No not that "network"-
While political and social concerns topped the agenda at a meeting in New York February 22-27 of the International Anglican Women's Network, members said that merely meeting in person for the first time gave them renewed courage to advance women's issues in sometimes-hostile environments.
They came from 30 of the worldwide Anglican Communion's 38 provinces (national or regional groupings of national churches) and talked about the places where girls receive less education then boys, where women bear a greater burden of care for AIDS patients, where poverty affects more women than men and where women are not well-represented in the councils of the church.
They talked about issues affecting women in all countries, developed and developing, such as domestic violence, and how to organize best to bring these concerns to the attention of secular and church leaders.
"I am going to carry with me the message and what we have learned together. I am going to go back home to the primate [Archbishop Justice Ofei Akrofi] and his wife and tell him we are going to make the voices of women heard," Evelyn Lamptey of Ghana (in the Province of West Africa) told the group at the meeting's closing dinner.
"I have learned so much from all of our sisters. I go home enthused," said Doris Clements of Ireland. For Ruth Choi of Korea, the gathering meant she "felt empowered to strengthen women's voices," which means "we can strengthen the Anglican Church."
As previously reported on Episcopal Life Online, the network released a statement supporting greater roles for women in decision-making church bodies. The 12-year-old network, which lay fallow for several years and was rejuvenated in 2006, also emphasized the unity of Anglican women even in the midst of controversy over theological issues such as homosexuality.
http://www.episcopalchurch.org/79901_105699_ENG_HTM.htm
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