The Gathering, A Womanist Church. Irie Lynne Session
the need for womanist theology and Black women leaders in the church, Rev. Dr. James A. Forbes, pastor emeritus of The Riverside Church in New York City, states: “The viewpoint of Black women is essential for full understanding of what’s going on in the world as well as what God’s Spirit is trying to stir up among the people. The womanist tradition gave me more of a sense of urgency to lift the Black church out of its sexist orientation.” He asserts that “womanist tradition introduces a critical listening to all things; that’s actually challenging and strengthening to people who can no longer presume affirmation of everything they say.”11
Rev. Dr. Mitzi J. Smith, professor of New Testament at Ashland Theological Seminary in Ashland, Ohio, underscores the necessity of womanist biblical hermeneutics: “Womanist biblical interpretation is necessary because it brings a different set of questions that otherwise may not get answered. Questions that need to be addressed in order that we can live together in a society that respects all voices, that is concerned with the predicament of the least of these among us. We need more and different voices at the table.” Often we live by a biblical viewpoint that “causes us to be oppressive toward others” and is “oppressive to us as well, but we have not learned to think about it more critically,” she says. “Womanism is an approach that privileges the experiences, voices, traditions, and artifacts primarily of African American women, although there are other women of color who call themselves ‘womanists.’ In biblical interpretation womanist scholars use a particular perspective, an African American female’s perspective, privileging our voices. Our voices are not all the same, but we do have things in common. We privilege our concerns, our voices, our traditions, and read biblical texts from that standpoint, from that hermeneutical framework.”12
One of the founders of womanist theology, Rev. Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon, charts a “three-pronged systemic analysis of race, sex, and class from the perspective of African American women in the academy of religion.” In Katie’s Canon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community, she calls for an inclusive ethic and reveals how Black women have been “moral agents in the African American tradition that combines both the ‘real-lived’ texture of African American life and the oral-aural cultural tradition vital to African Americans.”13
Another mother of womanist theology, Dr. Delores S. Williams, emphasizes the distinctiveness of womanist theology. In Sisters in the Wilderness: The Challenge of Womanist God-Talk, she explains: “Just as womanist theology has an organic relation to black liberation theology, so does it also have an organic relation to feminist theology.” Although “black male liberationists, womanists and feminists connect at vital points,” there are “distinct differences” precipitated by the “maladies afflicting community life in America—sexism, racism, and classism.” Womanist “god-talk often lives in tension with its two groups of relatives: black male liberationists and feminists.”14
In Womanist Midrash: A Reintroduction to the Women of the Torah and the Throne, Rev. Dr. Wilda C. Gafney also delineates the distinctions between womanism and other liberation movements: “Womanism is often simply defined as black feminism. It is that, and it is much more. It is a richer, deeper liberative paradigm; a social, cultural, and political space and theological matrix with the experiences and multiple identities of Black women at the center. Womanism shares the radical egalitarianism that characterizes feminism at its basic level, but without its default referent, white women functioning as the exemplar for all women.” Womanism is distinct from the “dominant-culture feminism, which is all too often distorted by racism and classism and marginalizes womanism, womanists, and women of color.” Womanism “emerged as black women’s intellectual and interpretative response to racism and classism in feminism” and “in response to sexism in black liberationist thought.”15
Rev. Dr. Monica A. Coleman adds to an understanding of the origin and definition of womanist theology as distinct from other liberation theologies. In Making a Way Out of No Way: A Womanist Theology, she states: “Womanist theology is a response to sexism in black theology and racism in feminist theology. When early black theologians spoke of ‘the black experience,’ they only included the experience of black men and boys. They did not address the unique oppression of black women.” Feminist theologians “unwittingly spoke only of white women’s experience, especially of middle- and upper-class white women. The term ‘womanist’ allows black women to affirm their identity as black while also owning a connection with feminism.” Womanist theology analyzes “religion and society in light of the triple oppression of racism, sexism, and classism that characterizes the experience of many black women.” Womanist theologies maintain “an unflinching commitment to reflect on the social, cultural, and religious experiences of black women.” Womanist theologies are a “form of liberation theology,” aiming for the freedom of oppressed peoples” and adding “the goals of survival, quality of life, and wholeness” for Black women and for all creation.16
White women also affirm the need for womanism. Rev. Dr. Serene Jones, president of Union Theological Seminary in New York City, celebrates womanist theologians for giving “life” to her “blood” and making her “excited about being a theologian.” She expresses the need for more Black women and womanists at Union: “We need more African American women in the student body. We need more funds supporting women to go into ministry. We need more funds for scholarships. We need a whole faculty full of womanists. That would be glorious!”17
Although womanism centers Black women, womanism is not only for Black women. People of all races and genders benefit from womanism and womanist theology. Womanism works for the wholeness of all people and all creation.
Womanism and womanist theology continue to make a significant contribution to theological scholarship and to the lived experience of people. As more scholars and pastors “intentionally do the deeper exegetical work of interrogating the sacred biblical texts to raise up the muted voices of marginalized women, the theological landscape for womanism continues to expand.”18
The Gathering: Defining and Modeling a Womanist Church
Definitions and analyses of womanism and womanist theology, coming from a wide variety of people, provide a strong foundation for a womanist church. This groundbreaking work finds embodiment in a womanist faith community.
As the only church founded and identified as a womanist church, The Gathering is defining and modeling what it means to be a womanist church. The Gathering puts womanism and womanist theology into practice in a faith community. With an expansive mission, an inclusive welcome, an egalitarian organizational structure, womanist co-pastors and ministry staff, ministry partners, womanist social justice priorities, and valuing of all voices, The Gathering embodies a womanist church.
The mission of The Gathering is “to welcome people into community to follow Jesus, partner in ministry to transform our lives together, and to go create an equitable world.” Following Jesus means “responding to the least, last, and lost,” and being “intentional” in ministry to the “marginalized, oppressed, and downtrodden.” The Gathering examines texts to “do the deeper work of seeing the healing, restorative justice, and liberation in the Scriptures.” The Gathering addresses social justice “in a way that raises prophetic voices and issues a rallying cry, speaking truth to power.” The Gathering is a community where people of all genders and races work “together to dismantle the systemic structures that seek to oppress people.”19 The Scriptural foundation for The Gathering is Luke 4:18–19: “The Spirit . . . has anointed me to bring good news to the poor . . . to proclaim release to the captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free.”
The Gathering welcomes all people. The Gathering demonstrates that a womanist church is not just for women and not just for African Americans, but that a womanist church is for all people—all genders and races and cultures and experiences. This inclusive welcome begins each worship service: “Welcome to The Gathering, A Womanist Church, a community whose faith in Jesus compels us to create worship experiences that address social injustice through womanist preaching and action, to cultivate a healing, learning, and growing community for people who are churched, unchurched, dechurched, hurt by church, and even those who are sick of church. Welcome to The Gathering, followers