“The LWF Women’s Pre-Assembly was an empowering meeting”, says Magnea Sverrisdóttir, deacon in the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Iceland. “It is an important platform, especially for difficult issues like violence,” she continues.
Freedom from violence and the full participation of women in church and society were the key themes of the message from the Women’s Pre-Assembly of The Lutheran World Federation (LWF). Women delegates to the Twelfth Assembly of the LWF, members of the LWF Women in Church and Society (WICAS) network and local women’s working groups gathered in Namibia’s capital Windhoek, for the Women’s Pre-Assembly, 6-9 May. They delivered their message to delegates of the LWF Assembly on 10 May.
Magnea Sverrisdóttir comments on the Women’s Pre-Assembly:
“During the meeting it was clear how violence is not something that is isolated to a specific region but is present all over the world. It affects us all, not only women. It causes harm to the society as a whole. An example of this is the economical violence where women is not eligible to inherit their late husband; or domestic and sexual violence. The violence issue is deeply connected to our subtheme – Humans not for sale.
In the world today there are women who are forced to sell their bodies in order to provide a livelihood or gain, otherwise male dominated, privileges. This is not something that we can stand for, these are basic human rights that are violated.
The church can be a positive factor for change, especially when it comes to education – not only for children but also for the parish. The more we talk and understand the harder it is for injustices to keep happening. Silence is the greatest weapon we face in overcoming unjust structures that maintain inequity and violence.
The violence issue is something we need to continue working with, it exists in different shapes and needs to be addressed if we are live up to being liberated in God’s grace. One way of doing this is to start harvesting the gifts of the Communion. For example to encourage women in leadership positions, right now we are not engaging the full capacity of the Communion.”
LWF/Johan Ehrning
