Safe Spaces: Creating Gender Reconciled Communities

Elizabeth Gerhardt

Violence against women has remained a devastating and perennial problem in our society and our churches. Attempts at reducing violence and inequity within church communities have often been sporadic and anemic. This workshop will offer opportunities to create a culture shift beginning with a focus on a humble lament and recognition of the devastation that misogyny and violence has had on our church communities.

Violence against women is both an individual and social sin. The abuse of power has many dimensions including individual, relational and systemic. In order to create churches rooted in foundations of equity, love and belonging, shifts and disruptions in powerful Christian structural frameworks are needed.

Strategies and resources for creating healthy communities where women and men work, play and worship together, while patriarchal systems are held accountable will be provided. An emphasis on human dignity, the responsibility connected with human freedom, and the unity of the beloved community will provide a strong foundation for concrete change that is rooted in the theologies and activism of Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Howard Thurman, and Martin Luther King, Jr.