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Family in Change Jooa Vuorinen The following article is based on a presentation given at the Finnish Church Days in Turku, 25-27 May 2007. It is a challenge to the European Churches on their pilgrimage to the third European Ecumenical Assembly in Sibu in September 2007.
Church and Society Churches live as part of society and the recent changes in society have affected the churches either directly or indirectly. One of the basic units of society and churches which is strongly affected by these changes is family. In the middle of endeavours to establish a family, many young adults may realise that their efforts may not result in the type of family which would be fully supported by society. Perhaps even more often, one might realise that his or her own family does not meet the Christian ideal of a family.
Nuclear Family Family in the twenty-first century is a very multiplicative concept. The Christian ideal of family, popularly defined as the nuclear family with a married husband and wife and their children, forms only one part of the multitude of families. Alongside it, the numbers of single-parent families, new families of people with previous marriages and children from them, common-law marriages and rainbow families are increasing. In addition, growth also is occurring in different types of residential communities and in the numbers of people who belong to families that are not united by biological
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Jooa Miriam Vuorinen was born in Tohmajärvi in 1981. She studied Orthodox theology in Joensuu University and graduated with master’s degree in 2005. Currently she is living in Helsinki and writing a PhD in theology. She is the Links Coordinator of WSCF-E.
relations but by friendship. The growth of extended family networks is also making its come-back into Western European society, especially in migrant families. Families are becoming more inter-cultural, interdenominational and inter-religious.
Changes in Society Society has tried to guarantee the juridical equality of the different models of families by making changes to legislation. Thus, civil marriage (which is needed when the couple does not belong to church or comes from different religions), inheritance rights and maintenance liability of couples in common-law marriages have become possible in many European countries. Among these changes, one of the most remarkable and opinion-dividing policies is civil partnership or registered partnership of same-sex couples. From the social justice and equality point of view, I find this well-argued and right, although many other wellargued opinions also exist.
Churches live as part of society and the recent changes in society have affected the churches either directly or indirectly.
Justice? Justice has been a basic value in Christianity since its early beginnings. It is also one of the nine themes of the third European Ecumenical Assembly that will be held in Sibiu, Romania in September 2007. Yet, many Christians living in non-traditional families might experience injustice and even feel despised by the church and, in consequence, might turn away from the church.
Pastoral Economy It is true that church has certain values which are the basis of its teaching and keeping those values is the strength of the church. Tearing down these teachings and forgetting ideals only to make everyone feel comfortable is not needed. Nevertheless, in addition to the teachings, one should remember the principle of pastoral economy, which makes an open-minded encounter of diversity possible. Many families are not living precisely as the church
teaches them to do, but they still need the church’s support, care and acceptance in their lives. They have the need for communication and dialogue with the church also, but are the churches willing to listen and understand? Besides, where, what and for whom would the church exist, if it didn’t accept the reality of its members and the society?
The Eucharistic Family A German friend of mine described the challenge of family in 21st century to the churches like this: “For us as young ecumenical people, I think the biggest challenge is that we cannot accept and treat each other as equals because of old rules. We cannot have bread and wine together with all Christians, which is a real pity and not understandable to me.” Herein lay two themes concerning family deeply. Both of them are very wide, and it may appear as if they don’t have that much to do with each other and that they should not be addressed in the same article. Yet, it seems to me that they are linked because both issues have to do with the acceptance and encountering of diversity. Both issues are also the reality of the ecumenical student movement in that they are a dream we are striving for and have not yet achieved. The first theme is the already mentioned inequality of various kinds of families and churches’ disparate attitude towards them. Another challenge my German friend is presenting to the European churches is the common Communion, which is not an easy challenge but is even more important. The lack of common Communion has been discussed in the ecumenical movement for decades without any visible results. While the high level ecumenical discussions once again begin in Sibiu, a European ecumenical family will go to Sunday mass in the church of the other parent. Loving each other according to the teaching of Christ, they cannot be united in the fulfilment of all love, in the body and blood of Christ. In Finland, for example, where most of the Orthodox people are either born from or living in interdenominational marriages, this has been an everyday reality in many families for a long time. These ecumenical families are creating ways to live together on the inter-sectional point of two or more Christian traditions themselves, but in the Sacrament of sacraments the traditions—and families—do not interconnect.
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Family in Flux – Jooa Vourinen: Family in Change
How can the European churches together meet the needs and support the growth of all types of families in the church?
After taking his small daughter to Communion in an Orthodox liturgy, one Evangelical Lutheran father told me that the most difficult issue for him in his ecumenical marriage is that he can not go to the Communion together with his wife and daughter. Orthodox and Roman Catholic masses have similar structures and both even include the Eucharistic prayers, yet an Orthodox and a Catholic spouse still lack the opportunity for communication with each other in the sacrament of Communion. I do understand that the teaching of the church cannot be defined by values based on human justice alone. But what about love? Every family, even the family with two fathers or mothers or a family of a Christian and a Hindu, is born from and reflecting love. Love is the most essential teaching of the Gospel, which Jesus expressed in His instruction of the greatest commandment: we have to love God above all, and our neighbour as ourselves. Promoting and guiding a life filled by that love is the reason and aim of the teachings of the church, as a channel to unity in love.
The Challenge I therefore want to present a challenge to the European churches. It is large challenge and will not be solved over night; nevertheless it is sometimes better to set one’s aims high to motivate efforts towards the goal. The challenge is this: How can the European churches together meet the needs and support the growth of all types of families in the church, and how can the love of Christ be made to come true among and between interdenominational families also in the Holy Communion?
Model of Christian
Education And the
Importance of
Family Roman Králik
Just a short while, then I have won. Then the whole struggle entirely disappears. Then I can rest in halls of roses and talk with my Jesus without ceasing. Søren Kierkegaard
The most exciting adventure for a mother or father is to see her or his children grow up, becoming mature, and to follow their first steps in life. Parents should have a clear vision of education and upbringing based on true love and particular rules that children have to follow.
Family Roots Clearly, there is an enormous difference in theory and practice. Each book that deals with the upbringing and education of children offers different methods and theories and presents them as the only correct ones. But there is one thing that should be stressed—children are not experimental material. They are not laboratory animals designed to be experimented on with various methods of education and upbringing. The best method is to find enough time to design the structure of family upbringing very deliberately, involving lots of love and rich imagination. The deeper the family roots, the happier the children. Happy children will be more likely to obey their parents and accept family rules. At the end of the day, it will positively influence
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Family in Flux – Roman Králik: Model of Christian Education
Roman Králik (1973) studied pedagogy, philosophy and theology in Banska Bystrica and Nitra, Slovakia, and in Prague, Czech Republic. He has twice obtained the Jonathan Stenseth – Stipendium in the USA (2004, 2007) and took part in a research programme at St. Olaf College in the Hong Kierkegaard Library. He has published a number of articles dealing with the Danish thinker Søren Kierkegaard. In 2005 he established the Kierkegaard Collection in Slovakia in Šaľa, which is the only specialized library of this kind in Slovakia. He is the founder and the chairperson of Kierkegaard Society in Slovakia. He has a doctorate in theology from HTF UK in Prague. He is the author of the published monographs Problém zvaný Kierkegaard (The Problem Called Kierkegaard) and Zápas Sørena Kierkegaarda (The Fight of Søren Kierkegaard) in 2006. His mail address is kierkegaard@centrum. sk.
their personality. As children grow, they become more self-aware and aware of parental love—they are loved and they love in return. They realise how to behave and what they are expected to do and so there are almost no “big” problems to deal with. However, a healthy family background is the essence of all relationships and upbringing as such. Family must be an oasis of safety and peace. It is conditioned by the following: enough time spent with the children, focus on the children and richness of ideas. If any of these are missing, family and marriage become like poison. Moreover, other elements can influence children negatively: teachers, kindergarten, schoolmates, friends, magazines, computers, TV, spots and adverts, cinema, internet. These are the elements that have rather strong impacts on their individual development. The development of children progresses rapidly, especially at the pre-school age, and many parents are not able to notice the changes and react fast enough, nor do they know what to do. All of a sudden children have grown-up and parents are sorry to have missed the most exciting moments in their children’s lives.
Each book that deals with the upbringing and education of children offers different methods and theories and presents them as the only correct ones.
Upbringing Education and upbringing are the activities that form the personality of an individual, her or his character and behaviour towards the others, material and spiritual values and society. Children are born with no instructions on how to be brought up, with no manual of how parents should deal with them. Each individual must face the task and learn to find her or his individual way of upbringing and find the correct (or the most suitable) method. There is no universal method, no formula applicable in each and every case. The role of the family is crucial in the upbringing process. Family forms the fundamental approaches and attitudes of children. Though the influence of family is declining, its influence is still crucial in the life of the individual. Family provides its members with particular atmosphere, spiritual background and values to employ. Family teaches the child to take care of her or himself and, above all, to distinguish between good and bad in general. Children must be taught something more than the values of truth, hard-work and such. A
child should learn to forgive and to help others. Materially oriented parents want their children to have the most of the best things in the world and the result of this is the general discontent of their children. According to Larry Crabb, “young people are fully aware of the emptiness of their parents´ values (such as money, credit, good job). Providing a valuable upbringing and education is demanding and is associated with discipline and self-education of parents.”1
Happiness
Family is the strongest factor in determining the happiness, safety and harmony of a child. Family also forms a child’s approach to classmates, siblings and to adults. Moreover, the family influences a child’s school results, too. Children’s requests are quite simple: they are thirsty for love and safety, their innermost desire is to achieve credit for their abilities. Parents often find these requirements quite difficult to fulfil. They often say that they were not given any of the mentioned and so they do not know how to offer them to their children. Others are simply overworked; they hardly find a few minutes to check their children’s homework. A pleasant atmosphere, fun and love are the crucial elements in the life of a family. These elements help to sustain the order and rules within the family. Parents should be aware of using irony—it is very destructive. Good family atmosphere is maintained only if children respect and admire their parents and parents will credit them and take them seriously. Respect and credit are phenomena that cannot be demanded. If a parent is not self-satisfied, they tend to mistreat the child. Therefore parents must control their MOZAIK 2007 summer
Family in Flux – Roman Králik: Model of Christian Education
behaviour and anger. If children find out that parents tend to lose their self-control and become angry, they stop respecting them. Parents lose their authority. Parents should be strict in determining the limits and rules for children. They also should be able to moderate or remit the punishment. If a child feels that the punishment has not changed the attitude of the loving parent, upbringing becomes much easier. If the child does something wrong, it is necessary to tell her or him immediately what she or he did wrong and why. It is important to educate the child by talking and explaining instead of through punishment. Dobson remarks: “Physical punishment is saved only for the moments of waywardness and intentional misdoings of the child which is old enough to realise his deeds.” Parental authority must not dwell only in greater power and authority.2
Parental Control
Children must be educated in order to fulfil their duties. If children are not kept busy through fulfilling their tasks, they wander through the streets, spend their time at the disco, and sit in front of TVs or computers. Parents should select programmes to follow on TV and limit the time their children spend watching them. It is necessary to explain that violence and aggression in real life cause death. The best way of dealing with the aforementioned phenomenon is to meet with other parents and select programmes to be watched by children. Too much time spent watching TV and playing computer games leads to loss of contact with reality. Current programmes and computer games support various kinds of aggression. Children lose their interest in school, friends and parents. Naturally, the influence of school and friends is one of the strongest pressures on youth; a teenager wants to be accepted by the majority of her or his peers.
The main principle is not only to forbid, but also to offer something better. We should celebrate various holidays with children, have a masquerade, pick and archive flowers, sing. All these activities strengthen the bonds of the family.
If children are not kept busy through fulfilling their tasks, Disharmony they wander Many factors can destroy family harmony. The family is based on through the joined effort and cooperation in streets, spend the household. This is not a purely female or male task. Upbringing is their time at enormously demanding especially with young children: parents must the disco, and answer thousands of “why?” questions. sit in front Mutual cooperation of the two people is the crucial element in the family which of TVs or helps to set the atmosphere at ease. Many fathers are stressed and nervous computers.
when they return home from work. They are exhausted and have no energy to solve family problems or to spend time with children. Despite this fact, children need fathers. It is only natural for a boy surrounded by women (teachers are mainly women) to look for and admire the “male” element. Extremely wild and restless boys need a strict father whom they would respect. The times in which a mother would devote her best years to children are gone for good. Today, both parents are adequately responsible for their children. However, little children need stability in the family. Even a perfect au-pair cannot adequately substitute the love of a mother. A mother must stay with a child in the first years of her or his
life and a father should support her in such activity. Many mothers cannot decide to stay with the child due to financial difficulties. But contemporary society needs women who would create and sustain the feeling of safety and peace. Family is a formation endangered by disintegration. Usually, one of the parents tries to win the child by the “policy of appeasements.” Both parents should hold the stated line and pursue the same things.
Christian Families Christian parents are responsible for the upbringing of their children and they are the first ones to become idols. Their responsibility to the Lord allows them to provide correct Biblical education for their children. Four aspects are needed in Christian education: 1. Parental faith—there are no spiritual victories if there is no faith; 2. Hope of Faith—the belief that what once was planted shall rise one day; 3. Love—originating in the Lord and having two dimensions: horizontal (to others) and vertical (to the Lord); 4. Parents are the example of Christianity—children will not find their way if parents do not guide them. Such upbringing is of codex nature and children will not accept it. Dobson says: a “Child carefully listens to parents and verifies the amount and strength of their beliefs; any hesitation or ethical chaos of parents is immediately multiplied in the child.” 3 Christian parents should teach their children to worship in the family. Family worshipping includes a reading of the Bible and a brief presentation of its text. If any questions arise, these should be answered truly and patiently. It is necessary to say prayers after the reading. The prayer is important in everything that we do; the Lord wants to help us. Other characteristics to be taught are truthfulness, sincerity, patience and respect. Christian education should take place in a positive family atmosphere. Therefore it is necessary to teach children about the Lord; to teach them to be careful in order not to destroy the balance between love and justice because imbalance in any direction brings deformation of truth and might negatively influence the understanding of the Lord and of Christianity. The article was translated by Lucia Rakayova
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Suggested Reading Crabb, Larry. Osobnost cˇloveˇka, Prague 1995 Dobson, James. Výchova deˇtí, Brno 1992 Jan Pavol II. Veritas Splendor, Trnava 1994 (Endnotes) 1 Crabb, Larry. Osobnost cˇloveˇka, Prague 1995 P.106 2 Dobson, James. Výchova deˇtí, Brno 1992 P.66 3 Dobson, James. Výchova deˇtí, Brno 1992 P.34
Family in Flux – Roman Králik: Model of Christian Education
What does a family do? Or Some scattered notes from the WSCF study session in Strasbourg Jaanus Teose During the WSCF study session on family in Strasbourg this past March the question of what a family is was central and was debated again and again during the conference. But maybe the question to be asked should be not what a family is but rather what does a family do? Meaning what does a family do to or with those who see themselves as members of a social unit called family.
Jaanus Teose was born in Toronto, Canada in 1984, but grew up in Sweden. He has a Bachelors Degree in Gender Studies and has also studied International Relations and Peace and Conflict Studies. He currently lives in Uppsala and is a candidate for the position of Gender Coordinator of WSCF
In the beginning‌ For me, being a gender studies major firmly rooted in a social constructivist understanding of society and individual, identity and sense of self is an always relational and unstable, continuous creation. My subjectivity, my sense of self and belonging is always continually created in relation to something or someone other than myself—be it a parent, a friend, a partner, a teacher, an intuition, an ideal, or a power structure. Irrespective of whether this unit called family is a consequence of birth, kinship, marriage, coincidence or conscious choice, the family is one of the primary sites of socialization and identity formation. The first primary relationship we form is with our parent(s) or caregiver(s). When we are born into this world we are vulnerable, dependent and helpless. Those that care for us as newborns, and consider themselves responsible for the satisfaction of our most basic needs such as food, warmth, love, protection etc. irrespective of whether a biological bond exists by birth or kinship, are also those with whom we are in our very first relationship with. It is in the early interactions with parents or caregivers that we are socialized into a basic pattern of relationships, of relating to ourselves, to others and to the outside world as a whole.
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Thus the fundamental pattern of relating to others and to ourselves, the understanding of relationships and proper behaviour that is created and produced in these first interactions affects us a great deal as we grow up, in the life we come to live and in the relationships that we form later in life. This means that if your family is dysfunctional, abusive, oppressive, controlling, etc the risk that you will perpetuate these dysfunctional patterns in your own relationships is significant. And vice versa, if your family is characterized by love, care, openness, safety and equality, the possibility of living a life characterized by the above increases. This is the great paradox of the family, that as a site of identity creation and socialisation it can be characterised by positive socialisation just as much as by negative and destructive socialisation. In addition, the identity that the family helps form in an individual also effects and possibly changes or threatens the structure and identity of the family as a whole. The family may approve and strengthen or reject and ridicule an individual family member’s identity and identification with a certain group, subculture, denomination or sexuality.
A place of violence An example of this is that in Sweden, as in many other countries, domestic violence is a very serious and widespread problem. According to Amnesty International, violence against women is one of the globally most widespread violations of human rights;1 it affects women from all classes and ethnicities of society but is still a hidden and underreported issue. The private sphere of the family is still the most dangerous place for a woman to be. It is in the home where the absolute majority of violence and abuse against women takes place and is perpetrated.
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Family in Flux – Jaanus Teose: What Does a Family Do?
In addition, the violence is perpetrated by partners or relatives, by men known to the women. This widespread violence is a serious violation of the basic human rights of women. Men’s violence against women is not perpetrated in a vacuum or outside of history. It cannot be reduced to being understood as only the expression of the personality or disposition of the individual perpetrator. The violence is created and nourished by the views, attitudes and structures that in our societies lead to the systematic discrimination of women and maintain the power and privileges of men as a group over women as a group. These structures run through history up to the present day and are economic, political, juridical and social.
Not one, but a multitude Traditionally, one of the sites of male power and inequality between men and women has been the heterosexual nuclear family. Although this type of family constellation is less dominant than it once was, and according to Dr Sharon Jones, who held a lecture during the study session in Strasbourg, studies made during the 1980s showed that only 15% of American families conformed to Talcott Parsons definition of the nuclear family. The nuclear family is still dominant and very powerful as an ideal and a norm, and it is still something that all of us must position our dreams, desires and thoughts about the families of our own against. The specific kind of family constellation and organisation, the certain way of living together as a family that the nuclear family constitutes has historically appeared as the most natural and desirable, but one must remember that the monogamous, nuclear family is but one of many possible ways of organising life as a family unit.
For some of us, the monogamous nuclear family will be very satisfying and fulfilling. It will be the structure that allows us to realize our fullest potential as partners, family members and as humans. For others, striving for or living in this constellation will bring nothing but misery and a sense of unfulfilment and their desires and dreams will be for other ways of being and living as a family. The family constellations and the lives lived by the individuals who are part of them are many and diverse, just as the dreams, thoughts, wants and desires about what it means to be a family and to live as and in one are diverse and manifold. And just as multiplicity and diversity characterises the actually existing family units in our world and the lives lived as part of them, so should we allow our thinking about what a family is, what it does and what it means to be part of one to be characterized by a multitude of diverse and manifold thoughts and perspectives. So, in the end, one of the many functions of the family, one of the many things that it does—is that it creates and produces identity and subjectivity, both positive and negative. (Endnotes) 1 http://www2.amnesty.se/svaw.nsf/19april2004/$File/svenskrapport.pdf
The nuclear family is still dominant and very powerful as an ideal and a norm, and it is still something that all of us must position our dreams, desires and thoughts about the families of our own against.
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Family Quackers or the Nuclear Family Conspiracy:
Family Patterns in Human and Animal Societies Angharad Parry Jones
During the WSCF-Europe study session entitled Family: Expectations and Exceptions, held at the European Youth Centre in Strasbourg in March 2007 the group examined the theories and realities connected to the concept of family. This article seeks to explore further the idea of ‘alternative families,’ to ask ‘what is alternative about them’ and in doing so to try to understand more about the concept of family.
What is a family? Nuclear families (that is one mother, one father, two or three children, oh and usually a dog) are seen as the norm in western societies; however, many of us live or come from non-nuclear families. Are these non-nuclear families less functional than the nuclear model? Is the nuclear family the epitome of the evolution of the family unit, or is it a convenient tool used by those who wish to control, categorise and organise society? Are extended families, where there is some concept of the same units seen in nuclear families but with strong links and relationships transcending those units, of our ancestors somehow obsolete in this fast moving, money focused, technological age? A constructionist view of society sees the family as the core unit of civilization. This definition however does not require any actual relationship between its members. The concept of the nuclear family reduces families to functional units that
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Family in Flux – Angharad Jones: Family Patterns
Angharad Parry Jones graduated with an MA in Theology in 2005 from Liverpool Hope University. She was Gender Issues coordinator for the European Regional Committee of the WSCF from 2005-2007 and currently works as a pastoral assistant in an Anglican Church in London.
produce and raise children who, after reaching maturity, leave their original units to make one of their own—continuing the cycle.1 When the participants at the study session were asked to give a definition of the ‘concept of family’ there were a number of core functions that were agreed on, for example that a family is, or at least should be, a place of nurture and is of prime importance in the shaping of an individual’s identity. However, defining what constitutes members of a family and how this nurturing should occur was an issue of great debate. Dr Walter H. Smith Jr. of the Western Pennsylvania Family Centre defines family thus: The family emotional unit consists of living person related through marriage, birth, adoption and strong continuous attachment. In this view of family, there are no generational boundaries. The family emotional unit functions and adapts as a single interlocking set of relationships, guided by relationship forces which have automatic responses to threats and stresses. (Smith, 2001). Some share a household, while others live thousands of miles away. Some members are dying and others are just born. Some have strong affiliation and constant contact, and others are distant and isolated. Some are functioning well, and others are not. Yet, all of these behaviors fit together into a single functioning emotional unit that is continuous over centuries. The family unit shifts and changes as it adapts to stress, threats and challenges, but from a broad perspective, these fluctuations do not alter the course of its functioning.2
In the Disney adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, new characters are added to create a ‘more acceptable’ view of family.
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This definition attempts to contain the nuclear family, the extended family, some alternative families and an aspect of ancestry which ties an individual family unit to others through common bonds. I say that the definition includes only some alternative families as Smith’s definition would not include groups of adults living together and not raising or nurturing children, as in a monastery for example.
Alternative family concepts During the study session the participants were asked to consider the following alternative family arrangements:
1. A 45 year old monk who entered the monastery at 18 2. A 15 year old girl with two mothers 3. A 29 year old man rejected by his natural parents and living in a commune 4. A 85 year old woman who has no living relatives living in a nursing home with 20 other men and women over 70 They were asked to bear the following questions in mind:
1. 2. 3. 4.
Does this person have a family? How would this person define their family? How would this person link “love” and “family?” How would this person define their identity in relation to family?
The purpose of this exercise was to try to establish what emotional and practical functions the participants attributed to a ‘family,’ and whether the ‘ideal’ of the nuclear family actually meets those criteria or whether other groupings fulfil these criteria better for some people. What surprised me most about this exercise was that the majority of the participants took the nuclear family model as their basic criteria and judged the alternative family arrangements against that criteria. Therefore the second of the four situations to a family was judged as the closest to the nuclear ideal, although this gave rise to some debate over maternal and paternal roles in a family. The 85 year old woman was
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Family in Flux – Angharad Jones: Family Patterns
thought to have lost her family, implying that a family is irreplaceable and that the raising or nurturing of children is the primary focus of family.
The Animal Kingdom The concept of the nuclear family is often projected onto the animal kingdom; cartoons and the media in general pay a large role in this misconception. For example, in the Disney adaptation of Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, new characters are added to create a ‘more acceptable’ view of family. In the book Hathi is a lone wild bull elephant but in the film he becomes a colonel with a wife, Winifred, and a son, junior. This is completely at odds with elephant behaviour in the wild. Once elephants have reached adolescence they live in groups according to their biological sex. The ‘family’ or child-rearing group is matriarchal, raising and educating the young elephants until they reach adolescence when, if they are female, they become part of the nurturing group or, if they are male, they leave to join a band of bulls. Both groups are termed as families although only the female group has the nurturing role. According to a recent study, altruistic responsibility, sharing and co-parenting are much more the norm in the animal kingdom than is commonly realised: As many as 220 birds and 120 mammals, including African wild dogs, chimpanzees, naked mole rats, lions, bee eaters, kookaburras, pied kingfishers, and Seychelles warblers, are all found to
...that in the basic unit of society each and every individual has a place both where they are valued, where they love and are loved.
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help rear other’s young to a lesser or greater extent. In many cases the helpers postpone their own opportunity to mate.3 The study, by researchers at the University of Edinburgh published in the journal Science in April 2002, has shown that animals in the same biological families forgo having offspring of their own in order to help in the nurture of the offspring of their relatives.4 According to this study this behaviour goes beyond the idea of ‘extended families’ to group living.
Ducks While I was preparing for the study session in March, several mallard ‘families’ were born and raised in the garden of the community in which I was living. I found myself quite interested in the dynamics of these duck ‘families.’ Having been brainwashed by the nuclear family conspiracy, I assumed that there would be a mummy duck, a daddy duck and some baby ducks—this was not the case. In the first instance there was one hen and two drakes and in the second there were two hens and three drakes – all working together to nurture and raise one brood. There has been significant research into duck behaviour in the last 10 years, leading to a better understanding of the nurturing of their young.5 These studies both reaffirm the observations cited above and illustrate that breeding and nurturing are not always the primary objective of family groupings. For me, what is most interesting about the behaviour of the mallards and other animals is that these groupings are not exclusively for the raising and nurturing of offspring. The members quite often stay together for many years, being joined occasionally by some of their offspring, raising more chicks but also nurturing each other.
Back to People If, as the nuclear family concept would have us believe, the only real function of a family is the production and nurturing of more human beings, why do the majority of family units remain functional beyond the moment when the offspring leave the nest? Is the family, the basic unit of society, a place only for nurturing children or is it a place for the nurturing of each of the individual members? This means, at its best at least, that in the basic unit of society each and every individual has a place both where they are valued, where they love and are loved.
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Family in Flux – Angharad Jones: Family Patterns
What’s love got to do with it? Love is a concept that most optimists at least connect to family, although it is unfortunate that this can be devastatingly lacking in some cases. If we connect the concept of love to families, then these ideas of nurture and intrinsic personal value are both encompassed and elevated from mere duties and responsibilities to a fully human response to the other. In this case, a family becomes the embodiment and incarnation of love. A family is a basic unit with members that both nurture and are nurtured; value and are valued; love and are loved. This place does not necessarily have to be where the raising of children is the primary focus. In fact for a great deal of people, whether they are children, parents or anywhere in between, this is not the place where nurture, value and love happen. Anywhere a set of relationships has these three aims as a focus is a family—alternative or otherwise. In other words, to paraphrase St. Paul, a family is the perfect opportunity for love to come to fruition; Families are patient and kind. The members do not envy, do not boast, are not proud or rude. They are not self-seeking, not easily angered, and keep no record of wrongs. ... A Family always protects, always trusts, always hopes, always perseveres.6
If the family is the place for nurturing and feeling valued and loved, how do we make sure we foster these principles in our relationships?
In Conclusion If the family is the place for nurturing and feeling valued and loved, how do we make sure we foster these principles in our relationships? Is the nuclear family model the best model in which to cultivate these values or can we learn something from the animal kingdom about shared responsibilities and group living? Should we really dismiss an alternative family concept out of hand because it does not resemble the nuclear family in some way?
Suggested Reading Parsons, Talcott & Bales, Robert Freed, Family, socialization and interaction process, Glencoe, Free Press. 1955 Walter H. Smith, Jr., Ph.D., “Change and the Development of the Family Emotional Unit”, Pittsburgh Family Systems Conference and Symposium September 23 – 24, 2005 Report of the WSCF-Europe/COE Study Session Family: Expectations and Exceptions to be published 2008. (Endnotes) 1 Parsons, Talcott & Bales, Robert Freed, Family, socialization and interaction process, Glencoe, Free Press. 1955 2 Walter H. Smith, Jr., Ph.D., “Change and the
Development of the Family Emotional Unit”, Pittsburgh Family Systems Conference and Symposium September 23 – 24, 2005 3 John Pickrell National Geographic News October 23, 2003 4 Stuart A. West, Ido Pen & Ashleigh S. Griffin ‘Cooperation and Competition Between Relatives ‘ Science 5 April 2002:Vol. 296. no. 5565, pp. 72 - 75 5 Hillary Mayell, National Geographic News, December 10, 2001 and Markus Öst et al, ‘Condition and coalition formation by brood-rearing common eider females’, Behavioral Ecology Vol. 14 No. 3: 311–317 6 1 Corinthians 13:4-7 adapted and paraphrased
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Position of Family, School and Advertisement in the Creation of Children’s Eating Habits Eva Drlicˇková & Vladislav Kaputa Media advertisement aimed at children is a sensitive issue because the majority of children until ages of three or four are not able to differentiate (e.g. in a television commercial) between reality and fantasy, nor are they able to understand when parents try to explain it. Children do not have enough experiences to judge from, and their value system is just beginning to develop. Even though their discernment develops better later, initial perceptions from earlier ages remain deeply embedded in their minds. In this manner, the child spectator gradually becomes the consumer.
Advertisement and Specific Target Groups —Children and Youth Many arguments support the separation of children and youth into a specific group. One of the arguments arises from the reality that children and youth are not able to properly analyse and judge information spread by media or through advertisements. Children and youth compose approximately one third of society and they belong to very sensitive group. Therefore, it is necessary to consider the content of commercial messages.
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Power in Relation – Eva Drlic ˇková & Vladislav Kaputa: Advertisement and Children’s Eating Habits
Eva Drlicˇková was born in 1971 in Dojcˇ, Slovakia. She is an associate professor at the Technical University in Zvolen, and teaches business ethics, interpersonal communication and marketing communication. Vladislav Kaputa was born in 1976 in Bardejov, Slovakia. He is a lecturer at the Technical University in Zvolen in the Department of Marketing, Trade and World Forestry.
The creation of a fictitious world indirectly leads to the conviction that the feeling of satisfaction is met only in the desire “to have.” The satisfaction acquired by making a purchase, however, does not last long, and therefore initiates the need for another purchase. The impulse to purchase grows through repetition and a child reacts to products in advertisements which she/ he does not need with desire to buy them, often under the pressure of peers. At the age of eight, children are better able understand the advertisements. They use distinguishing criteria to evaluate the advertisement, especially into categories like “good – bad” or “interesting – not interesting.” At the age of nine or ten, children often begin to compare advertisements to their experiences as they are now more sensitive to the contradiction between imagination and reality. They are inclined to the judgement of “the advertisement lie.” The awareness of trademarks develops intensively between the ages of ten and thirteen. During this time, a recipient of commercial messages becomes a consumer.
Children between seven and fourteen years belong to the most important target group for the advertisement creators. This group is called “skippies”—School Kids with Income and Purchasing Power. These kids are propagators of commercial information between their contemporaries and they are important consumers of some types of goods. The repetition of advertisements in a known programme context and at the same time make-up the advertisement popularity supporting factors. In this manner, television commercials become a daily part of a kid’s schedule, like games, sleep and food.
the purpose to build a human from inside and relieve her or him of internal stress. Education helps to increase the quality of human life.
The members of a family live together and create one household that consists of two or three generations. Relationships within members of a family are given by their attitudes, feelings and traditions acquired through education, but also given by law, environment and religion. The family creates a specific cultural background that forms the attitudes and personalities of children together with external factors (politic, social, cultural, ecological, etc.).
Effects of the Family Among natural means of education, the family has a special significance in the development and education of younger generations. The child acquires basic education within the family long before she/he begins to attend school. When compared to the influence of the family, the role of schools in education is limited.
School and Education If we look at definitions of school and various current school revival efforts, we can denote a school as a place of realization of versatile scholars’ formation through systematic and critical acquirement of cultural values. School is in fact a privileged place of flexible development because it can mediate life and vigorous meeting with cultural treasures. Schools educate with
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The Research: Objective And Methodology This study deals with the influence of advertisement on a specific target group— children between the ages of ten and twelve. The objective of the study is to recognize which factors influence children’s eating habits and attitudes towards commercial messages (e.g. family, communication, type of school). This article gives selected results of the study. The methodology is based on questionnaires prepared for children within the target age. The constant for this group of children is uniform (basic school) education, but their behaviour is also determined partly by the kind of school and considerably by their family backgrounds. One hundred and ten questionnaires were distributed to the different types of schools (private, church, public). Respondents (children) filled in the questionnaires in cooperation with a researcher and a teacher. Questionnaires were distributed within three basic schools: • Private basic schools, Ružomberok • St. Dominic basic schools, Zvolen (church school) • 1st basic schools in Zvolen, (public school) Distribution of questionnaires extended from February until March 2007. One hundred percent of the questionnaires were returned because of the direct asking method.
Figure 1 – Age structure of respondents Sex
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Age 10 years
11 years
%
Σ
12 years
Girls
19
8
19
46
44 %
Boys
18
24
17
59
56 %
Σ
37
32
36
105
100 %
%
36 %
30 %
34 %
100 %
The questionnaire dealt with the following issues: - how many hours children spend watching TV? - what are the children doing during television commercials? - are the children interested in the advertisements about food? MOZAIK 2007 summer
Power in Relation – Eva Drlic ˇková & Vladislav Kaputa: Advertisement and Children’s Eating Habits
- - - - - - -
do they buy (or ask their parents to buy) food from the advertisements? do parents buy food from the advertisements for their children? how much pocket money do children spend for sweets per week? do children talk about healthy and unhealthy foods with their parents? do children talk about the healthy and unhealthy food/nutrition with teachers in school? do the children realize that there are some healthy and unhealthy foods in advertisements? demographic data (age, sex, region of residence)
Selected Results of the Research The target children found television commercials to be the most interesting (30 percent), followed by advertisements on the internet and in magazines. The television remains the most popular (and time demanding) mass medium for this generation. As a result, the influence of advertisements on the eating habits of children also depends on the amount of time which children spend watching television. According to the questionnaire, 49 percent of the polled children watched TV from one to three hours daily. Almost 47 percent of children stated that they change the channel during television commercials. Another group, about 24 percent, always watch television commercials. The rest of the children (almost 30 percent) do not watch TV during advertisements and usually go to do something else (to eat, go to the restroom). One girl from church school gave the answer: “I’m going to pray or brush my teeth.” The amount of pocket money spent for sweets from the advertisements is generally low. Up to 46 percent of children do not get any pocket money from parents and 32 percent of children spend less then fifty Slovak crowns per week (approximately one and a half euro). The research was gathered in smaller towns (Zvolen and Ružomberok), generally with higher rates of unemployment and lower family incomes when compared to bigger cities. We could assume that parents spend the money mainly for standard commodities and services. It could be interesting to do similar research in the schools in larger cities (like Bratislava), with lower rates of unemployment, where generally parents are busier and have higher incomes but less time for communication with their children. Family and communication in the family is one of the important factors creating the eating habits. If the advertisement is interesting for the children, 59 percent of
There is a coherence between communication in the family and awareness of what is healthy and what is unhealthy in advertisements for food.
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them ask their parents to buy the product. According to the answers of children, 56 percent of parents do not buy the asked product (and explain why not), especially parents of children from church school (more then two-thirds of them).
Type of School The type of school (private, public, church) proved to be a significant factor in the responses of children to the question “What do you do if you see/hear an interesting advertisement for food?” According to responses, advertisements have a different influence on the students in state and public schools than on students in church schools. Almost one third of children from private and public schools ask their parents to buy a product from an interesting advertisement. On the other hand, almost one-half of the children attending church schools do not care about the advertisement.
Family and School There is a coherence between communication in the family and awareness of what is healthy and what is unhealthy in advertisements for food. The biggest group of respondents (64 percent) talk with parents about this topic occasionally, but they (children) are aware of what is healthy and what is unhealthy. Only 16 percent of children talk with their parents often about healthy and unhealthy food. The rest of the children (20 percent) claim that their parents do not talk about this topic at all. Following the results, communication in the family is not strong, but still enough to help to children differentiate between healthy and unhealthy food. On the other hand, research indicates that communication with a teacher or
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Power in Relation – Eva Drlic ˇková & Vladislav Kaputa: Advertisement and Children’s Eating Habits
classmates about healthy and unhealthy food in advertisements for food is weak. Up to 66 percent of children never talk with their teachers about this topic. According to these results, the communication in the school is less effective when compared to the communication in the family.
This trend for the future seems to be negative— parents will be busier (paradoxically thanks to economic growth) and have less time for communication with their children.
Conclusion and Ideas for the Future This trend for the future seems to be negative—parents will be busier (paradoxically thanks to economic growth) and have less time for communication with their children. Consequently, better communication at school has an increasing importance. This should lead to the positive solution of introducing a new subject—Media Education—into the curriculum of basic schools. The objective of the subject should be the development of students’ abilities to critically judge commercial messages and be able to use media and their products actively. This should help them to have better orientation in a reality influenced by media and at the same time actively use media as a tool for positive influence in their lives. REFERENCES Bellová, Stanislava. The Advertisement and Eating Habits of Children. KMOSL DF, Technical University in Zvolen, 2007. 58 p. Diploma thesis (supervisor: assos. prof. Eva Drlicˇková, PhD.)
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Power in the Outside World Translates into the Family The Gender Pay Gap in Europe Meike Scharfenort For more than 50 years there have been regulations in the European Union which make it mandatory that women and men get a similar salary for the same or similar work. Also, for 50 years there has been a statistically evident gender pay gap of 16% (EU15). This means that for every euro a man earns a woman only gets about 84 cents. This is not only a violation of basic human rights and a waste of human capital. It also has severe effects on society, gender relations and in the end on the family.
Definitions and Statistics The institutions of the European Union define the gender pay gap as “the difference between men’s and women’s average gross hourly earnings as a percentage of men’s average gross hourly earnings.”2 European statistics show that the gender pay gap varies a lot among the member states. One reason for this is that there are huge differences in the way that the member states collect data. The European Union is working on a standardized way to collect data, until that is achieved one has to keep in mind that the figures may vary because they derive from different sources and may have been collected in different ways. Nevertheless, even with a standardized way to collect data, the gender pay gap will still show differences among the member states. For example, the United Kingdom, Germany, Estonia and Slovakia all have a pay gap above 20%. The lowest pay gaps are to be found in Portugal, Malta, Italy and Belgium, which show a range from 4% to 7%. It is interesting to note that even in the alleged “gender sensitive” states like Finland,
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Power in Relation – Meike Scharfenort: The Gender Pay Gap in EU
Meike Scharfenort graduated in political sciences from the University of Duisburg in 2006 and is now working on her Master of Business Administration. In her free time she pracitces Wing Chun and is engaged in a NGO which supports an orphanage in Moldova.
Women are concentrated in fewer and worse paid professions, and, in addition, these professions offer less possibilities for career advancement most of the time.
Sweden, Norway and Denmark the gender pay gap is approximately 17 %. The most important fact the statistics might show: there is no significant narrowing of the gender pay gap in the European Union or any given member state.
the pay gap since 1957, which until today has hardly shown any signs of success in terms of reducing the gender pay gap.
European Legislation
Causes and effects of the Gender Pay Gap
The latest report of the European Commission on equality between women and men quotes that, “the pay gap between women and men remains at unacceptably high levels and shows no significant signs of being closed.”3 This is quite astonishing since the legal basis to tackle the gender pay gap was laid down more than 50 years ago. The most important legal foundations in this regard are the following:
• Article 141 of the European Community Treaty (formerly 119) which indicates that “each Member State shall ensure that the principle of equal pay for male and female workers for equal work or work of equal value is applied.”
• The Council Directive 75/117/EEC of February 1975 on the approximation of the laws of the Member States relating to the application of the principle of equal pay for men and women—this was legislated since the member states did not do everything they could to implement the principle of equal pay.
• Council Directive 97/80/EC of 15 December 1997 on the burden of proof in cases of discrimination based on sex—this shifted the burden of proof, at least partly, to the employer. There are also some important decisions of the European Court of Justice and of course the single member states interpret and implement the European guidelines in different ways. Without going further into the details of European legislation, the most important thing to be aware of is that there has been a legal basis to reduce
There is not one ultimate cause for the pay gap. In fact there are a number of factors which all together lead to a continuing and stable pay gap. The most important are as follows:
Education While looking for an explanation for the pay gap one inevitably presumes that there has to be a logical explanation. Justifying different pay with different educational patterns would be a convenient thing to do. “Unfortunately” there is not even the slightest proof of this, at least not in the European Union. On the contrary, the proportion of female students in the European Union is 55 percent.4 The level of education therefore offers no answer at all.
Segregation of the labor market The segregation of the labor market leads in two directions. On the one hand women work in different professions, which means that there is something like a gender related division of work. The overall pattern is always the same: women are concentrated in fewer and worse paid professions, and, in addition, these professions offer less possibilities for career advancement most of the time. Usually these are
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positions in the areas of health care, education, administration and retail. In Europe, 60 percent of all women work in less than 10 occupational groups. The other dimension along which the labor market is segregated is hierarchy. Men and women have different hierarchical positions. In 2000 for example 10,2 percent of men were working in leadership positions whereas only 5,8 percent of the female workforce were working in a similar position.
Part-time work The percentage of part-time workers differs a lot between the member states. On average, in 2005, the share of female part-time workers constitutes 32.4 percent in contrast to only 7.4 percent of the male employees.5 The positive aspect of part time work is that it allegedly offers a chance to combine work and family life. Obviously this is only the case for women, since they are the majority of part time workers. The negative effects are a manifestation of obsolete gender role models in which the women goes to work and afterwards still does the all the housework and is responsible for the care of children. A financial loss can also be observed in addition to worse chances for career advancements.
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Power in Relation – Meike Scharfenort: The Gender Pay Gap in EU
Trade unions and minimum wage Minimum wage and the influence of existing trade unions also affect the pay gap, especially since trade unions in many member states are more or less involved in the negotiations about the wage level. This means, on the one hand, that they could play an active role in the equalization of the wages of men and women. On the other hand, their position in the negotiations can also lead to a consolidation of the gender pay gap. In this respect it is very important that women take active parts in trade unions in general. The existence of a minimum wage might prevent at least the widening of the gender pay gap since there are disproportionately more women who work in the low wage sector
The “worth” of female work It takes special systems to translate work into monetary value. There are different systems designed with a special attention to gender like ABKABA (Analytical Evaluation of Work according to Katz and Baitsch) in Switzerland or HAC from Sweden which is named after its inventors Anita Harriman and Carin Holm. The problem in this context is that a lot of the time qualifications needed in the working domains of women (like to nurse, to educate) are taken as natural or inborn which makes them less valuable. It’s therefore important to think about the “image” of professions which are mainly taken by women. One way to do that would be the universal application of gender neutral methods like the above mentioned
Children and child care/family The structure of the family and the presence of children play a key role when it comes to the pay gap. As the quotation at the beginning of this article already said, the position a person takes outside its primary group has a direct effect on its position inside this group (and vice versa). There is some statistical data from the European Union which verifies this to some degree. A recent publication of the European Commission quotes
that “...the gender pay gap is higher for [female] married employees and significantly lower for singles...”.6 Other authors like Linda R. Hirshmann even state there is something like a “marriage premium” of at least 10 % for men, whereas that time spent on home production directly reduces earning for women.7
Children and childcare As one might already assume, children requiring childcare also play an important role when it comes to the pay gap. In general the labor participation of women in the European Union is strongly linked to number and age of the children who live in the family.8 In 2003, 75% of the women without children were gainfully employed in contrast to only 60% of women who had children. Interestingly, the level of education also plays an important role, as the data shows: the higher the education, the higher the probability of women who are employed. The availability of childcare is crucial in this context and it differs a lot in the EU. While in Sweden, Denmark and Finland, childcare is seen as a social right which makes it accessible and affordable, in other member states like Ireland it is extremely hard to find affordable childcare. Basically, one can say that in member states with a wide offer of (public) childcare, the rate of women joining the labour market tends to be better. The decline of births in most member states might also be closely linked to the topics discussed above. It’s probably not a coincidence that countries with a wide and affordable offer of childcare like France (with a fertility rate of 1,94) and Sweden (1,77) have a birthrate that is significantly higher than in countries which don’t offer accessible childcare like Spain (1,34) or Germany (1,34).
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Activities
Conclusion
Since 1996, the EU has had a dual approach in terms of equalization. On the one hand, gender mainstreaming was introduced, which means that the implications for women and men of any planned act on any level and in all areas have to be taken into account.9 On the other hand, the EU launched several programmes and initiatives to address specific “gender problems”—like the National Reform Plans, which have to be drawn up yearly by the member state to implement the European Employment Strategy. Another important initiative is EQUAL. Financed by the European Social Fund, its aim is to find new ways to fight discrimination based on sex, religion, sexual orientation, disability or age. As for the gender pay gap, there are various projects in the member states. For example, “Close the gap,” a Scottish project, encouraged women to engage in the fight against the pay gap, developed action plans and even tried to include the employers in the entire process. Now, in 2007, the EU has announced the “European Year of Equal Opportunities for All,” which aims at the promotion of equal opportunities for everybody around the four key aspects of activities: rights, respect, representation and recognition. It is obvious that these also touch many gender related subjects of discrimination, among them the gender pay gap. Besides the activities on the European level, the member states also take different actions to close or at least narrow the gender pay gap. The extent of these activities differ a lot, from Norway, where the topic has ranked high on the political agenda for the last few years, to Germany where it is hardly a subject of the political debate.
The gender pay gap generates from diverse factors. Activities to tackle the pay gap therefore have to focus on a whole variety of causes on European and national levels. Since the legal basis to tackle the pay gap was laid a long time ago, now is the time to focus on implementation to really achieve the goal of equal payment. Activities like monitoring to recognize pay gaps where they occur, the improvement of childcare or the universal application of gender neutral systems to value work are suggestive steps to take to name just a few. A general task is the raising of awareness. One can also account for an equal payment from another perspective. If you put the family in focus, it’s obvious that money and financial power influence the status of a person and also the strength of decisions. It is important to recognize that starting a family has different effects on men and women. Whereas men usually benefit, women have to pay a higher price, at least financially. It might seem weird or even extremely unromantic to think about money and status when it comes to love and family. On the other hand, without a proper financial basis, no one can raise a family. Getting paid less than their spouse and doing most of the (un-paid) domestic work makes women financially dependent and in the end neglects their potential to contribute to the whole of society. If we are going to progress towards an equal society, where man and women, have the same rights, opportunities and responsibilities, economic equality is the key. Closing the gender pay gap is one step in the right direction.
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(Endnotes) 1 Hirshman Linda R.: Get to work, 2006, p.35 2 Eurostat: Living condidtions in Europe, Data 2002-2005, 2007 3 Commission of the european communities: report on the equality between men and women, 2006, p. 6. 4 Eurostat: 5 Eurostat: Living Conditions in Europe, p.46 6 European Commission: Gender pay gap – Origins and policy responses – A comparative review of 30 European Countries, July 2006 7 Hirshman, Linde R.: Get to work – A manifest for women of the world, p. 54, 2006. 8 Eurostat: Statistics in focus. 4/2005, p. 1. 9 Wikipedia
Power in Relation – Meike Scharfenort: The Gender Pay Gap in EU
This article is an excerpt from the recent SCM UK publication Reading the Bible. For more on the book see the end of the article
Reading Outside
the Box:
From Reading the Bible Lisa Isherwood It is the opinion of most feminist theologians that the church has, historically, marginalised and silenced women, and that it has employed well-recognised techniques for doing so. One of the ways in which this has happened has been through the systematic writing out of women from scripture and history – that is to say they are omitted from the text, or when they are there, they are read through patriarchal eyes. Virtually all work in feminist theology owes something of its method to the approach developed by Elizabeth Schüssler-Fiorenza, which consists of four elements:
The hermeneutic of suspicion A feminist reading doesn’t take at face value the implication that women were not present or took a purely supportive role, but asks where the women are and what they are doing. As feminists we hope to restore women to Christian history, but also the history of Christian beginnings to women. This method does not rely on finding new sources, but rather concerns itself with reading the sources we have through different eyes. All of this requires historical imagination, which allows us to use other information of the day to cast a suspicious eye on texts that seem to imply that women were not present or active.
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Proclamation Feminists see liberation as a theme that runs like a thread through the books of the Bible, and as the core of Jesus’ message. We therefore have a duty to proclaim those parts those parts that are oppressive to women as contrary to that message.
Remembrance As women, we need to grasp our own history as part of the biblical and historical narrative. Feminist scholars have tried to re construct women’s history using clues within the biblical sources and other evidence from the same period which sheds more light on them.
Creative actualisation This places the lives of women in the biblical story as an ongoing narrative retelling the stories from a feminist perspective. In contrast to the historical approach, this uses imagination to engage with material that has often been damaging to women. Recognising that in most cases it may be impossible to come close to recovering the ‘objective truth’ of the stories, this approach explores alternative, liberating and redemptive readings of what might have taken place. With that methodology as a starting point, may feminist scholars have focused their attention on biblical texts where women are specifically mentioned. The influential an provocative Texts of Terror, by Phyllis Trible, asked, ‘What should we do with biblical texts that portray violence to women?’ Should they really be read in church as part of an illuminating canon for the faithful? Lot offering his daughters to the crowd in order to protect his male guests, the Levite colluding with other males to bring about the rape, murder and dismemberment of his concubine, Amnon’s rape of Tamar are all texts that give a clear message: the inferiority of women and their status as owned by men. This is compounded by the texts about cleanliness or otherwise of women and the price of virginity. What are contemporary women to do with such texts – surely cannot be conveying God? The problem that has been exposed through this approach is still hotly debated – does it mean that the texts are useless, only useful as an historical record of the bad old days, or are they still the word of God? Amongst those not willing to abandon the texts to the traditionalists, there is also a group of scholars concerned to recover the female aspects of deity hidden in scriptural texts. This involves concentrating on neglected passages,
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Power in Relation – Lisa Isherwood: Reading Outside the Box
reinterpreting those more familiar, and always having an eye to new understandings from historical and linguistic analysis. In the Hebrew Bible we have many references to God as female: the psalmist declares that God is a midwife (Pslams 22:9-10); at times God is mother (Deuteronomy 32:18) – this text is often translated as ‘fathered you’ but this is an inaccurate rendering of the Hebrew verb. God the merciful and compassionate mother is also witnessed in Jeremiah 31:15-22. In addition of course we have a huge body of work on the nature and role of Lady Wisdom in creation and the ongoing nurture she provides in the growth of Jewish spirituality. In large part other feminist biblical scholars have built on the methods of Schüssler-Fiorenza and Trible by applying those methods to a wide range of texts. We see a growing body of work involved in the recovery of women from patriarchal interpretations of text, which results in rereading the origins of both Judaism and Christianity. However, the jury is out as to whether this is a worthwhile exercise, since some believe the tradition is so patriarchal that even providing alternative ways of reading will not fundamentally alter the tradition itself. The position of Schüssler-Fiorenza and others remains the same: it is their tradition too and they will not hand it over to those who would use narrow and excluding methods of interpretation – interpretation after all is always political! ... This article continues in the book The articles in the book have all been written by Suggested Reading recognised authorities in the relevant fields. Contributors SCHÜSSLER-FIORENZA, Elizabeth, In Memory of Her, SCM Press, 1983 include John Saxbee, John Rogerson, Paul Foster, Henry TRIBLE, Phyllis, Texts of Terror, Fortress Press, 1984 Wansbrough, John Barton, John Sawyer, John Vincent, LONG, Asphodel, In a Chariot Drawn by Lions, The Women’s Christopher Rowland, Patricia Mcdonald, Robert Press, 1991 PIRANI, Alix, The Absent Mother, Shambala, 1992 Beckford and Lisa Isherwood. Some of the questions SCHÜSSLER-FIORENZA, Elizabeth, Jesus and the Politics of the book explores in different ways include: Interpretation, Continuum, 2001 Lisa Isherwood is Professor of Feminist Liberation Theologies at the University of Winchester, UK
This recent SCM UK publication Reading the Bible a new 56-page glossy A4 book, aims to equip the reader with a wide range of approaches to scripture, from both academic study and church tradition. The book aims to celebrate the diversity and richness of the Bible itself, and of the ways in which Christians use it. Reading the Bible will be an invaluable resource to anyone who’s leading Bible studies, training for ministry, or just interested in new ways of using the Bible.
– – –
– – – – – –
Who wrote the Bible? Who decided which books would be included? Does it matter which translation you use? Why are they different? Should we allow our own experience to influence our reading of the Bible? Can we learn anything about God or faith by looking at how artists respond to scripture? Is there one true interpretation of any Bible passage? Who decides what it is? Do Christians have to believe the Bible is literally true? What does the Bible have to say about politics and social issues? How do you deal with passages in the Bible that promote genocide, slavery or sexism?
Contact the SCM UK office (+44(0)121 200 3355 or scm@movement.org.uk) for details on how to get your copy today!
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Pregnancy & Motherhood in the Biblical World Jennifer Stiles
Reminders
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This past Saturday I found myself sitting on a crowded church pew, admiring a bride’s wedding dress and thinking about pregnancy and motherhood in the biblical world. Seated among the congregation I was one of at least a hundred other people admiring the long train of the bride’s wedding dress as she stood with her mother and father and soon-to-be-husband—backs to the congregation—at the front of the country church. The daughter of a seamstress myself, I couldn’t help but notice the exquisite detail and hours of work that surely went into making the beautiful, elaborate dress. As I thought about the dress, the hours of intricate work and thousands of tiny stitches, everything I had been reading about pregnancy and motherhood in the biblical world began to come together in my mind. Seeing the bride in her beautiful dress standing beside her mother brought to my mind recent memories of my own wedding, just six months ago. What I remembered were conversations with my own mother about my wedding dress. I came to understand—though she never said it—that my mom had imagined herself making my wedding dress for quite some time. Being the practical person that I am, my side of the conversations usually included comments about how I would only wear the dress for a single day—time-consuming embellishments and ornate stitching were unnecessary. When my mom drove 845 miles and presented me with the handstitched wedding dress, I realized that my comments were unheeded. The dress and its delicate linen and subtle, yet intricate bead work and design revealed the many hours that my mom had spent making this amazing dress—a dress, that I couldn’t help but realize I would wear for just a few hours. The day I saw my wedding dress I was far too excited to wonder why my mom would go to such great lengths, take so many precious hours, to make a dress that I would only wear for a single day. But as I sat in the church this past Saturday—with thoughts of pregnancy and motherhood in the back of my mind—I couldn’t help but ask myself that question. As I looked ahead at the bride and her mother, both clutching handkerchiefs and—though I couldn’t see their faces—surely dropping tears, I realized the answer to my question: motherhood.
MOZAIK 2007 summer
Power in Relation – Jennifer Stiles: Pregnancy & Motherhood
Jennifer Stiles (maiden: Mueller) wore the wedding dress her mother made last October. She now lives in Virginia, USA where she studies Theology and anticipates motherhood as she and her husband await the birth of their first child this coming November. She is a former copy editor of Mozaik.
Historical Reflections and Implications Throughout time motherhood has been associated with obstacles and difficulties. In premodern times the physical risks associated with childbearing constituted a significant threat to the lives of women.1 In her book Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context, Carol Meyers explains that, while archeology in Palestine is not extensively revealing in the investigation of skeletal remains, the results of limited studies correspond well to the results of similar studies on all pre-modern populations.2 That is, in the study of ancient Palestinian burials there is evidence that the death rate was highest among the pre-adult population, with a high infant mortality rate and a mortality rate of females in childbearing years greatly exceeding that of males of the same age bracket.3 Pregnancy in premodern times carried the risk of death—a threat that would have been understood in the perspectives and world views of pre-modern women. Likewise, in the time of the house churches of early Christianity, the obstacles and risks of pregnancy and motherhood were known and intimately understood by women. Children were typically born at home and the birthing process was essentially managed by women—both slave and free.4 While there is some evidence that suggests male doctors may have offered advice from an adjacent room, midwives were very important to the birthing process in early Christian times (54-55). In their discussion of labor and delivery in A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Early Christianity, Osiek and MacDonald reference folk medicine traditions recorded in Pliny the Elder’s Natural History, which reports the high risk of infection for both mother and child associated with many common birthing practices.5 Infant mortality was also high at this time. Osiek and MacDonald report that “scholars estimate that about 30 percent of infants died in their first year.”6 High infant mortality rates are likely behind Roman mourning trends, which prescribed no formal mourning for children less than one year old and reserved full mourning only for children of ten years or more.7 Because early Christian churches met in homes, birthing realities were surely a part of the early church context. Imagining how Paul’s metaphors of birth and infancy may have been received during the early Christian era, Osiek and MacDonald write, “[within] the family atmosphere of house churches, where, for example, women might well have been nursing during meetings of the ekklesia, the power of the metaphors as encoding feminine experience…becomes strongly apparent.”8 While discussing the story of the birth of Jesus within this same setting, Osiek and MacDonald note that this story contains an account of a woman’s labor and delivery as well as theological messages. They write, “It is valuable to reflect upon how such narratives would have been heard in a house-church setting, where infants were being born and nurtured but were also dying—often along with
Because early Christian churches met in homes, birthing realities were surely a part of the early church context.
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their mothers—at a rate that for us seems unfathomable.”9 The realities of pregnancy and motherhood were certainly realized within the house church setting of the early Christian church. Carol Meyers takes a close look at Genesis 3:16 in Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. She identifies this verse as the most troublesome, from a feminist perspective, than any other verse in scripture.10 Meyers analyzes the syntax and lexical nuance of Genesis 3:16 against the backdrop of the societal conditions which “best suit the thrust of the poetic oracles to the female and male in Genesis 3:16-19.”11 She identifies this backdrop as the scene of the Israelite highlanders in the earliest period of their corporate existence, a time period that called for an outpouring of labor and a growth of population that would have exceeded preceding or succeeding eras.12 Because of the peasant lifestyle of this time—when large families provided for parental labor needs—and in light of high infant mortality rates, families would have to produce nearly twice the number of children desired in order to achieve “optimal family size.”13 Large families, multiple births, and therefore multiple pregnancies, were a societal necessity of this time period. It is against this backdrop and these realities that Meyers explores the language of Genesis 3:16. Meyers discusses the history of the translation of these verses into English14 and the “persistent beliefs” that they perpetuate about female existence. She identifies two core beliefs propagated by traditional English renderings of these verses, “first, women are associated with severe pain in childbirth; second, they are portrayed in a relationship subordinate to men.”15 Tracing the history of English translation of this verse of Hebrew text, Meyers identifies a key problem, “For Genesis 3:16, as for many biblical texts, the earliest versions seem to have consistently influenced the later ones.”16 Lexical and syntactical aspects of traditional translation of this verse into English have shaped teaching and preaching about women, pregnancy, and childbirth for hundreds of years. Meyers unfolds several key lexical and syntactical nuances of this verse that have been traditionally overlooked or misinterpreted. In doing so, Meyers clears up some important misconceptions. For example, Meyers explains that the Hebrew language contains a “semantic field of birth language” that is significantly developed.17 She writes, “Not only are there discrete terms for the various phases of the process of conception, pregnancy, and childbirth; there are also semantically similar but less common synonyms for the words that constitute the core of the childbirth vocabulary.”18 The Hebrew word that is often translated “childbirth”, in fact, refers to the period of pregnancy—not to the process of childbirth which terminates pregnancy.19 Given
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Power in Relation – Jennifer Stiles: Pregnancy & Motherhood
these and other analyses, Meyers concludes, “the first line of the oracle to the woman has God greatly increasing a female’s conceptions, or pregnancies.”20 In other words, while English translations for years have been proclaiming that women’s pain in childbirth would be divinely increased, the Hebrew text consistently expresses an increase in the number of pregnancies experienced by women. Meyers also clears up the misconception surrounding the English translation of the word “labor.” She explains that in the Hebrew text Genesis 3:16 makes no reference to “labor” in the sense of childbirth/delivery.21 Meyers considers five uses of the Hebrew word “‘eseb” in the biblical text and concludes that this word “clearly refers to productive physical labor.”22 Therefore, Meyers writes, “The audience of the oracle is not simply being reminded that women work and have children. Rather, they are learning that the work is unremitting and is not mitigated by the procreative demands placed on female existence.”23 Summarizing this and her analysis of the concluding lines of Genesis 3:16, Meyers writes: Lines 3 and 4 together should be understood as responses to the situation established by lines 1 and 2. Women have to work hard and have many children, as lines 1 and 2 proclaim; their reluctance to conform, which is not explicitly stated but can be reconstructed by looking at the biological and socioeconomic realities of ancient Palestine, had to be overcome. Lines 3 and 4 tell us how: female reluctance is overcome by the passion they feel toward their men, and that allows them to accede to the males’ sexual advances even though they realize that undesired pregnancies (with the accompanying risks) might be the consequence.24 Writing in light of social realities of the Israelite highlanders in the early period of their corporate existence, and an understandable reluctance of women to enter into the risks of pregnancy and birth, Meyers rereads Genesis 3:16 and offers a new English translation that more precisely communicates the Hebrew text.25 Like the Genesis text, birth-prophecy stories have influenced Christian dialogue on pregnancy and motherhood for centuries. In A People’s History of Christianity, Antoinette Clark Wire writes “Women’s History from Birth-
The Hebrew word that is often translated “childbirth”, in fact, refers to the period of pregnancy—not to the process of childbirth which terminates pregnancy.
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Prophecy Stories,” which explains the role of birthprophecies in Christian women’s history. She begins by acknowledging the long tradition of birth-prophecy telling in ancient Israel, spanning the centuries before and after the time of Jesus.26 These stories provide an intimate view of the “assumptions, perspectives, and values” of the people who tell them.27 They are essential because they highlight the key roles women play in the stories.28 Wire considers twenty-six birthprophecy stories, including the song of Hannah, Mary’s song, the account of Rabbi Ishmael the High Priest, Elijah’s birth prophecy, Zechariah’s praise of God, an account of Miriam at Moses’ birth, and many others. These birth-prophecy stories provide valuable insight into pregnancy and aspects of motherhood. For example, they express women’s fears and challenges including fears for the life of the newborn child, interminable delays in childbirth, the intensity of labor pains, “the dripping breasts and constant nursing of the child,” and practices of ritual purity through bathing and sacrifices associated with women’s birthing experiences.29 Birth prophecy stories also offer a peek into the delivery room by attesting to who was present— and absent—during childbirth. Midwives, close female relatives, and older generations of women are all mentioned as present during various birth accounts, while men are notably absent.30 Birth-prophecy stories also provide insights into contemporary ideas about God’s way with the world. Wire notes that several birth-prophecies include notions of the child overcoming the corruption of the world and reestablishing good order, righteousness, and peace.31 They also include undertones
that reveal ideas that God works through births to ameliorate the lives of God’s people, for “Storytellers told about God’s promises at past births that had been fulfilled in each stage of the people’s history, freeing them from their enemies, meeting their physical needs, and bringing their hearts back to God.”32 At the same time, however, these stories ignore the major threat to the mother’s life that she risked in childbirth. Instead, Wire writes, “the stories are so much centered on what the child means for the destiny of the people that the mother’s survival does not get attention, even when her physical experience is mirrored and her struggle magnified.”33 Several birth-prophecy stories encounter and entertain the theme of barrenness. They depict the struggles of women like the mother of Samson, who are accused of barrenness, and women like Hannah and Elizabeth, who struggle against barrenness.34 These stories depict God as hearing prayer, opening wombs, and overpowering oppressors—acting through the birth of children to accomplish political objectives. While barrenness is universally overcome in these birth-prophecy stories, real-life stories depict a different reality. In her article A Coming Home to Myself, Mercy Oduyoye tells her own story as a “childless woman in the West African space.” The Bible has several stories about women who have passed through childlessness en route to motherhood. Oduyoye remarks on the Bible’s chronicling of “notable patriarchal, priestly, and
Power in Relation – Jennifer Stiles: Pregnancy & Motherhood
prophetic names [that] refer to the sons of women who passed through the agonies of childlessness to have baby boys—Isaac, Samuel, and John the Baptizer.”35 However, Scripture is remarkably silent on the topic of childless women who remain childless despite equally fervent prayers as those of women like Hannah. Oduyoye writes, “[A] worse shame is that Christianity does not seem to have stories from which the childless can draw strength. If there are such stories, we must find them, for the sake of many who suffer in silence.”36 Oduyoye’s urgent message is remarkably relevant for the church today. In her discussion of the position of the Christian church, Oduyoye notes the changed perspective from that of the Christians in the early church. Convinced that the “end times” were imminent, the early church expected Jesus at any moment and was not “preoccupied with biological fruitfulness” but was instead focused on bringing forth “the fruits of the Spirit in the faith community and in the life of the individual Christian.”37 In contrast, Oduyoye describes traditional African wedding ceremonies that proceed with a “basic assumption within the whole of the marriage transaction” of “fruitfulness [in childbirth].”38 She describes how there is “no empowering word and no ceremony to strengthen what may, for many reasons, turn out to be a childless marriage” and how the “general taunting of the community is reflected in sermons from our pulpits” (Oduyoye). Oduyoye’s call—for the church to find stories to strengthen and encourage the childless—is real challenge to the church of every age, to make its ministry relevant to the lives of its community. Oduyoye is right. Christianity does seem to lack a sufficient repertoire of stories from which the childless can be strengthened. And Carol Meyers is right when she exposes the two persistent beliefs about female existence that are perpetuated by inarticulate translations of Genesis 3:16. These shortcomings, along with the realities of the risks
and challenges inherent in pregnancy, childbirth, and motherhood, paint a bleak picture. On one side, women face various societal pressures to fulfill expectations of motherhood. On the other side, women throughout time face scores of different obstacles that stand in the way of successfully fulfilling these expectations. Women seem to be trapped between a rock and a very hard place. Christianity seems to lack a sufficient repertoire of stories in which many women, in a variety of tight circumstances, can find strength.
Applications That thought was what met me at Saturday’s wedding. As I sat in the pew and thought about my mom—the beautiful wedding dress she handmade, and the fewness and fleetingness of the dress’s moments—I had two new insights. First, I realized that my mom was motivated by something hidden as she spent hours with a needle and thread, carefully creating an elaborately lovely dress that she very well knew I would cherish, but would only wear for a half of a precious day. There is something very special about mothers and this hidden motivation. They overcome countless obstacles to deliver babies, then care for those babies as they grow into the continued neediness of childhood, and continue to care for those children when they become teenagers and are still challenging and needy. I realized that there is something special enabling mothers to have these children and provide this care. It’s not a need or desire for gratitude. While I don’t know what this is, I think I may have some idea as to what its substance may be.
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At almost exactly the same time, I had a second new insight. I realized that my life is like that dress. My days are surely fleeting. Yet for some reason I have been wonderfully and intricately made by a creative parent. And while I don’t know by what that Parent was motivated, I have an idea that it was not by a need for my gratitude. Suggested Reading Meyers, Carol. The Genesis Paradigms for Female Roles, Part II: Genesis 3:16. Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. Oxford University Press: New York, 1988 (pp.95-121). Oduyoye, Mercy Amba. A Coming Home to Myself: The Childless Woman in the West African Space. Liberating Eschatology: Essays in Honor of Letty M. Russell. Margaret A. Farley & Serene Jones, eds. Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, 1999 (pp 105-120). Osiek, Carol & Margaret Y. MacDonald. Giving Birth: Labor, Nursing, and the Care of Infants in HouseChurch Communities. A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2006 (pp 50-67). Wire, Antoinette Clark. “Women’s History from Birth-Prophecy Stories.” A People’s History of Christianity, volume 1. Richard A. Horsley, ed. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2005 (pp 71-93).
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(Endnotes) 1 Meyers, Carol. The Genesis Paradigms for Female Roles, Part II: Genesis 3:16. Discovering Eve: Ancient Israelite Women in Context. Oxford University Press: New York, 1988 P.113 2 Meyers, C. P.112 3 Meyers, C. P.112 4 Osiek, Carol & Margaret Y. MacDonald. Giving Birth: Labor, Nursing, and the Care of Infants in House-Church Communities. A Woman’s Place: House Churches in Earliest Christianity. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2006 P.53-4 5-9 Osiek, C. & MacDonald, M. P.55-66 10-13 Meyers, C. P.95-120 14 Meyers also includes in her discussion the translation of Genesis 3:16 in the Septuagint translation and the Vulgate (Latin) translation (95-96). 15-24 Meyers, C. P.95-117 25 Meyers’ translation of Genesis 3:16 reads: “I will greatly increase your toil and your pregnancies; / (Along) with travail shall you beget children. / For to your man is your desire, /
And he shall predominate over you” (118). 26 Wire, Antoinette Clark. “Women’s History from Birth-Prophecy Stories.” A People’s History of Christianity, volume 1. Richard A. Horsley, ed. Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2005 P.71 27-34 Wire, A. C. P.72-91 35 Oduyoye, Mercy Amba. A Coming Home to Myself: The Childless Woman in the West African Space. Liberating Eschatology: Essays in Honor of Letty M. Russell. Margaret A. Farley & Serene Jones, eds. Westminster John Knox Press: Louisville, 1999 P.115 36-38 Oduyoye, M. A. P.115-116
MOZAIK 2007 summer
Power in Relation – Jennifer Stiles: Pregnancy & Motherhood
Here is the
secret of two
Janna Niemi Here is the secret of two:
Here is the secret of two:
Here is the secret of two:
Face to face – their eyes meet, towards each other – light touch of forefingers, he creates her, she creates him.
She is alone – just a smile and inside her there are two worlds: a flute and a fire. She is full bowl of Graal, bears her own fruit. The spirit of the death and the spirit of the will combined in her – her smile is the door and the road to the Aid. She is the perfection of the illusion, the world which even ancient heroes couldn’t reach, where try to fall the river of love at the last minute. She is that wheel, where is devastating a seed to be reborn with new force. She is a moment, a larva and… a word, which is filled by eternity. Until the death just a flash, an exclamation: she stopped on the bound only just will rush the butterfly of a smile from her lips.
“I love…” – it is so strange to pronounce this word today. It surely has been blown out, died long time ago. “I love, love you, I love,” – I repeat the soft tone of sounds like singing a lullaby to a baby, who is sleeping, doesn’t hear anything, just smiles for its own dreams, he sees the dream:
Here is secret of two: Woman is the earth and man is the stone on the earth, they are two circles in the eternal eight. Touch-point moves, splits up and stone falls in the darkness of the earth lighting the darkness with the transparent light of the spring rain. The house ploughs the ground, grows like a tree in white flowers. Flowers grow transforming into the birds, birds fly to the open sky.
I bend over his cradle and stroke his frizzy hair, kiss with my warm lips his cool forehead.
Jaana Niemi (1974) was born in Russian Karelia. In the beginning of perestroika, she migrated to Finland, where she currently lives and is studying for her Masters degree in Theology at the University of Joensuu. She is a graduate in philosophy and pedagogy. For many years she worked as a teacher of Finnish language and culture for foreigners. She has published two anthologies in Russian: Destiny is not gone with the wind and Fifth way. In Finnish, she has published an anthology entitiled Bending over the sea, a thought-icon collection The bound and the eternity of the Way, and an epic tale Child of the border. She also has some publications in literature journal Carelia, Inyje berega. Word is what she feels to live.
“I love,” – I feel, how gradually I start to recover in my extinguished heart, how melts the world after long suffering, how arises the new spring of life. Suggested readings Mika Waltari, Sinuhe Egyptian G.I. Gurdjieff, Beelzebub’s Tales to His Grandson
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Adult,aware and accepting Aura Nortomaa
Focus article on the Finnish Lutheran SCM The Finnish Lutheran SCM “Suomen Kristillinen Ylioppilasliitto – SKY” celebrated its 110th anniversary on Sunday 6th May 2007 with a jubilee mass and a festival celebration. The mass and the party were visited by a number of senior friends and current active members, and speeches were heard from both historic and current perspectives.
Singing the revolution Music played an important role in the celebrations. The music of the mass was taken from the folk mass of El Salvador that SKY had published in the 1980s, and was performed by the SKY song group. In addition to this Latin-American mass, SKY has published various Christian songs during 1960s-1980s ranging from striking leftwing marches to beautiful Christmas carols. To celebrate its 110th-anniversary, a selection of these songs was published in a CD format. The vivid and many-sided history of SKY which includes a clear sense of social responsibility is strongly present in these songs. Three SKY seniors were invited as honorary members during the 110-celebrations. Archbishop emeritus John Vikström was thanked for his lifelong work for Christian spirituality and justice. WSCF grand old man Risto Lehtonen was given credit for all he has done for the WSCF movement internationally and nationally. Mrs. Liisa Tuovinen was appreciated for her work striving for the welfare of families and the rights of sexual minorities.
It all started with the ladies The Finnish Lutheran SCM dates back to 1897 when a group of female university students formed the first SCM group in Finland. Men formed their group two years afterwards, and in 1909 these two groups and a third one joined together to form
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MOZAIK 2007 summer
Power in Relation – Janna Niemi: Secret of Two
Aura Nortomaa is General Secretary of SKY
SKY as an SCM. Thereafter many groups have joined or left SKY, and in totality 17 different organisations have been a part of SKY. Nowadays, SKY has 7 member organisations of which three are active, and, in addition, one or two new local groups are about to be established in different towns. SKY is a bilingual organisation that has both Finnish and Swedish as its official languages. SKY has always had close contacts with the Lutheran Church in Finland, and it has had a big impact on many features in the Church. For example, the first university chaplains were employed by SKY. SKY also developed the concept for confirmation camps which today gather almost 90% of 15-year-olds to summer camps to learn about the Lutheran faith. However, from the 1960s onwards the Lutheran church in Finland has taken care of both these forms of work. Ecumenical and international aspects have been crucial part of SKY’s identity from the beginning. SKY and the Orthodox SCM in Finland, “Ortodoksinen Opiskelijaliitto – OOL,” form the ecumenical cooperation council SKOY that is the Finnish member of WSCF. Though separate organisations, the two SCMs keep in close contact and organise various activities together, and both naturally keep in contact with the WSCF family abroad. The Nordic contacts have been of great importance to SKY throughout its history, and SKY is currently the chair of the Nordic-Baltic Cooperation
on several topics from spirituality and theology to fair trade and climate change. In addition, seminars, retreats, excursions and trips are organised both on local and national level. SKY also publishes two highquality magazines that discuss theology, philosophy, art and society four times each per year - one in Finnish, one in Swedish. In 2006 SKY has, for example, celebrated the Universal Day of Prayer and organised a weekendretreat with the Orthodox SCM, visited theatre and musical performances, sent representatives to both Finnish and German Church Celebrations (Kirchentag), and discussed themes like ecumenism, medicine & ethics, personal spirituality, selfishness, and mission. Relating to the “Family” theme of WSCF-Europe, SKY has taken up two initiatives to contribute to the elaboration of the theme. First, following the Strasbourg conference, a Bible study for women using non-formal learning methods was established. The free atmosphere and the possibility to approach gender and biblical views in creative ways has been well appreciated by our members. Secondly, SKY is evaluating the possibility of translating the Sexual Harassment Guidelines of WSCF into Finnish, and may distribute it as a means to widen the knowledge of how to relate to these problems within a church or organisational setting.
Council.
Inventing Christianity today The current activities of SKY are based on the activities in the local organisations. These in general include tea & talk–style thematic evenings once a week, offering discussions and exchanges of opinions
Does your SCM have an anniversary coming up? Would you like to share some of your SCM’s history with the readers of Mozaik? OR Has your SCM had an interesting and inspirational project that you would like to share with other SCMs around Europe and beyond? If so please contact the editor on wscfmozaik@yahoo.com.
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A World of
Women
in WSCF – The Women’s Commission Ingjerd Helene Jøssang The World Student Christian Federation is an organisation with over 100 years of history. Women have always been highly active at many levels in the organisation from the beginning. Women’s contribution in the sociopolitical life of the federation has questioned the structure, leadership, and the methodologies of our programmes. The 1977 General Assembly of the Federation passed a mandate that gender issues and women in the WSCF be focused on as one of the priorities and the decision was made to hold a Women’s Pre-Assembly in the subsequent General Assembly. The interregional women’s committee was also established. The committee consists of the female participants of the Executive Committee of WSCF global.
The Commission
The commission is dedicated to promote gender justice in our churches, our societies and inside our own organisation. Women finds themselves tied to a chain of patriarchy in the social, cultural, economic, political, religious and educational areas of life. The discrimination against women persists in all of these areas even today, and that’s why the work of the Women’s Commission is still an important focus for the Federation. Women’s experiences transcend the differences of religions, classes, castes, races and genders. Therefore one of the tools of working is to share stories and experiences of gender based discrimination in our home, social and religious meeting places and in our communities to break the internalisation of discrimination based on gender. Women work on these areas at all levels of the Federation by contributing to the development of new tools to re-define and analyse our everyday life and our society. Also, inside our own Federation, it has proved to be fruitful to challenge our own structures and leadership when it comes to discrimination against women. We want to ensure that our Federation is committed to empower women to be involved in all
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MOZAIK 2007 summer
WSCF in Focus – Ingjerd Helene Jøssang: The Women’s Commission
Ingjerd Helene Jøssang (28) is one of two European representatives in Executive Committee in WSCF and a member of the European Regional Committee of WSCF Europe. She work as a medical doctor in Norway and has been a member of Tromsø SCM for 7 years, with special interest for gender issues.
levels of decision-making, and to be represented in the leadership positions at all levels of the Federation. We want to ensure non-hierarchical forms of participation and leadership.
Pre-Assembly
One of our tasks is to prepare and moderate the Women’s Pre-Assembly held during the first days of our General Assemblies every four years. The Pre-Assembly gives space for the women to gather, to begin to get to know each other and to provide a safe environment for everyone. Sharing of herstories are one of the main objectives. Furthermore, it is crucial to discuss how to ensure female participation during the assembly. Unfortunately it is still important to discuss both the low participation of women in the assembly and in the discussions during the assembly, and also to remind ourselves of the importance of women in elected leadership positions. Another important issue to raise is the awareness of sexual harassment. The Federation has a policy on sexual harassment and it cannot be stressed enough how important it is to discuss the issues of sexuality and harassment in a safe environment.
Women Doing Theology (WDT)
The inter-regional women’s programme that was established in 1970s is called “Women Doing Theology.” At the moment only one of the regions, Asia-Pacific, has an on-going, regular WDT programme, even if the theme itself is also in the agendas of the other regions. All the movements belonging to the Federation are encouraged to incorporate the programme
into their local level activities and to work on alternative theological models that would stress the role of women. During the quadrennial following the Chiang Mai General Assembly of 2004, the Federation re-established the interregional women’s programmes. The first one took place in 2005 following the topic of “Violence against Women.” The next inter-regional women’s programme will reflect the role of women in conflict resolution.
Women’s Perspective
We all have experiences of living as women in this world. This gives us a common ground of experience by seeing the world from a woman’s perspective.
We all have experiences of living as women in this world. This gives us a common ground of experience by seeing the world from a woman’s perspective. One of the fruits of our work is that we can create a safe space for the women in our organisation, a safe space where we can share herstories of how we experience being a woman in this world, and stories from women’s perspectives, and through this to be recognised by other women. The Women’s Commission hopes to coordinate the micro activities that happen in the local levels in the fields of the empowerment of women and hopes to make this globally visible, seeking to make it really true on the global level. The article is based on minutes and experiences from participating in the Women’s Commission from 2004-2007.
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Women’s Journeys:
A meditation This meditation is adapted from the ecumenical morning worship for the International Women’s Day at the WSCF-Europe study session in Strasbourg. Setup:
Arrange the chairs in a circle with a small cairn (pile of stones used to mark a place on a journey) in the centre. There should be other small stones, at least one for each participant although more is better, scattered around the inside of the circle.
Introduction: During this meditation five Bible stories are read, and after each one of them a passage of the prayer Speaking of silence: a reproach by Nicola Slee is read, followed by a short silence during which there is an opportunity for contemplation on the texts and for placing a stone in the middle of the circle either in silence or with a short prayer or reflection.
Introductory Sentences Women’s stories both from the scripture and from our traditions are often overlooked. In this meditation we will listen and reflect on the lives of our foremothers, remembering that as both men as women we can draw on their experience and wisdom. 1 Slee, Nicola, Praying Like a Woman, London, SPCK, 2004. P.29 (adapted) Reprinted with permission
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MOZAIK 2007 summer
Last Things – Women’s Journeys Meditation
Pharaoh’s Daughter Exodus 2: 1-9 The sounds of women’s silence run deep. Let us attune our ears to the sounds of women’s silence, to attend and listen to what is not said, what has never been said, what is only now beginning to be said. Let this silence cry aloud in our ears, let it resound and reverberate inside our heads, let it deafen our whole being with its colossal roar.
Silence Rahab Joshua 2: 1-8, 11b-16, 21 This silence is eloquent, articulate of women’s pain and women’s lives. It is compelling, hypnotic, fearful, overwhelming. It speaks louder than words. It utters volumes of speech. It drowns out all other language.
Strasbourg in the evening
Silence
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Deborah Judges 4: 4-9 Where are the women in our history, in our heritage? Where are the stories of our women heroes, mystics, leaders and teachers? Who will guide the footsteps of our children born today into a deafening silence about their ancestors, about themselves?
Silence
During this Hannah meditation 1 Samuel 1: 1-20 five Bible So many women’s voices have been lost in the pages of history, stories are erased and blotted out and passed over in silence read, and by the rulers of patriarchy, the makers of culture. So few have survived in the pages, after each and their stories have so often been ignored, trivialized, marginalized, distorted. one of them a passage of Silence the prayer The Women at the Tomb Speaking of Mark 15: 33-41 and 16: 1-8 We want to hear the sounds of silence. our foremothers’ voices. We want to listen to our grandmothers’ tales. We want to speak the names of our sisters who came before us. We need to hear their stories, we need to hear their voices, to hear and know who we are.
Silence Participants are free to leave when they are ready
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MOZAIK 2007 summer
Last Things – Women’s Journeys Meditation
Song of Pity Shining in Our Eyes – This is an excert from a song by Heikki Laitinen & Neutraalit, taken from the Finnish SCMs
anniversary CD, and freely translated to English by Aura Nortomaa.
wishes, encouragements, demands, threats, insults, defamations, pamphlets, declarations what good will words alone accomplish conferences, meetings, big words, prayers, synod appeals, church day introductions what good will words alone accomplish words cannot drive away hunger cannot take away oppression, exploitation even though we have hunger, oppression, exploitation and injustice only pity shines in our eyes when others have hunger and injustice coin from there, coin from here coin from there, coin from here coin wanders coin from there, coin from here coin from there, coin from here coin goes, two coins come the iron grasp of the iron system give a little from your plenty and plenty from your little and everything will stay the same I guarantee that but it is always about the money little reparations won’t do anymore, you have to make a full renovation ... what good will words alone accomplish words cannot drive away hunger cannot take away oppression, exploitation even though we have hunger, oppression, exploitation and injustice only pity shines in our eyes when others have hunger and injustice ...