General
Responding to violence against women as a health issue
Responding to violence against women as a health issue -
Fiona Burgemeister is a health professional with more than 20 years’ experience as a senior public health administrator in Australia and the United Kingdom. She has had responsibility for the development and implementation of policies, guidelines and programs at the Royal Women’s Hospital in Victoria for preventing and responding to violence against women. Fiona and her family attend St Hilary’s Anglican Church in Kew.
Violence against women is often seen as a criminal justice or social issue. It is the leading cause of preventable illness and death in women aged 15 to 44 years old, and thus is also a major health issue requiring appropriate health sector responses.
This workshop will provide an overview of gender inequity in health and demonstrate the role of women’s health services in addressing these inequities, using specific examples from the Royal Women’s Hospital. The workshop will also seek to demonstrate how the health sector’s experiences can inform the development of effective measures by church organisations to respond appropriately to violence against women.
The World According to Complementarians
Complementarians think there is a “headship” hierarchy in the universe. God the Father has always been “head” of the God the Son. When Paul wrote about Jesus being by very nature God, and having this stripped from Him in the incarnation, that was a bit sus… not Paul’s finest hour. The Trinity is a chain of command, not some quaint idea of perichoresis of three Persons equally God.
Read the rest at http://secret-womens-space.blogspot.com.au/2013/02/im-trying-to-get-my-head-around-what.html
Abuse: The Elephant in the Sanctuary
From the very beginning Christians for Biblical Equality (CBE) has endeavored to understand why so many Christian women have encountered abuse, and how the church might become agents of healing and reconciliation. Catherine Clark Kroeger, CBE founder and president emerita, vigorously addressed the challenge of abuse which she encountered early on. As president of CBE, Cathie directed a significant portion of CBE's energies to this challenge. In 1994, CBE held a conference themed "Women, Abuse, and the Bible." We were overwhelmed by the number of people who attended this event, and who had experienced abuse in a Christian marriage, family, or church. Within several years of this conference, we had enough material to publish three separate volumes on abuse, gender, and faith. Ultimately, when Catherine Kroeger retired as the first president of CBE, she went on to become founder and president of Peace and Safety in the Christian Home (PASCH), a nonprofit organization devoted to address domestic violence and abuse.
While CBE was established largely by academics to explore the biblical, theological, and historical material on gender, we were inevitably faced with the challenge of addressing abuse as well, simply by sheer numbers of individuals who called upon us for help. Had we been more alert to the prominence of abuse in culture we would not have been caught unaware. Certainly this is the point James Gilligan, a professor of medicine at Harvard, makes in his very helpful book entitled "Violence: Reflections on a National Epidemic". The prevalence of abuse is likewise noted in Jackson Katz's book "The Macho Paradox: Why Some Men Hurt Women and How All Men Can Help".
Respect
R.E.S.P.E.C.T.
Arguments for the submission of wives in marriage
In August Dr Peter Jensen, Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, expressed his earnest wish to have a serious conversation on a subject of great importance. Writing in the National Times (29 August 2012) about men, women and marriage he declared that, “[m]arriage really matters. Thank God we are talking about it.”
Most would agree that it does matter - in fact marriage rates have been stable or rising for years. But many disagree passionately with the views put by Dr Jensen about the submission of wives in marriage. Aware of this, Dr Jensen implored us to engage in a productive conversation with him on the issue. He observed, with noted exasperation, to ABC host Waleed Aly, “I’ve asked for a respectful conversation on this [debate]” (RN Drive 30/08/2012). So let’s explore what Dr Jensen wants to say about women in marriage without a presumption that it prejudices women.
Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger
[Reproduced from the CBE International Website]
To our great surprise, our first president, beloved leader, and founder of Christians for Biblical Equality, Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger, contracted pneumonia and died suddenly on Monday, February 14, 2011. If you are like me, you may find this news entirely out of character with Cathie. For so many of us, Cathie was the embodiment of unsinkable human vitality.
Read more: Honoring the Legacy of Dr. Catherine Clark Kroeger
