The ’95 Illuminations
“Does not wisdom call,
and does not understanding raise her voice?”
(Proverbs 8:1)
Presented by
VOICES OF SOPHIA
at the 207th Meeting of the
General Assembly
of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
July 16, 1995
[posted here 8-25-09]
The ’95
Illuminations
“Does not wisdom
call, and does not understanding raise her voice?” (Proverbs 8:1)
Voices of Sophia, to the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
and the larger Christian community: Grace and peace to all.
We are your sisters and brothers. being reformed by
God through the Spirit of the living Christ and bearing witness to the
need for love and justice in the church.
“Out of love for the truth and the desire to bring it
to light” (Luther), we present our ’95 (1995) theses as Illuminations, a
term used by the 12th century Christian mystic, Hildegaard of Bingen.
In the name of Jesus Christ, Wisdom of God, Sophia, we
call the church to repentance and transformation, to its truest self, to
the work of justice and compassion
Recognizing that these Illuminations reflect too few
voices of people of color, people who are economically disadvantaged.
other marginalized persons, and people from other traditions, we leave
space to symbolize the voices that are missing...
We invite conversation on these Illuminations with all
who affirm the full and equal humanity of women and men.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on our
Faith and Vision
“Write the vision;
make it plain on tablets so that a runner may read it.”
(Habakkuk 2:2)
We call the church to reclaim the long-silenced Sophia
language of our ancient biblical and theological tradition.
We affirm God-Sophia,
chokmah in Hebrew, Woman Wisdom present at the dawning of
creation (Prov. 8), who fashioned us in the image of the divine as women
and men.
We affirm Jesus-Sophia,
wisdom incarnate in the person of Jesus of Nazareth (Matt.11:18, Lk.
7:35, Lk. 11: 49, I Cor. 1:21-31), who liberates us for the work of love
and justice.
We affirm
Spirit-Sophia, God’s interpretive wisdom, indwelling, sustaining,
and enlivening us for community and relationship (I Cor.2: 1-13).
With wild abandonment, God-Sophia has opened within us
and the church deep wells of creativity and wholeness that promise
healing, challenge, and hope for the church and the world.
Convinced that Christ-Sophia is “making all things
new” (Rev. 21:5), we call our faith community to abandon its dependence
on hierarchy, to confess the sinfulness of patriarchy, and to embrace a
fresh understanding of the church as the discipleship community of
equals initiated by Jesus.
We call the church to embody and embrace
Spirit-Sophia’s transforming love by sharing power and decision-making,
by valuing each person’s experience in the community, and by developing
worship and theology that express the wonder, mystery and fullness of
God.
Inspired and guided by Christ-Sophia, we call the
church to let go of patriarchy and to work toward the elimination of the
attendant evils that it brings: poverty, hunger, oppression,
exploitation, domination, and violence.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on the
Inclusive Church
“There is no longer
Jew or Greek, there is no longer slave or free, there is no longer
male and female; for all of you are one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians
3:28)
In the radically inclusive spirit of Christ-Sophia, we
call the church to a new reformation, to practice equality of all
people, to reject dominating power, and to affirm equal opportunity for
the expression of diverse gifts within the discipleship community of
equals.
We call the church to welcome and celebrate the gifts
of all people: women, men, children, persons of all classes, races,
ethnicities, sexual orientations, abilities and families.
We call the church to continue to explore ecumenical
and interfaith partnerships as a sign of our interdependence and to join
with all people of faith who are engaged in the work of peace and
justice.
We join our voices and lives in the joy of Womenspirit
rising around the world, cherishing our future of worship and work
together.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on
Scripture
“Truly I tell you,
wherever the good news is proclaimed in the whole world, what she
has done will be told in remembrance of her.” (Mark 14:9)
We affirm that the Scriptures of the Old and New
Testaments are, by the holy Spirit, the unique and authoritative witness
to Jesus Christ in the church universal, and God’ s word to us (Form of
Government, G. 14.0405). We call the church to reclaim the centrality
and vitality of Scripture.
We call the church to acknowledge that Scripture
speaks to and through the diverse contexts and experiences of its
readers.
We call the church to celebrate the voices of
feminist. womanist, and mujerista scholars who are interpreting
Scripture in fresh, challenging and life-giving ways.
We call the church to acknowledge that standardizing
any one world view in the interpretation of Scripture distorts the
gospel and does violence to women and men.
We call the church to acknowledge and confess that for
too long the female imagery for God in Scripture has been suppressed and
marginalized in favor of male imagery which serves to legitimate
patriarchy.
We call the church to acknowledge that the
subordination of women and the violence against women found in Scripture
is testimony to the sinful consequences of patriarchy.
We call for truth-telling in the interpretation of
Scripture, including remembrance of the many named and unnamed women of
the Bible.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on
Language
“Wisdom has built
her house ... You that are simple, turn in here! To those without
sense she says, ‘Come, eat of my bread and drink of the wine I have
mixed.’ ” (Proverbs 9:1,4-5)
We affirm the power of language to reflect and shape
our understanding of Clod, of people, and of the world.
We affirm the policy of the Presbyterian Church
(U.S.A.) advocating the use of inclusive language: “the church is
committed to using language in such a way that all members of the
community of faith may recognize themselves to be included, addressed,
and equally cherished before God” (Directory of Worship, W.12005).
We call the church to acknowledge and confess that
exclusively make-centered concepts and language in worship, sacrament,
music, art, theology, preaching, and polity have kept the church captive
to patriarchy.
Since females and males are created in the image of
God, we call the church to confess that it has further confined our
limited understanding of God by using only one of these reflections of
the glory of God in worship.
We call the church to acknowledge and confess that it
participates in idolatry when it adheres to exclusively male images of
God.
We affirm the freedom of all people in the
discipleship community of equals, including women, to be innovative and
creative as they name God in their own forms of speech and actions.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on
Ministry
“So we, who are
many, are one body in Christ, and individually we are members of one
another.” (Romans 12:5)
In baptism, we put on Christ. We call the church to
value equally the gifts of all baptized persons, making none higher than
any other within the discipleship community of equals.
We call the church to acknowledge and confess the
fragmentation and pain caused when only a few people hold power and
exercise gifts.
We call the church to depend on the diverse gifts of
all Sophia’s children, to seek to be a non-hierarchical, egalitarian
community of equals.
We call the church not to exclude any group of
baptized persons from ordination and from full participation in the life
and ministry of the church.
We call the church to re-imagine the entire model of
ordination so that creative gifts for service may be loosed rather than
bound. Under wisdom’s influence, leadership means the empowerment of the
entire community, seeking out and attending to the voices of the
marginalized.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on
Sexuality and Spirituality
“Set me as a seal
upon your heart, as a seal upon your arm; for love is strong as
death, passion fierce as the grace.” (Song of Solomon 8:6)
Woe to you who perpetuate the dualism of mind and
spirit over body, who denigrate the body, who see sexuality solely as
genital behavior, and who fail to affirm the connections between
sexuality and spirituality.
Woe to you who fear diversity of gender and sexual
orientation and who turn your fear into abuse of the saints of God.
Woe to you who denigrate women’s bodies and seek to
control their actions, who deny women the freedom to make reproductive
decisions, particularly regarding abortion, and who fail to understand
the complexities of pregnancy.
Blessed are you who celebrate sexuality as a good gift
of God and who affirm the integrity of body and spirit.
Blessed are you who affirm the diversity of gender and
sexual orientation and who welcome diversity as enriching the human
community.
Blessed are you who recognize women as fully human,
who respect the moral agency of women to make decisions about their
reproductive lives, and who comfort and sustain them in this process.
Blessed are you who celebrate justice-loving
relationships of mutuality and commitment, who honor the substance
rather than the form of relationships, and who affirm the calls to
ministry and justice-loving relationships of persons of all sexual
orientations.
Blessed are you who are humble before the mystery of
human sexuality.
* * * * * * *
Illuminations on the
Fabric of Injustice
“For a long time I
have held my peace, I have kept still and restrained myself; now I
will cry out like a woman in labor, I will gasp and pant.” (Isaiah
42:14)
We demand that the church hear the pained and
long-silenced voices of women around the world.
We call the church to understand the connections
between all forms of injustice and to eliminate all burdens of
oppression.
We call the church to confess and to put an end to the
ways in which we perpetuate alienation from God and from one another by
granting privilege and status to some over others on the basis of
gender, race, class, age, sexual orientation, ability, religion, or
other category.
We call the church to be outraged at racism in the
church and in the world, to confess the sin of racism which pervades our
lives and institutions, and to work toward creating authentic community
where persons of every color can speak from the particularity of their
experience and enjoy the fullness of human life.
We call the church to secure economic justice for
women and their dependents, for economically powerless persons, and for
persons with physical, mental or emotional disabilities through policies
that guarantee quality health care, child care, educational and
employment opportunities.
We call the church to work to eliminate the imbalances
and injustices that produce poverty, famine, war, and the destruction of
creation.
We call the church to provide education and models for
living toward an equitable sharing of the world’s economic and natural
resources now and for generations to come.
We call the church to condemn all violence against
women including rape, harassment, mutilation, domestic assault. economic
injustice, and physical and psychological torture.
We call the church to demand an end to the abuse of
women’s spirit through demonizing, stereotyping, victimizing, and
scapegoating.
We call the church to be outraged over all forms of
violence and to confess that fear and hatred corrupt our lives,
dismember the church, and spoil the created world.
We call the church to advocate vigorously for an end
to violence as a method of resolving conflict between individuals,
families, groups, and nations.
We call the church to be outraged wherever human
beings or the earth is violated, and to be a non-violent community
working for justice, inclusiveness, and healing, so that the world might
become a safe place for all people of creation.
* * * * * * *
“Nevertheless,
wisdom is vindicated by all her children.” (Luke 7:35)
As daughters of Sophia we prophesy, as sons of
Sophia we dream dreams, and in our vision we call for all people to
share in the dance of liberation,
celebrating our
particularities and our oneness,
promoting peace and well-being among the global family,
sustaining hope, providing hospitality to all people,
delighting in the joy of play, promoting harmony with all creation.
and embodying love and justice in passionate living.
May Sophia bless and give wisdom and voice to all.
ABOUT VOICES OF
SOPHIA...is a community of woman and
men in the larger community of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) being
reformed by God through the Spirit of the living Christ, and working
toward the transformation of the church into a discipleship community of
equals in which:
* the gifts and voices of the laos form our
theology
and inform the directions we take;
* truth-telling in relation to the interpretation of
Scripture, tradition,
and human experience is essential to the community;
* we counteract the traditional absolutist and abusive
male images of God;
* we hear and value individuals’ stories;
* we provide a model for action throughout the church
as we claim our power and empower others;
* we stand with women and other marginalized persons
around the world,
including children, whose lives are crushed by
the burden of patriarchal systems;
* we
are open to ecumenical communities of similar purpose and to new ways of
being reformed by the wild and untamed Spirit.
Voices of Sophia is calling the church to responsible
theology, reclaiming the fullness of God’s image, embracing the
diversity of the world, and welcoming the voices of women as we enter
the 21st century.
Voices
of Sophia