Christian Women Concerned was the first explicitly religious feminist organisation in Australia. It was founded in 1968 by a small

ecumenical Ecumenism (), also spelled oecumenism, is the concept and principle that Christians who belong to different Christian denominations should work together to develop closer relationships among their churches and promote Christian unity. The adjec ...

group of feminist scholars that included

Marie Tulip Marie Tulip (12 March 1935 – 19 September 2015) was an Australian feminist writer, academic and proponent for the ordination of women as priests.Dorothy McRae-McMahon Dorothy McRae-McMahon (born 1934) is a retired Australian Uniting Church minister and activist, formerly Minister at Pitt Street Uniting Church—known for its human rights work and local "street level" activism. McRae-McMahon has been a feminist ...

and

Jean Skuse Jean Enid Skuse (born 1 January 1932) is an Australian Christian leader and ecumenist who served as the general secretary of the Australian Council of Churches and the Vice-Moderator of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches (W ...

. The organisation played a significant role in the establishment of the Commission on the Status of Women in the Church by the

Australian Council of Churches The National Council of Churches in Australia (NCCA) is an ecumenical organisation bringing together a number of Australia's Christian churches in dialogue and practical cooperation. The NCCA works in collaboration with state ecumenical councils ...

and published the

Christian feminist Christian feminism is a school of Christian theology which seeks to advance and understand the equality of men and women morally, socially, spiritually, and in leadership from a Christian perspective. Christian feminists argue that contributions ...

magazine ''Magdalene'' from 1973 to 1987.

History

Christian Women Concerned was formed in 1968. It was one of a number of Christian feminist groups established between the late 1960s and the early 1990s, that included Women and the Australian Church (1982) and the

Movement for the Ordination of Women The Movement for the Ordination of Women (MOW) was the name used by organisations in England and Australia that campaigned for the ordination of women as deacons, priests and bishops in the Anglican Communion. England The decision in 1978 by ...

(Australia) (1983). It sought to bring women together and make feminism more generally acceptable in an environment where the women's liberation movement was seen by some as a threat to families. Christian Women Concerned started as a social justice group, and was actively involved in programs for social change, advocating peace, justice for Aboriginal people, and the elimination of poverty, prejudice, and violence against women. Arising from

Presbyterian Presbyterianism is a part of the Reformed tradition within Protestantism that broke from the Roman Catholic Church in Scotland by John Knox, who was a priest at St. Giles Cathedral (Church of Scotland). Presbyterian churches derive their nam ...

, Congregational and

Methodist Methodism, also called the Methodist movement, is a group of historically related denominations of Protestant Christianity whose origins, doctrine and practice derive from the life and teachings of John Wesley. George Whitefield and John's b ...

traditions, it soon became interested in how Christian teaching contributed to women's oppression. Many of its founders, including

and

had prominent roles in the church over the next decades, challenging

gender discrimination Sexism is prejudice or discrimination based on one's sex or gender. Sexism can affect anyone, but it primarily affects women and girls.There is a clear and broad consensus among academic scholars in multiple fields that sexism refers primaril ...

in the

Uniting Church The Uniting Church in Australia (UCA) was founded on 22 June 1977, when most congregations of the Methodist Church of Australasia, about two-thirds of the Presbyterian Church of Australia and almost all the churches of the Congregational Union ...

and beyond. It has been noted that this was "the first time that there was a discrete Christian feminist voice articulating women's oppression in mainstream Christian churches and tying that oppression to others in a systematic analysis." Christian Women Concerned began publishing ''

Magdalene (newsletter) ''Magdalene: A Christian Newsletter for Women '' was an Australian Christian feminist magazine published by the Sydney group Christian Women Concerned. Fifteen volumes of the title were published over a 10-year period, Volume 1 (May 1973)-3/4 19 ...

'' in 1973. Marie Tulip was the editor of the magazine which ran successfully until 1987. Australian academic and sociologist of religion,

Kathleen McPhillips Kathleen McPhillips is an Australian sociologist of religion and gender in the School of Humanities, Creative Industries and Social Sciences at the University of Newcastle, Australia and the current vice-president of the Australian Associat ...

, described ''Magdalene'' as "a powerful forum for discussion, change and creativity reflecting the early challenges of second wave feminism and its extensive social justice program." In the early 1970s Christian Women Concerned influenced the

' decision to establish the Commission on the Status of Women in the Church. It invited feminists of international renown such as Rosemary Radford Reuther to its major conferences and was generously funded by the Whitlam government during

International Women's Year International Women's Year (IWY) was the name given to 1975 by the United Nations. Since that year March 8 has been celebrated as International Women's Day, and the United Nations Decade for Women, from 1976 to 1985, was also established. Hist ...

in 1975. Many members of the group already had associations with the Women's Movement in Australia during the 1960s. Christian Women Concerned would also give rise to the first Australian

Anglican Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of th ...

women's activist group, Anglican Women Concerned, which formed in 1975.

References

External links

Magdalene (newsletter) on JSTOR Open Community CollectionsUniversity of Divinity Digital Collections
Mannix Library {{authority control 1968 establishments in Australia Organisations based in Australia Religious organisations based in Australia Christian organisations based in Australia Organizations established in 1968 Religious organizations established in the 1960s