BWC 3 - Empowering

Categories: uncategorized

Date: 02 August 2005 09:23:15

On a personal level I found the conference particularly empowering and also learnt a bit about empowerment, but on different levels. Here are some of the levels & more important some explanations of why.

TheBWA Congress bible studies were led by top speakers from around the world. On the Friday I went to Brenda Harewood from Guyana, who was top. She talked about the empowering that comes through the Holy Spirit in a way which I had never heard of before. She explained how it was the empowerment at Pentecost which allowed the believers to move from isolation and hiding into community and openess. She went on to point out it is when the Spirit is not strong we relate 2 others in fear and objectify each other, which then stops us finding solutions to ; & leads to things such as the situation in Somalia, the AIDs crisis. She said we need to be empowered through the Holy Spirit so we can bring Gods shalom to the world; where we are in a covenant relationship, to live by compassion shaped by justice, where we cannot be silent about the injustice around us and where we cannot sit on resources and allow others to suffer. (v. different to the personal - have a fluffy experience way it is often portrayed in this country).

I was also empowered by becoming aware of my Baptist heritage. Gary Nelson of Canadian Baptist Ministries talked very well about this a seminar on Where Will Baptists be in 100 years. He said that yes we are now in what can probably be discribed as a post-denominal situation, but our heritage & where we come from is still vital to understand our identity. During the conference as I heard about the opening BWA Congress in London in 1905 & other parts of our Baptist History I was able to see that the spirit of social action and non-conformity challenging oppression and bigotry I am so passionate about is part of the tradition of the denomination to which I have chosen to identify with. This has empowered me to be part of the continuation of this tradition.

Finally I was empowered about having confidence in my self-worth as a woman and to see the worth in other women (& men). Now, in this country feminism is often seen as no longer relevant (we are post-feminist) or still stereotyped in a way which only describes a small number of radical feminists.I had started to believe that bascially feminism wasn't really an issue any more, really. However through what was said at the Womens Celebration I realised that the underlying issues are still there in many situations.

Lauren Bethell who was given an award for her human rights work at the congress, spoke powerfully about the fact we need a peace and a renewed passion about who we are. The voice of insecurity, she said, is not Gods voice. It is from elsewhere that the view comes that who we are is based on success and looks, etc, etc. God says we are vauable no matter what; (created in his image). She continued that we are Gods beloved daughter however much we mess up and have to see ourselves with new eyes (Gods eyes) before we can see others through Gods eyes. She then talked about how she had worked with the abused and those involved in the sex trade and human traffiking. It was very moving, yet as I said empowering.

Also during the womens celebration the new president of the womens section of the BWA spoke, again an amazing and inspiring woman. Dorothy Selebano of South Africa (the new president of the womens section of the BWA) was amazing. The kind of thing that was being talked about is summerised on this part of the BWA website . Note the statement at the end of this link.