The purpose of this forum is to facilitate communication and mutual support and edification among those who strive toward gender justice in Churches of Christ. If you would like to join the forum, send an e-mail (including your first and last name) from your primary address to forum@gal328.org.
Hi friends, this past Sunday was our last Sunday at the Bowie Church of Christ...very emotional. My mind has been working overtime lately with all this transitioning. I want the Bowie church to find peace and be able to move out of this phase of turmoil and I believe removing one end of the spectrum will make that peace easier to obtain. I know that this is tied to my participation in the Bowie church's transition into full female inclusion. They have almost grasped this idea and all that it entails but I believe it opens other doors and those are doors that are frightening to them. I don't think that you can include women and then continue to operate in the manner that you were operating in before. It puts into question our whole hermeneutic as the Church of Christ and that is too scary to many people. I believe that I represented that kind of move to many and that in itself made me intimidating to them. I will miss our family there but I feel incredible peace from this choice. Continue to pray for us and the family we have left behind.
grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 5/31/2004 11:06:41 PM
Julie,
The words are powerful. I weep for you tears of sadness, because I understand the loss, and hope, because I know hope lives.
May you be bathed in God's healing love wherever you are in the transitional phase of your new journey.
-Vicki
:::posted by Vicki on 5/25/2004 06:14:43 PM
Julie, this must be a difficult time for you all. Please know that you are in our prayers.
:::posted by jch on 5/25/2004 01:22:48 PM
I know that I have left you hanging with my last post. Sharing that decision had to be put off until I was sure that most people at our congregation knew the news. Tim and I have decided to leave the Bowie Church of Christ. There are three other families who are leaving at the same time we are. We need to rest and for that reason we have chosen to not attend a Church of Christ for now. I don't know what the future holds for us but for now this is it. There is so much involved here and I wish that I could talk with all of you about the whole picture but that would not be wise at this point.
Sunday morning we sang the old song In Heavenly Love Abiding
and the words were so appropriate...
In heavenly love abiding,
No change my heart shall fear;
And safe is such confiding,
For nothing changes here.
The storm may roar without me,
My heart may low be laid,
But God is round about me,
And can I be dismayed?
Wherever he may guide me,
No want shall turn me back;
My shepherd is beside me,
And nothing can I lack.
His wisdom ever waketh,
His sight is never dim;
He knows the way He taketh,
And I will walk with him.
Green pastures are before me,
Which yet I have not seen;
Bright skies will soon be o'er me,
Where the dark clouds have been.
My hope I cannot measure,
My path to life is free;
My Savior has my treasure,
And He will walk with me.
Keep us in your prayers. Can't wait til we can really talk.
grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 5/24/2004 10:19:43 PM
This quote struck me as to the point this week:
"The universal conspiracy of the silent-assertion lie is hard at work always and everywhere, and always in the interest of a stupidity or a sham, never in the interest of a thing fine or respectable. Is it the most timid and shabby of all lies? It seems to have the look of it. For ages and ages it has mutely laboured in the interest of despotisms and aristocracies and chattel slaveries, and military slaveries, and religious slaveries, and has kept them alive; keeps them alive yet, here and there and yonder, all about the globe; and will go on keeping them alive until the silent-assertion lie retires from business--the silent assertion that nothing is going on which fair and intelligent men are aware of and are engaged by their duty to try to stop."
Mark Twain, "My First Lie, and how I got out of It"
Which is worse, actively trying to keep women silent, or simply standing by, not speaking out against that sham? It convicts me!
-Tom
:::posted by TWD on 5/22/2004 03:43:25 PM
I have told you all that we have had some big decisions to make and those have been made. Will share those with you in the future...
This new Indigo Girls song has been speaking to me and thought I would share these lyrics with you.
Come On Home
Dark clouds are coming in like an army
Soon the sky will open up and disarm me
You will go just like you've gone before,
one sad soldier off to war
With enemies that only you can see
The dishes stacked the table cleared
It's always like the scene of the last supper here
You speak so cryptically, but that's not news to me
The flood is here it'll carry you, and I've got work to do
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
It's just the forces of your past you've fought before
Come back here and shut the door
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your troubles
There is fire and there is lust
Some would trade it all for someone they could trust
There's a box of silver for a box of nails
It's so simple the betrayal
Though it's known to change the world and what's to come
Come on home, the team you're hitched to has a mind of its own
It's just the forces of your past
You've fought before
Don't you recognize them anymore
I'm stacking sandbags against the river of your trouble
There's the given and the expected
I count my blessings while I eye what I've neglected
Is this for better, is this for worse
You're all jammed up and the dam's about to burst
I hear the owl in the night
I realize that some things never are made right
By some will we string together here
Days to months and months to years
But what if everything we have adds up to nothing
Powerful words...in June we are going to an Indigo Girls concert...can't wait...anyone out there want to come to DC and go to the concert with us...Chad? Patty?
grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 5/15/2004 10:32:14 PM
I'm trying to picture this journey without this connection we have here, and it seems very lonely. I don't know that I would have the courage to do this without all of you here. Just knowing that you exist seems to be enough.
Yet, at the same time I understand what Katie meant by "...decisions congregations make always feel so personal. If Bering Drive in Houston or Preston Road in Dallas stop short of full inclusion, for example, I feel slighted, even though I've never even visited those congregations."
I feel it, too. I suppose we have hope in them, as large congregations, to take big, bold steps. To lead the way. But it just isn't happening. I find myself impatient with the pace. Remembering that I never expected us to get this far in my lifetime gives me perspective, and a little more endurance.
Still, waiting for freedom, for full and equal redemption is hard.
-Vicki
:::posted by Vicki on 5/11/2004 10:03:39 AM
Katie, I don't think that I would describe it as oppressive but I do agree that decisions made by individual congregations effect all of us. I do feel as if I have failed if another congregation chooses to stop their journey short of full inclusion.
I also agree that we need to be aware of ourselves and our responses because we are giving an impression of this movement by our everyday lives. That can be so difficult to do on a day to day basis. I also agree that being nice isn't always what is needed. But that goes against all that we have been taught.
The web of relationships that is the Church of Christ is very tightly woven but that tightness can be beneficial in our journey for gender justice. When people know us personally or know someone else who knows us and if those feelings are positive and warm...then the possibility for positive discussion is greater. We also receive the news quicker that inclusion is happening in other congregations because we are connected. If we were isolated, we would give up much sooner.
Just some thoughts. grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 5/10/2004 03:16:50 PM
Going back to Tom's question from 4/28... How does our "three degrees of separation" in the Churches of Christ help or hinder the cause of gender justice?
It feels oppressive to me that we are so intertwined. A professor/friend of mine says, mostly tongue-in-cheek, "We're an incestuous lot. There are only 3,000 of us -- we just move around a lot." For me -- confession time -- it means that the decisions congregations make always feel so personal. If Bering Drive in Houston or Preston Road in Dallas stop short of full inclusion, for example, I feel slighted, even though I've never even visited those congregations. I know so many folks there, either personally or by association with a friend of a friend.
But I'm not sure that addresses the question of help or hindrance to progress on this question. There is a persuasive idea that no decisions are ever made in the abstract, from an objective point-of-view. So at least we can say that it behooves those of us who want to see change to act/speak/love/live in such a way that those of our C of C siblings who know us will be persuaded, or at least not dissuaded, by us.
Now, you know me well enough to know that that does not mean we should all be nice, behave ourselves, never say anything too provocative. Exactly the opposite, perhaps. Perhaps our close personal ties create an environment where we can be more challenging, more truthful, without risking relationships? This is a best-case scenario.
Thanks, Tom, for a good sociological question. I'm interested to hear whether others have gut-level opinions about it.
peace -- Katie
:::posted by Katie on 5/09/2004 08:27:01 PM
This is really just a proud father making an announcement and not commenting on anything in general.
Today, a little after 11:00 am, I will be "hooding" my 2nd college graduate in my family of three daughters. Kathie, who Katie has met, will receive her BBA in Human Resource Management.
Two down and Lord willing, my third daughter will graduate from ACU with her BS in Computer Information Systems in either May or December of 2005.
BTW, Kathie says Hi, and asks that if anyone knows of a Human Resource Management job opening anywhere in the world with a very well established company to send me an email! She's looking hard!!!!
:::posted by Wiley on 5/08/2004 08:09:53 AM
Lance, that was truly funny but also truly sad. Wouldn't it be so incredible if suddenly several churches emailed you and said that they had minister openings and would love to consider a woman in that position? You never know. grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 5/05/2004 05:05:27 PM
ROFLMHO!!!!!!!!!
:::posted by Vicki on 5/05/2004 03:54:20 PM
Vicki,
ACU's "churches looking" and "ministers looking" pages are the best resource I know about. Some of the positions listed (e.g., children's education) are open to women.
Job announcements also get made on Amy Henegar's " Women in Ministry Network" e-mail list.
As for pulpit ministry, that would be a very simple website to design. It would look something like this:
The following Churches of Christ are currently seeking a pulpit minister and are open to hiring a woman:
(If anyone has any additions to this list please post here or send me e-mail.)
:::posted by Lance on 5/05/2004 02:22:32 PM
Is there a link for churches/ministries with positions that can be filled by women to post these openings? Maybe Joe/Katie/Lance would consider adding a page to 328?
:::posted by Vicki on 5/05/2004 01:09:46 AM
Julie,
You, your family, and the congregation are in my prayers.
On a positive note, in the sense of baby-steps, we are hiring a female youth intern for the first time ever. Maybe there's hope.
-Tom
:::posted by TWD on 5/03/2004 10:51:55 PM
Sorry. I did delete it. Too much to explain right now. Please pray for our church...its future, women's role, peace...I know that you understand. Please pray for me and my family and some big decisions that we need to make in the near future. I talked about all that before...how long do you stay and continue to be blamed and told you have to be strong and be patient.... thanks for listening. grace, Julie
:::posted by julie on 5/03/2004 03:22:04 PM
Julie -
How did your day go yesterday? You were in my prayers.
-Vicki
:::posted by Vicki on 5/03/2004 10:20:10 AM
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