For all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. There is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
And there mission statement is as follows:
CBE affirms and promotes the biblical truth that all believers—without regard to gender, ethnicity or class—must exercise their God-given gifts with equal authority and equal responsibility in church, home and world.
This statement can be found on their website, along with their numerous resources that promote biblical equality. Although I do not have the finances I would become a member of CBE, I do fully support their cause and will do whatever I can to promote it.
Their primary focus is gender equality, specifically the freedom for women to enter all areas of church ministry. One of the ways they promote their beliefs is through conferences. One of the conferences is Women and Christian History: Building on a Legacy. This conference is happening in Chicago and will look at the women have fulfilled throughout Israelite and Church history.
Although I do not have the finances to go to the conference or donate to it, I do have the technological resources to promote it and CBE. I will always be for women in church leadership and biblical egalitarianism, and I hope that people who read this will consider promoting the conference, or going to it!
In closing, here is an email I got from CBE about the story of the youngest woman to become and Anglican Priest, who showed the importance of CBE's work and this conference:
Sharing the Legacy:
Dear Friend,
Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of speaking with a woman whose life displays the importance of CBE's message. Here is her story, which I thought you'd enjoy.
Heather Ann came into contact with CBE several years ago while she was working on her bachelor’s degree in religious studies. Even at the age of twenty, she felt called to the priesthood, though pursuing this calling brought backlash from her classmates. When Heather Ann was assigned to write a paper on women and Christianity, she called CBE for resources. Little did she know this organization would become a solid support system in her life.
In the package Heather Ann received from CBE was one of Dorothy Irvin’s annual calendars The Archeology of Women’s Traditional Ministries in the Church and a bookmark with an image of the tombstone of a female priest. Suddenly, Heather Ann was not alone. Women had been strong leaders in the church for centuries, and here was the evidence!
The bookmark from that first package accompanied Heather Ann wherever she went. “This was my proof,” she says. Whenever people asked her about being a female priest, she would show them the bookmark as evidence of her place within a larger tradition.
Armed with evidence of her priestly forerunners and supported by CBE members, Heather Ann became one of the youngest priests ordained in the diocese of Chicago, and the third Puerto Rican ordained in this same diocese. Today, Heather Ann is starting a church plant through the Anglican Church in North America.
To support women like Heather Ann, CBE and the Greater Chicago Chapter are hosting the one-day conference Women and Christian History: Building on a Legacy. As one of the conference's renowned speakers, Dorothy Irvin will present the same images that so strongly influenced Heather Ann’s ministry. What’s more, this conference will be located down the street from several Christian colleges and seminaries where women much like Heather Ann are in need of the encouragement of female church leaders throughout history.
Here are a few ways in which you can help us to reach as many people as possible with this conference.
1) Donate! Promoting a conference requires a lot of time and resources, from printing and design to mailing and phoning. Will you make a generous donation toward marketing this conference?
2) Tell your friends! Post links to CBE’s conference website on your Facebook, MySpace or Twitter account. Mention us in your blog. Let others know about this great opportunity!
In Christ's Loving Provision,
Mimi Haddad
President
P.S. CBE conferences provide life-changing fellowship and resources to hundreds of people. Donate to CBE conferences today!
It sucks that I can't go to the conference, but I hope through this blog article and my use of other social networking sites others will go to it and learn about what God has done through women through the centuries.
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