Women-Church

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Scope

Under the broader umbrella of feminism, religion and women's spirituality, the Women-Church journal included content from authors that held a diversity of understandings and perspectives. [2] [3]

The journal documented major changes in feminist religious culture over a 20-year period. Its editorial policy encouraged contributions from more marginalized groups and it remained a non-refereed title as a way of making it accessible to a wide range of readers. Australian sociologist of religion and gender, Kathleen McPhillips has noted that the journal was "a place where young scholars could showcase their ideas, where women could share ideas around ritual and liturgy, and where artists and poets could publish their work". [4]

History

Erin White, along with Hilary Carey, was one of the founding editors of Women-Church. Camille Paul co-edited the journal from 1989 to 2007. Paul and White wrote a history of the journal's beginnings for the 5th Birthday Issue of Women-Church in Spring 1992. [5] Elaine Lindsay was co-editor of the journal from 1992 to 2007. [6]

The journal was launched twice. It was first launched in Melbourne at the Movement for the Ordination of Women conference. [7] It was also launched a week later at the first Women and the Australian Church National Conference that was held in Sydney in August 1987. [8] Jean Gledhill gave a speech at this event which placed the launch of the journal in the context of Australian religious feminism, also noting the previous publication of the Australian Christian feminist magazine Magdalene. Gledhill's speech was published in its entirety in the second issue of Women-Church. [7] In the journal's second-last and final issue Erin White contributed a personal account of the history of the journal and the Women-Church Group. [9] [2] The journal's final issue included many letters from all over Australia that told of their sadness at losing a publication that had nourished their religious lives for two decades. [10]

Access

Select articles from the journal are available online via the Informit database. [1]

Mannix Library, in East Melbourne has also digitised the entire run of the journal and made it available on the University of Divinity's Digital Collections website [11] and on JSTOR Open Community Collections. [12]

The Women-Church archives are now held by the Jessie Street National Women's Library in Sydney. [13] [14]

Related Research Articles

Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributions by women, and an acknowledgment of women's value, are necessary for a complete understanding of Christianity. Christian feminists believe that God does not discriminate on the basis of biologically-determined characteristics such as sex and race, but created all humans to exist in harmony and equality, regardless of race or gender. Christian feminists generally advocate for anti-essentialism as a part of their belief system, acknowledging that gender identities do not mandate a certain set of personality traits. Their major issues include the ordination of women, biblical equality in marriage, recognition of equal spiritual and moral abilities, abortion rights, integration of gender neutral pronouns within readings of the Bible, and the search for a feminine or gender-transcendent divine. Christian feminists often draw on the teachings of other religions and ideologies in addition to biblical evidence, and other Christian based texts throughout history that advocate for women's rights.

Marie Tulip was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.

The Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) was the name used by organisations in England and Australia that campaigned for the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops in the Anglican Communion.

Hilary Mary Carey, is an Australian historian whose research focused for many years on the religious history of Australia. She has been professor of imperial and religious history at the University of Bristol since 2014, where her research interests include religious missions in Canada and Greenland and missions to seamen.

Camille Agnes Becker Paul (1932-2010) was an Australian feminist, moral theologian and activist.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Colleen O'Reilly</span> Australian Anglican priest

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Elaine Stuart Lindsay is an Australian academic. She was instrumental in the development of the Women-Church journal which provided publishing opportunities in feminist theology for Australian women.

Angela Coco is an Australian sociologist and academic whose primary research interests have been in the area of the sociology of religion, new religious movements, Catholicism, and Paganism.

Erin Gabrielle White is a feminist philosopher and theologian. As an author she contributed significantly to feminist scholarship in Australia. She was the founder of the Sydney Women-Church Group and one of the founding editors of Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion.

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Women and the Australian Church (WATAC) is an Australian ecumenical religious organisation that was founded in 1984. It was originally a Catholic initiative, being a national project of Australian religious men and women. It is now an ecumenical association, open to different denominations and faiths, with a network of separate groups operating in different Australian states and territories.

Towards a Feminist Theology is the title of a publication based on an Australian feminist theology conference held from 18 to 20 August 1989 at the Collaroy Centre in Sydney. The conference was the first ecumenical feminist theology conference held in Australia. Significantly it was also the first time that three women's organisations had joined with a common purpose. The combined gathering of around 500 attendees represented an important milestone in the development of feminist theology in Australia.

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The Movement for the Ordination of Women was an Australian newsletter published by the Movement for the Ordination of Women. The newsletter, which had multiple title variations over the years, was produced between 1984 and 1997, and provides a record of the history of the movement.

Jean Gledhill is a member of the Uniting Church in Australia and a former member of the Commission on the Status of Women of the Australian Council of Churches. She was associated with two publications that contributed to the development of religious feminism in Australia. These were the Christian feminist magazine Magdalene and Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion.

Preachers, Prophets and Heretics is a book published in 2012 to mark the 20th anniversary of the ordination of women as priests in the Anglican Church in Australia. It was edited by Elaine Lindsay and Janet Scarfe.

Christian Women Concerned was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. It was founded in 1968 by a small ecumenical group of feminist scholars that included Marie Tulip, Dorothy McRae-McMahon and Jean Skuse. The organisation played a significant role in the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women in the Church by the Australian Council of Churches and published the Christian feminist magazine Magdalene from 1973 to 1987.

References

  1. 1 2 "Women-Church: an Australian journal of feminist studies in religion". search.informit.org. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  2. 1 2 White, Erin. "Women-Church: a personal account". Women-Church: An Australian Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion (40): 125–128.
  3. ↑ Williams, Vicki (May 1995). "Ten years of Women-Church". National Outlook: 6–7.
  4. ↑ McPhillips, Kathleen (2000). "Reflections on Feminist Publishing in an Australian Context". Journal of Feminist Studies in Religion. 16 (1): 112–120. ISSN   8755-4178. JSTOR   25002384.
  5. ↑ Walter, Linda. "Women-Church? On the paradoxes of a religious journal that puts women first". Arena Magazine. No. 16, Apr/ May 1995: 54–55.
  6. ↑ "Elaine Lindsay | MOWATCH Movement for the Ordination of Women in the Anglican Church". mowatch.com.au. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  7. 1 2 Gledhill, Jean. "Launching Women-Church". Women-Church 2 Autumn 1988. p. 6. Retrieved 2022-05-30.
  8. ↑ "Theologian broadened the church with woman's touch". The Sydney Morning Herald. 2010-10-04. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  9. ↑ White, Erin. "Women-Church Journal as it was in the beginning". Women-Church. 39: 3–5.
  10. ↑ Campion, Edmund (2021). "The bread is rising: Australian Catholic women". Journal of the Australian Catholic Historical Society. 42: 131–139.
  11. ↑ "University of Divinity Digital Collections". divinity.contentdm.oclc.org. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  12. ↑ "Women-Church Complete Archive". www.jstor.org. Retrieved 2023-07-23.
  13. ↑ "Women-Church Collection › Jessie Street National Women's Library catalogue". catalogue.nationalwomenslibrary.org.au. Retrieved 2022-05-22.
  14. ↑ Women - Church (ed.). Women - Church Collection - NJSN_AC-014.
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