Women's tears, represented by water, were poured into a large bowl on
the altar at the start of a hearing on violence against women in the church.
The hearing — which included stories of rape, domestic beatings, sexual
trafficking and abusive employment practices — took place at the four-day
Ecumenical Decade Festival preceding the 8th assembly of the WCC in Harare.
More than 1000 women and about 30 men attended.
Pouring out her symbolic tears, the first woman said, "I bring the
tears of African women, of those who survived and those who never made
it. Our tears as victims of war and internal conflicts. Our
tears as women whose story was never told. Our tears as women, struggling
to survive because of international debts and global economic control."
A Canadian Anglican priest told of being sexually abused as a child
by her priest father. Later, after her parents forced her to join
a cult, she was forced to have sex with a young man designated by the cult
as her "husband".
"I did not refuse because I did not know what would happen if I did.
I call that rape," she said.
Male-dominated church structures abuse women by not taking seriously
their theology or their gifts, said Ada Maria Isasi-Diaz of the United
States.
"Women need to understand that God can be understood through women's
experience. Women's theologies simply reclaim that, as women, we
are made in the image of God," she said.
WCC general secretary Konrad Raiser, the only man on the podium, declared
the church "should not cover up the sickness any more".
"My final commitment is to work for and encourage a community of women
and men where the sin of violence against women can be confessed and the
healing power of forgiveness can be experienced," Raiser said.
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