Hot-House Ecclesiology - Christianity as a place of safety and comfort

A Feminist Interpretation of the Church

The city of Minamata in Japan has a special place of safety, comfort and care. They speak of that place as a hot-house. This house was not always there. It took years of struggle by the mothers of children born with deformities and their families to create this caring place. They first had to prove that the cause of so many deformities was lead poisoning from industrial waste. With money paid as compensation by the company they were able to build a hot-house for the mothers and children.

I have entitled this article on feminist interpretation of the church "Hot-House Ecclesiology" because it seems to me that the vision women have for the church is that it could be a sanctuary, a place of safety for all who enter, and especially for those who are the most marginal, weak or despised of any community. Are you a refugee in a strange land fleeing war or starvation? You are welcome. Are you a woman who would like to share in the leadership of your church? You are welcome. Are you a person with disabilities? You are welcome. Are you a poor peasant who has been forced off your land into the city? You are welcome. And the welcome extends to those of all races, ages, nationalities, genders, sexual orientations, all creatures and creation itself as the church becomes a place where there is intent to heal and to live out God's justice rather than to harm and to promote the privilege of the few.

This was the meaning of the metaphor hot-house for a group gathered for a Women Church meeting of what they call their "Women's Prayer Circle" in Japan last summer. In discussing the questions that have been sent out to women as part of the WCC study on "Being Church: Women's Voices and Visions", the women shared what their Women Church means to them.(1) Hisako Kinukawa reported that one Roman Catholic sister replied that it was a hot-house; a place that can feel protected, safe and relaxed. The metaphor in Japanese uses a word for "hot" that means "safe, relaxed, comfortable", the women used it to recall that particular hot-house in Minamata (and not, of course, in the sense of the English usage which usually means a warm place to grow plants).(2)

Although women love the church deeply and are the majority of the members in most congregations, there are many women in all parts of the world for whom the church is not a safe space. The Ecumenical Decade of Churches in Solidarity with Women ended in 1998 with the consensus that the women had long been in solidarity with the churches, but the churches had only begun to be in solidarity with women. The new ecumenical Decade to Overcome Violence begins in 2001 and takes up the problems of violence that so affect women and children in the church, and in every part of their lives? This violence extends to sexual harassment in the churches, giving divine blessing to male dominance and physical violence in the home and to mis-use of male clerical power to dominate and harass women.(4) It extends to preaching and teaching that women were created second and "fell" first and, therefore, deserve to be dominated and controlled; and to re-enforcing ancient patriarchal traditions and cultural traditions that obscure the full humanity and dignity of women as being created, with men, in the image of God.

This, and many other forms of dehumanization of women in the life of the church, are the reason for the development of a feminist ecclesiology which can help us think about the church from the perspective of advocacy for the full humanity of all women together with all men, and in harmony with all the creation. Feminist ecclesiology looks at the contradictions between the way biblical and church traditions speak about the church, and the way this is actually experienced by women in the church. It seeks to transform church traditions so that women can experience that tradition, and its practices, as welcoming. It reflects on what Mary Tanner has called the "ecclesiological challenges" of women who are raising "radical questions about our vision of God, about the quality of our lives together, our inner life of solidarity, our determination to name and overcome violence in church and world ..."(5)

"Hot-house ecclesiology" is just one of many metaphors for speaking of the visions of women about the church as they live both in and out of the church, and reflect on what it might mean in their lives. In this short article I would like to develop this metaphor as an example of feminist theological reflection on "being church". I will begin with a theological description of what it would mean for the church to be a safe space for women, and then develop some clues from women's experience of how the church would look if it were a hot-house.

Church as sanctuary

Long before the uprooting of people through war and economic displacement produced the refugee problems of the 20th and 21st centuries, the Hebrew and Christian traditions, have acknowledged the need for sanctuary and the protection of the one seeking a refuge or home. As John Elliott says: "The Bible is an inspired and inspiring record of displaced and dispossessed peoples who have found a communal identity and home with God."(6) Ever since the first refugees, Adam and Eve, people have been searching for safe places to dwell. The Hebrew concept of sanctuary is rooted in the tradition of the "cities of refuge" (Ex. 21:13; Num. 35:9-15; Deut. 4:41-43; 19:1-13; Josh. 20 and 1 Chron. 6).(7) The "cities" were a holy or sanctified place, often a temple, where God and the people of Israel protected those who seek refuge. Thus Deuteronomy 19:7-10 says: