89 moving into the be-dazzling future: drawing threads together

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Feminist Theology

DOI: 10.1177/0966735001000027082001; 9; 89Feminist Theology

Mary GreyMoving into the Be-Dazzling Future: Drawing Threads Together

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Moving into the Be-Dazzling Future:

Drawing Threads Together

Mary Grey

[FT 27 (2001) 89-101]

Introduction

Arich weave we have been weaving in our global conversation. The

joy of this has reached beyond what I could have dreamt of. Yet, no

way can these strands we have been weaving be ordered into a tidy

whole, a linear pattern, anew

universality;no

way should they beused to build false optimism or conceal either the grimness of the pastand the complicity of many of us in Europe in what Tissa Balasuriyacalls the killing systems; nor, in what Kwok Pui-lan called the

density of the present, is it easy to discover a simple way through thenew monsters and dragons which threaten us.We have been prophetic in these days: witness the way Mukti

Barton in her essay has brought the Cushite woman out of theshadows to the forefront of the

struggle againstracism

today; daringand iconoclastic in the way MarcellaAlthaus Reid moved the erotichistories of women from being the despised, unspoken underside tothe forefront of named experience. We have been poignantly movingin our graphic pictures of our contexts -African,Asian, Pacific, LatinAmerican as well as European and NorthAmerican. We have alsobeen playful as well as celebratory. The strand of beauty has beenwoven into our experience - especially through June Boyce Tillmansevocative re-creation of Hild of

Whitby,the first

performanceof her

musical drama which was seen at the Summer School. Even amidst

the most despairing of analyses we have not lost sight of hope.Rather, the discourse of hope has kept surfacing in the oceans of

despair.As Sister Pauline Chakkalakal has said: Not in our lifetime,but we keep dreaming...All this stresses the special moment, the kairos at this point of

history. Be-Dazzll11g the new 111111enmum. Where do we now stand and

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90 Feminist Theology

what new directions beckon? What will we take away from our con-

versations to our homes, contexts and countries to inspire thesenew

directions?

Acknowledge our Roots (Traces)

Let us water them, put rich compost on them and acknowledge thattheir memory will always empower us. The density of the presentowes much to the struggles of the past, the famous names but also to

the unnamed persons, the oral traditions Musimbi Kanyoro men-tioned, to whatAdrienne Rich called the raging of the Stoic grand-mothers. So, let us bring alive not only the memory of the womenwho fought to get the vote for British women, remembering EmilyPankhurst and her companions, but also Mary Seacole, the black

unsung heroine of the Crimean War. Lets remember Elizabeth CadyStanton in the United States who created the first Womens Bible...

but also, in the context of black slavery in the United States let us

remember Sojourner Truth, her courage and her fiery speech, Aint Ia woman? Let us also not forget the women and men of this city of

Liverpool brought fromAfrica as slaves.In India let us name Pandita Ramabai, the nineteenth-century

scholar and great reformer for the lives of women. InAfrica let usremember not only MercyAmba Oduyoye who is a pioneer in ourlifetime, but the hundreds of women who kept pride in culture and

community alive.And not forgetting the foremothers from China,

Taiwan and the Pacific Rim.Let us go further back to the women in this country who struggled

in the birth of the evangelical Churches and then were pushed from

leadership positions and from historical memory, until reclaimed bythe work of feminist theologians and historians since the 1960s. Backinto time, when the early Church, the discipleship of equals encour-

aged women to play a full part in ministry.Ablessed moment.Further into history, to the prophet Miriam: It all began with Mirzamwas the title of Catherina Halkes of The Netherlands first book, MetMiriam was alles begonnen...1And of course, to Zipporah, pushed fromofficial memory into the shadows.And let us remember, too, the

revered wife of Mohammed,Ayesha.And if we go yet further, weencounter the ancient Goddesses, Saraswati, Durga of India, Isis of

Egypt, BabylonianAstarte, Demeter of Greece, Ceridwen of Wales,

1 Catherma Halkes, Met Miriam was alles Begonnen (Kampen. Kok, 1980).



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91Grey Movmg mto the Be-Dazzlmg Future

and the Earth Mother traditions of numerous cultures.Arich heritageindeed.

Looking to our more immediate heritage, namely, the 1960s and thesecond wave feminist movement, let us acknowledge the trail blazed

by suchAmerican women as Mary Daly, Rosemary Ruether andElisabeth Schussler Fiorenza. (I realize that this has a totalizing Euro-

American ring, but it is a fact that these three can be regarded as cata-

lysts for many crucial developments.)Without the rage of Daly, the process of new naming, the reclaim-

ingof creative elemental energy, not to mention the creation of a

gynocentric world and a whole new language, our process might nothave sustained itself. Without the idea of the discipleship of equals,the ecclesia ofwomen, the analysis of kyriarchy, hetero-patriarchy, the

struggle within the churches, and in particular the struggle for theordination of women would equally not have been able to sustain its

energy.And without Ruethers long, determined protest againstnumerous oppressions, the very diverse disciplines of Feminist andWomanist Liberation Theology might not have got off the ground.(Clearly my list is incomplete - but I hope to have made a start in

stimulating the formulations of personal and communal pre-historyof inspiration from many diverse contexts.)

What Have We Learnt?

We have learnt that there will be backlash. We know with painful cer-

tainty, in the daily wear and tear of our lives, there is a cost to everygain. The dismantling of patro-kyriarchy, of the masters house, hasbrought backlash and terrible suffering to women in many parts ofthe world. Backlash has not only come from the expected sources buteven from those we thought were our friends. Wherever there is ashift of power, wherever the status quo is threatened, the lives of

women - and vulnerable groups of people - become the cultural tar-

gets. In how many countries do men beat their wives when they beginto participate in local government and schemes for social change?Look atAfghanistan, look at what the right-wing BJP government isdoing in India. Look at the way the Vatican targets feminists for the

disruption of family life. Even very liberal, well-meaning men did notunderstand that our agenda was not simply Add women and stir,but that we are attempting to throw out the entire patro-kyriarchalpudding and bake a totally new one! We dont even want patriarchyas compost!

This backlash occurs on a personal and family level, in Church



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communities when women acquire leadership roles, and across a

huge spectrum of work places. It is not only mens self-esteem that isthreatened but the complex issues arising when the balance of powershifts, especially where there have been no role models for female

authority and leadership.On a more positive note, what have we learnt about our own

process?In the struggle against injustice, what we have learnt is that there is

an ongoing, unfinished symphony of oppression-although I would

prefer to use the word cacophony, as symphony implies somethingharmonious. Nearly all the contributors to this issue have been

expressing this.

Theologically, our understanding of God has moved out from

restricting notions of the patriarchal Father to richer notions, wherewe encounter God/the Divine/the fullness of Life itself-as thesacred dimension at the heart of lived realities, inspiring our courage,our gritty determination to survive and to flourish, and energizingour quest.

I would now like to focus on quest.The first theme that springs out is the sheer diversity of journeys

that we all have made as part of the feminist/womanist quest. MaryDalys journey to the other side of the moon, far into the future in herlatest book Quintessence2 is well known (and certainly, to readers ofFeminist Theology). Judith Plaskow and Carol Christ in their secondedited book, Weaving the Visions, had both moved on from the posi-tions they took in their earlier work, Womanspirit Rising.3 Carol Christ,as is well known, moved from Christianity to following the goddess-literally, as she moved to Greece, to seekAphrodite. Judith Plaskowreturned to Judaism to put women at the heart of the Sinai Covenant.4

4

Rosemary Ruether moved from documenting anti-Judaism in Chris-tian theology in her first book, Faith and Fratricide, to her current

struggle against the Zionist government and fighting for the Palestin-ian caused Nearer at home here in Britain we are familiar with the

journey Daphne Hampson has made, from working for womensordination to post-Christianity.6 This is a journey many have shared.

2 Mary Daly, Quintessence: Realising theArchaic Futures:ARadical ElementalFeminist Mamfesto (Boston Beacon Press, 1999)

3 Judith Plaskow and Carol Christ (eds), Womanspirit Rising (San Francisco.

Harper & Row, 1979), Weaving the Visions (San Francisco Harper & Row, 1989).4 Judith Plaskow, StandingAgain at Smai (New York Harper & Row, 1990)5

RosemaryRuether, Faith and Fratricide (New York Crossroads,

1974)6 Daphne Hampson,After Christianity (London: SCM Press, 1997)



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93Grey Movmg into the Be-Dazzlmg Future

But, the crucial point here is not that famous feminist theologianshave made well-publicized moves, but that feminist theology of its

very nature has involved all of us in movement. I know it in my own

life. You know it in yours. We have not stood still... This is a more sig-nificant kind of movement than in traditional theology. People - thatis, traditional theologians, speak loftily of philosophers in such termsas the early Wittgenstein, the later Wittgenstein: but would the

great philosopher himself have understood the journey made by the

Philippine Benedictine sister, Mary John Mananzan, who returnedfrom the University of Cambridge with a PhD thesis on Wittgenstein,and then immediately plunged her congregation into committedactivism against the Marcos regime? Women who thought of them-selves as timid, lacking confidence, educated to obedience and con-

formity have found their voices and told their stories. Other negativeexamples of movement/journeying are the forced movements of

asylum-seekers, refugees, exiles. (Pause - examme one movement youhave made in your own life as a result of feminist theology...what did it cost

you ?)

Why has this happened? Clearly, there are a diversity of elementsin feminist theology all contributing to this dynamic movement. First,the notion of process - perhaps originally stemming from Process

Philosophy and theology, but, as Daly proclaimed, Our process is our

process! Not only that our comings-together are for the very purposeof furthering the process, but our notion of process itself is open-ended, allows for different rhythms, for dissonance, diversity and

increasing radicality.

The second feature that exerted enormous influence is the tensionbetween relationality, right relationships of justice, connectedness,and diversity, difference, distinction, differentiation. Not without painhave we - and here, I mean feminist theologians here in Europe - hadto learn to live with this tension: to acquire the humility to realize thata solidarity of global sisterhood is not to be assumed but to be workedand struggled for; that the focus of some women must be resistance to

prejudice and institutional racism; for others the many faces of

poverty and degradation including evernew

forms of colonizationand the memory of a past that cannot be erased (Kwok Pui-lan).MarcellaAlthaus Reid in her essay not only challenged as to the

oppression of hetero-reality and the discrimination of being gayand lesbian but used queermg as a controlling metaphor for theoppressive force of key concepts of systematic theology.Many

7 See MarcellaAlthaus Reids paper in this issue



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women experience a range of these oppressions all at once con-

textualized in different forms.So the notions of contextuality and boundaries have taken central

focus. Women have exercised suspicion with regard to postmodern-ism (in my view quite rightly). This has told us that the great, over-

arching narratives are dead. That is all right with us, we can retort, forwe were never allowed a proper place within them anyway! But whatare we left with? The local, partial, contextual story? But that is

exactly womens strength: to tell our stories from our own contexts -

making this the basis of our theologizing-and to practise a deepquality of listening with each other. But always to make the connec-tions... politically, economically, theologically.

This has always been part of the BISFT story, and we have listenedto the stories with the commitment never again to allow patro-kyri-archal structures to isolate women or men-in contexts of violence or

in victim situations.

So, context is crucial but it must never be allowed to be used as a

tool to block connection. We have to make a move beyond narrowly-defined contexts. Here the notion of boundaries is used both posi-tively and negatively. Selves are connected selves, relational selves,ecological selves, but not in such a way as to block the selfs own

integrity and autonomy.Autonomy and connectedness are held increative tension. Rosi Braidotti (Italian, and Professor of Womensstudies in Utrecht), uses the idea of the nomadic self, crossing boun-daries as the core of identity.Boundary-crossing has struck a chord

with many of us. Women are always crossing boundaries - in chal-lenging accepted gender roles for example. It is proving a helpfulconcept in the contemporary gender discussion. Judith Butler has

challenged the usual distinctions between sex and gender by showingthat we make these distinctions from within the same discourse and

that these categories are much more fluid than we have ever realized.Sue Walrond-Skinner, in her book examining what women priestswould mean for the church, called it Crossing the Boundary.9 Carter

Heyward challenged the whole notion of boundaries between thera-pist and client in her controversial book, When Boundaries Betray Us.10

8. Rosi Braidotti, Nomadic Subjects: Embodiment and Sexual Difference in

Contemporary Feminist Theory (New York Colombia University Press, 1994).9 Sue Walrond-Skinner, Crossing the Boundary: What Will Women Priests

Mean? (London Mowbray, 1994)10 Carter Hevward, When Boundaries Betray Us (San Francisco: Harper & Row,

1993)



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95Grey Moving into the Be-Dazzling Future

But it means more than challenging theoretical categories.Boundary-dwelling can mean marginality, either forced to the mar-

gins or choosing the margins as a place of integrity and deconstruct-

ing the power of the centre; it means working in an interdisciplinaryway, in many situations and cultures working in an inter-cultural,inter-linguistic and inter-religious way. For asylum seekers and

refugees the boundaries are the barriers they confront, the blockagesto another land. Boundaries can mean confusion, fear, shame andhumiliation and exclusion. Seen optimistically by some, as thenomadic self in search of new freedoms, a new openness to the other

in love and justice; but negatively experienced by others-forexample, the young girls from West Africa forcibly trafficked

through Britain to a life of prostitution in the cities of Northern Italy-here the nomadic self means loss of identity, home and culture.And this last point emphasizes that feminist theology always willbe a theology of women in struggles Context, time and place maychange, but the struggle for right relation takes on an ever strongermomentum.

So, Where Do We Now Stand?

Feminist theology is now a hybrid - we are now a family of globaltheologies of liberation. Each has distinctiveness, its own focus and itsown struggle. But there are overlappings. For some, the struggle willbe to survive, to sustain life for themselves and families in socio-

economic conditions of harshness and environmental disasters. For

others it will be primarily within the faith community-for womensparticipation in the leadership, whether this be episcopacy, ordinationor decision-making procedures.But the global context we all face calls for the building of new

coalitions and new solidarity.And the global context is of course the

globalization of unregulated global capitalism approached in different

ways by many contributors to this issue. There are many different

ways of approaching the way we are, the state we are in. Simply the

cultural fact thatone

global culture envelopesour

whole lives, theeconomic structures held in place by the World Bank, IMF and the

global corporations emerging from North America, Europe and

Japan, which bypass governments, control our economic choices,and - thinking of the chains of debt of many poor countries - dictatewhether we will actually live or die.

11 This was originally the phrase ofAruna Gnanadason



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We could argue that feminist theology itself is a global culture:

throughour

synods,conferences

(Ithink of the

globaloutreach of the

World Council of Churches), of south-north dialogues (such as thatwhich took place in Costa Rica in December 1994), of the gender focusof some of the NGOs, we have a global outreach, and now a globalchallenge. How can we respond to the challenge of the new context?How does David defeat Goliath?

4.APersonal Response

I will make a start by saying a little about my own journey. When Icame to feminist theology it was with the conviction that all theo-

logical categories had to be transformed to relate to the lives of poorand oppressed women and communities and to offer new possibilitiesof liberation and transformation. Rooting theological ideas in the con-crete lived reality was the goal. So I wrote Redeeming the Dream to

change the classical theologies of redemption andAtonement to

become dynamic processes of right and just relation. 12 In The Wisdomof Fools? I tried to do the same with the theology of Revelation. I askedthe question, could Gods communication be revealed-not by dog-mas from on high, but by the fragile connections between women andmen, humans and non-humans, between all the complexities of thestrands of the web of life. 13 I knew that you could not just be feminist,but must also be eco-feminist-the earth is the very condition of there

being any relation at all! Then I felt I could not avoid the dangerousarea of the church, despite it being fraught with pitfalls. It felt likeleaping in where angels feared to tread, but I asked how could wemove from the Dark Night the church is in, to a community, thebeloved community, where right and just relations are respected?14 Iwill spare you the rest of my efforts.

But the point is that I am now convinced there must be a change ofmethod. Not that it was necessarily wrong. But there is now nodimension of oppression- sexism, hetero-sexism, Christo-fascism,

racism, militarism, colonialism, eco-justice that can be tackled exceptwithin the structures of global capitalism. Because everything now is

12. Redeeming the Dream (SPCK, 1989) has been re-issued as an InternationalEdition by Gujarat Sahitya Prakash, Post Box 70,Anand, Gujarat 388 001, India.

13. See M. Grey, The Wisdom of Fools ? Seeking Revelation for Today (London.SPCK, 1997)

14 See M Grey, Beyond the Dark NightAWay Forward for the Church? (London.Continuum, 1997); idem, Prophecy and Mysticism: The Heart of the Post-modern Church

(Edinburgh T & T Clark, 1997).



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97Grey Moving into the Be-Dazzlmg Future

dominated by these killing systems. Let me give two examples.Expensive dam systems in India (the Narmada Dam scheme, to be

specific), funded by the World Bank will uproot 50 million peopleespecially tribals and dalits. Droughts - and many of you know howwe, in Wells for India, have been raising emergency relief for

projects of our partners in the Thar desert, in the current drought-are largely human-made disasters. Yes, there are climatic factors; but

global warming is influenced by chopping down trees, by the destruc-tion of the ozone layer... The increase in trafficking against women is

sparked off in the countries of Eastern Europe such as eastern Ger-

many andAlbania by the desperate poverty following both the col-lapse of the socialist system and the Balkans wars, yes; but also by the

capitalist corporations managing an economy which encourages the

greed of individuals to set in motion organized crime on a huge scale.These are but two examples.Athird would be the speed with

which the campaign to patent life is increasing. Some of you knowthat Vandana Shiva has been leading the resistance to this - a resis-tance which is now being echoed by many European governments.What I am now calling for is a theology to respond to this political/

economic and cultural reality in an effective way. Why theology andnot an alternative economy? Well, we do need an alternative economyand an alternative politics too. Vandana Shiva in her recent ReithLecture calls for an alternative democracy, an earth democracy whichincludes the earth as subject and not object. We need the pressure ofall the Ecology groups and the prophetic lifestyles they inspire. But atthe heart of the capitalist economy is an idolatry - of money, wealth

and the glamorous lifestyle they engender. The capitalist self - not theconnected, ecological self I spoke of earlier - is an arch-individualist,and competitive. He is the heir to the roving pirate of earlier cen-turies, to the conquistadors who ravaged LatinAmerica, more power-ful because he now - in this world of cyber space - does not need tomove at all.And yet, vast crowds of people are forced to be on themove, because life becomes unsustainable in their own lands.

At the heart of it all is a demonic religion-an idolatry of money,

geared to and sustained by a lifestyle of spending and shopping. Toexist is to be a consumer, Tesco ergo sum. If you cannot spend you are a

non-person, a non-citizen of the global market. What is perniciousabout this is the endless series of unsatisfied desires that capitalismhas succeeded in creating. To possess the dreamed-of object is no

longer satisfying because in so doing an emptiness is created, which is

only filled by desire of another object-be it car, or expensive toy, ornew bathroom... The capitalist agenda has succeeded in hijacking our



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psyches and our deepest desires.As well as those of our children... Itis diseased eros we

speakabout here.

But surely this is what religion is all about? What do you seek ? saidJesus, when potential disciples appeared before him. The young fool,Perceval, before he becomes a knight of the Holy Grail, fails the test,when confronted by the wounded king (symbolic of the wounded

kingdom). It was a failure of knowledge, insight and wisdom. Hedidntask the right question-something that I feel is not happeningnow. Remember that Isaiah declared that My people go into exile forwant of

knowledge.Augustine,fifth

century Bishopin NorthAfrica

(and not usually considered a friend of feminists), cried that Thouhast made us for yourself 0 God, and our hearts are restless until theyrest in thee... In other words, our hearts desire, our eros, will not be

satisfied until it encounters and is permeated by what is authenticallysacred. (There is a strong argument that our addictive society - tomoney/ sex/ power/ drugs/ consumerism -is related to the degreethat we are cut off from the earth, her rhythms, seasons, gifts.)15 But Irealize that the sacred icons of

religion have lost their ancient power,approached as they have been in the trappings of capitalist enterprise,hetero-reality and always misogyny. Do we have to do without themin our struggle - as our children frequently tell us?Adrienne Rich

says not: in her poem, The Desert as Garden of Paradise she evokes

the struggle faced in this desert of contemporary living to live ahuman life, when the sacred religious symbols may be somewhereelse, no longer to be relied upon. 16 Even if Miriam,Aaron and Moses

are elsewhere - the sacred will try - just onemore

time!1? This is thehope given for the third millennium.

Surely this is our authentic theological challenge, the burning issuewith which we are confronted-without the power of the icons from

outside to call on, perhaps. What do we want and how should we know ?In other words, how can the facts of poverty, famine, degradation ofland, sexual violence and abuse be engaged with, in order to inspire acommitment to change?

And, secondly, how canwe

change whatwe

want? How to turnaround the diseased eros of society so that our deepest desiresbecome focused on fullness of life and flourishing for all? In fact, there

15 See Bruce Wilshire,AWild Hunger. The Primal Roots of ModernAddiction

(London: Rowman and Littlefield, 1998)16 Adrienne Rich, The Desert as Garden of Paradise, m idem, Poems1985-8

(New York: W & W Norton, 1989), pp 29-30

17. Rich, The Desert as Garden of Paradise, pp 29-30



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99Grey Moving into the Be-Dazzling Future

is a well-established discourse of Eros in feminist theology that

spreadswider than what

happenedbetween two

peopleto include a

basic vitality, and energy that is creative and life-sustaining. To set inmotion this erotic energy both women and men need to collaborate

and create new forms of co-operation and trust-building. (In this vitaltask to break the dominant hold of hetero-reality, it is of the utmost

importance that we find positive and creative ways of working. TheWomens Movement has failed in the past many times because it did

not allow a meaningful role for men.)First, a new epistemology, or way of knowing and engaging with

the world. It can be argued that feminist theology is well-placed forthis task. What do women want? asked Sigmund Freud - but did hewait for an answer? I suggest, first, the healing of the violated and

despised bodies, now, in the memories of the past, in real histories, inthe texts and in the symbols. This text of Toni Morrison is powerful intheAfro-American context of slavery as to the work of healing, wherethe beginning is nowhere else than in our own bodies:

She did not tell them to cleanup

their lives andgo

and sin no more. She

did not tell them that they were the blessed of the earth, its inheritingmeek or its glorybound pure. She told them that the only grace theycould have was the grace they could imagine. That if they could not seeit, they would not have it.

Here, she said, m this here place, we flesh; flesh that weeps, laughs;flesh that dances on bare feet m grass; Love it. Love it hard. Yonder theydo not love your flesh. They despise it. They dontlove your eyes;theyd just as soon pick em out. No more do they love the skm on yourback. Yonder they flay itAnd 0 my people they do not love yourhands. Those they only use, tie, bmd, chop off and leave empty Love

your hands Love them. Raise them up and kiss them. Touch others

with them...And no, they aintin love with your mouth. Yonder, outthere, they will see it broken and break it agam What you say out of it

they will not heed. When you scream from it they do not hear What

you put in to nourish your body they will snatch away and give youleavings msteadThis is flesh Im talking about Flesh that needs to beloved... Saying no more, she stood up then and danced with hertwisted hip the rest of what her heart had to say..18

But desire expresses itself not only in our personal histories, our

personal need for healing and happiness, but what we want for ourchildren, our communities, our societies and the future of the planet.So, I will end with two things-a text and a picture.At the Beijing

18. Toni Morrison, Beloved (London. Chatto and Windus, 1987), p 88



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conference some LatinAmerican women presented a Creed of what

they thoughtwomen

wanted-not in the next world, butnow.

Here itis:

BreadAclean skyActive peace.Awomansvoice singmg somewhere,

melody drifting like smoke from the cook fires. The army disbanded,the harvest abundant The wound healed, the child wanted, the prisonerfreed, the bodys integrity honoured, the lover returned . The labour

equal, fair and valued. Delight in the challenge for consensus to solve

problems No hand raised m any gesture but greeting. Secureinteriors-of heart, home, land - so firm as to make secure borders

irrelevant at last.And everywhere, laughter, care, dancing, content-ment.Ahumble, earthly paradise in the now.19

There is no need to go into an analysis of this - every phrase strikes a

deep chord. Our hearts, imaginations and eros are touched and this is

partly because this springs from a group of women who have crossedboundaries to long for a world where boundaries are irrelevant. Youhave the impression that these women have been through war con-

texts ; they know what it is to keep the community going when themen are away fighting-as in Kosovo, or looking for work, as in

Rajasthan and in many parts ofAfrica. They know what abuse is allabout but they have reached a space where bodily integrity ishonoured. Surely, since our networks are already global, we have the

power and the passion to tackle this necro-culture (Dalys terms), this

necro-technology. We already have a re-imagined eros, where eros isthe energy connecting us with life forces. Have we not a great desire

and longing for the good, for the fullness of life for all? Have we notmade repeated commitment to life in its fullness for the poorest andmost vulnerable? We have a re-imagined theology of the Spirit as a

great boundary-crosser - connecting us across culture and context inorder to form powerful coalitions against global capitalism-theo-logically as well as in economic and political terms. Is it not time to

respond to the urgency of this new millennium by engagingtheologically from our roots in the power to sustain life itself, by

giving birth and caring and educating the next generation, byengaging in a transformed economy of care, enlarging the shrunkennotions of the economy to include life-sustaining forms of care? Then

19 A Womans Creed cited in Beijing Preparatory documents, and quoted inCatherine Keller,Apocalypse Nowand ThenA Feminist Story of the End of the World

(Boston Beacon Press, 1996), p 268Actually it was composed by Robin Morganwith a group of Third World women sponsored bv a womens Environment and

Development orgamzation



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101Grey Mozing into the Be-Dazzling Future

indeed do we redeem the tIme, redeem the dream, by embodying patternsof

relatingthat offer authentic

joyand

satisfied desires...inthe here

and now.

Caroline Mackenzies painting, evoking the Resurrection, is of theDivine dancing figure emerging from the tomb.2 It takes us back toour dreaming. It suggests that we are women, waiting, contemplat-ing, dreaming, to receive Resurrection, the new and blossoming crea-tion-not just of people, but of the entire cosmos. Here the RISIngChrist, a woman, is dancing the Be-Dazzling millennium...will we join thedance ?

20 Caroline Mackenzie is an artist w ho integrates Indian Christian themes into

her painting She spent many years in an Indian Christian ashram, where also the

Indian Christian artist Jhoti Sahi was working

by RAVI BABU BUNGA on October 23 2009http://fth sagepub comDownloaded from

89 moving into the be-dazzling future: drawing threads together

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