3rd step: The coordinator initiates with the group: It may seem strange that it is necessary for our community of faith to reflect and talk about the topic of domestic violence against women. Because there are those who believe that this only happens ‘in society’ and, as Christian people, all we can do is pray that this doesn’t continue, as if the Church weren’t part of the society. We know, however, that Domestic Violence Against Women is something which is also present in the life of Christian people who live in a community of faith. Sharing ideas about the theme: In order to understand what is Domestic Violence Against Women and what is its origin, it is important to reflect on a few important differences, such as: Sex ≠ Gender and Nature ≠ Culture. Sex is the biological difference between masculine and feminine human beings; and, from living in society, standardized conceptions are created on masculinity and femininity, in which the ideal models have been: men as the strong sex and women as the weak sex. These conceptions, constituted culturally as models which orientate social relations, demonstrate the need for a reading of society that helps us identify these patterns which have generated inequality between the sexes based on these differences. It is important to emphasize that the differences are natural, however inequality is cultural. Therefore, being a woman or a man are cultural constructions. It was only possible to see these questions through the concern of women who, not satisfied with the social inequalities created throughout history, mobilized and organized themselves and formed a political movement called Feminism. This movement, strengthened in the last 200 years with the presence of feminist women and men throughout the world, has presented a new relational model based on gender equality. Gender is a category of social analysis derived from Feminism, of relational character, that condemns the model of masculine power that imposes itself on the human relationships established in society. Contrary to what many people think, Feminism is not a movement of women who don’t like men, but, rather a political movement that fulfils the important social role of condemning inequalities present in human relations and announces the need to transform these relations based on equality. In this sense, Feminism is a prophetic act that condemns all Gender-related violence, with Domestic Violence Against Women being the most frequent. Gender-Related Violence is understood as being all acts of violation of human rights that treat people unequally based on biological differences that define gender. So, anyone could commit gender-related violence or domestic violence. However, Gender-Related Violence, whose most common form is Domestic Violence, shows that women are, statistically, the vast majority of the victims and the main perpetrators in the countless situations of this kind of violence, are men. The basis of Gender-related Violence is the patriarchy, the social system where the father figure, the patriarch, the man, the macho, is the centre of society, where chauvinism is the main ideology. As Anglican Christians, we direct our action with a focus on God’s Mission, which we define in six important marks: 1. Witness to Christ’s saving, forgiving and reconciling love for all people; 2. Build welcoming, transforming communities of faith; 3. Stand in solidarity with the poor and needy; 4. Challenge violence, injustice and oppression; 5. Protect, care for and renew life on our planet; 6. Promote a culture of Peace. Although all the marks of Mission challenge us to deal with the theme of Gender-Related Violence Against Women,
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