WHEN WOMEN TALK OF GOD
by Fatima Measham
‘Theology can’t be in an ivory tower. Whose voices are being listened to? What can we say?’
Loreto sister, Christine Burke IBVM, is reflecting on the experience of meeting with women theologians at a recent conference in Bangkok. Christine believes there is a particular need for women to do theology together. She believes that the insights of women into the Christian story have been too long overlooked. Hence the title of the conference, ‘Gathering the Voices of the Silenced’.
‘At Vatican II it became apparent that theology could connect excitingly with life. I began studying theology seriously in the ‘70s, because I could see that many parents in the schools where I taught were not getting much flow on from Vatican II. In Australia, the only way to a theology degree was through seminaries, and for some reason, women were not eligible! My order took the risk of sending me to study in Chicago. I joined the Adult Education Team in the Adelaide Archdiocese on my return. We hoped that working beyond the boundaries of our Loreto schools, I could bring something of Mary Ward’s vision of women making a contribution to the development of adult faith today.’
Women need to gain confidence from recognising that their experience matters, she says.
This first meeting of the Ecclesia of Women in Asia (EWA) was born out of the near absence of women at previous theology conferences. At a conference in India in 2001, only three of the 60 participants were women. They asked the obvious question, ‘Where are the women?’
A year later, the response was clear. Nearly 60 women theologians from China to Australia converged to discuss issues as diverse as violence, spirituality and church structures. Christine, a theology lecturer at Flinders University in Adelaide, believes that the event will generate some important future discussions for women theologians and theology generally.
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‘I still believe that the story of Jesus’ life and death can make a difference if we only allow ourselves to be touched by his message and trust that the Spirit is at work in our lives. I presently work with women and men moving into leadership roles in our church. I am sustained by their perseverance and enthusiasm and by the energy they generate as they engage more deeply with our tradition.’
Christine is also encouraged by the conversation that has emerged following the conference in Bangkok. She is passionate about the role of women in the church, particularly those who engage in theological research.
Christine believes women have a unique contribution to make with respect to questions of faith. Women add ‘a different flavour’ to the discussion because they ask questions that come out of real life experiences. An area that women theologians are exploring, for example, concerns the body. What does it mean to be a sexual person? What does being a woman, or mother, tell us about God?
Further, some of the best theological studies in recent years have come from women who have gone back to the most basic articles of our faith, like the Trinity, and found unexplored nuances that are relevant to life and relationships today.
Christine also suggests that women are able to ask ‘the harder questions’ because they are not in a position of power. Some women theologians, for instance, have a strong commitment to environmental issues because they see parallels in the way natural resources have been exploited and the way women have been dominated by societal, often patriarchal structures.
‘One of the joys of being a theo-logian is meeting other women and men who have the courage to ask hard questions of the texts, tradition and church structures, and who make an ongoing commitment to hang in there and work to allow the clarity of Jesus’ message to shine through.
‘Sometimes the questions you are raising are the ones that historically the main conversants don’t want to hear. While it’s not adversarial or critique for its own sake, the very questions you ask tend to disturb. So, quite often, you’re seen as the fairly unwelcome voice in the conversation.
‘Yet it remains a privilege to work in ministry, where one is dealing with the deeper issues of life, faith, and meaning. Both the people and the quest itself are sources of energy.’
While theology by women has taken a critical view of some church structures, particularly those that keep the non-ordained at the periphery, women theologians have become more concerned by the perceived irrelevance of the Christian tradition to the real issues facing people’s daily lives. They would also like to reverse the growing alienation of young people.
Questions of the role of women are at the heart of the struggle to make the church more inclusive of everybody’s gifts in order to keep it alive.
‘I don’t think it’s a case of "how do we topple this" and build something new,’ Christine says. ‘The place to start is an honest conversation about why our Catholic churches in Australia are emptying at a rate of knots.’ From her own conversations, she feels that, among other things, there is resentment, especially among young people, against what they see as an imbalance; a top-down structure that excludes young people and women.
Conversations about nurturing children’s faith, creating communities where people can belong, and building the reign of God in a world torn by war need to be held by men and women together. Christine sees the nature and focus of theological dialogue changing simply because women are a part of it. She also points out that it takes more than a token woman in a meeting to sustain such issues as part of the mainstream conversation.
‘Maybe the Holy Spirit is using this moment to transform the church and our world, if only we can risk letting the conversations lead to action’.
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