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After a year of debate and division, a Presbyterian theologian explores what went wrong at last year's controversial Re-Imagining conference.

The furor aroused by last year's Re-Imagining conference exceeded in magnitude anything in memory of mainline Christianity. The General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), which met in Wichita last June, received more overtures of protest over Re-Imagining than on any topic in the denomination's 200-plus-year history. Re-Imagining has awakened various mainline denominations to a state of crisis in theology, and with it the need, in the words of the Wichita general assembly, to assert that "theology matters."

Indeed it does. If Re-Imagining stimulates mainline Protestants and Catholics to recover a responsible theology, guided by Scripture and creed, then it may play an important role in arresting the theological and moral drift so characteristic of mainline Christianity. If not, such events will signal the demise of the churches that support them. But to learn fully the lesson of Re-Imagining we must first be clear as to what exactly went wrong at the conference-which can act as a case study of what goes wrong when we abandon Bible and creed as our moorings for guiding the work of the church.

More than 2,000 attendees from all 50 states and 28 countries gathered in Minneapolis from November 4-7, 1993, "as midwives of the new life that will be born from our tears and struggles," in the words of an opening speaker. Three years in the planning, Re-Imagining was a global theological colloquium of feminist voices. Global, too, were its concerns: violence and war, racism, sexism, poverty, oppression, and economic injustice. These and other sources of tears and terror were addressed in moving pathos and acid iconoclasm. Re-Imagining was a mega-event for body, mind, and spirit. In addition to 34 plenary addresses, there were small groups, workshops, ritual and worship, music, dance, plays, and visual arts. For the intrepid listener, it is captured in 24 double-sided cassettes-nearly 30 hours of recording.

The reason why the repercussions from Re-Imagining—especially among mainline denominations—have equaled, if not exceeded, in magnitude anything in recent memory is not that the positions espoused were especially novel or more radical than feminist positions advanced in academic circles and literature. What distinguished Re-Imagining from myriad other similar events is that it not only claimed to speak to the church, but in certain respects for it. One-third of its attendees were clergy. Speaker after speaker called on the churches to undertake a new reformation of doctrine. And most significantly, the event bore the imprimatur of "The Ecumenical Decade: Churches in Solidarity with Women, 1988-1998," initiated by the World Council of Churches and funded by some 20 ecclesiastical organizations, including the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) (PCUSA), the United Methodist Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA), the American Baptist Convention (ABC), the United Church of Christ, and four religious communities of Roman Catholics.

Re-Imagining left no doubt that women's issues are here for the duration. Speakers from around the globe gave impassioned testimony to the anger and alienation that often characterize the experience of women in the church. The sense of solidarity among women, particularly with the poor, oppressed, and those struggling for justice and equality, was particularly evident. Speakers were sharp in naming the powers that oppress and do violence to life. One could not remain unmoved by several voices of courage in the face of injustice.

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November 14 1994, Vol. 38, No. 13