The Multicultural Women’s Dialogue has been going on at Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago since 1992. Following are excerpts from a transcript of a reflecting on what group members had learned from their experiences together. There’s the pseudo assumption that because we’re women we share a common bond. But that’s not necessarily true. As […]

When I joined my congregation I found Sunday school for my children, a group for older women for my mother and a youth group for my teenagers. There was a choir, a men’s group, a group to plan trips for younger adults, and a nursery program. There were groups running soup kitchens and adult forums. […]

I am not presumptuous enough to assume that I can speak with authority on behalf of all Black women in the ELCA. I will, however, offer opinions that are based on experiences I have survived while being a Black woman in the ELCA. The opinions are also based on the experiences of other Black women […]

I just didn’t get it. I thought I did. I had strong female role models in my family, especially my mother and my spouse. I understood the story of Jesus and the Samaritan woman at the well. I had strong feminist colleagues in seminary where the issues were discussed at length. Thus, my self perception […]

“Does it ever bother you that the Bible was written by men?” My parishioner disclaimed the title of feminist, yet she asked the question. In the conversation that followed, I began to understand that what bothered her was not first of all the Bible and its authorship but the worship and practice of the church […]

I was reading the paper when the phone rang. The top half of the page, an article about conservative Christians, featured Phyllis Schlafly and Bay Buchanan, among others. Directly below, another article outlined the controversy surrounding placement of a statue in the US Capitol Building: Should it be moved not only out of the broom […]