"I did not realize how great the extent of this misery is even in Germany," said a churchgoer after a shattering speech on the occasion of the women's Sabbath on May 15, 2019, in Baden-Baden. In her sermon church leader Gisela Kappenberger had addressed taboo subjects such as child marriage, forced female genital mutilation, child labor and domestic violence.
You do not have to travel to another continent, which is less economically strong and weaker in education to find such misery. We can often find customs such as female genital mutilation, child marriage etc. in our neighborhood. This often unrecognized, tabooed suffering of countless girls and women, is the result of families who stick to banned traditions of their country of origin, even though they have long since found a new home in Germany.
No generation of girls and women in Germany could enjoy the same freedoms as we have today: the right to vote, the right to political and religious participation, the opportunity to choose and exercise a profession, access to education and health care, the free choice of spouse etc. But not all girls and women living in Germany benefit from these privileges. Sister Kappenberger called us to take action for them with our opportunities, whether with the #enditnow action of the Women's Ministries Department, through partnerships or mentoring.
She encouraged us to model Jesus as the one who saw the invisible, the haemorrhaging woman, the crippled woman, the Samaritan woman, or the woman caught in adultery. She encouraged all present to act as Jesus did, who did not see people’s gender, but only their hearts and their needs. He intervened for the ones who had no advocates and calls us to serve as he did. Will you emulate him?
Reported by Jasmin Stanoschefsky
He who sees the invisible
Women’s Sabbath in Baden-Baden, Germany