1 - 2001

Overcoming Violence

Violence Against Woman Is Sin

The Synod of the Rhineland church declares its solidarity with women

by Christa Wülfing

During the year 2000, for the first time, the Synod of the Evangelical Church of the Rhineland concerned itself with violence and hostility towards women in church and society, and made a series of ground-breaking decisions. With these decisions the Synod thus contributed to the preparations for the Decade to Overcome Violence.

On my way to the meeting of the Synod at Bad Neuenahr, I was full of excitement and expectations. The main theme had been stated as "Overcoming Violence toward Women and Girls", and was thus directly connected to the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with Women which had just ended. Would this synod meeting really take this topic seriously and thus set an example for solidarity with women?

A great deal of work had been done ahead of time, especially by the staff members of the Rhineland church Womens Desk. A round table appointed by the church board on "Violence Against Women" had made its final report in 1998. Some of its recommendations were now being presented to the Synod for adoption. In addition, time had been set aside - a whole morning - for a thorough consideration of the main theme.

The tone was set for the 246 synod members in a prayer service led by Dr. Mieke Korenhof, the staff theologian for the Womens Desk, and Rev. Daniela Hammelsbeck, a pastor who works with women and girls in Cologne. "Oh God ... put my tears in your bottle. Are they not in your record?" These words from Psalm 56 were presented through clear and sensitive liturgical language. Glass tears were distributed as a vivid reminder of the tears shed by women and girls who experience violence. The tears were then collected again in jars, expressing hope in the healing and redeeming solidarity of God.

Violence against women and girls is not only womens business, but rather that of the whole church, declared Mieke Korenhof. It was good that the topic had finally come out of the "womens corner", that the Synod of the regional church was becoming aware of this reality.

The synod members listened attentively to the two papers which were presented following the worship. Sigrid Buber, who for many years has directed the "Advice Centre on Violence in the Family" of the EKD Social Service Agency in Düsseldorf, gave an overview of "Sexualised Violence Against Women and Children". She looked at the needs of both the guilty and their victims, and discussed possibilities for overcoming sexualised violence. One woman in three has experienced domestic violence; one in seven has known sexual violence. There must be an end to the concealment and repression of this reality, she said. It is urgently necessary to recognise the violence taking place all around us, even in the church, and to take responsibility for action, she concluded.

Frank Crüsemann, Professor of Old Testament in Bielefeld, shed light on the roots of violence against women in Christian theology. The false interpretation must be overcome which claims that only man is created in the image of God. "Both sexes, man and woman, are unconditionally made in Gods image", he said; nothing and nobody can take away their human dignity. The Old Testament offers many ideas and traditions which could help in resisting, and challenge us to overcome, violence against women and girls. In a world in which sexual violence is a reality even in the midst of the people of God, one must be able to imagine God "even in the shape of a woman who has been raped or a child who has been abused", said Crüsemann towards the end of his impressive lecture.

In the plenary session on the next to last day, following a discussion conducted with unmistakable seriousness, a statement was unanimously adopted which expressed the Synods essential conclusions with regard to its main theme.

The first conclusion was the clear condemnation of violence against women and girls. "Violence against women wounds even God" and "Violence against women is sin", says the statement. This may seem obvious, but in the traditional context of keeping quiet and looking the other way it is an important step, which can send a signal to the victims of violence - the church realises that we exist - and can contribute towards making violence against women impossible, in the society and in the church. In the ecumenical context, the Rhineland Synods statement is courageous and ground-breaking, for no other church has yet been willing to make such a clear condemnation, not even the WCC Assembly in Harare at the closing of the Decade in Solidarity with Women. "By saying this, we are also doing the ecumenical movement a service", said a woman synod member in Bad Neuenahr, who had been in Harare in 1998.

A second conclusion of this Synod which was essential to me was the openly declared insight that discounting, discrimination and oppression of women also have theological causes. "We will no longer read the Bible as being against woman", the statement says. The church board was given the task of seeing that the relationship between the sexes and other aspects of feminist theology are made part of theological training and further education, for other church workers as well as the ordained clergy. The Synod also asked congregations to examine the theological roots of violence against women; texts are to be sent to them which the Synod studied during its meeting.

In addition the Synod adopted a statement on genital mutilation ("circumcision") of women and girls. The church board was also asked to publish guidelines for the use of inclusive language in worship and liturgy. As a whole, this Synod was for me an act of solidarity with women, many of whom have been waiting a long time for it. And it was an important milestone on the way to a more just community of women and men in the church.

Rev. Christa Wülfing is a professional religion teacher in the schools, from Gummersbach, Germany, who has worked for years on her Synods committee on womens issues. She took part as a Synod member in the meeting described in thi s article, which appeared in the Journal Women Alive (Frauen leben), 1/2000, published by the United Evangelical Mission.