revmusings

This seems to be a week for feminist considerations:

I read a letter that went around to many churches and assumed that ministers were all male. This was an official letter and I hope it was a careless slip rather than a point being made. Nonetheless it upset and hurt me and a number of others from whom I have had e-mails over it.

I also find myself about to mark an essay on the naming of the Trinity as Father, Son and Spirit - a subject that continues to exercise my brain so I am looking forward to reading it. It is a struggle I sometimes avoid out of fear that there is no way around this naming that does not inherently end up with a male God....I don't want to follow Hampson out of the fold because I discover that Christianity is irretrivably patriarchal. In discussion with another female minister this week we commented on how the church is still subtly patriarchal and sexist in its language and reactions. I well remember a lecture at college where the lecturer commented, in answer to a question about how we see God through Jesus: 'Yes, If Jesus is a good bloke then God's a good bloke' - he was not making a gendered point but he did!

Tonight see I see there is a programme about Muslim women (BBC1 11.15 Ramadan series) where they discuss their faith. I had a wonderful discusion with a muslim woman yesterday who informed me she loved to pray at the mosque, never walked behind her husband and loved being British. Most of the women I come across are far from being cowed, feraful, obedient people. They are highly educated, free to live their lives and equal in marriage. Inevitably that's why I get to know them because they come to meetings and work. I do worry about the others who seem confined within a 'cultural' Islam that has little or nothing to do with the faith they practice - but then that's maybe Christianity's problem as well!