Upcoming Events: Generating Power

You’ve heard of the glass ceiling; you’ve probably heard of the stained glass ceiling (women excluded from church leadership). You’ve seen it in action. You’ve watched women get on the ballot, but lose to men. You’ve seen women side-by-side nominated for moderator both lose to a man nominated from the floor of Annual Conference. You see many women pastors – you probably have women ministers (you might be a woman in ministry!) yet you know there are districts where women are virtually excluded from pastoral ministry.

We live with a pandemic of patriarchy which elevates aggressive, egotistical masculinity, and scorns vulnerability and intuition, diagnosing them as “feminine” and weak. And we all get sick within these pressures.

We grieve that these diseases are flourishing in the Church of the Brethren. We put on our lab coats, pull out stethoscopes, and work to diagnose: what keeps women from getting nominated? What prevents women, BIPOC, LGBTQ and variously-abled people to respond YES to nominations? What blocks delegates from affirming these people’s call to leadership?

Diagnosis is elusive and we can get stuck trying to figure it out. We have identified a few problems that we are ready to help treat. And we see health and vitality that we are eager to celebrate. Our summer/fall line-up of events are treatment and celebration.