Taiwan Church News
3484 Edition
December 2 – 9, 2018
Church Ministry Female Theologians Share Their Thoughts On Role of Women In Pilgrimage Of Justice And Peace Reported by Lin Wan-ting In Taiwan Ecumenical Forum, held from November 28 – 30 at the Presbyterian Bible College in Hsinchu City, three female theologians from Asia were invited to share their thoughts in a panel entitled as “Role of Women in Pilgrimage of Justice and Peace”. Stressing women do have a giant power of resilience and resistance, Prof HyeRan Kim-Cragg, a theologian from University of Saskatchewan at Canada, took the examples, like the successful Wednesday Demonstration(a weekly protest, since 1992 before Japanese Embassy in Korea, aiming to achieve justice for Korean comfort women) and the corporate action as “Women Cross DMZ” initiated by 30 some women from 2015, encouraging the audience, especially women, to bravely make their pilgrimage of justice and peace. Illustrating the importance of reconciliation during Taiwan’s pursuit of transitional justice via the common held Taiwanese folklore belief in goddess “Ma-tsu”, Prof Chiu Shu-pin, a NT biblical scholar from Yu-Shan Theological Seminary and College, pointed out in a brave statement:”In Christian faith, reconciliation starts from God who takes initiate, and it is accomplished through Jesus Christ’s ministry. Except for following the example of Christ of making reconciliation, Church in Taiwan participating in realizing transformation in society has to recognize the fact that transitional justice cannot be done by Christian Church alone. It demands the whole society works together hand in hand.” Ms Anita Peralta, a program executive for economic and ecological justice at WCC, suggested an altruistic development model being practiced by the Amihan women in Philippine as one of the best options that not only escape the greedy exploitation of big agricultural corps but also maintain the optimal farming that preserve the traditional crops and respond to more and more serious climate changes. Translated by Peter Wolfe |