WOX Final Report Summary
The Changing Role of Women in our Faith Communities
The project entitled The Changing Role of Women in our faith Communities was a gathering of women within the Jewish, Christian and Muslim faith communities. The intentions of this project was to create a program that lived out the spirit of Nostra Aetate, the Vatican II document that redefined the relationship of the Catholic Church to other religions. The WOX grant provided funding so thata panel of female theologians from each Abrahamic faith as well as a panel of writers drawn from a new book entitled Faithfully Feminist: Jewish, Christian, and Muslim Feminists and Why We Stay could come together to open the discussion on feminism and religion. The WOX grant also made it possible to bring ourlocal community of women together from various religious backgrounds to discuss topic the on what it means to be a feminist, yet still be faithful to their religious traditions.
Some of the challenges of the event included creating a schedule that would serve each faith community so that they felt welcomed and respected. We did have representation from faith communities outside of the Abrahamic religions that were not represented by the guest panel. Our future planning must provide a way to address non-Abrahamic religions and even those who do not profess a faith tradition. In addition, we were challenged by making the event impactful while centering itaround a very new book that many had not previously read. We had to keep the topics general enough so that all could participate in the discussions. Our leadership team has already discussed alternative formats and discussion topics in order to bring about new relationships within the groups as well as deeper growth spiritually of our guests.
The major successes of this program included creating a network of women interested in breaking down the religious barriers and opening into dialogue their role within their community. This network will serve as a foundation for future programming, a starting point for more community collaboration toward important issues in our community, and establishment of more interfaith groups across the city for which we have already observed. We are fully appreciative of the opportunity that WOX has given us.