"Women Lead, and HOW!"

Monday night 28 women gathered at the Mississippi Ballroom in North Portland for dialogue, connection, and tasty desserts. There were many familiar faces from the Convergence gathering at Edgefield as well as many new faces. Some even traveled from Seattle, Puyallup, and St. Paul (near Salem) to be among us.

The group was made up of Friends(Quakers), Episcopalians, Presbyterians, Baptists, Charismatics, a woman leading a church plant which meets on the street, an assortment from various sorts of emerging churches (that term is awkward), women who lead house churches, several church planters, ordained women, lay leaders, counselors, moms, a midwife, a chaplain, and two sets of mother-daughter duos.

To start the evening off we each took a turn introducing our self and listening to the others by passing around the talking stick. I appreciated how this symbol reminded us of the value of each person and the way that we honor each other by listening. We then centered our hearts through the singing of two songs led by Mimi and Angie.

We heard from Stephanie Pieh of the Oregon Center for Christian Values on the issue of short-term, high interest loans that target and oppress the poorest and most vulnerable in our society. She had cards for us to fill out in order to send a message to our local representatives. This issue was not on my radar until Monday night and I was glad to be informed and provided with an immediate opportunity to act on behalf of the least of these.

We then gathered around tables in groups of five for dessert and to talk about the ways in which we need encouragement and can offer encouragement to other women in leadership. We also weighed in whether or not we would like to see a Convergence gathering take place in the fall. These thoughts were written down and collected by the three women who organized the event -Debra, AJ, and Kelly. I presume we will be hearing from them in the future about what kinds of common themes/ideas emerged.

A very cool element of the evening was something called “the fish bowl.” Kelli and Debra read two quotes from two books to stimulate our thinking and then four women were nominated to sit in a circle of five chairs within the large circle where everyone else was seated. One chair in the inner circle was intentionally left empty.

The four women began the conversation. When someone in the outer circle wanted to contribute to the conversation, she moved into the empty chair in the inner circle and one of the four women would graciously remove herself. It was a great way to listen in on a conversation as well as participate in it.

Kelly, AJ, and Debra did a beautiful job planning and facilitating our time. I was struck by their ability to introduce and close each segment so eloquently. It was a very good night. I was blessed to be in the presence of so many women who are leading in such wonderfully varied ways.