"On Being Evangelical and Ecumenical" by Anne Eggebroten

Vol. 27, No. 2

Summer (July-September) 2003

On Being Evangelical and Ecumenical
by Anne Eggebroten

Last February at the end of a wonderful two-day sing-along with Carolyn McDade, called "Sacred Emerging: A Gathering for Women," I was discussing with a fellow EEWC member, Karen Kidd, the location of EEWC's next conference. Or rather the lack of location -- no local group had yet taken on the task of planning Conference 2004.

"Why not Claremont?" Karen then said to me, and I was taken aback. Council members in emails had combed the country for possible sites, but southern California had not been considered because we don't have an active chapter -- not enough members to pull it off. Karen, however, a Ph.D. candidate at the Claremont Graduate School (CGS), felt she could get Scripps College as a conference site. She pointed out that Karen Torjesen, dean of religion at CGS, would be a resource. Our friend Ann Ownbey, also having been drawn to the singing event with Carolyn McDade, was standing nearby as we spoke, another potential conference planner.

It came down to the words of a song Kathryn Christian had taught us at past EEWC conferences: When God calls, "Who am I to say no?"

But more than six months into planning the conference, Karen Kidd, Ann Ownbey, and I, along with another committee member, Margaret Shelton Meier, are finding ourselves deep into issues that lie at the core of EEWC's existence. We have become aware that each conference, like EEWC Update and the website, represents EEWC publicly and involves all kinds of political issues.

Being Evangelical

The main issues that keep emerging as we select speakers, musicians, and workshop leaders are how to keep the conference recognizably evangelical but also ecumenical and definitely feminist.

By evangelical, we mean Bible-based. We want a conference that is rooted in Scripture, respects the authority of the Bible, and offers opportunity to get sound feminist exegesis, something many of us don't get in our churches. Those of us who are not theologians or pastors depend on EEWC to provide us with this kind of feeding. Reta Halteman Finger's plenary talks on passages from the Book of Acts during the 2000 conference in Chicago and on I Peter 1:3 -- 3:7 at the Indianapolis conference are excellent examples of this kind of Bible teaching (CDs available from the EEWC office). When we say we want the conference to be evangelical, we also mean that we want it to reflect orthodox Christian beliefs. EEWC's statement of faith includes the concept of the Trinity and of a personal relationship with God, shattered by sin but restored by Jesus Christ.

We also want the conference to be evangelical in the sense of bringing the good news of God's salvation to those who haven't heard it -- helping people to discover God's love and experience a personal relationship with God through Jesus of Nazareth, God's anointed one. EEWC's mission statement says, "EEWC is evangelical because our formation was rooted in the belief that the gospel is good news for all persons." Good news--from the Greek, eu-angelion. As many speakers have pointed out, some expressions of Christianity over the centuries have not been good news for women. But EEWC exists to proclaim the good news that God did not intend nor approve the oppression women have experienced within the church -- oppression that continues in many churches today. Women who are "saved" but still oppressed in evangelical churches need to hear this news -- and women who have turned their backs on Christianity as repressive and unliberating need to hear this news. In other words, we want this conference to reach out to both churched and unchurched women.

Despite our best intentions, some people may look at the final line-up of conference speakers and conclude that EEWC is "not evangelical." Their logic goes like this:

No evangelical organization would invite a speaker whose view of the Bible (or the virgin birth or some other fundamental doctrine) is less than orthodox.
EEWC invited X or Y speaker, who is not evangelical or orthodox in all points of her or his theology.
Therefore, EEWC is not evangelical -- or not evangelical enough.

As conference planners, we have decided not to worry about this kind of criticism. We will simply do the best we can to provide current Bible teaching and prophetic cultural analysis from a biblical feminist perspective. The respected Bible scholar Phyllis Trible will open the conference on Thursday evening, and over the next three days registrants will spend seven hours in one of six areas of interest -- music & dance, prayer & healing, Scripture, history, social justice, or an open-ended option. Reta Finger will lead the Scripture option with three segments: "How to Read the Wisdom Literature in the Old Testament and Apocrypha," "Jesus as Sophia in the New Testament," and "A Usable Wisdom Theology for Christian Feminists." Reta, who identifies as an Anabaptist (Mennonite) feminist, teaches New Testament at Messiah College (Brethren in Christ) in Grantham, Pennsylvania, and was the editor of Daughters of Sarah for twenty years.

People who are judging EEWC should also look at the individual Christian commitments of the conference planners, the executive council members, and the dedicated women and men who make up EEWC's membership. Some limit use of the word evangelical and call themselves "biblical feminists" or "Christian feminists," as did the women who published Daughters of Sarah. Three of us currently on the planning committee are "born-again" Christians. That is, we can point to a definite time (now thirty or forty years ago) when we made a commitment to Jesus as our personal Savior. Karen and I both became Christians in First Presbyterian Church, Bakersfield, California, during our high school years, so we have a pretty good grasp of born-again Christianity. Margaret met Jesus Christ through a friend, Carolyn Willis, who had been led to discipleship by Letha Dawson (later Scanzoni) at the Eastman School of Music. On the other hand, Ann Ownbey, another member of the committee, is a Presbyterian who connects with EEWC through the term ecumenical -- but not evangelical with its current sociopolitical implications. She is a woman of faith, deeply committed to her church and her weekly Bible study. She says, "A church to me is where I go to ask the questions, and EEWC has been a place to dance with those questions -- not only to ask them but to embrace them."

Daring to Ask Questions

It is true that some people are attracted to a church, an organization, or a conference not because it provides answers but because it is a safe place to ask questions. This contradicts the first premise of the syllogism above -- that an evangelical organization or conference should provide orthodoxy above all else. I find that the typical EEWC member is very secure in her Christian faith and not threatened by hearing a speaker or workshop leader present ideas that seem very far out. We were once taught that Christianity and feminism were antithetical, but we learned that wasn't true. As a result, we are more skeptical about the social pronouncements of our churches -- especially those that profess to have the whole truth about God and to know God's will in all matters. We are more able to listen to various viewpoints. We can hear a speaker's ideas and sort out those we agree with, neither absorbing everything we hear nor condemning a speaker because of a few unorthodox ideas.

Practical Matters

In reality, as we plan this conference, cost and availability are two factors that can trump all other considerations. Some of the presenters have agreed to speak or lead without asking for an honorarium or travel expenses -- either because of their long-term commitment to EEWC or because they live near Claremont. As planners, we aren't going to miss the opportunity to hear exciting, nationally known speakers for a good price -- and we aren't going to do an evangelical litmus test on them. We are comfortable being outside of mainstream evangelicalism. Prophets are never mainstream -- they are way out there ahead, calling the church to change and sometimes getting stoned or burned for their efforts. Was Martin Luther widely approved by the church of his day? Not exactly.

Being Ecumenical

As planners we are also concerned to make sure the conference is ecumenical -- that speakers and workshop leaders include Catholics as well as Protestants, charismatics as well as Baptists, Foursquare Gospel people as well as Presbyterians and Episcopalians. But actually, just trying to get various kinds of evangelicals to work together (not to mention working with others outside evangelicalism) can be like trying to herd cats. We grew up with very dualistic thinking -- the saved and the unsaved, right vs. wrong, Christian choices vs. worldly, sound doctrine vs. unsound. Including others who don't completely agree with us was not part of our training, but EWC set out to do just this kind of inclusion when we added "ecumenical" to our name in 1990 . Being ecumenical as well as evangelical is a big stretch. There's a basic spirit of tolerance and inclusiveness in being ecumenical that is culturally distant from the evangelical milieu.

Being Inclusive in Other Ways

Then there are the usual concerns to try to make the conference inclusive across racial and class lines, to have some Canadians and other international people, men as well as women, people with a high school education as well as Ph.D.s and authors. In fact, there are so many criteria to meet that the planning committee has already conceded that we can't possibly do it all. We will do the best we can and leave it up to the planners of Conference 2006 to provide diversity in areas that we miss.

Even geographic location is an issue -- travel costs a lot of money and is a little more dangerous since September 11, 2001. Some members in the Midwest and on the East Coast may not be able to get to California, but for West Coasters, this is the first easily accessible conference since the San Francisco gathering in 1992.

In addition to the usual ecumenical and inclusive issues, the theme we have chosen for this conference invites an even greater dialogue: Where Wisdom Calls: Crossroads & Open Gates. It's taken from Proverbs 8:1-6, 35. "Does not wisdom call, and does not understanding raise her voice? On the heights, beside the way, at the crossroads she takes her stand; beside the gates in front of the town….For the one who finds me finds life and obtains favor from God." Because this passage comes from the Hebrew Scriptures and is also respected within Islam, we want to get a Jewish and a Muslim perspective on Wisdom/Hokhmah/Ishtahad as well as hearing from Christian scholars. We hope to have a panel to bring in these perspectives.

Being Feminist

Another sine qua non for the conference is that the speakers and music and other elements must be feminist. In EEWC's statement of mission, being Christian feminists includes believing 1) "that the Bible supports the equality of the sexes," 2) "that our society and churches have irresponsibly encouraged men to domination and women to passivity," 3) that mutuality is God's will, not hierarchy based on gender, 4) that images and language for God should be inclusive, and 5) that "ordination of women and full expression of women's leadership and spiritual gifts" are God's will.

In the years that have passed since our founding in 1974, many but not all evangelical pastors and church members have come to agree with us on equality between men and women, women's ordination, and even mutual submission within Christian marriage. These issues have become respectable, as demonstrated by the widespread acceptance of EWC's offshoot, Christians for Biblical Equality.

But in many evangelical circles the use of inclusive images and language for God has become a polarized issue, a red herring that suggests heresy, paganism and perhaps witchcraft. Even the word Sophia is now suspect, though it occurs in Proverbs 8 in the Greek Septuagint translation of the Hebrew Scriptures and in the letters of Paul (I Corinthians 1:23-24, 30 and 2:6-8), among other places. In fact, in I Corinthians 1:24, Paul calls Christ "the dynamin of God and the sophia of God" (the power and the wisdom). Sophia was translated wisdom in the King James Version, losing the feminine gender it had for thousands of years. Today, however, if Christian women use Paul's word sophia, they suddenly seem dangerous. "Reimagining" ways to think and speak about God has become forbidden.

EEWC members affirm, "We believe God is the Creator, Redeemer, and Sustainer of all," but other evangelicals continue to use language like, "Father, we just ask that you would be here with us, Father…." Even the Episcopal Church in the US, which recently approved the election of a gay bishop, sticks to "in the name of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit" when it comes to prayer and liturgy. Sr. Elizabeth Johnson, author of She Who Is, notes in her preface to the tenth anniversary edition of this book that the forces opposed to imagery for God do not "float abstractly in the air." In fact they are rooted in "an awareness that such enrichment of our language entails a political change in the status of women in church and society in the direction of equality and mutuality."

Polarization on language makes it hard for conference planners to include evangelical speakers and musicians in our conferences. These people may be with us on many issues, but if they don't feel comfortable using feminine or gender-neutral nouns and pronouns for God, most EEWC members would not feel comfortable listening to them. For example, we conference planners want to have a local charismatic group sing for Conference 2004, but their songs speak of God only in masculine terms: "The joy of the Lord is my strength; / He is my strength, He's my rock, yes, He is." EEWC would like to shout these words with joy but without the exclusively masculine gender. Another typical line of a praise song, "He is worthy to be praised, King of kings, Lord of lords," would raise both gender and power issues. Is emphasizing divine transcendence and power in terms of earthly political power, especially in the masculine, healthy for women at our conference?

There's a tremendous cultural gap here. EEWC's imagery for God and the typical imagery of evangelical music are too far apart, even in cases where the performers and the conference planners are very close in their theology. We could ask a performer to sing different nouns and pronouns (or avoid pronouns altogether), just for us, but it may not be feasible. The other alternative is to ask women at the conference to tolerate the masculine language in order to enjoy some good old-fashioned gospel music.

Thus even selecting music for the conference gets complicated. So far we have decided to invite two musicians who will give us female imagery and language for God but are not evangelical Christians -- Carolyn McDade and Linda Allen. Carolyn could perhaps be described as a spiritual ecofeminist. At the 2002 conference we sang her song "There Is a Time" with the chorus "For blessed are our lives, blessed our love, and blessed the promise gathered now." Linda is also a feminist with strong spiritual roots; she will complete her Doctor of Ministry degree from Matthew Fox's University of Creation Spirituality in Oakland in 2004.

The 2002 conference planners also invited musicians for their talent, spirituality, and God-language -- not necessarily their theology. The Indianapolis Women's Chorus and Sophia's Portico were balanced by Kathryn Christian, a bona fide biblical feminist rooted in the Roman Catholic tradition. The chorus identified itself as "women of all races, faiths, ethnicities, sexual orientations, and gender expressions." Sophia's Portico, a women's spirituality center in Fort Wayne, included both a drumming group and chanters "happy to be here celebrating the feminine image of God with all of you." Their director explained, "Our music celebrates life and Mother Earth and all her seasons and feminine power itself." This specifically feminine God is not part of EEWC's theology, but we enjoyed celebrating in song with these women. Perhaps it's a measure of our spiritual hunger to see a side of God that has been denied to us. What great music we heard in those four days -- a height that no conference will reach for years to come. I especially liked the chorus performing Bobby McFerrin's version of Psalm 23, closing with "Glory be to our Mother -- and Daughter -- and to the Holy of Holies; as it was in the beginning is now and ever shall be, world without end. Amen."

In conclusion, EEWC is definitely the kind of group that makes mainstream evangelicals nervous. We call upon a wide variety of speakers, orthodox and unorthodox. We celebrate in music a God beyond the confines of gender who can even be seen in female imagery. We welcome members of various faith backgrounds, gender expressions, and sexual orientations. And yet we refuse to give up the name evangelical. We respect the Bible and insist on spreading the good news of God's liberating work in the life, death, and resurrection of Jesus of Nazareth. We continue on our way, praising Sophia God, laughing and scrambling to put together yet another conference -- this time marking the thirtieth anniversary of our founding.

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Anne Eggebroten, is a long-term member of EEWC and a research scholar with the Center for the Study of Women at UCLA. She is presently one of EEWC's Southwest representatives in addition to serving as co-coordinator (with Karen Kidd) for the 2004 EEWC Conference.