[ENS] A group of Anglican women taking part in the annual meeting of the United Nations Commission on the Status of Women (UNCSW) assembled March 7 on the grounds of the Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine, where the Episcopal Diocese of New York hosted a gathering of the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) representatives to speak of their future goals as a united body and their individual work in ministering to women and children throughout the world.

Jane Williams, theologian, lecturer, author and wife of Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, presented the afternoon’s address. She explained that her contribution to the group would be to hear the stories of the women of the Church. “I’m standing here partly to represent that the world needs to hear your stories.”

But Williams, as wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, also wanted to extend the thanks of the Church to all the women who have given so much to the cause for peace. “You peacemakers are blessed, you are children of God,” she said. “Being a peacemaker is not a relaxing occupation,” nor is it something at which more women are naturally better. Their success with and desire for peacemaking, she said, results from women experiencing conflict and war differently and having “different access to power and decision-making.” It also comes from the experiences women have as wives, mothers and sustainers.

Williams referred to the strength of the women who stayed at the foot of the cross during Jesus’ crucifixion. The women did not panic like the men, and they stayed together while the men scattered because, in the end, Williams explained, “they cared more about Jesus than about success.”

The Church also works for peace, Williams said, adding, “I want to praise my Church’s willingness to lose face in order to be a peacemaker.” Indeed, she continued, the Anglican Communion is a vehicle designed for peacemaking. It is held together even as members express differing opinions, because all are committed to the Good News the Church proclaims. Although such a structure can seem weak, it doesn’t matter, she said, because it is the Gospel that gives strength.

“We can rebuke each other, correct each other, argue with each other, deeply disagree with each other, and yet somehow let friendship prevail in keeping us struggling together,” Williams stressed. “All you peacemakers know that peace is always possible.”

(—Mary Beth Diss is editor of the Episcopal New Yorker.)

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