Clergywomen Rediscover, Reclaim Sabbath

God's commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is often difficult for pastors working in a tradition that observes its day of rest on Sunday.

By Linda Green

SAN DIEGO (UMNS) - God's commandment to keep the Sabbath holy is often difficult for pastors working in a tradition that observes its day of rest on Sunday.

Sunday is the busiest day of the week for pastors, who are ensuring that their congregations are spiritually fed. They fill the rest of the week responding to the demands of others so much that they often neglect their own spiritual needs and fail to set aside a time of rest for themselves.

Jesus encourages everyone to get away to a deserted place and rest a while, but people are too busy to respond, said Bishop Charlene Kammerer, who leads the church's Charlotte (N.C.) Area. "Most of us live in such a whirlwind of activity that we don't always hear the voice of Jesus."

The Sabbath is a time to rest in Jesus' presence, she said. "Jesus says to us to come away by ourselves, and I will be there to renew you, heal you, hold you and bless you. This is an invitation we should not refuse," she said.

More than 1,185 clergywomen from across the globe gathered Jan. 7-11 in San Diego to rediscover and reclaim the Sabbath while responding to the challenge to change the world.

Meeting for the 2002 International United Methodist Clergywomen's Consultation, the women focused on the theme of "Creating a Woman's Sabbath: Come Away and Rest Away." Each day began and ended with worship, and participants had opportunities to explore what it means to rest in God. Thirty-three workshops addressed such diverse topics as "Painting of the Soul," "Jesus in the Movies," "Sacraments and Liturgy" and "the 'Gospel' of Music."

The United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry had held the consultations every four years since 1975, but the 2002 event was six and a half years in the making. The Rev. Marion Jackson, director of continuing education for ministry at the board in Nashville, Tenn., speculated that the time frame was extended in order for the 2006 consultation to coincide with the clergywomen's jubilee. The jubilee will mark the 50th year since General Conference voted to give women full clergy rights, she said. Those rights were reaffirmed in 1968 at the uniting conference of the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches.

Clergy with full rights are ordained to a lifetime ministry of service, word and sacrament, according to the United Methodist Book of Discipline. They are authorized to preach and teach the word of God, to administer the sacraments of baptism and Holy Communion, and to order the life of the church for mission and ministry.

The consultation's 17-member design team came up with the theme of Sabbath after discussing the fact that many clergywomen are suffering from burnout, taking leaves of absence and struggling to stay connected to God amid myriad daily responsibilities, Jackson said. "The more we talked, the more it seemed that the world is becoming too fast and we all had difficulties in finding time for our own prayer life."

The consultation had two goals, Jackson said. "I wanted everyone who attended-men, spouses, laity as well as the clergywomen-to experience Sabbath, to really let go. I also wanted to give them the tools and skills to take home and incorporate Sabbath into their everyday lives."

The event drew clergywomen from across the United States as well as Bulgaria, Canada, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Kenya, Korea, Liberia, Mozambique, Nigeria, the Philippines, Russia, Sweden, South Africa, Sierra Leone and Zimbabwe.

The clergywomen were encouraged to take time for consecrated holy leisure. They were told to take time to rest in God and be healed, reformed and re-created by divine love. Speakers emphasized that allocating an unstructured day - without meetings, projects, tasks, agendas or scheduled time with others - provides time for visioning, discernment, listening to the inner self and acquiring a relaxed alertness about life.

"There was no confusion. We were all here to learn about one thing: Sabbath," said Joaquina Nhanala from Maputo, Mozambique. Every aspect of the event - the theme, the speakers, the worship - reinforced the importance of Sabbath, she noted. "I will go back and tell my people they need to keep the Sabbath holy."

The western concept of Sabbath is not a reality for clergywomen in Africa, according to many representatives from the continent.

The Rev. Kabamba Kiboko of Prairie View, Texas, a native of the Democratic Republic of Congo, said her understanding of Sabbath has been influenced by the traditions of the Sanga tribe, of which she is a member. The closest word to Sabbath in her native language is "kisungu," which means education -- but not in the western sense of the word. By definition, kisungu is holistic, involving the whole being, and it refers to learning about being, she said.

Many clergywomen described feeling constant stress from heavy work loads, pay equity concerns and sexism, particularly from congregations that don't want women in the pulpit.

"The Holy Spirit is getting ready to do something and is preparing clergywomen to follow God's lead," Jackson said. "The energy coming from the clergywomen has reached a point where they realize that they no longer have to be victims.

"We have not reached the point of being equally accepted, but more and more eyes are opening ... and in these 50 years, we've been strengthened. It hasn't been easy nor pleasant, but we've used them to build our spiritual muscle," Jackson said.

The Rev. Minerva Carcano of Portland, Ore., agreed. "I know my sisters, it is not easy even now. The cold stares of the world have not stopped. The struggle continues, but God is still in charge and has the last word," she said.

In the Bible, the widow who gave her last two coins at the temple knew that the only way to respond to the loving grace of God was to give all she had, Carcano said. The story is a reminder of those women of faith and courage who, in spite of all, saw what God was doing in their lives and were inspired to give all.

But is giving all worth it? That is the question the Rev. Lydia Jackson Waters, Compton, Calif., asked as she spoke of the divergent expectations held against clergywomen and described their struggle to be superwomen and twice as good as men.

In order to meet the vast expectations placed on them, clergywomen are succumbing to high blood pressure, strokes, burnout, chronic fatigue and other maladies, Waters said. "The church rewards us, and we get a thumbs up for killings ourselves, she said. "Jesus did not die on the cross to turn around and watch us kill ourselves nor allow anyone else to do it. ... Is all of this labor really worth it?"

Life is a gift from God, she said. "As often as you can, stop, take a break, and get away to allow the spirit of God to breathe into you a breath of life." She urged the clergywomen to "stop taking this call so seriously and get a life."

The admonishment resonated with the Rev. Soome Kim of San Fernando, Calif. During a reflective time, she said she recognized that her busyness and total involvement in ministry created barriers to the Holy Spirit ministering to her. "I realized that cleaning house is not my day off. ... Sabbath is not a doing time. It is a being time," she said. "It is a time to enjoy God."

During the Jan. 7 opening worship service, clergywomen were invited to write down their burdens and place them in Sabbath boxes. The denomination's 13 women bishops took the burdens and put them away in a symbolic ceremony. The next night, at the Sabbath banquet, participants were given a box to take home as a reminder to put away their burdens and honor Sabbath time.

Remembering the Sabbath and keeping it holy "is not an option," said Bishop Linda Lee of the Michigan Area. "That is a commandment from God." It is not to be taken lightly, she said.

"If God, who is omniscient, the alpha and omega, put aside a day at the end of her busy week, a day to be still, a day to bask and rest in her own presence and just be, surely we can find a day to give to God," she said. "We give days to Caesar but not to God."

Lee invited the clergywomen to go to "that place" where they can touch the holy inside. The place to begin, she said, is at the "still place," the inner self that most people want to avoid. "It is the place where we meet the demons," she said. "It is a hurtful place that gets us to the holy place where we meet God."

It is at the bottom of "that place where there is peace," she said. Each time a person goes deeply inward and gives herself to God, she gets to that place and is touched by the presence of the living God and becomes stronger.

That was the message the Rev. Gwen Purushotham of Holden, Mass., needed to hear. "I'm by nature an introvert and going outward and inward is important to me."

Participating in the consultation changed her view of Sabbath slightly, she said. "I would not have thought of going to the zoo as Sabbath," she said. She found that Sabbath has a more inclusive definition than she had thought. "It is not that time apart, a retreat. It is being with other women for fun." Her understanding of Sabbath also was confirmed, she said. "It becomes more than time off. It is a time of being."

People in the church talk more about the Sabbath than keep it, Purushotham said. Taking the Sabbath seriously would be the most "radical thing" Christians could do to transform the church and the world, she said.

The consultation's worship services reflected the diversity of the clergywomen. Participants had opportunities to worship in Hispanic, African-American, African, Korean and Native American traditions, as well as in a Taize service.

During a service renewing their baptism, some clergywomen staged a silent protest in support of their lesbian colleagues. As the women bishops stood around the meeting room with bowls of water for the participants to sprinkle themselves and take a seashell in remembrance, they were flanked by hooded women holding placards that said: "We were baptized too." As the symbolic renewal service concluded, the clergywomen surrounded the black-shrouded participants and enveloped them in a ring of solidarity.

The weeklong consultation drew strong affirmations from many of the clergywomen, including the Rev. Evelene "Tweedy" Sombrero of Glendale, Ariz. "We have heard the word and experienced God's spirit. Now it is time to go and to do."

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