First Day at UNCSW59 - March 7, 2015

This is a post devoted to photos from my arrival in New York City for the United Nations 59th annual Conference on the Status of Women (UNCSW59) through yesterday, the first day of events with the NGO "Ecumenical Women." I'm a delegate from the Episcopal Church's Diocese of Colorado, and I also serve on the church's Executive Council (its board of directors) as chair of the Joint Standing Committee on Advocacy and Networking for Mission. 

As someone who has focused intently on social justice and public policy issues for the church during my soon-to-end six-year term, being here at UNCSW59 has been "right up my alley," with presentations, panel discussions, and workshops on human rights for women and girls. My intention with this post is to give the wider church a sense of the flavor of being here at UNCSW59.

I'm with Helen Achol Abyei, also from the Diocese of Colorado. We met up in Denver for an interview that will be published in the diocesan newspaper, The Colorado Episcopalian. Helen is in her native dress from Sudan.

We arrived at LaGuardia Airport the day after a plane slid off the runway. Air traffic delays kept us on the ground an extra hour before our plane was released to fly. There was still a lot of snow and ice on the ground in New York, and we waited almost an hour in a very long queue for a taxi to take us to our mid-town hotel near the Church Center and the Untied Nations. Luckily, although it was very cold, the wind was not blowing.

Helen, Julia Ayala Harris from the Diocese of Oklahoma, and I walked over to Grand Central Station on our arrival night to find dinner on a budget in the food court on the lower level.

The orientation for the NGO Ecumenical Women, of which the Episcopal Church delegation is a member, took place a 9-block walk away at the Salvation Army's site, which included a ground floor chapel and upstairs meeting rooms. Here we are piling into the building for a hosted continental breakfast and a 9:00 AM worship start in the chapel. 

Some of our delegates before morning worship started: Glenda McQueen, Partnership Officer for Latin America and the Caribbean (R), Vaike Marika Madisson Lopez de Molina from the Diocese of Honduras (L), and Consuelo Sanchez Navarro, also from the Diocese of Honduras (R).

Joan Grimm Fraser from the Diocese of Long Island, who represents the church as our Provincial Representative in the Anglican Communion's delegation, and I tried a selfie after meeting each other for the first time. It turned out that Joan knows some of the same people I know from the Diocese of Colorado.

Another selfie:  I connected with Fern Lee Hagedorn from the ELCA Young Adult Cohort, and we chatted about being raised as Chinese American daughters and becoming lay Christian leaders.

Lynnaia Main, a member of our delegation, is the Global Relations Officer with primary responsibility for the church's United Nations relationship. She is the coordinator for our delegation. 

Lopa Banerjee, Chief of the Civil Society Section in UN Women, from India, moderated a panel discussion titled "Beijing Then and Now." She reiterated the three focal points that Executive Director Mlambo-Ngcuka cited as necessary to make progress on the Beijing Platform for Action: 1) Unrelenting political commitment; 2) Investment in gender equality; and 3) Strengthened civil society. During the panel discussion, the point was made that gender equality is a shared focus for human rights for all people, not just for women.

Prior to going to the United Nations Church Center for the afternoon's panel discussions and workshops, several of us stopped at the United Nations to register and obtain our official delegate's badge. One enters through a security building after showing identification and our official registration form. This is the lobby of the United Nations after we went through the separate security screening building.

Three of the church's delegation were just joining the line to get their U.N. badges:  Grace Aheron from the Diocese of Virginia (L), Hollee Martinez, Diocese of Texas (C), and Jayce Hafner, the church's Domestic Policy Analyst (R).

The orientation day closed with a worship service filled with intercessory prayer for the global family in the first floor chapel of the UN Church Center. 

UNCSW59 - Day 1

Lelanda Lee at the U.N.

UNCSW59 is the abbreviation for the 59th annual United Nations Conference on the Status of Women (UNCSW) being held in New York City from March 9 to 20. This year, for the first time, the Episcopal Church is participating as an official 20-person delegation, led by Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori. The church received official status as a non-governmental agency member of the UN’s Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) in May 2014.

For the Episcopal Church delegation the conference began on March 7th with the Ecumenical Women orientation day filled with vibrant worship led by the United Nations chaplain, the Rev. Dionne Boissière, greetings from UN Women’s Executive Director Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka, panel discussions, and workshops. 

UNCSW is the principal global intergovernmental organization working on gender equality and empowerment for women. The commission focuses on issues such as including girls in education for all children, eliminating violence against women and girls, improving maternal and childbirth health, and empowering women to achieve political and social leadership roles.

This year’s UNCSW is particularly significant, because it is also the 20th anniversary of the Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action established in 1995 in Beijing at the Fourth World Conference on Women. Implementing the Beijing Platform for Women is this year’s UNCSW theme. However, as can be seen in a message from Director Mlambo-Ngcuka to “step it up” for gender equality, the world has fallen far short of its lofty goals established two decades ago, and women together with men are called to action to make gender equity a reality.

Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka

In September 1995, more than 3,000 people plus representatives from 189 governments, meeting in Beijing, participated in forums and intense discussions about human rights and equality for women and girls worldwide. The Beijing Declaration and Platform arose out of those conversations, covering 12 critical areas:

1.     Women and Poverty

2.     Education and Training of Women

3.     Women and Health

4.     Violence against Women

5.     Women and Armed Conflict

6.     Women and the Economy

7.     Women in Power and Decision Making

8.     Institutional Mechanisms for the Advancement of Women

9.     Human Rights of Women

10. Women and the Media

11. Women and Environment

12. The Girl Child

Look familiar? Those 12 critical areas align with the 8 Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) that were identified by the United Nations in 2000, listed below. The Chinese say, “women hold up half the sky,” and achieving the MDGs relies upon empowering women and girls so that they can contribute fully to improving life in their communities. From our Christian perspective, we are called to respect the dignity of every human being, and it is good stewardship to utilize fully all the resources God has given us.

            Millennium Development Goals (2000-2015)

1      To eradicate extreme poverty and hunger

2      To achieve universal primary education

3      To promote gender equality and empower women

4      To reduce child mortality

5      To improve maternal health

6      To combat HIV/AIDS, malaria, and other diseases

7      To ensure environmental sustainability

8      To develop a global partnership for development

UNCSW59 offers the opportunity for women from many participating countries to put a human face on the critical issues facing women and girls and to commit together to raise those issues when they return to their home countries and communities.

I plan to blog and post photos daily from our activities in this blog and to Tweet from @LelandaLee.

Social Media Encouragement

Why Anti-Racism?

This is a paper that I wrote back in September 2014 to address why it's important to do Anti-Racism Training (or teaching) and to use the term "Anti-Racism" to describe such teaching. I'm posting it now in light of a current conversation that is happening on Facebook about Anti-Racism Training.

I’m someone who has been doing Anti-Racism training for the Episcopal Church since 2006. I’ve also led Train the Trainer workshops. Along the way, I’ve developed an 8-hour basic Anti-Racism Training and 8-hour Train the Trainer workshop, which I’ve been invited to tailor and conduct in many dioceses over the years.

One of the questions that is frequently asked before and during the trainings is why we still use the term “Anti-Racism” when there are so many other terms that are “friendlier” and “more inviting” to participants. Examples include “Diversity,” “Multicultural,” “Intercultural,” “Dismantling Racism,” and “Racial Justice.”

So, why the term “Anti-Racism”?

The answer is, because racism is a sin, as the House of Bishops taught in their March, 1994, Pastoral Letter. That Pastoral Letter was a teaching that included analysis, confession, covenant, and invitation to the church to join the bishops in those actions. If you haven’t read the Pastoral Letter recently, please read it, because it is an important teaching.

A historical lesson in why naming the actual sin is important lies in the anti-rape movement, which took shape in the 1960s and early 1970s as a dynamic of the women’s movement. When feminists began to name rape as a crime of violence rather than allowing it to continue to be described as a crime of sexual passion, and when feminists began to insist on using the word “rape” rather than using alternative or euphemistic language that describes rape as “sexual assault” or the generic “violence against women,” society’s response to rape began to change. Obviously, we still have a long way to go, when you consider that rape on college campuses is not handled well by college administrators and that there are hundreds of thousands of untested rape kits nationwide. However, naming rape as rape has freed many rape victims from the unfair shaming and scapegoating of earlier times.

“Anti-“ as a modifier to “Racism” means “to interrupt.” When we use the term “Anti-Racism,” we are saying “to interrupt Racism.” We are saying, “to interrupt the Sin of Racism,” because as the church, we are in the business of interrupting all manner of sin so that people can be restored to unity with God and each other in Christ. That’s the mission of the church. The Catechism in our Book of Common Prayer says so.

What’s so wrong with those other, friendlier terms?

There’s nothing inherently wrong with terms such as “Diversity,” “Multicultural,” “Intercultural,” “Dismantling Racism,” and “Racial Justice.” They just don’t mean what “Anti-Racism” means. They don’t point us to interrupting the Sin of Racism.

Diversity training generally encompasses teaching people to recognize and acknowledge that different people are, well, different. But Diversity training generally doesn’t get into teaching how prejudice and power together create racism and how racism and White Privilege together create systems of institutionalized and structural racism that are extremely difficult to dismantle. Anti-Racism Training does.

Multicultural training generally takes Diversity training deeper, by encouraging participants to learn about cultures different than their own. Intercultural training takes Multicultural training still deeper, by having participants interact with people from cultures different than their own so that they have first-hand experience of those people from other cultures. Again, both Multicultural training and Intercultural training generally don’t teach about how racism results from not only prejudice, but also from the presence of power differentials, and how institutional and structural racism cause disproportionate disadvantages to People of Color in everything from public education to employment to voting rights to mass incarceration.

Dismantling Racism generally focuses more on institutional and structural racism than it does on the racism of individuals. It is very important to teach about institutional and structural racism, because they so disproportionately disadvantage large groups of People of Color in highly life disrupting ways. But it is also important to focus on the responsibility of the individual to analyze his or her own sin of racism, to admit and confess that sin, and to covenant to strive for justice and peace among all people and respect the dignity of every human being, which includes becoming an Anti-Racist.

Racial Justice is a wonderful term, because it is aspirational and most appropriately should be used to title committees and commissions that do the work of Anti-Racism. But, the work, such as is done in trainings, is not merely aspirational. The work is also pragmatic, comprised of analysis, confession, and covenant.

If we were to choose a different, yet familiar title, for Anti-Racism training, how about “Safeguarding God’s People from Racism”? That title says that there is some action that must be taken to safeguard God’s People, in this case, from racism. However, that title also implies that the participants in the training are somehow the “good guys” who don’t have to acknowledge their own sin of racism. So, maybe we won’t go with this familiar title, after all. Because the work of anti-racism is the work of everyone in the church.

Why do Anti-Racism training?

What we, the church, do is proclamation. We proclaim the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. The Good News is that our reward is in the Lord, that by grace and by the blood of Jesus Christ dying on the hard wood of the cross, we are saved for eternity.

Now, pause for a moment, and reflect.

We proclaim the Good News of God in Jesus Christ, and that Good News includes the story of Jesus’ very painful and very human death upon the cross, which was necessary to redeem humankind from our sins.

When we do Anti-Racism training, it is proclamation. We are proclaiming that when we acknowledge and confess our sin of racism and turn away from continuing to behave in racist ways, we restore ourselves to unity with God and each other in Jesus Christ.

Jesus said, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life.”[John 14:6 NRSV] Jesus said, “Follow me.”[Mark 1:17 NRSV] Jesus never said, “It will be easy.” Analysis, confession, and covenant, if done faithfully with intention and honesty, are hard work. Actively participating in Anti-Racism training is hard work. Jesus said, “I give you a new commandment, that you love one another. Just as I have loved you, you also should love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”[John 13:34-35 NRSV]

Anti-Racism training is not designed to be confrontational with the trainer or other participants. What is confronted is the sin of racism in yourself and in society. Just as we expect civil dialog in church whether it’s at worship, congregational functions, or committee meetings, we also expect civil dialog in Anti-Racism training. But, remember, Anti-Racism training is hard work, and it is work that is worth doing. It is also work that requires refreshing in the same way that we refresh ourselves, our confession, and our covenant with God through worship on a regular, repeated basis.

We want people to take Anti-Racism training. We want people to value Anti-Racism training as something that will provide a component of Christian formation for them that they are not getting in other formation education. We want people to come to Anti-Racism training cheerfully and not grudgingly because there is some church canon or decree from their bishop that they have to check this box or miss out on some needed certification. We want people to come to Anti-Racism training because learning how to overcome the sin of racism will enable us to love one another as Jesus loves each one of us.

In March 2006, the House of Bishops issued another pastoral letter titled “The Sin of Racism: A Call to Covenant,” which recommitted the bishops, and invited the church, to covenant with the bishops on eleven actions personally, corporately, and globally. After you’ve read or re-read the first Pastoral Letter, be sure to read this one, too.

Our Role as Christians

Our role as Christians has never been to tell people that they are sinners and to repent and be saved. That's a narrative that is narrow and false. It is paternalistic and judgmental, claiming what belongs to God – judgment – for ourselves. It's a Baal golden calf moment.

The arrival of Jesus Christ changed that narrative to a new one of grace and gratitude. We are called as Children of God. Our role is to be the Beloved Children, depending on God for our everything, and loving our brothers and sisters because they have been created by the God of Love, just like us.

Our role as Christians is to share the Good News of God in Jesus Christ. God’s grace is so overwhelmingly great that it overcomes us, and we sometimes falter in our response. God invites us to share grace in the form of lovingkindness with everyone we encounter, especially those in any kind of need or trouble, both the physical needs like living in poverty or illness and the emotional, psychological, spiritual troubles like doubt, fear, and existential loneliness.

God has invited us to a heavenly banquet right here on earth, to join other members of Creation to share in the delights of light and life. It's a really cool banquet, because even as guests, we are encouraged to bring additional guests. Imagine that! We get to bring other people to share in the deliciousness of the heavenly banquet here on earth!

Our Creator is so unbelievably creative that s/he leads people from all over her/his creation to find her/him in ways that extend beyond our human comprehension. When someone finds the Creator in another language or religious system, that points out two things: (1) we are created with different cultures that arrive at different understandings of the Creator and Creation, and (2) our human shortcomings reflected in our inability to talk about God in understandable ways with each other. But God the Creator is cool with that. God is mighty enough to comprehend and apprehend everything, and we, individually, in our present condition and circumstances, are called to come into the banquet.

Something worth striving for is to walk in the light of Christ. Sure, we take detours and stop for a while, but the light of Christ is always in front of us if we just choose to lift up our eyes and spirits to see him. I love the image of a wet dog that shakes itself to begin the drying off process. We humans can take a lesson from that wet dog and shake ourselves after we’ve stumbled into the puddle, to begin walking in the light again.

Prayers of the People

I was honored and privileged to share Prayers of the People for the Eucharist on Sunday at the Episcopal Church's Executive Council meeting. I had written these originally for use at the Episcopal Asiamerica Ministries 40th anniversary celebration in June, 2013, in San Francisco.

With our hearts and hands reaching out to lift up your beloved children, members of the blessed body of your son, our Savior, Jesus Christ,

Lord who Gathers, we pray to you, saying “Lord, hear our prayer.”

For all the people of the nations, that they may know you and show forth your love in their daily lives,

Lord who Shepherds, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For all the members of your Church, that in our baptismal ministry of proclamation, discipleship, and servanthood, we may seek and serve Christ in all people and respect the dignity of every human being,

Lord who Anoints, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For Katharine, our Presiding Bishop, and for all bishops, priests, and deacons, that they may be filled with your love, hunger for truth, and thirst after righteousness,

Lord who Consecrates, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For our Missioners; for this Council and all church councils; and for all clergy and lay leaders and members; that we may be strengthened in our vocation and ministry, serving and leading boldly, with courage and conviction,

Lord who Calls, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For our families and friends; for our enemies and those from whom we are separated; for those whose hearts, minds, and faith are known only to you; that they may be filled with your peace, and that our divisions may be healed,

Lord who Heals, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For those in positions of public trust, especially Barack, our President, and all who serve in governance, law-making, law enforcement, the military, and the judiciary of all nations, that they may serve justice and peace with honesty and integrity, promoting life and liberty for all your people and creatures,

Lord who Proclaims, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For a blessing on the labor of your beloved children, and for the right use and care of your creation, that the world may be released from poverty, hunger, and catastrophic disasters,

Lord who Blesses, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For those who live in poverty, sickness, and suffering; for refugees and prisoners; for all who are in danger; that they may be relieved and protected,

Lord who Abides, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For ourselves; for the forgiveness of our sins, known and unknown; and for the grace of the Holy Spirit to amend our lives,

Lord who Forgives, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

For all who have died in the communion of your Church, that they may have rest eternal in your loving arms, and know peace and release from suffering, grief, and pain,

Lord who Redeems, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

In the joyful and enduring company of all your saints, we commend ourselves, and one another, and all our life to you, Creator, Redeemer, and Sanctifier,

Lord of Power and Grace, we pray to you, saying Lord, hear our prayer.

Amen.

Blessings One by One

I am not a model mother or grandmother, or for that matter, a model wife or daughter. When it comes to the list of things that one is supposed to do and be as a model female relative, I have flunked big time. 

I don’t cook or bake particularly regularly, firing up the kitchen to make that perfect birthday or holiday meal that everyone eagerly anticipates.

I used to do Christmas with the tree, ornaments, and wrapped presents, but those years vanished long ago.

My kids and grandkids cannot look forward to a birthday card or present. Presents happen when I chance upon them in my travels.

My son and daughter-in-law are the attentive parents to our four grandsons. They do a great job being present everyday to those four boys and enriching their growing up years, at home, at school, and with friends.

My mother tends to home and hearth at our house, where she, my brother, my husband, and I make a multi-generational family unit. It gives Mom purpose and importance to be the center of a household once again in her elder years.

Model anything is nothing more than a bunch of stereotypes that harm and guilt people who are doing their best to find love, companionship, and good times in a challenging world full of challenging family situations. Let’s agree to stop counting what’s missing and begin counting what we are blessed to have.

I am writing to give thanks that I have a whole family, with many family members, who each do their part to make the family function. I feel badly that many people lack a family of their own. Sometimes, that’s all that someone needs, to be included in our families as family members of choice. To be chosen to be loved and embraced. Think about it.

Still Angry and Looking Around

I try really hard not to be an angry person these days. 

I spent a lot of time as a young person being angry about a lot of things.

Civil rights and race relations, having grown up in the inner city of Detroit, where it was difficult being neither White nor Black. Latinos had not yet figured into the equation that far north in the 50’s and 60’s.

Women’s equality, which hit me hard as a smart teen girl and young woman in my 20’s trying to get taken seriously by employers.

The already begun assault on public education, which was my salvation from my refugee-immigrant family status, where we were diligently rescuing family members from the Communists.

But damn, it’s hard these days not to be angry when we seem to be on a very slippery slope, sliding backwards on the gains we achieved decades ago. A recent slogan seen on protestors’ signs asks, “Why am I still fighting this sh*t today?”

I think about the so-called racial minorities, now not so minor in numbers and growing, who are justifiably angry these days. My hope is that we channel that anger into some constructive social justice efforts.

We need to get educated and involved in the political process, locally, regionally, and nationally, even when the process is fraught with cronyism, racism, and bullying. I think we need to come together with other people who are like us and not like us, who are willing to be allies to fight for the same causes and candidates that we care about.

I think we need to put our money and our time where our hearts are, if not for ourselves, then for the generations that will follow us. The sacrifice is worth it, even if you don’t personally benefit. Numbers count, if for no other reason than to lift up the hopes of those who share our dreams.

We need to spread the word about the things that we find wrong with our communities and dialogue with others about how we can address those issues and find creative solutions together. Not every problem requires a new law. Sometimes the old laws just need to be enforced. Sometimes the community just needs to be in conversation and seek to find common ground.

But together - talking with one another, breaking bread together, writing letters, signing petitions, marching, and protesting together – is what we need to be doing. We must not let the powers of greed be used to divide us and refocus our attention away from the power of unity in fighting for justice, equality, and dignity for everyone.

If not us, then who? If not now, then when? I look around, and there's only you and me, my friend.