Episcopal Women’s Caucus (EWC) and
Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE)
For centuries Mary, the Mother of God, has been remembered, celebrated, and adored. In art and music, prayers and meditations, Mary has become the model of faith. Within the glow of Christmas let us pause and recall that Mary’s journey began as an unwed, pregnant, teenager. Her story could easily have ended in destitution, estrangement, abuse, violence, and desperation. Her child, if born at all, would likely have died in infancy; Mary herself may have died in childbirth. Not the Christmas picture we want to contemplate.
Our scripture tells us, and we have come to trust its testimony, that Mary was delivered from this grim future by God’s grace, mediated by God’s angels, including Joseph and Elizabeth. How many young girls today, some of them pregnant and unwed, could use an angel (like you perhaps) to initiate a different, a better, future?
Within the Episcopal Church members (both male and female) of EWC and AWE find inspiration and direction for their work in the story of Mary, in the teaching and ministry of her son, Jesus, and in the grace of the Holy Spirit within community. Today, God’s angels look a lot like you and me. ~dan rondeau
The Episcopal Women’s Caucus (EWC) is a justice organization dedicated to Gospel values of equality and liberation and committed to the incarnation of God’s unconditional love. (EWC Mission Statement)
Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE) is a membership movement of Episcopal/Anglican women and girls with a broad diversity of backgrounds, interests and skills.We work for gender equity and social justice around the world. (AWE Mission Statement)
About EWC | Home Page
About AWE | History
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For further reflection
Working Group on Girls Empowering the Women of Tomorrow!
by Beth Adamson
AWE has consistently held a seat at the Working Group on Girls. Board member Beth Adamson, is co-convener of WGG.
Put yourself in the shoes of Linea, a young girl whose mother has HIV/ AIDS, a disease she contracted from your father before it took his life. Because you are the oldest daughter, you are the person expected to care for your two older brothers (when they show up) and your three younger siblings. National laws have given no property rights to women, so you live day to day in fear that your father’s family will take your house and your goat, the only source of income. You have never been to school because even when your parents were well, you took the long walk to the river to procure fresh water and wash clothes for the family. You are not even registered in a national registry.
These are the issues that face girls across the globe, and the purview of the Working Group on Girls, a coalition of over 80 NGO’s who are deeply interested in the fate of the girl child. Like AWE, which has a seat at the table, these NGO’s are aware that the empowered girls of today are the empowered women of tomorrow – but it takes vigilance to bring this empowerment to life.
Thus, WGG is committed to assuring that policies are in place via the legislative bodies and working entities of the United Nations. We follow each session of the General Assembly as well as several commissions from the Status of Women to Social Development to A World Fit for Children. Whenever possible, we provide Parallel Events sponsored by 2 or more of our member organizations and develop Fact Sheets on girl-specific topics such as: the Right to Health, Protection from Trafficking, or the Right to Education. WGG sponsors a strong Advocacy Committee that makes a point to visit Missions of member states of the Commission on the Status of Women, providing specific talking points on the Priority & Review Themes of the CSW.
Beyond that, the WGG is privileged to have 80+ NGO’s that are “on the ground” in many countries around the globe, giving an opportunity to support governments and civil society in enacting the UN policies on site. A Missionary in Malawi might use guidelines on Education for Girls to support her cause on creating a private restroom for girls, thus allowing a better chance that they can attend schools. Or an international representative in Brazil can use Fact Sheets from the WGG web-site to advocate on behalf of young women and girls who are the victims of human trafficking.
But the Working Group on Girls also makes every effort to work alongside girls by providing opportunities for girls (age 14 and above) to be involved as delegates in events at the UN that pertain to them. Girl Advocates are involved in our general meetings and as well as Mission Visits. We rely on our coalition of NGO’s to bring girls to Commissions
For instance, AWE’s own Caroline Christie, granddaughter of Marge, was a Girl Delegate in 2007 and 2011, has been on various mission visits, and was the presenter of the Girls Statement to CSW 55 in March, 2011. She continues to serve as an active WGG Girl Advocate.Please view our website www.girlsrights.org and look at our quarterly Newsletter “Action for Girls”!
Source: AWE Journal Nov 2011
MORE? Read the story of Lungowe Mufungulwa a young girl from Zambia who was a girl delegate to the UN Commission on the Status of Women meeting in 2011
Acronyms and links for more information
AWE – Anglican Women’s Empowerment
CSW – United Nations Commission on the Status of Women
EWC – Episcopal Women’s Caucus
NGO – Non Governmental Organization. NGO Global Network: “This site is the home page for our global NGO community (Non-governmental organizations associated with the United Nations). Its aim is to help promote collaborations between NGOs throughout the world, so that together we can more effectively partner with the United Nations and each other to create a more peaceful, just, equitable and sustainable world for this and future generations.”
WGG – Working Group on Girls an NGO Committee working at the United Nations
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