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1290 l CONTEMPORARY WOMEN’S ISSUES IN RELIGION things have not been much different. For example, it was not until 1983 that it was declared illegal for a husband to rape his wife. Poverty Violence against women and poverty were the two main issues around which women rallied in the World March of Women 2000. Many Canadian women’s groups, including faith-based collectives, participated in this march. The value of the march was not only in addressing poverty but also in creating and strengthening community support and hope. Poverty was the rallying issue for the women of St. Columba House. The community of Point St. Charles, which gave birth to St. Columba House and other socially active groups, is one of Montreal’s most impoverished neighborhoods. St. Columba House is home to a number of social action groups including, for example, the Point Adult Centre for Education (PACE). PACE, an English adult education center, began in 1985 as a response to a door-to-door survey of the neighborhood. In the face of demoralizing government cutbacks in social programs, the collective draws strength and hope from biblical stories of God through Jesus representing the struggle for justice and from each other: It is as though hope is what calls people out, perhaps gives encouragement with the accomplishments along the way, but then opens up new horizons or challenges. Hope is in what you are doing, but beyond. We began to understand that it is not hope “out there” in the sense of being an abstract ideal, or something unattainable, but the tough nature of hope that is both in the struggle itself and the hard, ongoing work one is called to. (Chamberlain et al., 3) And in the hope and the struggle, our faiths and religious issues continue to unfold. Vision and Hope The Toronto-based Ecumenical Decade (of Churches in Solidarity with Women) Coordinating Group’s vision statement expressed the hopes of many Canadian women: To empower women to challenge oppressive structures in the global community, their country and their church; to affirm, through shared leadership and decision-making, the contributions of women in churches and communities; to give visibility to women’s perspectives and actions in the work and struggle for justice, peace and the integrity of creation ; to enable churches to free themselves from racism, sexism and classism and from teachings and practices that discriminate against women; to encourage churches to take actions in solidarity with women. Moral vision enables us to discern what is not right in our world and compels us to act in response to this knowledge. Faith communities can provide a lens through which to interpret this vision. Some of the many justice issues that inform the moral visions of Canadian religious women include sexism, racism, classism , poverty and economic justice, day care, violence against women, biotechnology, ecology, the correctional system’s response to women, just treatment of those who farm, and adequate representation of women in leadership positions. Vision must be grounded in the reality of concrete experiences of suffering; otherwise, memory is not dangerous , and vision does not hold emancipatory potential but rather becomes nothing more than an empty wish. What feeds many Canadian women is their faith in a holy promise of justice and their work together in community . SOURCES: Patricia Bays, ed., Partners in the Dance—Stories of Canadian Women in Ministry (1993). Canadian Woman Studies /Les Cahiers de la Femme 17.1 (Winter 1997). Joyce Carlson and Alf Dumont, eds., Bridges in Spirituality—First Nations Women Tell Their Stories (1997). Melissa Chamberlain, Elizabeth Garbish, Donna Leduc, Myrna Rose, and Faye Wakeling, Hope Is the Struggle—A Community in Action (1996). Sharon Doyle Driedger, “Soul Searchers,” Maclean’s, April 16, 2001, 42–47. Greta Hofmann Nemiroff, ed., Women’s Changing Landscapes—Life Stories from Three Generations (1999). Ken Kilpatrick, “Still Hoping the Church Will Change—Women Feel the Challenge of the Last Decade Was Not Fully Met,” Toronto Star, September 12, 1998, L16. Catherine Lake, ed., ReCreations—Religion and Spirituality in the Lives of Queer People (1999). Gertrude Lebans, ed., “Living and Changing on Carry the Kettle Reserve,” Gathered by the River—Reflections and Essays of Women Doing Ministry (1994). Marilyn Legge, The Grace of Difference—A Canadian Feminist Theological Ethic (1992). Carolyn Sharp, “The Emergence of Francophone Feminist Theology,” Studies in Religion 25.4 (1996): 397–407. Sharon Todd, “Veiling the ‘Other,’ Unveiling Our ‘Selves’: Reading Media Images of the Hijab Psychoanalytically to Move Beyond Tolerance...

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