LWF Women in Church and Society, European conference
Pastor Ieva Puriņa talks about the European conference in Meissen:
In Meissen, Germany, from 12 to 16 May, I took part in the Women in Church and Society (WICAS) conference together with 35 women from Europe.
The value of this conference – as women in the Reformation, in the context of today’s initiatives, we rediscovered the connection of Europe’s peoples, states, churches and beliefs in history as well. For example, until now the representatives from Northern Europe believed that they had no women contemporaries of the Reformation, but the women from Central and Eastern Europe shared a story about Anna Vasa (1568–1625), a Swedish princess and daughter of a Finnish duke, who converted to Lutheranism and later moved along with her brother Sigismund when he became King of Poland. At her court she had Lutheran worship services held, supported the Swedish Protestants and Polish Lutherans, thereby influencing the spread of Protestant ideas in Poland.
Now the next step is to find an opportunity to prepare quality material about the women of the Reformation in Latvia following the existing format, so that they too may be included in the information on the global web. Germany has prepared a very extensive website Frauen und Reformation about its territories and women across various centuries, though for now only in German. Materials about other regions in English are planned to be placed on the LWF website.
The second theme of the conference was the LWF Gender Justice Policy. One might think that it is no longer relevant in part of Europe, yet the ideas expressed in it also touch on issues that are still relevant everywhere. For example, if women are included in decision-making processes, what ideas do they offer and to what extent are they taken into account. In turn, men’s wish to take part in practical sessions of self-discovery, experience and the actualisation of faith must also be respected. So then – women at the decision-making table, men – in the circle of sharing experience. The next step in all the churches is the translation of this LWF document into one’s own language and its distribution for the work of the clergy.
Besides the plenary sessions, there were also four different seminars. I myself took part in the seminar “Woman – woman’s best friend”, which was a short version of a multi-day course practised in the churches of Northern Europe. We managed to touch on the following themes – self-awareness; the inner dialogue; that the first friend is each of us to ourselves; how to support ourselves and others. The session on recognising dominant behaviour was very useful. There are five ways to display one’s superiority – ignoring, humiliating and offensive jokes, withholding essential information, blaming and shaming, the double standard – whatever the other person undertakes, it is bad. For example, if a woman stays at home with a child – a freeloader and a slacker; if she works – a bad mother.
The seminar on biography showed that until now it is often compiled with the woman as an object rather than a subject (as someone’s wife). In this seminar, the German colleagues shared their experience of the methodology that is used in compiling the biographies published on the website, in order to describe women’s lives and works in a fitting way.
The representatives from Central and Eastern Europe led the seminar “My place in the church”, where the most essential features of the Christian community emerged – God, spiritual experience, solidarity and justice, fellowship and people.
The second seminar led by the German representatives was about a women’s dinner – Frauenmahl (in German). The seminar was about how to organise events for women from various parts of society, combining dinner with talks and discussions. In this way the discussion and actualisation of various ideas and approaches is fostered. It could be an interesting practice to take up.
As part of the conference, we visited Rochlitz Castle (Schloss Rochlitz), which currently houses the exhibition “The story of one strong woman. 500 years of the Reformation” (Eine Starke Frauen Geschichte. 500 Jahre Reformation) about Elisabeth of Rochlitz, who introduced Protestantism in Saxony.
This conference also gave the opportunity to meet personally with women from various organisations in Germany and Northern Europe that support LLSTA both morally and financially.
