Gathering - Wednesday, May 9
Throughout the Amahoro Africa Gathering in Kampala Uganda, we will be posting daily summaries of the conversation written by Aryantungyisa Otiti, a freelance journalist from Uganda. Enjoy!
Wednesday
It was ‘Women’s Day’ at the Gathering today. During the worship session, the men in the Gathering sang the song ‘Arise Shine for your Light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you’ to the sisters in the group. It was affirming the place of women in the church, community and in the Gathering.
The session was led by Grace McLaren (USA) and Elizabeth Elior (Uganda).
The first speaker was an amazing woman from Rwanda. Jane Kanyange pastors a church she started from her ministry to the prostitutes in Kigali. Jane said in the Bible whenever God wanted to do something new, he looked for a woman to use. God is still looking for courageous and willing women to use. Jane’s ministry has faced a lot of resistance and criticism but Jane testifies of the grace of God if we only obey him and offer ourselves to do what he has led us to do. Her challenge was that everyone would have a willing heart, to be used of God and to show the love of Jesus in our communities.
Elizabeth Elior works for African Women Economic Policy Network (AWEPON), an organization that seeks to provide economic literacy by demystifying economics for all women to understand. Women need to be a part of the discussions that take place in the boardrooms. They need to be a part of the issues their husbands are grappling with. AWEPON is meeting the need to empower women to develop the economics of the household. She emphasized that economics really begins in the household and the power of the woman at the household level cannot be ignored.
She went on to explain what empowerment of women means – equal access to opportunities, respect for one another, the opportunity to negotiate with one another and practice their rights. Elizabeth challenged participants to think about the various roles of women and their invaluable support to men, she challenged men to appreciate these roles and support the women in their lives. She stressed that we all have a role to play in the empowerment of women and challenged the Gathering to reflect and contextualise our Christian teachings on what is happening in our families and communities.
Participants were given an opportunity to make comments after Elizabeth’s presentation. The conversation then continued in small groups and participants were able to discuss their understanding of empowerment, what questions they need to ask that could empower women to impact future generations and lastly what hopes and dreams of a post colonial church in Africa where women and men were truly in partnership.
These discussions were stimulating and thought provoking and challenged participants to think about their prejudices and to think clearly on how to empower each other in the building of the Kingdom.
The conversation continued on a field trip to Gaba Community Church in the afternoon.
Wednesday
It was ‘Women’s Day’ at the Gathering today. During the worship session, the men in the Gathering sang the song ‘Arise Shine for your Light has come and the glory of the Lord is risen upon you’ to the sisters in the group. It was affirming the place of women in the church, community and in the Gathering.
The session was led by Grace McLaren (USA) and Elizabeth Elior (Uganda).
The first speaker was an amazing woman from Rwanda. Jane Kanyange pastors a church she started from her ministry to the prostitutes in Kigali. Jane said in the Bible whenever God wanted to do something new, he looked for a woman to use. God is still looking for courageous and willing women to use. Jane’s ministry has faced a lot of resistance and criticism but Jane testifies of the grace of God if we only obey him and offer ourselves to do what he has led us to do. Her challenge was that everyone would have a willing heart, to be used of God and to show the love of Jesus in our communities.
Elizabeth Elior works for African Women Economic Policy Network (AWEPON), an organization that seeks to provide economic literacy by demystifying economics for all women to understand. Women need to be a part of the discussions that take place in the boardrooms. They need to be a part of the issues their husbands are grappling with. AWEPON is meeting the need to empower women to develop the economics of the household. She emphasized that economics really begins in the household and the power of the woman at the household level cannot be ignored.
She went on to explain what empowerment of women means – equal access to opportunities, respect for one another, the opportunity to negotiate with one another and practice their rights. Elizabeth challenged participants to think about the various roles of women and their invaluable support to men, she challenged men to appreciate these roles and support the women in their lives. She stressed that we all have a role to play in the empowerment of women and challenged the Gathering to reflect and contextualise our Christian teachings on what is happening in our families and communities.
Participants were given an opportunity to make comments after Elizabeth’s presentation. The conversation then continued in small groups and participants were able to discuss their understanding of empowerment, what questions they need to ask that could empower women to impact future generations and lastly what hopes and dreams of a post colonial church in Africa where women and men were truly in partnership.
These discussions were stimulating and thought provoking and challenged participants to think about their prejudices and to think clearly on how to empower each other in the building of the Kingdom.
The conversation continued on a field trip to Gaba Community Church in the afternoon.
posted by LukeMiller at 3:16 AM
1 Comments:
the New York City Emergent Village cohort is in unity with you on Women's day. Our monthly gathering this month and next month will focus on women in Christian leadership.
We have a woman who co-leads our cohort (along with another person who is not white:)
Through our work in a movement to protect people in danger of being deported out of America and back to their country of origin, we are working hard to build relationships with lots of people from different religious faiths and different traditions within Christianity. We should call it Amahoro New York City!
Keep us posted - let's hear comments from some of the participant's beyond our wonderful brother writing the posts! Come on people, get on the blog! Announce this from the front!
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