After a day of lounging around the house and catching a matinee at the local movie theater, I'm back in the office and ready to get this blog off the ground. Last weekend was our semi-annual Coordinating Committee here in Louisville. What came out of it? What stuck with me about it? One word-- womanspace.

What is "womanspace," you might ask? Well, it is the place where women get together. In a world where the media presents unrealistic expectations about women's appearances, churches question women's gifts for ministry, and schools create nearly impossible standards of performance for all of us, womanspace allows us to simply "be." It is a place to reveal our secret struggles, receive comfort, and ask the tough questions of one another. Simply put, womanspace is a place to rest in the presence of God as women.

Why do we need this space apart from men? Mainly because being a woman is a unique experience of discrimination. For centuries, women have been rated second class in the church and society, somehow subhuman. One of the most influential thinkers of the Middle Ages, St. Thomas Aquinas, said that in the woman is "something deficient or accidental." Martin Luther claimed that a woman's purpose in life was purely for childbearing.* Every day, women still struggle with versions of these ideas that permeate the subconscious of our society. Women need a place to escape, a place to come together with others of similar experience to debrief.

I saw the power of womanspace this weekend at our Coordinating Committee meeting. On Thursday, a group of overstressed, overextended women came together in Louisville to talk about the business of NNPCW. And we did talk about business. However, we also did a spiritual healing retreat. We did a community Bible study through the "mutual invitation" model. And we "checked in," allowing each woman to talk for as long as she wanted about her life, her joys, and her struggles. I was amazed at the difference that a few days of spiritual retreat and sharing with one another in a community of women re-energized the members of CoCo. I see the same thing every year at our leadership event as well. There is something powerful in young women coming together to create womanspace.

So today, I would encourage you to seek out womanspace in your own life. This can be with other women, or even by creating a safe space for your own private conversations with God. Either way, give yourself the place to leave behind all the clutter of life and just "be" in the presence of God.

“Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest." --Matthew 11:28

Kelsey

*From Isabel Rogers, Toward A Liberating Faith: A Primer on Feminist Theology, Louisville, KY: Women's Ministries Area, Presbyterian Church (USA), 1999.

Hey Women!

Kelsey, thanks for your thoughts, for getting a forum going. I love that CoCo had great womanspace. Tonight my womanspace was a Brazilian dance class...and let me tell you...did we ever explore our womanhood! It was so fun. Much love to everybody.

Hey Women!

Kelsey, thanks for your thoughts, for getting a forum going. I love that CoCo had great womanspace. Tonight my womanspace was a Brazilian dance class...and let me tell you...did we ever explore our womanhood! It was so fun. Much love to everybody.

Rebecca Napier-Moore...in England