Words Into Action

It is well and good to reflect on the Divine Feminine, glory in the beautiful art, photos, poems, and texts provided by the Beguine Again/Bardo Group core team and guest writers, but we can also focus on putting our words into action! Together we can change the world by inspiring solidarity with the feminine, but also by encouraging one another to give our gifts, time, and talents to worthy charitable organizations. I’d like to highlight a few organizations that could use your financial gifts to create positive change in the lives of women.

Kiva

Kiva allows you to give micro-loans to people around the globe. I’ve created a team page for us! Here, you can target your giving to women if you desire. Micro loans empower women worldwide to create a better life for themselves and their community.

Stop Violence Against Women

A project of the Advocates for Human Rights, Stop Violence Against Women focuses on advocacy and mobilization worldwide.

Planned Parenthood

Planned Parenthood provides healthcare for women and sexual healthcare for men in the US no matter their financial circumstances.

If you know of other organizations you’d like to put up here, put it into the comments! I’ll edit the page. And as a final reminder of the truth of women’s lives, I offer this, a Litany of Truth.

A Litany of Truth

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that women should feel and experience that being a woman is of secondary value to the community.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that women are created women, the image of God, co-workers with God in caring for life, in struggling for the liberations of humanity and for a world order that respects each one’s dignity.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that land has to be robbed from women and their communities by transnational, profit-hungry companies.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that the earth belong to the living God and God’s people belong to the earth.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that women–and men–must remain divided by sexism, racism, economic injustices and imperialism.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that all women and men are called to be in solidarity with each other’s struggle for dignity and justice, to learn from one another and to challenge one another as sisters and brothers in critical and prophetic solidarity.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that becoming a refugee is an acceptable and inevitable situation for millions of women and their children.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that the whole people of God is called to denounce militarism, to challenge the root causes of poverty in the name of God of Hagar, who as a refugee was the first person who dared to give God a name.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that women should accept rape and incest, battering and humiliation, as the fate of women.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that Christ has come into the world to heal the broken community between women and men, to restore our sense of self, dignity and inclusion.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that young girls should not be given the opportunity to learn how to read, to write, and how to analyze the developments of their countries.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that everyone is called to respond to the gift of life and to the needs of our community with all our heart, all our soul and all our reason.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that sexual slavery, bondage and prostitution cannot be counteracted or eliminated.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that Christ has come into the world to overturn the tables of injustice, that women and men, empowered by the Holy Spirit, should challenge poverty and patriarchal culture.

One voice:
IT IS NOT TRUE that women and men cannot live in mutual and just relationships, respecting one another’s integrity and personhood.

All:
THIS IS TRUE that God the Creator has given us the responsibility and trust to care for all of creation in humility and faithfulness, to work and to love as co-creators of God.

HOLY LIVING GOD, The day and the night whisper your name And sparrows proclaim your glory. Make us by grace the winds of justice and the flames of peace in the world. In the name of Christ, Amen.

Anna Karin Hammar and Jean Sindab
Into Action: A Resource for Participation in the Ecumenical Decade

Shalom and Amen!

 

© 2015, essay, Terry Stewart, All rights reserved