Speaking Out and Doing Justice: It's No Longer a Secret but What are the Churches Doing about Overcoming Violence against Women?

Some concerns raised by gender violence have been taken up by churches and individuals within them over the last ten years or so, but now the World Council of Churches has set up a project to work specifically on Overcoming Violence Against Women. The project has a three-fold task aimed at enabling constructive engagement with the issue of gender violence: (1) to support and encourage the churches' (2) to develop a network of concerned theologians; (3) to establish an accessible resource base. The prevalence of violence against women in all parts of society, including churches and Christian communities, raises theological questions. Some areas of language, doctrine and the interpretation of Scripture need to be examined and perhaps reconsidered, to provide theologies consistent with churches as communities of safety, respect and justice for women.