Curious Christian

Reflections on culture, nature, and spirituality from a Christian perspective

Conversations with an Emergent Kiwi

Published by

Matt Stone

2006-12-08

We had the Emergent Kiwi, Steve Taylor, over for dinner on Wednesday night.

Steve was over in Sydney for a conferance called Faith in a Hyphen, which was aimed at “exploring one of the key issues facing Christian faith and contemporary society, that of how to respond to issues of cultural and religious diversity.”

I am hoping that Steve will post his own notes and reflections on the conference when the dust settles.

One issue we discussed over dinner which is very close to my own heart is feminine leadership within the emerging church (or relative lack thereof). This comes at a very crucial time for me with my friend and collegue, Jen Reed, relocating very soon to Melbourne (best wishes for the wedding Jen!). In particular I am seeking to solicit people’s ideas on what helps and hinders women from engaging in leadership and ec blogging. With 75% of the people in alternate spiritualies being women I see this as a critical pitfall in our own training networks. We still have so far to go in addressing the imbalances.

Tags Gatherings, Women

2 responses to “Conversations with an Emergent Kiwi”

Sun Warrior

2006-12-08

Having just ranted on opensourcetheology, my knee-jerk reaction right now is, perhaps, the hyper-intellectual nature of EC.
It is focused on mining, and then re-mining the Biblical stories.
Christianity is trying desperately to get some ‘environmental’ exegeses out of the old story. But it does feel a bit claustrophobic, because it is bound by such deep-seated orthodoxy.
Women are still in reaction to the patriarchal and controlling nature of Church meaning. The feminine, the Earth, and All Creation as life (spiritual) is still being debated in a patriarchal, controlling paradigm of human life trying to define reality as only God, humans and inert matter.
This approach has restricted the freedom of both spirit and life on the planet, to fit into the ‘Jesus Experience.’ But life and wisdom are free, and beyond the ultimate control of theology. That still doesn’t stop theology from wanting meaning to be under its intellectual control.
Hierarchy, patriarchy and control are synonymous to most women with hyper-intellectualism.
Women want to be free. The Earth’s life wants to be free. It is a communion that avoids the pitfalls of the civilized mind.

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Phil Wyman

2006-12-09

Living in Salem, MA and hanging out with Pagans regularly I see this disparity. Though Pagan leadership itself does not appear to have even close to 75% ‘wimmin’ leaders, it has a far larger percentage than the emergent church. In fact the Anglicans, and Merthodists are killing us on this one.
Our hyper-intellectualism I am sure is one factor. Sometimes we men posture like game cocks with opinions. Good point Sun Warrior.

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