MIDDLE EAST: Jordan to host conference for women's empowerment, leadership
Episcopal News Service, Jerusalem. August 12, 2008 [081208-05]
Pat McCaughan
The Episcopal Diocese of Jerusalem is hosting a leadership and empowerment conference for women August 16-22, and expected among the participants are both men and women from the Diocese of Tokyo.
The inspiration for this conference, "Together We Can Make the Change," was born when Shafeeqa Dawani addressed a gathering in Tokyo several years ago. She described the challenges Palestinians face daily in the Holy Land, recalled Dawani, who is married to Anglican Bishop in Jerusalem Suheil Dawani.
This latest conference grew out of that experience and intends "to empower women through worshipping together and fellowship, revealing the situation in the regions of the diocese, expressing one's self, culture and background, accepting one another, and networking," she said.
"I have been a priest's wife for 30 years, and there had never been anything for us," she says, tears welling up in her eyes. But, she adds: "My husband has a vision. He hasn't been bishop that long, but now I have a role and I am trying to prepare other ladies to take a role. I am empowering them and they are empowering me."
'Unity' a conference theme
Dawani recently returned from the Lambeth Conference, where she felt "the strength of the Anglican Communion" through Bible study and prayer and conversations with other bishops' spouses. The July 16-August 3 every-decade gathering of worldwide Anglican bishops and their spouses was held at the campus of the University of Kent in Canterbury.
"Here in our own diocese I feel the eyes are on me," she recalled. "But at the Lambeth Conference, I felt all the eyes focused on the strength of the Anglican Communion and the importance of Jesus in uniting us all."
Unity is one of the underlying themes of the upcoming conference, which will include time for Bible study, prayer, worship, communications and workshops, as well as cultural exchange, she said. About 50 guests will have an opportunity to worship with local Palestinians and to visit a refugee camp and diocesan institutions as well as holy sites.
There will also be time for sharing each other's life stories. Among the featured speakers will be Dawani and the Rev. Mary Yamano, rector of All Saints Church in Tokyo.
"It is a continuation of the October conference," Dawani says, referring to the first-ever women's conference, "Let us Growth Together Towards Unity," which was held October 25-29, 2007 at the Schneller Institute in Jordan and which she also hosted. Included among the speakers was Her Royal Highness Princess Basma Bint Talal, the sister of Jordan's late King Hussein and a champion of women's empowerment.
Afterwards, Dawani organized a series of regional workshops on communications skills and leadership workshops for women throughout the diocese, which includes Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, Palestine and Israel. She is planning additional regional trainings, as women comprise about half of the membership of the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and are already filling leadership roles, she said.
Her husband, the Rt. Rev. Suheil Dawani, was consecrated bishop of the Diocese of Jerusalem on April 15, 2007 and has made empowering women's ministries and activities within the church a priority.
Shafeeqa Dawani hopes the upcoming conference, also planned for the Schneller Institute in Amman, Jordan, will enhance networking among women throughout the diocese, and as far away as Tokyo.
She has her own vision for empowering women in the diocese, which includes 27 parishes and supports 37 institutions, among them hospitals, clinics, kindergartens and schools, vocational training programs, as well as institutions for the deaf, the disabled and the elderly.
"We're empowering each other. We need this empowerment to be visible. We need to do something for the women because we are already leading, especially the wives of priests. Each is already a leader in her own community," she said. "We are educated. We have abilities, so why not?"