oh, food, health care, education and housing.

I realize that such an idea requires we stretch our national moral imagination, because war has made us morally flabby. It is past time for us to firm up! 

We have proven that we know how to make war. In fact, other nations emulate and envy our ability to make war. Globally, all nations combined spent $1.6 trillion  on their militaries  in 2010. Our country spent 43% of that sum! We are truly fearsome.

So we are the masters of war. Do we remember how to make peace?

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I live in Chicago, but I hail from the South. That means I have a Southern drawl.  I could get rid of it, I guess; I know a lot of Southerners who have muted their accents and now talk like bland Midwesterners. But I like my mine, and, in fact, it has gotten me out of a few traffic tickets.

“I’m sorry officer; we don’t have that rule in Naaashviiille.” And then I get a warning and am sent on my way. So I do take advantage of the accent. I do use the fact that people see those from the South as a little dumber than everyone else in the country. (However, I would like to point to Bill Clinton, Walker Percy, Martin Luther King, and an endless list of others to prove that false.)

What I dislike is when people mock my Southern–ness. And that can happen in several ways. For example, I have been at a restaurant with a group, and as we began to order, one would say, “Sorry Terri, there is no baked ‘possum on the menu.” And after looking at them stunned, I might reply, “Well, I like mine fried.” That serves to soften the blow and to show others, No hard feelings. (But there are hard feelings.)

And on many occasions, to my incredulity, people mock my Southern accent. But not very well. When they attempt to speak Southern, they ramp it up and sound like someone from the South with an IQ of about 45. “Do they think I sound like that?” I wonder. “Are they saying I’m stupid?” Even good actors do bad Southern accents.

Now, this may sound petty. But even my friend from England feels the same way. When people mimic her British accent, it sets her blood a’ boiling. And people love and admire British accents. So it’s not about feeling stupid (people tend to take 10 IQ points away from a person with a Southern accent), it’s about setting people apart.

What I find most fascinating is that it is primarily Caucasians who do the mocking, and it is people who would never, in a million years, attempt an African American accent or a Mexican accent around their black and Latino friends. Nor would they point out to their friends that there are no chit’lins or menudo (tripe) on the menu. Sorry.

I also find it interesting that some of these people work for non–profit organizations (like ours) who pride themselves on being “justice oriented.” Now, I am far from a saint, and if anybody deserves a good makin’ fun of, it is me. I dish it out pretty well, and I should be able to take it.  But these experiences have taught me that it is not Christian to ridicule someone who is different from me because we never know when we’ll be “the other.”

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What does the Unites States have in common with Iran, Sudan, Somalia and the small Pacific islands of Nauru, Palau and Tonga?

We, along with these 6 countres, are the only ones that have not ratified the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). To date, 186 out of 193 countries of the United Nations have ratified this treaty.

CEDAW is an international convention adopted in 1979 by the UN General Assembly, and it came into force September 3, 1985.  CEDAW is the international bill of rights for women, and the United States is the only developed nation that has not ratified it. I am trying to figure this out …

CEDAW affirms the basic principles of human rights and equality for women around the world. It serves as a blueprint for each country to achieve progress for women and girls. The U.S. not signing it makes no sense to me. So, I ask myself that good Lutheran question: what does this mean?

Maybe it means that the American public does not support the principles and values of equality, fairness, education and basic human rights for women. Under the leadership of Presidents Reagan, Bush and Clinton, the U.S. ratified similar treaties on genocide, torture and race. Ratifying the CEDAW treaty would continue that important bipartisan tradition.

In 2010, the Obama administration strongly stated its support of CEDAW’s ratification, and has included CEDAW as one of the multilateral treaties it has identified as a priority. Ratification of the CEDAW treaty requires 67 Senators to stand together for women and has no financial cost to us as a nation. So, why hasn’t it happened?  Can anyone help me understand this?

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