Sister Joan Chittister Article
    EXTRAORDINAIRE

    The following letter states that there is a fundamental wrong in the world.  The
    letter states that women are not included in important decisions.  It states that
    the time has come to change.  Women are an invaluable resource for solving
    problems for the whole human race.

    E newsletter from Sister Joan Chittister
    Received 3/3/08, from Mary Lou Kownacki, OSB, and the Benetvision Staff
    Vision and Viewpoint, an e-newsletter for spiritual seekers
    MAKING WAY FOR THE FEMININE, A Global Reflection with Leaders from Religion,
    Government, and Civil Society
    Jaipur, India  
    March 6 – 10, 2008























    REPORT FROM INDIA:
    Women: The Missing Resource

    “Old woman,” the young woman asked, “What is the heaviest burden a woman has to
    bear?” And the old woman answered her, “Young woman, the heaviest burden a woman
    has to bear is to have no burden at all.”

    In a world where millions are poor and billions are hungry, the world is now full of
    conferences intent on resolving problems that are crippling the development of the world.
    Symposiums, think tanks, and forums on global issues are emerging everywhere.
    Conferences on global change, global development, global needs, global politics, global
    economics and global agendas swirl around the planet, the tsunamis of modern
    intellectual life. And yet, little changes.

    The question is why? And the answer is hiding in plain sight. These conferences will never
    solve the major problems facing the human community because half the population of the
    world is being left out of the conversation. Half the wisdom of the world is being ignored.
    Half the concerns of the human race are not being taken into consideration. Half the
    resources of the world, women, are being ignored in the solving of problems that face us
    all. As a result, both halves are suffering from our failure to approach both problems and
    solutions from the vantage point of the entire human race.

    India, the land of banyan trees whose roots speak of depth, of lotus flowers that speak of
    survival, and of goddesses like Lakshmi who is concerned for both material and spiritual
    riches, of Durga who protects the righteous and of Sarasvati who brings learning to
    wisdom, is slated to become the launching ground of another kind of reflection on the
    human condition.

    The first international conference of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, “Making Way
    for the Feminine for the Benefit of the World Community” will begin in Jaipur on March 6.
    Over 450 women from 45 countries converge on Jaipur to open this first platform for
    Global Transformation, not for celebrating femaleness for its own sake, but to offer the
    world the missing resource of our time, the power of the feminine.

    This conference is not an exercise in anybody’s chauvinism, national or local, female or
    male. This conference will raise women’s voices in international affairs for the sake of the
    whole human race. Without an increase in the feminine qualities of compassion, care,
    human community and human support in both women and men in a world that gives power
    preference over preservation, we are all in danger.

    Women from around the world are coming to India, the home of the Goddesses, to take
    their responsibility in bearing the burdens of the world—whether anyone else yet has the
    sense to invite them to do their share of it or not.

    ---
    Joan Chittister, co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, was instrumental in
    organizing the March 6-10, 2008 women’s summit in India. She will address the
    conference and help facilitate the event. This is an excerpt from an article, “The Missing
    Resource Is Not Oil; It’s Women” that she wrote for the Indian Times.
    For more info on the conference: www.gpiw.org/jaipur.html



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Date updated
March 6, 2008

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