Archive: Re-Imagining Community gathers in Minneapolis
By Jeanene Hoppe
The 1995 Re-Imagining Conference continued where the previous two conferences left off in challenging basic tenets of the Christian faith. Held November 3 and 4 in Minneapolis, the gathering featured feminist theologian Miriam Therese Winter, Medical Missionary Sister and professor of liturgy, worship, spirituality, and feminist studies at Hartford Seminary, Hartford, Connecticut. The theme was “Sounding: Re-Imagining the Word.”
More than 400 Catholic and Protestant men and women representing 23 states were led through song, ritual, dance, small group discussion, and drama. Throughout the meeting there were blessings to Sophia, who, according to the program guide, is “a figure who appears throughout scripture as a female personification of the wisdom of God.”
The conference focus was not as much on the biblical word as the personal words expressed by the participants as they were led through a meditation ritual to express the word that is “sounding in my life now” or “words the world is waiting to hear.”
During a part of the program entitled “Listening to ‘Sophiaword,’” a symbolic dance called “Unbind Her” was presented to the tune of “Amazing Grace” in which a woman completely bound in cloth strips is unwrapped so she can again see and move. This led into a presentation by Winter called “Unbinding the Word” in which she explained that before the written word existed there was ritual and experience and centuries of oral interpretation with a lot of “embellishments.” Eventually the stories became text and “these recorded memories are suddenly said to be God’s words.” This, according to Winter, puts us “in a bind,” and when we dare to change the words it becomes a problem.
The real problem, according to Winter, is that relying only on Scripture is “like peering at the universe through a straw,” which is ridiculous. Though claiming to be rooted in biblical tradition, Winter prefers not to be “bound by what is between two covers.” This was illustrated in “Garden Story,” danced and narrated from her book Noah and Her Sisters: Genesis and Exodus According To Women. The Noah in this title is one of the daughters of Zelophehad from Numbers 26, a story told according to Scripture. It was about women overcoming the patriarchal system of their day. In “Garden Story,” however, she begins with the Genesis text, which is “a myth in culture … a legend,” and “doesn’t stay with it.”
Many conference participants found this obvious as they asked for explanations afterwards on who Lilith is? (Adam’s sister), why no sin? (we have enough guilt—the fall is Adam and Eve falling in love), and the serpent? (not a negative but a symbol of transformation). The danger, says Winter, is in “taking a story and making it Scripture.” Referring to biblical stories, Winter says, “With just a little bit of imagination, you can make them your own.”
The ritual of milk and honey was repeated as in the previous annual conferences. However, instead of the liturgy previously used, which stirred so much debate, the following explanation from the May 1995 Re-Imagining Newsletter was included: “The oldest of the communion texts of the early church holds a well kept secret in its ancient rubrics. How many cups? Three, not one … the first cup offered to the newly baptized was a cup of water … those who hungered and thirsted for righteousness were given water to drink for the inner washing of the spirit. The third cup is now our one and only, the cup of the new covenant, the chalice of the fruit of the vine. What is missing from our memory is the second cup, a cup of milk and honey. This missing cup was given to ‘the children of God for the healing of the bitterness of the human heart with the sweetness of Christ’s word.’ So reads one of the oldest worship texts we possess.”
This event was organized by the Re-Imagining Community based in Minneapolis, which was founded in response to the 1993 Re-Imagining conference. The community has one staff person and volunteers who will now begin work on the 1996 Conference where they expect 750-1,000 participants.
Available at this conference was a newly released book from Pilgrim Press called Re-Membering and Re-Imagining—a collection of stories from 95 different people who came to or were affected by the 1993 Re-Imagining Conference and its ensuing controversy.
By Jeanene Hoppe, member of Grace United Methodist Church in Fergus Falls, Minnesota, where she teaches a Sunday morning adult issues class.
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