STATEMENT OF THE CONSULTATION ON
BIBLICAL HERMENUTICS: WOMEN’S PERSPECTIVES



1.    We affirm that re-reading the Bible from Women’s Perspective means interpreting and understanding the Bible in the            context of women’s experiences and it is high time for Indian Women to assert their rights and liberate themselves from the dominant value systems of the existing religious, social and patriarchal structures.

2.    The need of the hour today is to envision the true church of God that demands the correct and true interpretation of the Bible for all God’s people and creation. Therefore, this calls for a Just Interpretation of the Bible.

3.    The issue of Women’s ordination in India is not a theological one but gender discrimination. Cultural and sociological factors are involved in debarring women from ordination. Moreover, ordained ministry in India is highly rigid and hierarchical in nature and involves power structures, which debar ordained women from full participation in ministry. Therefore, it is imperative to break this structure, also the traditional and cultural barriers that hinder the full participation of women in God’s mission.

4.    In the context of forced invisibility, forces powerlessness and forced silence of women, there is a need to employ the hermeneutical principles of remembering, reclaiming and reconstructing the Bible in Indian context. To achieve this, we need to r e-read the Bible with New Eyes and with New Vision.

5.    Need to rediscover and retell the hidden stories of women of both success and struggles in the Bible to empower women today.

6.    The task of hermeneutics form tribal women perspective is to discover the truth embedded about women’s role and status in the oral tradition of the tribal societies and to use them as tools to empower women in the church and society.

7.    If the church is a community of people of God, consisting of both men and women then what women claim is total and full participation in every sphere of the church ministry but not as mere tokenism.

8.    One of the tasks of hermeneutics from women’s perspective is to critique the power structure in the church, concept of ordination and the influence of patriarchy in the church ministry.

                                                                                Drafting Committee:     
                                                                                Ms. Limala Longkumer
Bangalore                                                                 Ms. Omana Mathew
May 12, 2001                                                          Rev. Shanti David