ELCA Commission for Women Names Four Focus Areas

CHICAGO (ELCA) -- The steering committee of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA) Commission for Women decided to focus its attention over the next five to 10 years on four areas -- anti-sexism, nonviolence, advocacy and leadership. The steering committee met here March 9-11 and made its decision based on information collected from an ELCA survey.
The steering committee and staff developed the four focus areas by grouping data from about 500 responses to a survey distributed across the church, said Joanne Chadwick, executive director, ELCA Commission for Women. "We had a lot of data to make this decision," she said.

Anti-sexism Strategy
The steering committee passed a resolution asking the ELCA Office of the Bishop to appoint a task force "to work with the Commission for Women in the development of an effective strategy to address sexism in the church in all its expressions."
"We are committed to a thorough approach to address sexism in our church -- sexism in the broadest sense, including sexism against women and girls, against people who are gay or lesbian, and including the ways in which sexism distorts boys' and men's lives," said the Rev. Janet M. Corpus, Philadelphia, steering committee chair.
"We need anti-sexism training in this church comparable to the anti-racism training already under way," she said.
The ELCA Commission for Multicultural Ministries oversees anti-racism training for all ELCA staff and elected leaders. That training is designed to promote awareness and to help identify and eliminate institutional racism.
"'Anti-sexism' ... that's not the word we want, but we know that's the concept we want to communicate," said Chadwick. "It's not just about sexism; it's racism, heterosexism, classism, ageism. It puts those pieces together," she said. "Culturally, it has taken a backseat to things like sexual harassment and discrimination. Now we need to define what we mean by this."
"We are not interested in creating new material," Chadwick said, "so the first step will be research to see what material exits, what is being written, what is being modeled."

Decade for a Culture of Nonviolence
In conjunction with the "International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World" (2001-2010) of the United Nations and the "Decade to Overcome Violence: Churches Seeking Reconciliation and Peace" of the World Council of Churches, the ELCA supports a "Decade for a Culture of Nonviolence."
Chadwick said she sees this effort as an opportunity for the commission to focus much of its work in the areas of domestic violence, child abuse and sexual misconduct. "There are so many areas that we want to move; and the idea of creating a nonviolent culture is very exciting to us as a commission," she said.

Advocacy for Marginalized Women
The Commission for Women works for "the equal participation of women and men in the life of the church," said Chadwick. "To do that, we have to do some advocacy," she said.
"There are still communities on the margins in this church," said Chadwick. She suggested that this focus will allow the commission to look at the various "margins" and promote mentoring as means of including everyone in the life of the ELCA.

Leadership Discovery and Development
The commission will promote leadership development particularly among young women and women of color, said Corpus. "The Women's Leadership Roundtable this summer addresses that," she said.
The Roundtable will be held Aug. 6-8 in Indianapolis. Under the theme "Lift Our Voice," the event will bring clergy and lay women together for speakers, Bible study and relationship-building, with worship, music, prayer and discussions on increasing the presence of women in leadership throughout the ELCA.
The Commission for Women is the "lead unit" of several ELCA units sponsoring the Roundtable. One goal of the Roundtable is that 30 percent of the participants will be under age 30, said Corpus. Another goal is that 30 percent will be women of color, she said.
"We have great expectations about the Roundtable," said Chadwick. She said the commission will use the Roundtable to guide its work on leadership.
The ELCA is constantly trying to define "leadership," said Chadwick. The work of the Commission for Multicultural Ministries and the Commission for Women is to look at leadership in new ways, she said. -- -- --
The Commission for Women maintains information at http://www.elca.org/CW/ on the ELCA Web site.
Information about the "Decade for a Culture of Nonviolence" is available at http://www.elca.org/co/decade.html on the Web.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html