African Women in Theology Meet to Challenge Discrimination
Episcopal News Service. October 26, 1989 [89210G]
Nearly 80 women from two dozen African countries attended a week-long convocation of African women in theology at Accra, Ghana, that challenged them to confront the discrimination oppressing women in church and society. In a keynote address, Deputy General Secretary Mercy Oduyoye of the World Council of Churches called for a new order of theology that liberates all people and does not suppress or discriminate against women. Oduyoye lamented the refusal of some seminaries to admit women on grounds that "there is no accommodation for them," characterizing such arguments as "discrimination." The convocation, which had observers from the United States, Switzerland, India, the Philippines, and the Caribbean, was chaired by Dora Ofori Owusu, the first ordained woman in the Presbyterian Church of Ghana. Owusu called on African women to stand up and be counted along with male theologians.