More than two decades after women-church began, the movement is mature enough to let the needs of the world, not the failings of the institutional church, guide it. . . . It has always been a constructive feminist force that tries to embody what it envisions. Members keep the justice focus sharp by prodding one […]
Stories
Changing Church: Dr. Melanie Springer Mock, Professor of English, George Fox University, Newberg, Oregon
When I was a child, my mom played a game with us called hen and chicks. Covered by an old blanket, she would spread her arms wide and call out “where are my chicks?” My brother and sister and I would run under her wings, and she would wrap her arms, and the blanket, around […]
Changing Church: Dr. Caryn D. Riswold, Lutheran Theologian and Author, Professor of Religion and Chair of Gender and Women’s Studies, Illinois College
Feminism is the radical idea that women are equally human, and Christians everywhere should care that throughout human history, and still today, people have not in fact believed or acted as if this were the case. Feminists should care about Christianity because it is simultaneously a religion with an egalitarian vision that has been and […]
Changing Church: Rev. Beverly Jane Phillips, Presbyterian Minister and Author
Being able to speak of God with feminine names can have long-term benefits not only for women but for children and men and all of creation. It is true for us as it has been for all people of all ages that how we refer to God sets the standard for our behavior. The standard […]
Changing Church: Lana Dalberg, Writer, Activist, and Lay Theologian
My inner spirit opened itself to the larger Spirit, and I came face-to-face with God as Mother. Scenes unfurled on my inner eye in undulating landscapes, and she stepped into them. A tall African woman, the Mother was someone my heart recognized instantly, even though I had been raised with male images of God. . […]