Women of Passion

If you have not heard of TED Talks, I highly recommend checking out their website (www.ted.com).  TED is an organisation that holds an annual conference and asks some of the most brilliant thinkers of our time to 'give the talk of their lives' in under 18 minutes.  One of the most recent ones posted on their website was by the Chilean novelist, Isabel Allende.  I am not ashamed to say: it moved me to tears.  She spoke with passion about passion - her passion for the medium of story (which is 'truer than truth') and her passionate feelings about being involved in the opening ceremonies of the 2006 Winter Olympics in Italy. She spoke with power and conviction also about her commitment to feminism and the need for a continued awareness of women's issues globally.  I am loathe to repeat here long parts of her talk but some facts bare highlighting: 80% of all refugees and displaced persons are women or children, women do 2/3 of the world's labour, but own less than 1% of the world's assets, they are paid less if paid at all.  They are still in many parts of the world forced into marriage, forced into pregnancy, abused, raped and killed with impunity.  She wonders what kind of world could be created if women were truly liberated, truly empowered.  Being 51% of the world's population, empowering them, she say, would 'change everything.'

I also heard another woman speak in the past week.  She was the Most Reverend Katherine Jefferts Schori, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. She did not speak about feminism, but she spoke with a quiet and calm passion about the community over which she presides and its commitment to justice, dialogue and transparency.  I have no doubt that the election of Jefferts Schori as presiding bishop is the kind of empowerment for women to which Allende was alluding, the kind of empowerment which can 'change everything', and which will undoubtedly prove to be a great blessing for the Church.