Adults

Women own only 1% of the world’s property.

Give 10p for each woman in your family who owns property, either jointly or by themselves.

Children

Today is International Women’s Day, when we celebrate all the good things that women bring to our world. But in today’s world, women are more likely than men to be poor and unable to read. We don’t think that’s fair. What do you think?

I think women are..... because.....

In 1986 I bought a house, a four year-old, two bedroomed, mid-terraced 'town house' at a price £18999, and I earned £720 cash-back for swift completion.  Two years later, at a time when interest rates soared to the point where I had to use all my limited savings to keep out of debt, I moved to a new town, about 80 miles away, and to a 1960's three bedroomed semi-detached house, with a sale price of £31,500 no offers and with prices rising by around £1000 a week.  In 1999 I sold that house for £41, 000 having, in the intervening years, spent more than the ten thousand difference in upgrading and maintaining it.  The notional profit was what I lived on the next four years, supplemented by gifts from friends, small grants for the BUGB and preaching fees.  There is no way I will ever again own property, but I am confident that I will never be homeless.  So whilst I am part of the 99% of women who do not own property, I have been privileged enough to be part of the 1%.

Using the same definition of 'family' as before - there are five women in my family of an age where property ownership would be feasible.  Only one owns property, so the cost today is 10p.

My pledge

Today - 10p

Total - £23.85, four prayers, one rant and one e-petition signed

Way back in the day, when I was 17, I became a member of the URC I attended.  Along with half a dozen others aged roughly 15 - 25, I attended a six week 'membership class' in which we talked about the essentials of Christian commitment as well as the responsibilities of Church Membership.  In those days, to be a Church Member was a privilege, not least in granting access to Communion and participation in the discernment process that is the Church Meeting.  Worshipping for a number of years in traditions without that congregational ecclesiology, I came to value it very highly indeed.  I am, a bit of a hard line, dyed in the wool believer in Church Membership and Communal Discernment.

Two problems with that! 

Firstly, my experiences over the last three decades mean that sometimes (often?) I lose sight of the relational, covenantal aspects of Membership and end up banging on about the fact that it is Members who carry the responsibilities for making ends meet, keeping the legal matters on track, etc etc.  It ends up as functional and dull.  Sometimes it is both of those.  Especially when you are a minister.  But it's only part of the picture.

Secondly, the world has changed.  People no longer view membership as a privilege, nor do they want all the hassle of the practical, legal, humdrum elements of it.  Some people baulk at making a faith declaration.  Some people are ideologically opposed on the bases that they see it as hierarchical or divisive.  Some people just think it's irrelevant.

In the thirty or so years I've been a member of various churches a lot has changed.  As well as opening their Tables, most, though by no means all, Baptist churches I have been a part of have opened their Church Meetings to non-members who are regular attenders.  At one point, it was precisely this possibility that helped me make my decision to join the church which would become my 'sending church'.  It was, though, clear that non-members were observers, and did not speak; there was a sense of privilege withheld unless/until I was willing to covenant to walk with these people.  Since then things have moved on further, often in a Church Meeting it is the non-members who raise interesting ideas or ask challenging questions - something that always leaves me in a bit of a quandary!  I love to hear these thoughts but am uneasy that (and I apologise to any one offended by this) the direction of a church is potentially driven by those who have not covenanted to it, and who don't carry the responsibilities of the, all too often silent, members.

At the Gathering Place, our Diaconate has been charged to have a good think about membership, and that's no bad thing.  I am open to being shown that there are other models that are more helpful than the current one, I'm even open to being convinced that I am wrong on some aspects, though not on others.

I would love to hear from any other Baptist or URC/Congregational readers, if you have found new ways of expressing membership that are effective and attractive without losing the core identity of the church as a "covenanted community of Baptised believers". 

Because the comment thing on here is so rubbish, I suggest you just leave a comment saying 'yes' and I will then email you privately to find out more.

Here's hoping for some interesting ideas!!

Adults

In India, tens of millions of women face discrimination and abuse for being single, divorced or widowed.
Pray for fair treatment for women everywhere.

I am fifty, single, straight and female.  I have experienced discrimination on the grounds of gender, marital status and age.  I have experienced sexual harassment in the (secular) workplace and inappropriate advances from married, male Christians, including ordained ministers.  It may be the case that under UK law women have rights, but it does not always translate in to lived experience.  I am not for a moment comparing my experiences with the horrendous injustices in other nations, rather I am noting that that it is a topic that resonates, and that this will shape my response.

Holy Spirit, Sophia, wisdom, you personify the feminie within the divine

Jesus, you compared yourself to a mother hen

God you are beyond any labels, yet you mother as well as father us...

We pray for the women of our world

In all their wonderful diversity

In the richness of their life experiences

We pray for justice so that

The single woman

The married woman

The divorced woman

The widowed woman

The educated woman

The illiterate woman

The straight woman

The gay woman

The X-Y woman

The by-surgery woman

The rich woman

The poor woman

The healthy woman

The sick woman

The dying woman

The mother woman

The childless woman

The warrior woman

The pacifist woman

The career woman

The homemaker woman

The woman with learning disabilities

The woman with physical disabilities

The woman with mental health concerns

The powerful woman

The powerless woman

Indeed

Every woman

May be treated fairly

And having discovered what that means

May share that experience with every child, man and woman

Until your justice reaches all people.

Amen.

My pledge

Today - one prayer

Total - £23.75, four prayers, one rant and one e-petition signed

I was searching online to find the equivalent words or phrases used in non-English languages for a specific expression, in readiness for Sunday's all agey bit.  In the process I stumbled on this fascinating page which allows you to read the Tower of Babel story in oodles of different languages, and so spot similarities and differences.  If you have a few minutes spare it's worth a quick gander!

Adults

Women make up 64% of the world’s illiterate.  Have a look at one of your bookshelves.  Give 10p for each book by a female author.

OK, so I have to begin with a pet grouse of mine... I dislike adjectives being used as nouns, especially when they are prefaced with the definite article.  I know it's a practice of which even Jesus appears guilty ('the poor will always be with you'; though to be pedantic ptokos IS a noun, and the distinction gets lost in translation) but in recent years I have come to appreciate, from some minority groups, how awful it is to be lumped together as an adjective "the disabled", "the disadvantaged" etc.  So 'the illiterate' makes me immediately think "the illiterate what?  cabbage? goldfish? ah... person".  I blame that ministerial college where I trained, it was them what got me into this habit!!  (As an aside, I always find the title "disabled toilet" disconcerting - I'd rather they supplied one that was functional...;-) )

So, back to the point in hand, and actually the little rant illustrates precisely the privilege of being a literate woman, able to determine meaning from squiggles on piece of paper.

As it happens, I am doing this at home, so the book shelves to hand are filled mostly with fiction.  Were I at church, and choosing to look at a shelf of theology books, I expect it would prove a cheaper day!  I have elected to use the top shelf of the bookcase in my living room, knowing, even before I do the count that there are nine Susan Howatch novels, two by Marilyn Robinson and one by Barbara Kingsolver up there...

Ulp!  No less than 21 books on that shelf are written by women, so that's £2.10.  For curiosity, I have picked another shelf where my old engineering text books are located and there is nothing written by a woman... maybe that of itself says something about access to education, gender stereotypes and societal norms?

My Pledge

Today - £2.10

Total - £23.75, three prayers, one rant and one e-petition signed