Communion
Founder’s Pulse
© Andrea Leoncavallo
A
few months ago, I found myself dancing on the dirt floor of an old church in Rwanda—my palms raised high; swaying to the music blasting from an old PA system; gazing into the eyes of a woman I had met just moments before. All around me, women survivors of Rwanda’s genocide danced together, grasped hands, and passed babies from hip to hip. The sense of joy and spirit was palpable. I’ve felt this before in a roomful of women—that feeling that happens when you’ve been touched by a higher power. We did not speak a common language, and yet we wrapped our arms around each other as if we were old friends. Many consider these women to be among the most disadvantaged people in the world, but to me, they are the strongest. Most had been raped; many were HIV positive; all had lost family and friends to violence. They say that it was a strong sense of faith and sisterhood that has carried them through unspeakable grief and allowed them to believe in life again. They are not alone; most people in the world rely on faith in some form. According to a recent Gallup poll, 87% of the world’s people consider themselves to be a part of some religion. Yet when it comes to uplifting women,
There is a new global spirituality emerging, and it is being led by women. historically, religion doesn’t have a strong track record. For centuries, women’s souls have been broken in the name of God. Millions have been subjected to a holy war of witch burnings, stonings, and genital mutilation driven by religious fervor. Scores of our sons and daughters have been sexually violated by priests, and women have been systematically denied physical, legal, and economic freedoms and positions of power within faith-based communities. In Rwanda, some of the deadliest massacre sites during the genocide were churches. And yet, faith and spirituality have an essential role to play in the healing and revitalization of societies. There is a new global spirituality emerging, and it is being led by women. It doesn’t yet have a name, but it exists in the spaces where women find commonality across cultures and beliefs. It colors outside the lines of rigid scripture and breaks through doctrine. It’s about interconnectedness. No matter our faiths, as women, we have a common prayer: a communion with humanity, a belief in the possibility of a peaceful world where every person’s spirit can thrive. In pursuit of this vision, women are breaking the stained glass ceiling and becoming rabbis and priests. Across the Muslim world women are reinterpreting the Koran; Buddhist nuns are organizing across Asia; female scientists are showing the positive effect faith has on health, and major conferences are bringing women spiritual leaders together to draft new multi-faith mandates. As I stepped out of that Rwandan church and felt the calm African breeze, I remembered the words of a wise friend from Bolivia. “When you feel the air against your cheek,” she told me as we parted ways, “I am there; I am with you in spirit.” And then I looked up and saw a sign. It was a wooden, hand-painted sign that spelled out the name of the women’s group I had just visited: Solidarité. Perhaps that is the name of this new spirituality—Solidarity.
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