VOLUME 74 NUMBER 12 DECEMBE publication. and reuse for required Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020. Copyright Detroit WHILE THE WHOLE [October] issue is ex- those keeping women dependent. cellent, the core of it all is expressed in Barbara M. Palmer James Boggs' "Making Over Motown." Utica,MI 1 BEGAN READING Witness with the let- Boggs says "We have to stop seeing the city [Ed. Note: I can only presume that this ters to the editor and thoroughly enjoyed as just a place to which you come to make a letter is precipitated by Barbara Palmer's them. My, my, what a fuss about homosexu- living. Instead we must start seeing it as the knowledge that, when I edited the Episco- ality! You would think, after all we have place where our humanity is enriched be- pal diocesan paper in Michigan, I pub- been through in the 20th century, stretching cause we have the opportunity to work and lished an award-winning article about an the rules to encompass fast divorces, abor- live in harmony with people of many differ- Operation Rescue maneuver. That article tions, autonomy, "healthy" greed and ro- ent ethnic and social backgrounds." gave an inside view, allowing participants bust competition amongst canines and homo- The photo of Poletown children is an icon to speak for themselves. It gave a mixed sapiens, that this trifle about fellow sexes of the agony and the potential of the Detroit portrait but was not a condemnation. bedding together would present no great neighborhoods. challenge. If Christianity is to wink at pre- There are other Witness readers who marital sex, teen experimentation, single BillMelnyk are concerned about my personal views on publication. motherhood and kinky married bedgames it Sewanee, TN abortion. There have been lengthy discus- sions among the ECPC board members and can surely put up with the gay community. Myself, though — I mean, for my part I am I'VE READ of your "Confession" issue and the contributing editors about the reuse rather glad Jesus isn't strolling around our [Sept. 1991 ]. I' ve even finished most of your issue. I understand that the policy of The for McDonald's parking lots these days. I have "Detroit" Issue. Witness has been to support a woman's a sneaky suspicion he'd give us all a good In a few minutes I'll be joining some legal right to abortion; I think it is also stiff kick in the butt, and go look for another neighbors in cleaning some empty lots to true that The Witness could do more to required planet. But as long as he's not around, we make a mini-park. We've bought a tractor- address the myriad of levels on which make of Christ what is comfortable to us... lawnmower with rototiller and snowblower abortion affects women. It is championed attachments. We hope to turn our neighbor- as a right, but can be experienced as an Your "meeting the challenge" editorial

Permission hood into a garden area while we also try to assault, further alienating women from was really superb. It is a poignant, gut- save some of the sturdy but empty homes in their bodies. There is clearly much more wrenching tribute to the city. It reminded me the neighborhood. to be said. I look forward to the many DFMS.

/ of the love I con- But, our efforts will be for naught unless conversations which will follow. ] ceived, as apres- there is a confession on the part of our chooler, for

Church country that our political system simply does Chicago, too. not work. How much can small neighbor- Funny how we 'Not religious' hood groups like ours save if the political fall in love with

Episcopal structures of city, state and nation continue cities, isn't it? THE WITNESS IS NOT ANGLICAN*. It is a to have policies aimed at making matters the They get into radical left, pagan, new age, feminist propa- of worse. your blood and ganda rag! However, as a conservative, they stay there. John Kavanaugh tradition, Bible Episcopalian [sic] I feel this Detroit, MI $20 is well worth it to keep up with the latest

Archives I very much enjoyed "Standing up to lies, non-Christian stances, and other aber- Death" and thought John the Baptist was rations of the radical left! 2020. excellent as a visual accompaniment to it. I Fred Blanton think I would challenge, however, his prem- Pro-Choice Fultondale, AL ise that street corruption is largely based in Operation Blockade Christians are cer- tainly not giving a loving Christian message Copyright sexual abuse. But it is a well done article. I wish I could find something redeeming in to intelligent caring by-standers. I could not 'Too religious' Blaise and Virginia's presentation of the help but think of that as I was willing to be [After six issues from Ambler and one "Swords" gallery, but Eric Mesko's work a Patient Escort at the Planned Parenthood from Detroit, Danielle LaGrange writes:] Clinic in Warren, Michigan yesterday. As a only reminded me of my worse housekeep- I WOULD LIKE TO CANCEL my sub- ing habits... follower of Jesus it pains me to see His name used as harassment against women who have scription to Witness magazine. I request a Dierdre Luzwick appointments for health care which is no- refund for those issues not received. Thank Cambridge, WI body's business but the woman and anyone you but I did not realize that religion was [Dierdre Luzwick's art appeared in the SHE wishes to confide in. the main topic of this magazine. I am not September and October issues of The Wit- interested. ness.] The Witness has been pro-choice, but cancel my subscription if you care only for Danielle LaGrange Camden, NY 2 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 • . publication. and reuse for required Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020.

Copyright Credit: Taize, Ateliers et Presses, 71250 Taize, France My soul magnifies the Lord, And your mercy is on those who fear you have filled the hungry with good and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, you things, for you have regarded the low estate of from generation to generation. and the rich you have sent empty away. your handmaiden. You have shown strength with your arm, You have helped your servant Israel, For behold, henceforth all generations you have scattered the proud in the in remembrance of your mercy, will call me blessed; imagination of their hearts, as you spoke to our fathers and moth- for you who are mighty have done you have put down the mighty from ers, great things for me, their thrones, to Abraham and Sarah and to their pos- and holy is your name. and exalted those of low degree terity for ever. Luke 1:46-55

THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 THE WITNESS Since 1917

Editor Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann Assistant Editor Marianne Arbogast Promotion Manager Marietta Jaeger Layout Artist Maria Catalfio Book Review Editor Bill Wylie-Kellermann Poetry Editor Gloria House Art Section Editors Virginia Maksymowicz and Blaise Tobia Contributing Editors Barbara C. Harris H. Coleman McGehee Carter Heyward j. Antonio Ramos Table of Contents James Lewis William W. Rankin publication. Manning Marable Walter Wink Features Departments and Publisher Episcopal Church Publishing Co. Dancing alone (poem)

reuse Letters ECPC BOARD OF DIRECTORS 8 Sting for

President John H.Burt Editorial: A woman required Chair William W. Rankin Facing the dragon in El clothed in sun Vice-Chair Nan Arrington Peete Salvador: an interview 9 Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann Secretary William R. MacKaye with Mirtala Lopez Treasurer Robert N. Eckersley Marianne Arbogast Permission Reginald G. Blaxton Christopher Bugbee Poetry: Alice Callaghan DFMS. 7 The Figure in Clay

/ Facing the dragon in Pamela W. Darling Mary Tall Mountain Andrew McThenia 10 Palestine, again

Church Douglas E. Theuner Katerina Whitley Seiichi Michael Yasutake 13 Short Takes

Episcopal THE WITNESS (ISSN0197-8896) is pub- Hope against the odds: lished monthly except Juiy/August by the an interview with Najat 12 Book Review of The Episcopal Church Publishing Com- Kafity pany. Editorial Office: 1249 Washington 20 Past Due Blvd., Suite 3115, Detroit, MI 48226- Kathy Ragsdale 1868. Telephone (313) 962-2650. THE Archives WITNESS is indexed in Religious and Holy women don't Theological Abstracts and the American 14 experience labor? 2020. O O Art and Society: Theological Library Association's Reli- Sarah Dunant gion Index One Periodicals. University Judy Chicago's Microfilms International, 300 North Zeeb Birth Project

Copyright Road, Ann Arbor, Ml 48106, reproduces Raising kids this publication in microform: microfiche 16 Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann and 16 mm or 35 mm film. Printed in U.S.A. Copyright 1991. SUBSCRIP- Witnesses: Josie and TIONS: $20 per year, $2.50 per copy. 23 Mariana Beecher Foreign subscriptions add $5 per year. CHANGE OF ADDRESS: Please advise of changes at least 6 weeks in advance. 1991 Index Include your label from the magazine and 25 send to: Subscription Dept., THE WIT- NESS, 1249 Washington Blvd., Suite Cover: Black Madonna, Betty LaDuke. Posters and cards are available through 3115, Detroit, Ml 48226-1868. Multicultural Images, 610 Long Way, Ashland, OR, 97520; (503) 482-4562. It is the policy of The Witness to use inclusive language whenever possible.

THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 A woman clothed in the sun and stars

And a great portent appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of 12 stars; she was with child and she cried out in her pangs of birth, in anguish for delivery. And another portent appeared in heaven; behold, a great red dragon, with seven

publication. heads and ten horns, and seven diadems upon his heads. His tail swept down a third of the stars of and heaven, and cast them to the earth. And the dragon reuse stood before the woman who was about to bear a for child, that he might devour her child when she brought it forth; she brought forth a male child, one required who is to rule all the nations with a rod of iron, but her child was caught up to God and to the throne, and the woman fled into the wilderness, where she Permission has a place prepared by God, in which to be nour- ished for 1,260 days. DFMS. / -- Rev. 12:1-6

Church o be such a woman. To be clothed in the beauty and power of nature. To be dressed in the sym- bols of earthly powers and rulers. To be honored Episcopal by God and with child. Is to be as we were the to be. In right order with God. Practicing dominion. Giving of birth to a child who likewise is called upon by God to interact with the powers and the rulers of this dark age for Archives our salvation. m The image of Mary has always been — to my detriment - The woman in sunlight credit: RMcGovern 2020. - one that is too tame and sanitized. She is perpetually vir- ginal. (See page 14.) But this woman in Revelation 12, on perience of laboring to deliver some God-infused part of the other hand, fascinates me. She is classically understood ourselves into a hostile climate. We also know the some- Copyright (by the Catholics at any rate) to be an image of Mary the times paralyzing fear that intrudes on our most heart-felt mother of God. But she is powerful and honored by God. work when the U.S. precipitates a Gulf War or when we She has dominion. All this while she is in labor, surrender- imagine a nuclear holocaust or when we feel the weight of ing to the onslaught of life that will come, assent or no. And those who starve to death each day in this world of ours. this woman takes this role even though, at her feet, there The dragon is real. We can feel his breath. We know the waits a dragon whose reason for being is to devour her child. dragon's cruelty and voracious hunger in the movements of All of us — whether we are parents or not — know the ex- imperial power and in personal cold anger and hatred. And within us is something waiting to be born, something Artist Robert McGovern lives and works in the Philadelphia area. God-given and sacred. Something small and frail and depend- Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann is the editor/publisher of The Witness. ent on us for its very blood and growth.

THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 5 And our lives, of course, are en- People felt empty when they imag- about God's "stag parties." He, keeping twined with those whose experience of ined arriving in the wasteland. Some the entirety of God locked into male the dragon may be more immediate — argued with God about the usurpation of identity. And me, having to work at not the mothers of Palestine, of South the child. Although, it was conceded, regretting my anatomy and my psyche. Africa, of El Salvador. that the child does in fact belong to God, I am grateful to the women who are For that reason this issue is dedi- so perhaps it is not an act of usurping at resurrecting Isis, because it gives me a cated to women who choose life in the all. chance to reconfigure my understanding face of maddening terror. Najat Kafity But it was in discussion of the love of a woman's body and courage. I am (whose husband is the bishop of Jerusa- even more grateful to the women who lem) speaks of her experiences in the are researching, dreaming and discover- Holy Land today (page 12). Mirtala All of us — whether we ing a history of women in the Old and Lopez and Sting depict the agony of the New Testaments. I hesitate and reserve mothers of the disappeared (pages 10 judgement on the images raised in the publication. are parents or not — and 11). Anne Finger, whose book Pas? new inclusive language texts, but I des- and Due is reviewed on page 22, writes in know the experience of perately need to hear those words and excruciating detail about birth and life imagine a sacred female force within reuse laboring to deliver for and disabilities and motherhood. As- God. sata Shakur writes of her disappoint- some God-infused part But I am uneasy also. ment and hope for her African-Ameri- Somehow it seems that people often required can child (page 19). of ourselves into a move very quickly from considering the This issue is intended to make Goddess to focussing on the Goddess graphic some visions of the dragon in hostile climate. within. In itself, I don't believe this is Permission our world today. (And it is understood inappropriate, but something nags at that the dragon is alive and well in all me, reminding me that God is also other.

DFMS. nations regardless of their politics.) The that God had for this woman that I felt God is magnificent in Her/His foreignness / issue is also intended to honor the particularly challenged. as well. Wild and untamed, God inter- woman who is in travail, who is groan- "Who is this woman?" I asked. venes in our lives in ways that can Church ing with creation and maybe even "The Goddess," a white-haired woman dethrone our internal goddesses and gods. dancing despite the odds. responded at once. And, in the end, that is a profound relief. A younger woman laughed with re- Episcopal It is comforting to me, and almost a It is humbling to know ourselves as lief, saying, "Thank you. Thank you for the surprise (which says unfortunate things creature not creator. It is the original of about Church teachings) that God cares saying that." lesson learned in the Garden of Eden. so much about the woman described in I felt the mixed feelings I always feel But there is something wonderful about Revelations 12. Her child is intended to when confronting the goddess image. being formed in love and created by Archives rule, but it is she who wears the stars and When I was pregnant, I wore a goddess someone other, whose responsibility, it

2020. sun and stands upon the moon. It is she, necklace around my neck; it was com- ultimately is that we live. not the child, who at this point in the forting to have a pendulously pregnant And it is a delight to sing praises to story stands face to face with the dragon. and rounded woman to hold onto as my that lively and sometimes unpredictable

Copyright And it is she for whom God has prepared own body changed. God who sees so much farther and moves a place. I know the goddess image holds some with such freedom through our lives. I had a chance to lead a workshop on antidote to my experience of the Chris- William Stringfellow, whom I love this text recently. tian faith. Where do I fit in a belief (Anthony Towne's limitations notwith- Most people characterized the dragon system that raises up a male God and His standing), said that the vocation of all as the predatory spirit of consumerism son? Where do I fit in a body of the creatures is to praise God. It is a joy to and militarism in our culture. They felt a faithful which as recently as 1966 made praise the Creator who brought us to desire to shelter the child from its dis- it possible for Anthony Towne (author birth and who cherishes us as we labor in torting, death-dealing values. Some even and companion of William Stringfellow) the face of the dragon. felt relief that the child was snatched to dismiss even the possibility that the Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann away by God. Holy Spirit might be female and to write 6 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 The Figure in Clay by Mary Randle TallMountain

Climbing the hill Now watching youin lamplight, publication. When it was time, I see scarlet berries and Among sunken gravehouses Ripened, I filled my fists with earth Your sunburned fingers plucking them reuse And coming down took river water, With hesitant words, for Blended it, With silence, Shaped you, a girl of clay From inmost space required Crouched in my palms I call you Mute asking Out of the clay. To be made complete. Permission It is time at last, Long afterward This dawn. DFMS. / I buried you deep among Stir. Wake. Rise. Painted masks. Glide gentle between my bones,

Church Yet you ride my plasma Grasp my heart. Now Like a platelet, Walk beside me. Feel Eldest kinswoman. How these winds move, the way Episcopal You cry to me through smoke These mornings breathe. the of Of tribal fires. Let me see you new I echo the primal voice, In this light. The drumming blood. Archives You-

2020. Through decades waiting Wrapped in brown, Your small shape remained Myself repeated In morning ritual Out of dark and different time. Copyright You danced through my brain, Clear and familiar. Telling of dim glacial time, Long perilous water-crossings, Wolf beasts Mary TallMountain is an Athabascan Indian poet, a Howling the polar night, mystic and a Roman Catholic. From The Sacred Snow flowers changing. Hoop, Paula Gunn Allen, Beacon Press, Boston,

THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 They Dance

by Sting

Why are these women here dancing on their own? Why is there this sadness in their eyes? publication. Why are the soldiers here and Their faces fixed like stone? I can't see what it is that they despise reuse They're dancing with the missing for They're dancing with the dead They dance with the invisible ones required Their anguish is unsaid They're dancing with their fathers They're dancing with their sons

Permission They're dancing with their husbands They dance alone They dance alone DFMS. / It's the only form of protest they're allowed Church I've seen their silent faces scream so loud If they were to speak these words Episcopal they'd go missing too the

of Another woman on the torture table what else can they do Mother of the disappeared credit: Robert Lentz, Bridge Building Images, Burlington, VT They're dancing with the missing Ella danzan con los desaparecidos One day the money's going to stop Archives They're dancing with the dead Ellas danzan con los muertos No wages for your torturers They dance with the invisible ones

2020. Ellas danzan con amores invisibles No budget for your guns Their anguish is unsaid Ellas danzan con silenciosa angistia Can you think of your own mother They're dancing with their fathers Danzan con sus padres Dancin' with her invisible son

Copyright They're dancing with their sons Danzan con sus hijos They're dancing with the missing They're dancing with their husbands Danzan con sus esposos They're dancing with the dead They dance alone They dance alone Ellas danzan solas They dance with the invisible ones Danzan solas Their anguish is unsaid One day we'll dance on their graves They're dancing with their fathers One day we'll sing our freedom Hey Mr. Pinochet They're dancing with their sons One day we'll laugh in our joy You've sown a bitter crop They're dancing with their husbands And we'll dance It's foreign money that supports you They dance alone They dance alone

Lyrics from Nothing like the Sun, A & M Records

THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 irtala Lopez is 22. Like communities. In the repopulated vil- Though most were released within many women her age, she lages, the organization has established three days, Lopez remained in jail for looks forward to having a education programs, health clinics, ag- four months. home and family of her ricultural training and crafts coopera- "Eight times, they put over my head a own. Unlike most, she has faced and tives. rubber hood filled with a powder that accepted the possibility that she may "The majority of the people living in causes asphyxiation," she said. "I was not live long enough. the repopulated communities are women beaten so badly, all my skin was bruised; In El Salvador, it is a risk all women and children, because their husbands you couldn't see my skin color. I still face. During El Salvador's 11-year civil and partners have been killed or disap- suffer internal injuries from the torture." war, 75,000 Salvadorans have been Since September 12 of this year, killed by the U.S.-funded military she has received four death threats or para-military death squads. Thou- signed by the Salvadoran Anti- sands more have been displaced Communist Front. She interprets publication. from their homes and villages. these as desperate actions by oppo- and Lopez lost her father and eight nents of the September peace ac- brothers and sisters in the war. cord signed by the government and reuse At the age of 11, she was forced the FMLN. for to flee her village with her seven- "There are people who are against months-pregnant mother. Her the accord because they profited required youngest sister was born in a refu- from the war and want to continue gee camp. profiting," she says. "There are Another sister gave birth, sur- | wealthy landholders who own over

Permission rounded by gunshots and explod- i 600 hectares of land, and the accord ing mortars, in the midst of a mili- I says no more than 240 hectares. tary attack. That sister was cap- " There are also sick minds, and [sec- DFMS. / tured, tortured and killed by a death tors of the military] who want to squad in the village of (Dulce demonstrate that they're the pri-

Church Nombre de Maria "The Sweet mary political force in the country. Name of Mary") when her son was "The accords are the product of two. The child now lives with his the struggle of the people," Lopez Episcopal grandmother. says, "but they're written on a piece the For Lopez, the risk is heightened of paper. Now we are coming to of by her commitment to another birth- what may be the most difficult part ing process: the struggle for justice for peared," Lopez says. "So there is a of the struggle."

Archives her people. special emphasis on the work of women, Lopez takes the death threats seri- At age 15, she joined with others in so women feel able to take on responsi- ously. But, she says, "my commitment 2020. her refugee camp to found CRIPDES, bility on all levels." to my people is stronger because of the the Christian Committee for Displaced For her efforts, Lopez has been jailed, threats. The war has been very cruel, but Persons in El Salvador. Today, she tortured, and threatened with death. it hasn't been enough to crush our hope Copyright coordinates its human rights and legal In April of 1989, she was arrested at in God and the construction of the king- assistance work, and serves as its repre- CRIPDES' head office with 63 others, dom of God we all struggle for. sentative to the Committee for the Na- including two mothers with three-day- "I want to have a home and family tional Debate for Peace, a Church-led old babies. and children and continue to work for coalition. "We were all put in one room," Lopez social justice and peace," she says. Risk CRIPDES has led the repopulation recalls. "People were beaten; we heard is "a normal part of our daily lives. I movement in El Salvador, assisting refu- children and women scream as they have been living it and I will continue to gees to return home and rebuild their were hit. They accused us of working live it. Fear is normal." But "I work Marianne Arbogast is assistant editor of for the FMLN [the Salvadoran popular based on faith in God. Our hearts be- The Witness. liberation movement]." come very strong." |D1 THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 9 think I have known them all for their children, I have wondered, that he might devour her child when she my life — their gestures of what gives these mothers the courage brought it forth." hopelessness, their smiles to have more children when they know while tears open grooves on the dangers, when many of them tremble East Jerusalem, their cheeks, the shrug of the shoulders to see them out of their sight? Living in Cathedral of St. George giving in to Fate—these mothers of pain camps, the essence of impermanence, Across the gate from St. George's in the Middle East. Whenever I have what gives them hope that this child Cathedral, the children, dressed in clean seen Palestinian women on television, will have a better life? clothes, their books strapped to their after a child has been arrested, after a Abla Nasser, mother of three young backs in backpacks in the fash- home has been bulldozed, I have ion of children everywhere, wanted to cry out, "Stop it. What arrive on foot or accompanied you are doing to her, you are by a grandfather in his flowing doing to me, and I can't stand kefiyeh; some are dropped off publication. it." And then I have hidden my by taxi or a private car. They and face in shame knowing that my are beautiful children, their faith has never been strong

reuse dark eyes shining, their mouths enough to endure the suffering for ready to break into huge grins. of my children, and I have As I photograph them, and they begged God to look at the agony give me the sign of intifada required of these mothers with compas- defiance, I think of their moth- sion; the whole time knowing ers. When they walk to school that none of this was enough, alone, how many are fearful Permission and that I was a spiritual cow- that these children may not ard. come back? How many hours

DFMS. before they hear that this exu- / "She was with child and she berant child, doing what his cried out in her pangs of birth, in friends do in the manner of

Church anguish for delivery." children everywhere, has thrown a stone at the IDF, only to be arrested and beaten? Episcopal East Jerusalem, the "When I send them off to of YMCA building school, I know anything can I stare at a picture of a mother Facing the dragon happen," a mother tells me. "I holding the photograph of her need to accept this. So I say to Archives daughter. The daughter wears them, 'Be careful! God be with

2020. an embroidered dress in the col- in Palestine, again you!' Their course is filled with ors of the Palestinian flag — red, danger. But we have to have green and black. For those col- By Katerina Katsarka Whitley courage when we see their fear,

Copyright ors she was shot through the because we cannot eliminate heart, Bill Warnock, of World Vision children and principal of the Friends' the cause." One of her sons threw a stone and an Episcopalian, tells me. School in Ramallah, offers as answer: after the intifada had begun. She sat him Ever since I have known Palestinian "We say in Arabic that each child born down and told him of the danger. But he women as persons of faith and passion brings his or her own survivability. didn't seem worried. How much can a God will not forsake the child. Chil- nine-year old understand of danger? Katerina Katsarka Whitley is editor of dren are a gift from God." Lifeline and does media work for the I asked Nasser, who is currently study- Presiding Bishop's Fund for World Relief. ing at Harvard, to tell me about the She recently visited Israel/Palestine. "And the dragon stood before the mothers who have lost children since the Lamya Shihadeh is a Palestinian American woman who was about to bear a child. intifada. What sustains them? who teaches school in Dearborn, MI. 1 0 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 "What can I say," she begins, her "Rizek," that is, her own son, the boy' s had no money." A kindly woman voice full of awe. "I don't know where father, "did not eat for days. He sat and opened a milk center and when this they get this courage. We go to offer cried. The mother and father, they ran young mother of six children went to our condolences to the mother, and she here and there saying help me, help me. drink one cup of milk and bring one comforts us\ You feel they must be full The boy, he was so thin when he came back for the children, they offered her of grief but they comfort us. You see, out. His clothes were on him 20 days. a job cleaning up. "Until I die, I'll the Moslems believe in fate and in (Even though) we gave clean clothes to never forget 1948. We had such a martyrs. The mother is happy that her the lawyer for him." hard time." child is in heaven." "Do you see a difference in Christian "She brought forth a male mothers then?" I ask her. child, one who is to rule all the "Christian mothers have a nations with a rod of iron." different approach alto- publication. gether," she says. "They too

and Nasser explains how diffi- are proud that the child gave cult it is to be honest and pro- himself for the land, but they reuse tective of the children at the for show deep grief." same time. These are the chil- "She brought forth a male dren who learn courage when child...but her child was caught required they are conceived, she says up to God and to God's throne, simply. Their childhood is and the woman fled into the without enjoyment and their wilderness..." adolescence has the additional Permission Grandmother Fadayel of burden of their claiming the Ramallah, remembering right to be liberators of their DFMS. / English she learned in mis- land. The Palestinian mothers sionary school over 40 years have to have courage to deal

Church ago speaks: "Fayek, my with this, because the chil- youth with stones credit: Lamya Shihadeh & r . Palestinian dren blame the parents for grandson was walking on the having acquiesced to the situ-

Episcopal main street and the IDF Pastor Fanous explains: "These ation. The additional burden of the people are not used to asking for help. the caught him, smacked him, bent his head, mother is that almost every family has of twisted his hand over his shoulders. I have to find out from others. They are a male jailed, shot, dead or exiled. They caught him about 11 and till 1:00 proud, they are not used to this." So I Then I ask her, hating myself for ask the grandmother about those early

Archives they have been running on the street doing so: "You know, the Israelis ac- with him. They took him to the tents days, in 1948 when Israel was created, cuse Palestinian mothers of hiding be-

2020. and put him in. They moved him in five when they were told to leave their homes hind your children, of endangering their different prisons. The boy was just walk- in Jaffa. "We left without nothing. They lives." I hear her sharp intake of breath, ing down the street. They said he threw told us it was only for two weeks..." But and for a while she is unable to speak. Copyright stones from afar but that he didn't hit it was permanent. "Oh, how can they say such a terrible anybody." The priest interrupts with a I try to imagine being thrown out of thing. How can any mother inflict pain bitter laugh, "That's what they always my home with babies in my arms and on her child? The Israelis too are human say; that's the reason for the arrest." nothing else. "How did you survive?" beings, they must feel the same way." The family were fined 1,000 shekels The memories show on her eloquent And there lies the crux. In this ter- ($200). "If we don't pay, they keep him face: "I had very hard time. My hus- rible conflict, in order to hate the en- another two months." Many children, band without work and I had six chil- emy, the other side sees him as less than knowing of their families' great finan- dren and all so small, and I was preg- human. Once you dehumanize the cial difficulties, ask the parents not to nant. I couldn't find a cup of milk to enemy, you can do anything you please. pay the fine. But how can parents stand drink, I had to sleep on a mat on the "I don't want them to hate," Abla says that? The grandmother continues: floor. The children wanted to eat, we of her children. |£J THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 1 1 Executive Secretary. Although Jerusalem had been famil- iar, "it was a new environment for us; Hope against the odds Jerusalem was occupied," Kafity ex- plained. "Military by different power, ajat Kafity considers her- ran to the car." different culture, different language. It self a sheltered Palestinian Seven years later, Kafity says they was painful to ask for a permit to be woman. With her husband, noticed troubling signs in Lebanon. The allowed to visit Jordan or to go abroad. the Bishop of Jerusalem, she civil war broke out with a vengeance in "There were lots of moments when it has lived in international compounds 1976. She and her family lived on the occurred to my mind to leave. This is not where her two daughters could play "so-called Muslim side" of Beirut and the quality of life I want for myself and with children from around the world - were subject to the Maronite attacks. my children. But it is not easy to uproot - they did not have to face the austerity publication. and the repression that is common for and Palestinian families in the occupied

reuse territories.

for But between the births of her first and second child, she lost the security she thought foundational. She had grown up required in Nablus. Although it was officially Jordanian, she understood it to be Pales- tinian. She attended an integrated school Permission which was primarily Muslim but in- cluded Christian Palestinians and one

DFMS. Samaritan Jew. Students shared their / traditions. Her father was an Anglican shop owner. Her extended family was Church close by. Yet, in 1967, Kafity was suddenly

Episcopal unable to nurse her second child. She was living in Beirut where her husband the of was serving an All Saints' Church. The Israelis had invaded the West Bank and Jerusalem. For three weeks they did not Archives know if their family members were alive

2020. or dead. "I couldn't nurse my child. I was so upset I got stomache aches. It was part of Jewish "women in black" in Israel vigil weekly against Israel's continued occupation of

Copyright the tension that we had. Gaza and the West Bank credit: Andrew Levin "In 1968 my parents decided to emi- "In March they began shelling indis- yourself. There is always this hope that grate to the States taking six children criminantly. We had two bombs in our things have got to change. with them. I only had a little of one day area — one on the first floor, the other "The Israeli soldiers cannot be happy to say goodbye to my mother. I didn't next door. My husband was at a confer- to do this. They probably would like to even want to kiss them. I was very mad. ence in America. I was alone with two get rid of the gun and live normally. I I just said goodbye from far away and kids. I remember the two children sleep- would look the soldiers in the eye and it's ing with me and hearing the shells and as if they would be saying, 'We are as Najat Kafity participated in a recent not knowing where they would hit." captive as you are.' You see the hearts telephone interview from Jerusalem with Kafity and her family returned to and arrows on their guns and you know Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann. Jerusalem when her husband became they are young people. 1 2 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 "I have watched those [Palestinians] Native Spirituality/ Politics to their own reasons for joining the military. who are out of prison. They are angry, Thousands of people identify with the VolunteerCandacePowlick said, "One angry that there is no jobs, no opportu- "New Age," or the "human potential of the most important aspects of the nity and people will not understand movement," which have ushered in a project was the humanization that takes them. They are asking about just things renaissance of awareness about Indian place when you talk to someone face- that any human being ought to have. spiritual practices. to-face. It was a real breakthrough in While using Indian spirituality to break They keep asking, 'What have we done? confronting stereotypes." out of the strictures of our contemporary We didn't cause the holocaust.'" For more information, contact: Armed lifestyles is clearly beneficial, it also But even in the face of anger, unre- Forces Listening Project, Rural Southern causes serious problems. For although mitting arrests, home destructions and Voice for Peace, 1898 Hannah Branch the New Age gleans the ancient wisdoms new Jewish settlements on increasingly Rd., Bumsville, NC 28714, (704) 675- and practices, it has assiduously avoided sparse Palestinian land, Kafity says women 5933. directly engaging in the actual lives and have continued to bear children. Nonviolent Activist9/9A political struggles of the millions of publication. "During intifada time, lots of women descendants who carry these ancient and bore children at the age of 40. It replaces traditions, of those who are still alive on Jesus & Church Investments the ones that are gone. It roots us in this the planet today, and who want to reuse land. Let's give these kids a foundation. continue living in a traditional manner. The General Synod of the Church of

for England has taken the Church's Let them stand on a land which is their ...In fact, if we ever became more commissioners to court for refusing to own land — not having soldiers coming personally engaged and let into our divest holdings in businesses with

required hearts and minds the full spectrum of at any moment to detain them or threaten holdings in South Africa. horrors that Indian people have faced, them or search their homes or go into In defending the commissioners and still face -- if we ever accepted that their schools." before the British High Court, attorney American corporate and military interests

Permission Recently when Kafity and her hus- Robert Walker contended that Jesus' and surely American commodity and advice in the Sermon on the Mount is band visited Haifa, they stopped at the technological visions drive the juggernaut home in which he had been raised, but an example of "Christian fecklessness...

DFMS. -- the pain of these realizations would

/ all very well for those seeking personal which his parents had been forced to be overwhelming. forfeit in 1948 when Israel was created. sanctity," but neither "permissible nor ...It is a fundamental tenet of Indian admirable" in a bureaucratic situation Church Samir Kafity moved out at the age of 13, perception that the spiritual aspect of suddenly a refugee. A 13-year-old involving life is inseparable from the economic stewardship Hungarian Jewish boy moved in with his and the political. No Indian person could of the Episcopal family and remains there. ever make the kind of split we wish to salaries, the "There are no words to describe that make for them. So why do we? pensions of the house is his [her husband's]. It's Jerry Mander, In the Absence of and housing painful to have to forget that those things the Sacred: The Failure of of present Technology and the Rise of the Indian Archives were ours. We must convince ourselves and future Nations, 1991, Sierra Club Books that that is final." generations 2020. Kafity referred to the then-upcoming of clergy. peace conference as a baby. The Christian Century, 10/30/91 "With every birth, people ask will the Confronting Stereotypes Copyright child be healthy or handicapped? Will The Rural Southern Voice for Peace in The Rich Got Richer the birth bring joy and peace or will we Bumsville, North Carolina is looking for be saddened by this baby? We are wait- people around the country to take part Between 1980 and 1989, the combined salaries of Americans in the $20,000- ing — very soon we are going to get the in their Armed Forces Listening Project. The Project began with interviews $50,000 income group rose 44 percent. baby and we want to see it. The combined salaries of people earning "We don't want the children to be with 36 active-duty Marines based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. They $1 million or more rose 2,184 percent. sucked up by this dragon and go through discussed topics ranging from The average wage of those in the what their parents went through. We conscientious objection, to solving under-$20,000 income category rose will be supportive of this new birth and international conflicts without violence, just 1.4 percent. somehow there is a seriousness." Ed Detroit Free Pressi 1/1/91 THEWITNESS DECEMBER 1991 1 3 Birthintinqg Women Beth S. Bailey

I sit with you as you labour in the ancient meaning of the work.

You shift and pant the baby's oceanic bath water dripping moistening the air with the powerful beckonings of publication. the sea and smells of spring soil odors that trail through my brain reuse

for invariably awakening vague primordial echoes of coming to life. required You kneel, and groan deeply with gravity's pull You squat. You pace swaying your body swollen with child

Permission the way a bush bows to the ground with its heavy burden of fragrant blooms. Holy women don't ] I am preparing to spend Christmas Day in pain. This is not DFMS. / I perch on the birthing stool you've restlessly some extreme aesthetic response to over-commercializa- abandoned tion, but rather a simple acknowledgement of the laws of Church near your kneeling breathing blowing breathing I nature. Because, according to the doctors, 25 December figure. is the date that I am due to give birth to my second baby. But once you start giving it some thought, the whole question of Episcopal My bottom sags loose my mouth forms an O the birth of Jesus is a fascinating one. I mean, there Mary was, alone the of and a deep resonant exhale involuntarily vibrates with Joseph in this meager little stable full of animals, with no downward midwife, no help of any sort — not even any hot water around. How as I am rocked in the wake of these birthing currents did she do it? Did God really give her an easy ride (a true miracle), Archives I suddenly long to be with you in drama, if not allowing her to recline on the straw muttering a few hallelujahs patience. before the baby popped painlessly out, or was it altogether a more 2020. convincing arrival? Did she perhaps take the stoic's way out, To squat low stepping out into the night, saying she would be gone for some time,

Copyright Opening our pelvises to the earth only to arrive back with a mewling, puking little bundle, the pla- And then to howl with labour's effort centa neatly buried under a fig tree? Or did she simply squat in the to Roll & Rumble with the force corner amid the cow dung with her blue and white robes tucked up To sing the babies home around her stomach, howling her pain while Joseph stood help- with that deep bass sound lessly by watching and wondering? , of women opening their bodies to another being In many circles, of course, such images are considered blasphe- like the crashing of the midnight surf like the encores mous. Early on, the Church plumped for the miracle version of of Sweet Honey in the Rock Sarah Dunant wrote a longer version of this article for a magazine of the BBC. like the mammas of millenniums past. Artist Judy Chicago coordinated The Birth Project (See page 22). The original is in full color. Beth Bailey works with midwifery in Alb., NM.

14 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 will tell you, through suffering comes redemption. Mar- tyrdom makes great copy, and in the final chapter of the death and resurrection, the agony of Christ is essential. In a million statues and Stations of the Cross, we are asked to immerse ourselves in it. The more blood, sweat and pain, the better. It is, after all, his suffering that gives life. So how about a little recognition of Mary's suffer- ing in giving him life? Does that count for nothing? Of course, I'm aware the question is naive. The exclusion of childbirth from the story of the Nativity hardly comes as any surprise. Christianity has always had trouble with the power (and especially the sexual- ity) of women, and to accept the suffering of Mary's publication. labor as an act worthy of contemplation would be to

and make her a very powerful figure indeed. In theological terms, the Church soon formulated what it considered to reuse be a convincing explanation for the notion of Mary's for pain-free birth. Since the agony of labor was viewed as God's punishment of Eve's rebellion, so the release of

required Mary from such torment was seen as a mark of her exceptional obedience. (The whole association of labor credit: Judy Chicago and sin was later given form in the Church of England

Permission ceremony of churching, whereby a woman who has given birth feel pain? by Sarah Dunant has to kneel at the church entrance to be made clean; a service that

eventsDFMS. , with no mess or naked loins but instead a neat and pain-free for centuries was common practice.) virgi/ n birth. Only two of the four Canonical Gospels bother to And yet, this refusal to acknowledge Mary's pain is still re- mention the actual event at all and even then it hardly gets headline markable. Because as anyone (man or woman) who has ever been treatmentChurch : "The time came for the baby to present can testify, childbirth is one of be born, and she gave birth to her first- Anything which connected the Nativity the few times — for many of us, perhaps born, a son" (Luke Ch. 2, v. 6,7) followed the only time — in human existence

Episcopal to the idea of blood and mess and by a swift gallop on to the shepherds, the when the connection between suffering the agony was whitewashed out. Which is

Wisof e Men and general rejoicing and won- and life is so meaningfully and exqui- der. In contrast, the Apocryphal or Gnos- interesting, because in every other sitely drawn. If there wasn' t a birth at the tic Gospels, written some time early AD, respect, when it comes to pain and end of it, labor would be quite literally go Archives into more detail, introducing the idea suffering, Christianity is not exactly an unbearable torture. But as it is, all the of the unbroken hymen as proof of a agony, all the mess, the blood and indig- 2020. a squeamish religion. virgin birth. By the eighth and ninth cen- nity are supremely worthwhile. That is turies, this had been fabulated into a wonderfully vivid tale about the exactly what makes it a transcendental experience, one where,

sassCopyright y midwife, Salome, who dared to question the miracle and ap- against all the odds, the physical gives way to the spiritual. And proached Mary to check, but whose hand withered as soon as she that is exactly why it is tragic that it should have been so came within a breath of the holy vagina. The message was clear. The assiduously expunged from the story of the Nativity. birth was God's and not Mary's work, and from then on art dutifully Either way, the result was the same. Unto us a child was born. followed orthodoxy. So this Christmas Eve, as you stand in the pew ready for Midnight In short, anything which connected the Nativity to the idea of real Mass, or cram the last of the presents into the children's stockings, birth, full of blood and mess and agony, had been whitewashed out. spare a thought for Mary, intent on God's work, in excruciating Which, if you come to think of it, is interesting. Because in every contractions and desperately trying to breathe her way over the other respect, when it comes to pain and suffering, Christianity is not mounting tidal waves of pain. Because, as any woman will tell exactly a squeamish religion. On the contrary, as any good Christian you, it couldn't have been done without her. Ed

THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 15 of the deaths of their children and hus- Raising children bands who had been abducted by the Contra. By Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann Part of me wanted to run, run from their unrelenting pain. I dreamed of a ometimes we worry about mothers chanting "Pack up your crack place to live where we could shut out the the way we are raising our and don't come back!" She knows four reality of our fractured world. children. houses on our block are burned out Children offer us such a bittersweet Our marriage is grounded because drug dealers act crazy. She has relationship to life. We'd like to buy any in a belief, both political and religious, stepped over the line twice with us when insurance to protect them from harm, that we are called to throw our weight we were protesting the presence of nu- from pain, from ugly hatred. Yet even as and our voices behind those whose voices clear weapons at a local air force base. we try to draw blinds between us and the are seldom heard. Lydia travelled in utero to Nicaragua world, attempting to lock the joy of our publication. For that reason, we are both writers. when we joined a Witness for Peace family within our own walls, we're and For that reason, we have both spent time delegation. Her presence within me pit- suddenly in tears over a headline that in jail, in war-torn countries and in ted my motherly desire to protect her at announces that someone else's child is in reuse

for Detroit. all costs in seeming tension with the trouble. It was only when I got pregnant Our five-year-old joins Detroit grand- cries of the mothers we met who spoke that I began to cry regularly when I read required Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020. Copyright

Lydia, then 3, waves goodbye to her father after he's arrested for prayerfully trespassing at Williams International, a local manufacturer of engines for nuclear missiles. credit: Rebecca Cook 1 6 THEWITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 the newspaper. All that I love and the love that others hold seems so fragile. But if being human means knowing that we are connected to one another and if joy revolves around our ability to rec- ognize each other's pain and delight as our own, then I'd like our daughter to meet Dorothy Garner and hear her yell "Thank you, Jesus" when a crack house is dismantled by the hands of people who live nearby. I want Lydia to learn to play with the children of the Mothers of the Heroes and Martyrs, dancing out a child's publication. hope in the face of war. and In the summer of 1990, Bill and I were invited by Stew Wood, Bishop of reuse Michigan, to Israel and the occupied for territories. We agonized, finally deciding to leave required our then 4-year-old home with her grand- Lucy is held by Palestinian women in Gaza City. credit: Andrew Levin mother, aunt and cousins, while we took look to us for recognition. She was a her baby sister with us to the Middle would shriek with joy before the van living counterpoint to the pain and a came to a stop. She would cry out to the Permission East. reminder of the kind of world we seek. children and they in turn would surround The interfaith delegation we travelled Lucy was passed from lap to lap. She her, reaching out to touch her blonde hair,

DFMS. with was receptive to Lucy's presence, / became a refuge for people who were her hands, her face. Mothers would look although a few people gently asked why either overwhelmed emotionally or too at me from behind their veils; we could we'd subject a baby to the rigors of a

Church fatigued. Periodically, someone in our sense the difference in our cultures and human rights tour in a hot, arid country group would scoop our lifestyles, but we where pain is a staple. Lucy up and carry also knew in our We added a portable crib, diapers and Episcopal her out of a meet- As we struggled (in Israel/ bones what it felt like dehydrated vegetables to our luggage. the ing and onto the Palestine) with justice to hold and nurse of And in no time, Lucy won the hearts of street where she your child and that everyone on the delegation. When a would crow with issues and fought the para- knowledge travelled Palestinian American complained that between us like an

Archives delight at children Israel's holocaust memorial is built on meters in our own psyches playing or the ap- electric shock. land confiscated from the Palestinians 2020. proach of a donkey which call one people We had been fore- and that therefore she could not visit it, wagon. warned that people Jewish members of our delegation winced As we struggled victim or oppressor, Lucy in the camps in Gaza

Copyright with pain. The history of deep wounds with justice issues and the West Bank and land rights, the deaths of people's showed an equanimity that and fought the para- were weary of west- family members flamed before us. Just meters in our own was stunning. erners who come to then, Lucy would call out or pull herself psyches which call stare at the squalor up against someone's leg. She would one people victim or oppressor, Lucy in which they must live. But Lucy broke Photographer Rebecca Cook works in showed an equanimity that was stun- down that dynamic, offering the resi- Detroit. Photographer Andrew Levin is the ning. Anyone who jingled keys or dents an eager, upturned face and hands Midwest Coordinator of the Jewish Peace clicked their tongues spoke her lan- that reached for theirs. In many ways she Lobby and lives in Ann Arbor, MI. guage and she beamed. became a way of offering our hearts to Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann is the editor/ those we visited in that disputed land. publisher of The Witness. When we visited refugee camps, Lucy

THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 1 7 When soldiers fired a tear gas canis- fence. They were made to stay the night knew if those taken were alive or dead. ter at boys throwing stones, we had to and warned that anyone else with the The only thing that kept the women sane, flee. We had been told that tear gas same curiosity would be made a perma- Chakour wrote, was that the children still could be very harmful if not lethal to a nent resident. And yet for decades we needed food. Someone must plant and baby. Our driver threw the van into have all wondered what difference might harvest and prepare food. For these little reverse and drove to the other side of have been made, which lives might have ones, whose loss did not translate into the camp. We had wet washcloths ready been saved, had those townspeople torn vacant stares and madness, for these little to put over her face if she was affected down the walls brick by brick. ones who still asked to eat, the mothers by the tear gas. In our air conditioned maintained life. van, she was safe. But even on the other For our daughters and the children side of the market, women shopping and parents of the world, we are attempt- raised their veils over their noses to ing to continue planting and harvesting, protect themselves. I found myself writing and travelling, living and pro- publication. weeping for the concerns they must testing in a way that offers hope. and have for their children. I worry that our five-year-old knows We did visit Yad Vashem, the Jew- reuse too much about the world. I wanted to cry ish holocaust memorial in Israel. I was for when I curled next to her on the floor of awed by the silence and the space. I was our bedroom where she had chosen to disoriented in the dark, high hall lit nap below the window, and Lydia said, required with pinpoint lights — one for each "It's nice here Mommy. No one can child killed in the concentration camps. shoot you." She carries issues of justice But when I walked through the dis- in her heart which are too heavy for the Permission play of children's art, I became unable grownups in this world. to breathe. Holding Lucy against my chest, I looked at drawings of a mother Yet we can offer our daughters the DFMS. / dead on the floor and soldiers standing company of people of great courage. The above her. I looked at a self-portrait of Mothers of the Disappeared, the elderly Church a young boy, mouth open screaming Jewish couple at Yad Vashem, the moth- "Where is mommy?" And neatly, next ers in Palestinian refugee camps, the to each drawing, is printed the date grandmothers challenging Crack, a Episcopal when the child artist was executed. couple in Germany vigilling for peace the outside the military installations which Staggering through the historical sec- At the Jewish holocaust memorial in of surround them, and a host of friends who tion of the museum and its enormous Israel, this faceless mother stands weeping over the stones commemorating her have prayerfully resisted nuclear weap- photographs of starved children and children. ons and U.S. military interventions Archives corpses piled in wagons, I felt over- around the world. whelmed with horror. I was abruptly I cannot promise my children pros- 2020. brought back to reality when I realized perity. I cannot promise them health or There is in the eyes of these people a an older Jewish couple was holding a lifetime of privilege in a first world joy and a promise. They do not pretend hands with my little daughter. "Nice country. I can't even promise them that that there is no pain. They are lifting Copyright child," they were saying, "How old is the random gunfire between cars on the themselves over the walls of the concen- she?" For that one minute, Lucy of- freeway or in fast food restaurants won't tration camps of this decade and they fered a respite from the horror. She was someday touch our lives. Too many may pay a price for that, but they are a tiny bit of sanity in that hall; a tiny other lives have been rent with loss and doing it in the name of freedom and they piece of humanity that makes us will- unspeakable pain for me to practice denial are doing it for the children. ing to work to preserve life. in the face of it. If I cannot eradicate the pain of the Bill has a copy of a newspaper ar- Elias Chakour, a Palestinian priest, world or insulate my family from it, at ticle posted in the Dachau camp. In it, wrote of the trauma his village suffered least I can offer them the company of the gestapo warn townspeople that a in 1948 when the men were arrested by people such as these. They are our best couple was caught peering over the Israeli soldiers and taken away. No one security. raw 1 8 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 To My Daughter Kakuya by Assata Shakur i have shabby dreams for you i can hear laughter, of some vague freedom not grown from ridicule. i have never known. And words, not prompted by ego or greed or jealousy. Baby, i don't want you hungry or thirsty i see a world where hatred or out in the cold. has been replaced by love, And i don't want the frost and ME replaced by WE. publication. to kill your fruit and before it ripens. And i can see a world where you, reuse i can see a sunny place- building and exploring, for Life exploding green, strong and fulfilled, i can see your bright, bronze skin will understand.

required at ease with all the flowers and go beyond and the centipedes. my little shabby dreams.

Permission Assata: An Autobiography, Lawrence & Co., Westport, CN, 1987 Assata Shakur, a Black Panther, gave birth to her child in prison. DFMS.

/ credit: Eleanor Mills

Church Advent's invitation by Penelope Duckworth Episcopal the Not long ago at the Catholic Worker goodnight?" This time she said she would; we look out and see imprinted on the of Infant House in Redwood City, a shelter she would remember him each night, world the face of a dragon that will try to for battered children, a small boy of and she would carry him in her heart. devour us and any new life we may

Archives about five was to be placed in a foster This story illustrates what is being bring. But there are other powers that, home. The woman who runs the house asked of us this Advent. in the wild logic of God, come to our aid; 2020. was walking him out to the car to meet powers of love and hope and gentleness. his new foster parents when the boy, Christ is once more coming into the The Christ child asks us, again and who had grown to feel very secure in his world. But he does not come into a again, "Will you carry me? Will you Copyright time at the shelter, said to her, "Will you Christmas-card world of gentle beasts carry me in your heart? Will you carry carry me?" The woman reached down and hovering angels. He comes into a me and remember to kiss me goodnight?" to reassure him and said she thought he world as war-torn and as unjust as the Let us respond with Mary and pray that was getting a little too big to be carried. one he originally entered almost 21 our souls will also magnify the Lord and The boy responded by saying, "I mean centuries ago. carry Christ, bringing him into the world in your heart." The woman was sur- But Christ will come because there in even these dark and troubled times. prised that the small child spoke so are some courageous enough to look figuratively and told him that she cer- death in the eye and still push for new Adapted from a sermon by Penelope tainly would. As he got nearer the car he life. Like a child, Christ looks for us to Duckworth, Episcopal chaplain, Stan- said, "Will you remember to kiss me help. "Will you carry me?" he asks, and ford University, CA.

THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 1 9 delivery, hoping to screen out bombs sent by "right-to-lifers" (read: domestic Living in hard places terrorists). She helps the teenager who showed up late (apparently because she by Katherine Hancock Ragsdale was caring for a house full of siblings) and the woman who is only pretending Past Due: A Story of Disability, Preg- plex, and cruel to get an abortion she nancy and Birth by Anne Finger. Seal irony is a regular doesn' t want but her Press, Seattle, WA, March, 1990. companion. One "/ wasn 't born disabled boyfriend is trying gets the feeling but had polio when I was to force her to have. Hike living in hard places. Well, I'm that in coming to Every day at the not so sure I like it: I just seem to find terms with that three years old. I believe clinic I confronted myself there a lot (p. 59) reality early in her what it meant to have publication. life, Finger has ob- very strongly that we have some control over and I nne Finger knows something tained some wis- to protect the lives of our wombs and less about dragons. As a woman dom about the control over our reuse with a physical disability, a world. disabled infants. [Yet] social circum- for | worker in an abortion clinic, At age three stances. You can and a writer and activist, Finger has Finger had polio. when I was a child in the decide to no longer required seen the dragon's faces in her own life, As a child she used hospital I was subjected be pregnant... but in the lives of other individuals, and in crutches and braces you can't decide not society at large. In Past Due the reader and had "surgery to things that were to be poor anymore,

Permission sees those faces through Finger's eyes. so many times that or to have support Past Due is a deeply personal chronicle when someone asks inhumane ..." so you can finish school, or to have a

DFMS. of one woman's decision to bear a child me how often, I

/ Barbara says, "If you had in a dangerous world, of her pregnancy always have to partner who wants count the thick cat- been my child, I would to raise a child with Church erpillar scars that you.(p. 55) crawl up my legs to have killed you before I let And she remem- figure it out" (pp. bers, and is re- Episcopal 11-12). As a teen that happen ..." minded, how much the of she walked home My heart stops, (p. 33) worse it used to be from high-school and could be again. every day, pushing herself to the edge When encountering big dragons face- Archives and her dreams, of a difficult birth and of collapse in order to force her legs to to-face human instinct is not so different her child's precarious start in life. Pre- do more. At age 29 she first read about from puppy instinct; roll over — belly 2020. cisely because it is so personal it is also post-polio respiratory problems and pre- up, neck exposed — and hope, by surren- profoundly political. Finger refuses to mature aging. She read that the aggres- dering, to be allowed to live. Finger has accept easy outs — consequently, her seen that instinct in action, too: Copyright sive rehabilitative techniques of a quar- readers are required to search for some- ter century earlier may have damaged A few women told me, when it was thing more than easy answers. already weakened nerves, leading to a over, that they understood how the "right In this book the answers are never host of problems in middle age. to life" felt, or that abortion shouldn't easy, the problems never less than com- At the Feminist Women's Health be legal. (Save me from my power, save Center, where she works on Saturdays, me from control over my life. Give me a she regularly makes her way past pro- father-state to tell me what I must do and Katherine Ragsdale is the advocacy coordi- can't do. Give me answers cast in nator in the Women in Mission and Ministry testers who harass already vulnerable Office at the Episcopal Church Center and clients and accuse Finger of killing ba- stone.Xp. 52) vice president of the Religious Coalition for bies. She checks to make sure UPS Finger, however, refuses to surrender Abortion Rights. packages are expected before accepting her power to the state, to the medical 2 0 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 establishment, to her own disability, or has more reason than most to distrust threat of brain damage and subsequent to politically correct, but not adequately doctors and medical technology, finds disability. The tempting surrender to thought out, answers. As she allows us to that she doesn't really believe what her easy answers now involves blame. Is the see what that refusal to surrender means body has told her — that she is pregnant possible brain damage due to the way in her own life, we are forcefully re- — until a medical laboratory confirms it. the doctors handled the delivery after minded how much is at stake for us all. Thinking about having a baby is hard. she arrived in the hospital? Or is it be- Perhaps the most daunt- cause the midwife missed ing aspect of each of the her cues and waited until issues raised in this book, too late to move them to the thing that most feeds the the hospital? Or perhaps temptation to roll over and it's Finger's fault for whimper for easy answers, trying a home delivery in is the complexity of the the first place. publication. questions. There are no easy an-

and Thinking about repro- swers here. No easy outs ductive technology is hard in making decisions or as- reuse for feminists... If we believe signing blame. There is for in the right of women not to solidarity in the struggle, have children, then do we acceptance of ambiguity

required have to support the right of and uncertainty, and reaf- women to have children?... firmation of the need for What about the fact that the vigilant and thoughtful unequal distribution of re- participation in the politi- Permission sources within our society cal life of our communi- often means that middle- ties. There is also cour- DFMS. / class women will have so- age, resolve, and humor phisticated medical tech- in the face of dragons.

Church niques available to them, Past Due is a good read. while poor women will It made me laugh often. struggle to get basic medi- We have to be trained Episcopal cal care? Can we get access credit: Bettv LaDuke in CPR, so we can resus- the to these technologies without increasing If she really believes what she says about citate Max if he stops breathing. They of medical domination over women's bod- the value of disabled persons' lives, why can't find the English version of the ies? (p. 44) does she want so badly to have a "per- CPR videotape, so they show us the

Archives And what about choosing not to have fect" baby? And what about the effects Spanish one, even though neither of us a child because it would be born dis- of the pregnancy on her? knows Spanish. If Max's alarm goes off 2020. abled? Especially if you're disabled Being post-polio and pregnant was we are to shout Ayuda! Ayuda! yourself. Which disabilities are too much somewhat like dealing with the discom- It made me cry often. to cope with? Have you sufficient humil- forts of pregnancy and the discomforts of [As a child] I had five more opera- Copyright ity to allow another to draw her line else- old age at the same time. This must be tions. I didn 't walk any better after all of where? how the biblical Sarah felt, pregnant at them than I had before. Yet the surgeon Thinking about health care is hard, ninety with Isaac." (p. 81) had done a "beautiful job" I heard of- too. The medical establishment is often Making the hard decisions doesn't ten... He used seven clumsy stitches to (even usually) arrogant and unrespon- necessarily remove the dragons. After a suture up a five inch long incision... It sive, seeing patients as diseases to cure long and difficult labor, Finger's plans was as if he wrote on my body: Ugly. or injuries to fix rather than as people to for a midwife assisted home birth are Piece of junk. Ruined. Doesn 't matter.' care for. Unnecessary surgery is the norm, abandoned and she is rushed to the hos- (p. 68) " especially for women, e.g. hysterecto- pital where her large (and late) son is But most of all, it made me think — mies and Caesareans. Yet Finger, who delivered in critical condition with the always. uui THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 2 1 Birth Project, a series of approximately 100 needlework images about childbirth Judy Chicago: birthing art created by over 150 women from the by Blaise Tobia & Virginia Maksymowicz United States, Canada and New Zealand. While Western art has a healthy share of udy Chicago's approach to work within a community to help that madonna-and-child images, there have art challenges conventional community give powerful expression been virtually no representations of birth notions not just of the art- to its vital beliefs and concerns. itself. By her design of an artwork that work, but of the artist as Chicago's first large-scale project, describes not only the joy of childbirth, H but also its violence, its pain, and the well. Rather than working alone, in The Dinner Party, completed in the late isolation from society, and cultivating 1970s, required the assistance of a large conflicting emotions the process can an identity as a "genius" or an "eccen- group of women in many capacities, engender, she hopes to challenge the tric," she is very much part of the world including researchers, expert ceramists, prevailing creation myths that led to such publication. and prides herself on her ability to embroiderers, and others. Its scale (39 an omission. "The idea that a male god and organize hundreds of women to col- large ceramic plates and embroidered created man is such a reversal of the laborate on monumental art installa- place settings on a massive triangular reality of how life comes forth!" she said reuse tions about issues that affect their lives. table) and boldness in seeking to sym- in an interview with the New York Times. for She sees the artist as someone who can bolize the enormous contribution of Men are often put off by the graphic women to our civilization drew a great images that Chicago and her co-workers required amount of attention. The Dinner Party have created. The husband of one needle- still evokes a mixture of responses from worker called it pornography. But many admiration to outright disdain for its of the women who see The Birth Project

Permission blatantly female imagery. are impressed with its beauty and its Even more controversial has been pain, and, more importantly, with the essential truth of its imagery. The women DFMS. Chicago's second large-scale work, The / who donated their time and their skills (not always without conflict — artistic

Church collaboration, with its clashes of vision, can be a tough process) appreciate the way in which their traditional "women's" Episcopal crafts, like needlework, can be made to the function as a powerful form of communi- of cation. Judy Chicago's next exhibit is sched-

Archives uled to open at the Spertus Museum in Chicago, Illinois in 1993. Called the 2020. Holocaust Project, it is another grand installation combining tapestry, stained glass, painting and photography, designed Copyright in conjunction with her husband, photog- rapher Donald Woodman. Chicago and Woodman hope to extend the concept of the Jewish holocaust to include a consid- eration of all those who have been vic- timized by historic events. More information about Judy Chi- cago's work can be obtained by contact- ing the Through the Flower Foundation, P.O. Box 8138, Santa Fe, NM, 87504.

2 2 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 r publication. and reuse for required Permission DFMS. / Church Episcopal the of Archives 2020. Copyright

X just weathered a military attack. "I debated whether to take Mariana Mother and child team with me. But she had always gone with me and the people there loved her. She ariana Beecher was four- "I had expected her to say something would come into the camp and have 100 years-old when she and her about sin and she did although she never little kids running after her. I knew that mother were arrested by the mentioned the word," Beecher said. if I came without Mariana the people in Salvadoran military. Her Mariana said something about sin the camp would know that I was scared. mother, Josie, was working for Venture when she was a four-year-old under ar- On the other hand, I was real nervous in Mission, serving an Episcopal parish rest too. When the soldiers attempted to about bringing my kid into that situation. in San Salvador. They still live in El segregate the Beechers from five of their I ultimately decided to take her because Salvador, although Josie Beecher now we're kind of a team. works for the Lutherans because the "As I drove in, they were publication. Episcopal Church considered the work saying mass and a refugee was and too dangerous for a mother and child. reading the story of Abraham "I'd do everything possible to keep and Isaac. The point to me was reuse my child safe," Beecher said. "But that God asks us for everything, for because she's important to me, I want for that which is most dear to her to understand about the issues of us. If we give completely and required justice that are so fundamental. I don't trust completely then we're want to send her off to boarding school going to be okay. That lesson so that she doesn't see anything ugly or has come back to me over and

Permission unpleasant. I want her to see the beauty over again. I'm not whole with- and things that can go wrong." out my daughter, so if I' m there to be God's servant and to wit- DFMS. / ness to my faith then it has to be the whole of me."

Church Mariana and Josie Beecher spent six months in the U.S. in 1990, recovering from Josie Episcopal Beecher's second arrest during the which her life was threatened of Mariana, now 7, attends a Roman Josie and Mariana Beecher during their recent visit to and she was accused of aiding the U.S. "I want her to see the beauty and the things Catholic school for Salvadoran kids in that can go wrong," Josie Beecher says. the popular resistance to the Archives San Salvador. She's completely bilin- U.S.-supported government in gual. Last Ash Wednesday, Josie Salvadoran neighbors, "Mariana started El Salvador. 2020. Beecher wondered what her daughter screaming, 'You can't separate me from (On that occasion, since Beecher was would be taught about sin. my friends,'" Beecher says. Later when able to anticipate the arrest — it followed Mariana came home with a cross on on the heels of the murder of the Jesuits

Copyright the soldiers were interrogating one of the her forehead and explained to her mother mothers and yelling at her, "Mariana — Mariana was safely housed with the that it is wrong that people don't have climbed up on Martha's lap and they Baptists.) houses and don't have enough to eat. stopped. That came about because she When Josie Beecher decided to return Mariana added that we have to work so loved and cared about those people too," to El Salvador, the Episcopal Church re- that will change. Beecher said. fused to send her back. It has not been easy deciding how best "They were very concerned about my daughter and about me," Beecher ex- Josie Beecher participated in a phone to live with her daughter and her faith. interview with Jeanie Wylie-Kellermann Beecher says when she was first in El plained. But feeling a calling from God (editor/publisher of The Witness) while in the Salvador she was asked to relieve Church to return, she did so under the auspices of Diocese of Washington this Fall. workers helping a community that had the Lutherans. She now works for the

2 4 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 Christian Committee for the Displaced. Josie Beecher says her work with Mendardo Gomez, the Lutheran bishop 1991 Index in El Salvador, is deepened by the fact that she is a parent. He also has children Ambidge, Chris Sexism, racism and Phoenix: A painful Exiles of the 'crying room' 2/91 p. 20-21 struggle around change 6/91 pp. 6-8 and weighs their safety against his Arbogast, Marianne Day, Sam commitment. Civilian-based defense [Gene Sharp] 11/91 On becoming blind 7-8/91 p. 5 "He has five kids and he is somebody pp. 22-23 The view from jail 5/91 p. 5 that is under constant surveillance and Facing the dragon in El Salvador [Mirtala Dewitt, Bob, Peg Ferry, Harry Strharsky death threats. He's in many ways the Lopez] 12/91 p. 10 Mary Lou Suhor: Past, present, future successor to Archbishop Romero. One A nonviolent approach to personal defense 7-8/91 pp. 12-13 of the reasons he and I have come to be 11/91 p. 6 Dietrich, Jeff close is that we both have children. We Restored to community: A short history of Opting out of the 'New World Order' 5/91 publication. worry about the consequences of the sacramental confession 9/91 p. 13 pp. 18-19,24 and decisions that we make. Backiel, Linda Duckworth, Penelope No time for neutrality [poem] 2/91 p. 11 'Carry me in your heart' 12/91 p. 19 reuse "The people I work with are generally Barnett, Victoria J. Dunant, Sarah for women with kids. It's back to that story Pastor outrages Nazis and Confessing Church Do holy women feel pain? 12/91 pp. 14-15 of Abraham and Isaac. I couldn't do my [Use Harter] 9/91 p. 27 Erdey, Susan Germany's confession 9/91 pp. 24-25 required work at my best if I didn't have my child 1991 General Convention in Arizona 7-8/91 there. I couldn't be the best possible Barnhart, Virginia pp. 22-24, 26 mother if I weren' t doing the work that's Lullaby [poem] 4/91 p. 26 Daniels icon dedicated at EDS 1/91 p. 13 so important to me." Beecher, Josie A pre-Convention rundown on the Right Permission 6/91 pp. 14-17 Josie Beecher, who grew up in Se- Salvadoran election 7-8/91 p. 10 Blaxton, Reginald G. Of mad dogs and Anglicans...? 7-8/91 p. 25 attle, was raised an Episcopalian and

DFMS. Community church or state church? 4/91 Ferry, Peg [See Bob DeWitt] / remains one, she says, despite the fact pp. 16-19 Gallagher, J.P. that she attended an Episcopal boarding Boggs, Grace Lee My father was a hero in the war [poem] 3/91

Church school in La Jolla, California. She adds Book review: The Living City and The p. 16 that her bishop, Ronald Haines, in the Living Economy: A New Economics in the Gallup, Grant M. Diocese of Olympia, continues to be Making] 10/91 p. 26 Communion in conflict 1/91 pp. 14-16

Episcopal extremely supportive. Boggs, James Garza, Jose the Mariana Beecher was adopted by Josie Making over Motown 10/91 pp. 22-24 War whoops 10/91 p. 25 of Beecher five years ago in Guatemala. Boyd, Malcolm Gessell, John M. The sexuality of Jesus 7-8/91 pp. 14-16 Bishops should 'come out' for gays 2/91 Her birth mother was a Salvadoran refu- Bozarth, Alia Renee pp. 18-19 Archives gee who delivered her in a refugee Pillar of salt [poem] 2/91 p. 19 Haughton, Rosemary camp. Browning, Edmond L. et al. Wellspring House 4/91 pp. 24-26 2020. Asked whether women in El Salvador War is not the answer 2/91 pp. 14-15 Hiatt, Sue ever try to avoid birth because conditions Bucklee, Sally M. Thou shah not kick butt 4/91 pp. 12-13 Australian church oppresses women 5/91 Hirschfield, Robert

Copyright are too awful, Beecher said, "No. I've listened to so many stories of women, on pp. 14-17 A meeting in a Belfast cemetery 2/91 p. 27 the move from the military, dropping out Cartledge-Hayes, Mary Jo Holder, Leonora of the line to give birth and joining back Etiquette [poem] 4/91 p. 13 Sleep [poem] 1/91 p. 22 Chung, Hyun-Kyung House, Gloria at the end of the line to keep moving. Transform the 'culture of death' 4/91 p. 5 Calling All Brothers [poem] 11/91 p. 10 They tell those stories over and over Cobbey,Nan South Africa Poem 9/91 p. 7 again because it is a story for life. It is Inauguration is kairos moment in Haiti 4/91 Hubbard. Until such a constant battle against death — be p. 6-8 Commentary on 'Cells, souls and people' it starvation or bombings. Death is so Cox, Anne E. 5/91 pp. 10-11 present that women there are constantly Breathing in the spirit 4/91 pp. 22-23 Hunt, Mary E. exercising forcefully that option for life." Darling, Pamela W. Ecumenical encounters of a feminist kind

THE WITNESS DECEMBER 1991 25 1/91 pp. 18-19 The Department of Defense 11/91 pp. 11- Adieu to Ambler: A 17-year tapestry of Medals on our blouses? 3/91 p. 20 13 advocacy 7-8/91 pp. 18-21 Imai, Judy Pacosz, Christina Attorney Linda Backiel's sentence 1/91 Racism is America's real enemy 4/91 p. 21 The Diego Rivera Mural, DIA, 1953-1959 p. 23 Kairos U.S.A., 1991, 9/91 p. 18 [poem] 10/91 p. 7 The Consultation: gearing up for Phoenix Levertov, Denise Parachin, Victor M. '91 6/91 pp. 10-13,27 May our right hands lose their cunning How to survive the sorrow of suicide 5/91 Demons of conflict 2/91 pp. 5, 15 [poem] 11/91 p. 7 pp. 22-23 Episcopal Peace Fellowship flooded by war Madgett, Naomi Long Pierce, Susan E. queries 3/91 pp. 10-12 City Nights [poem] 10/91 p. 20 Church needs new sexual ethic [Intv with Herstory from Persian Gulf war zone 4/91 Maksymowicz, Virginia and Blaise Tobia Carter Hey ward and Virginia Mollenkott] pp. 14-15, 19 Christian art [Maksymowicz, Tobia] 9/91 6/91 pp. 20-23 TallMountain, Mary pp. 20-21 Farewell to a feisty woman of letters [Abby Figure of Clay (poem) 12/91 p. 7 Judy Chicago: Birthing art, 12/91 pp. 20-21 Jane Wells] 5/91 p.25, 27 Tobia, Blaise [see Virginia Maksymowicz] publication. Sisters of Survival 11/91 pp. 20-21 Interview with activist Mary Frances Berry West, Mary and Swords into Plowshares, [Eric Mesko] 1/91 pp. 6-9 Witness: Dorothy Garner 10/91 p. 27 10/91 p. 21 New editor/publisher lauds magazine's SOSAD: Save Our Sons and Daughters reuse Marable, Manning 'prophetic tradition' 3/91 pp. 9, 23 10/91 pp. 10-11 for Fight against apartheid not finished 4/91 pp. Edward R. Welles: A man of fierce faith Whitley, Katerina 10-11 6/91 pp. 24-25 Facing the dragon in Palestine 12/91 Smoke and Mirrors [Detroit] 10/91 Portaro,Sam pp. 8-9 required pp. 14-16 Homosexuality as vocation 6/91 pp. 18-19, Wilson, Godfrey The bitter fruits of war 3/91 pp. 6-8 25 Hart Island [poem] 3/91 p. 23 Marler, Penny Long Ragsdale, Katherine Windal, Claudia L.

Permission Churches must 'make family' 7-8/91 Book review: Past Due by Anne Finger A Way of the Cross for the lesbian and gay pp. 6-9, 16 12/91 pp. 22-23 community 3/91 pp. 18-19 Mason, Raz Rankin, William W.

DFMS. Wink, Walter / The price we pay for homophobia 5/91 ECPC responds 9/91 p. 3 Loving our enemies: the litmus test 11/91 p. 26 Jonathan Daniels: Civil rights martyr 1/91 pp. 14-17

Church Matthew, Antonia pp. 10-12 Daughters of Jerusalem [poem] 6/91 p. 27 Rossman, Parker Witness Staff McGowan,Jo Vacations with a conscience 2/91 pp. 24-26 Archbi shop Tutu calls for continued

Episcopal Life in India, 2/91 pp. 22-23 Schaper, Donna sanctions 4/91 p. 11

the McLaughlin, Andree Nicola The blessings of sexuality 5/91 p. 12 Christian lesbians organize new group 4/91 of US Gulf strategy fueled by racism 2/91 Things you can't do alone 1 1/91 p. 9 pp. 26-27 pp. 12-13 Schwarzentraub, Betty Confessing in Japan [George Gish] 9/91 Meyer, Charles Neighborhood defense 11/91 pp. 8-9 p.25 Archives Church after death 5/91 pp. 20-21 Seymour, Ruth ECPC Board moves Witness to Detroit 6/91 Hastening the inevitable 2/91 pp. 6-9 'Rain your spirit in my heart' 10/91 p. 5 2020. Meyer, John pp. 17-20 Grand jury resister 2/91 p. 10 Standing up to Death 10/91 pp. 8-9 Shakur, Assata Heterosexual questionnaire 5/91 p. 27 Morrison, Melanie To My Daughter Kakuya [poem] 12/91 p. 19 Minority groups to present progressive agenda Copyright Telling the truth about our lives 9/91 Slaughter, Jane 6/91 p. 27 pp. 22-23 The Unions: from Motown to Mexico 10/91 No business as usual 2/91 p. 16 Munro, Joyce Clemmer pp. 12-13 Witness staff to boycott convention 6/91 Protesting the Gulf War with Becca 3/91 Sol le, Dorothee p. 13 pp. 14-16 Remembrance, pain and hope 3/91 Witness wins again 7-8/91 p. 17 Murphy, James M. pp. 24-27 Witness wins three ACP awards 6/91 p. 26 Cells, souls, and people 5/91 pp. 6-9 Resisting civil religion 9/91 pp. 8-9 What they're saying about the war 3/91 Myers, Ched Sting p. 5 Unmasking our pain; Therapeutic politics Dancing alone [poem] 12/91 p. 11 Wylie-Kellermann new Witnesseditor2/9l 9/91 pp. 14-17 Strharsky, Harry [see Bob DeWitt] p. 10 Nelson-Pallmeyer, Jack Suhor, Mary Lou Wong, Shelley

2 6 THE WITNESS DECEMBER, 1991 Carrying the Peace Flame 4/91 McGovern, Robert 3,6,9/91, 12/91 The Witness is indexed by the pp. 20-21,27 McGuire, Laura 10/91 Wylie-Kellermann, Bill Mesko, Eric 10/91 Religious and Theological Book review: Building the Beloved Commu- Mill, Eleanor 1,2,3,4, 11/91, 12/91 Abstracts and by the American nity and Witness: Maurice McCrackin Morris, John 1/91 Theological Library Assn's 11/91 pp. 26-27 Munnik,Len3/91 Religious Index One Periodicals. Book review: Resident Aliens 9/91 Patterson, Lenorah 9/91 pp.26 Plympton, Bill 6/91 An index of Witness articles Wylie-Kellermann, Jeanie Rivera, Diego 10/91 organized by subject is available A woman clothed in the sun 12/91 Rogers, Liz 10/91 from our offices upon request. pp. 5-6 Ruth, Sheila 11/91 Confessing sin, confessing faith 9/91 Sadao,Watanabe9/91 pp. 5-6 Taize 12/91 Note to readers! Free by grace: experiences of confession pp. Tobia, Blaise 9/91 If your copy of the October, 1991 publication. 10-12 Turnley, David 10/91 Witness is in the recycling heap and and Hope against the odds: an intv with Najat Ward, Lynd 10/91 you have 98 cents to spare, we'd Kafity 12/91 p. 19 West, Jim 10,11/91 appreciate having it returned. We reuse Love of enemies: an invitation to the abused Whitley, Katerina 12/91 have had many requests for that issue. for [an intv with Virginia Ramey Mollenkott] Wuerker, M.I 1/91 11/91 pp. 24-25 Meeting the Challenge [Detroit] 10/91 pp. required 5-6 Welcome to The Witness! The PB and the President 11/91 pp. 18 Each month we mail complimentary copies of The Witness to people we Raising children 12/91 pp. 16-18 believe might be interested in subscribing. Permission Self-Defensell/91p. 5 We've sent this issue to you because it deals with the courage and creativity Witness: Josie Beecher 12/91 p. 24 of women. The Witness has a long history of writing about women's issues with Yann, Renee DFMS.

/ passion and intelligence. Lessons from street prophets 1/91 p. 20 For 75 years, The Witness has also published articles critiquing economic and foreign policy from a faith perspective. Church ARTISTS The magazine is owned by the Episcopal Church Publishing Company but is Adams, David 1/91 an independent journal with an ecumenical readership. Andrews, Charlotte J. 10/91

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