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Women’s Ministries
The Rev. Shanea D. Leonard, director of the Presbyterian Mission Agency’s Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries (RE&WIM), has been doing the work of dismantling oppressive systems for more than two decades.
In their work they found that this requires white people teaching and facilitating white people. The hard conversations and unfiltered truths that come from fully embodying this work is often a lighter burden when white people are doing this self-work together without the emotional labor of their Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) siblings.
Leonard’s discovery led to the formation of the White Ally Network — a working title — which met last week for the first time in Charlotte, North Carolina.
When the Rev. Shanea D. Leonard was named the director of Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries at the Presbyterian Mission Agency last October, they were well aware that big changes were on the horizon for the ministry area.
As the 67th Commission on the Status of Women came to a close earlier this month, a list of Draft Agreed Conclusions was adopted following a lengthy session that stretched into the early morning hours of March 18, said Sue Rheem, Representative to the United Nations and Director of the Presbyterian Ministry at the UN.
Young delegates to this month’s 67th Commission on the Status of Women called the opportunity “an awesome privilege” and “memorable” in reflections completed on behalf of the ministry area that supported their time in New York City, Racial Equity & Women’s Intercultural Ministries.
Whenever they step into their pulpits to preach, the Rev. Erika Rembert Smith, pastor of Washington Shores Presbyterian Church in Orlando, Florida; the Rev. Dr. Alice Ridgill, previously the pastor of New Faith Presbyterian Church, the first and only African American Presbyterian Church in Greenwood, South Carolina, and now the associate general presbyter for the Presbytery of Charlotte in North Carolina; and the Rev. Amantha Barbee, formerly pastor of Oakhurst Presbyterian Church in Decatur, Georgia, and now the pastor of Quail Hollow Presbyterian Church in Charlotte are challenging calcified notions about women in ministry.
Providing smartphones and other support to survivors of domestic and gender-based violence was the focus of an online event held this week during the 67th Commission on the Status of Women (#CSW67).
On Wednesday, March 8 — International Women’s Day — members of the PC(USA) delegation to the 67th Commission on the Status of Women were hosted by Yuri A. Gala López, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary, Deputy Permanent Representative of Cuba to the United Nations, at the offices of Permanent Mission of Cuba to the United Nations.
The Rev. Shavon Starling-Louis, Co-Moderator of the 225th General Assembly (2022), gathered with a group of young adult delegates and young adult volunteers (YAVs) at the close of the second day of the 67th Commission on the Status Women Tuesday to share stories and experiences as young adults in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). It was an open space with frank and vulnerable discussions, so the names of the young adults are not included in this report to respect them and their voices.
In remarks on Monday to the Commission on the Status of Women, United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres warned that gender equality is centuries away and called for worldwide efforts to empower women.
As if they didn’t have enough important and informative events to take in, Presbyterians attending the 67th session of the Commission on the Status of Women at UN headquarters in New York and online also have side events available to them.
