ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 12, 2008

Neumark Tells Women of the ELCA that Bold Sisters Change the World
08-115-FI/JB

     SALT LAKE CITY (ELCA) -- Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah, Milcah and
Tirzah may not be household names, but the Rev. Heidi B. Neumark,
Trinity of Manhattan Lutheran Church, New York, related their
story from the biblical book of Numbers and how they changed
ancient tradition in a way that is still observed today. Neumark
spoke during morning worship July 12 for Women of the Evangelical
Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     More than 2,000 women are here at the Salt Palace Convention
Center through July 13 for the Seventh Triennial Gathering of
Women of the ELCA. The event theme, "Come to the Waters,"
focuses on the celebration of Baptism through Bible study,
speakers, workshops, community service and worship.
     The book of Numbers is a census of the Israelites in the
wilderness, counting 601,730 men, Neumark said. The purpose of
the census was to determine readiness for war and property
distribution, two things that did not involve women and children,
she said.
     In that society a woman would rely on a father, a brother, a
husband or in-laws to provide a place to live and farm, Neumark
said. A woman had no voice in the courts, she said, and a man
would have to speak for her.
     When Zelophehad died, his daughters -- Mahlah, Noah, Hoglah,
Milcah and Tirzah -- came to Moses in public and asked for the
inheritance of Zelophehad because he had no son. Moses took
their request to God, and God told Moses the sisters were right
and whenever a man dies without sons the inheritance should pass
to his daughters.
     "The five sisters saw a battle to be fought right where they
stood, right in their own community," Neumark said. "These
sisters are not just trying to get a piece of the pie for
themselves," she said. "Because they go public, their petition
becomes an action to effect change on behalf of the entire
community."
     The women challenged "a system that denied female land
rights for virtually 2,000 years," Neumark said. "The law had
been on the books for 2,000 years and these five audacious women
are trying to change it in a court that doesn't even recognize
their presence," she said.
     This became the oldest case cited in current law, Neumark
said. It is named in the American Bar Association Journal of
February 1924 as "an early declaratory judgment in which the
property rights of women are clearly set forth," she said.
     "Bold women on the edge of the Jordan River take action that
ripples across the centuries and borders all the way to the pages
to the American Bar Association Journal and on to us here by the
waters of Salt Lake City," Neumark said. "Isn't God amazing?
Cannot bold women do awesome things with the help of God?"
     "There were only five of them," she said. "If God can
change the world with five, let's not underestimate what the same
God can do with all of us," she said.
     Neumark related the stories of several people she has met in
her ministries -- people who had been marginalized in American
society because of their race, gender, economic status or sexual
identity.
     "Advocacy remains vitally important," she said, "but
supporting ways for people to organize and speak for themselves,
and then taking what they have to say seriously is even more
important."

Panel Responds to Neumark's Address
     Following Neumark's presentation, a panel of four women
responded to her comments, emphasizing how being bold has helped
them in their lives. Responding were Margaret Obaga, Kenya
Evangelical Lutheran Church (KELC), doctoral student at Luther
Seminary, St. Paul, Minn., one of eight ELCA seminaries; Suad
Younan, Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land,
director, Helen Keller Center for the Visually Impaired,
Jerusalem; the Rev. Ann M. Tiemeyer, an ELCA pastor and program
director for women's ministry, National Council of Churches USA,
New York; and Chris Grumm, chief executive officer, Women's
Funding Network, San Francisco, and former ELCA vice president.
Lilly Wu, assistant to the bishop, ELCA Metropolitan New York
Synod, was the panel moderator.
     To be bold is to stand up and speak on behalf of others,
Obaga said. When she was young, Obaga said she sometimes had to
fight physically on behalf of other people and speak forcefully
to others who threatened her mother's safety. "Praise be to God
-- I'm not fighting anymore," Obaga said. "I am using my brain,
I'm using my mouth, and I'm using my voice to say things."
     Obaga said she fought for more women representatives on KELC
committees. She credited her boldness to older women who
supported her and "told me to look up, told me to speak up, to
walk ahead and keep going."
     For Younan, living amidst the Middle East conflict has
forced her to challenge political, social and religious systems.
She told of how she has challenged Israeli soldiers stationed at
a checkpoint near the Helen Keller Center who limited access to
the center by clients. "God gives us strength to act boldly in
situations where there is injustice," she said. "We have God-
given strength to come out and challenge the stereotypes and
stigmas in our communities."
     To be bold is to listen to different voices, to make sure
women's voices are heard and that their leadership is honored and
used to its fullest potential, Tiemeyer said. It also means not
being afraid of differences between church bodies, she said.
"(Sometimes) we stand in different places, but we all stand
together as Christians," Tiemeyer said.
     Grumm said some of the times in which she was boldest were
surprises, such as when she was elected ELCA vice president.
Women are often portrayed in media as "victims," and she called
for women to change that image. "One of the most critical pieces
of work that we have to do as women, both in the church and in
our secular jobs, is to push forward the concept that women are
solution-builders and are leaders," Grumm said.
     Grumm added that she became a bold person "when I began to
understand why I became a feminist, and it was basically out of
my understanding of the gospel and what I was called to do and
be."
- - -
     Information about the Women of the ELCA Seventh Triennial
Gathering is at http://womenoftheELCA.org/tg08/ on the Web.
     Audio from Pastor Heidi Neumark's address to the Women of
the ELCA gathering is on the Web at:
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/080712a.mp3
http://media.ELCA.org/audionews/080712b.mp3

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or [log in to unmask]
http://www.elca.org/news