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PRAISE GOD WITH US!
By Mimi Haddad
CBE staff,
friends, and members recently returned from our co-sponsored
conference, “Side by Side—Gender from a Christian Perspective:
Men and Women Dependent on Each Other” in Bangalore, India.
CBE’s president, Dr. Mimi Haddad, shares a few of the highlights
in the following:
The conference was
hugely successful from a kingdom perspective and was truly
infused by God’s Spirit, from beginning to end! Why?
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Indian leaders
were unified to advance the
message of gender equality despite
denominational and geographic differences.
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Over half of the
conference delegates were men in positions of leadership:
pastors, theological students, scholars and ministry
leaders.
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SAIACS (South
Asia Institute for Advanced Christian Studies) gave all of
their students Thursday and Friday off, in order to attend
the conference.
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The General
Secretary of the Fellowship of the Evangelical Fellowship of
India (perhaps one of the most influential evangelicals in
the country) gave a riveting opening plenary session,
advancing biblical equality cohesively and theologically. It
was amazing to watch; he was
humble, vulnerable, and very intelligent. He agreed to give
an endorsement for CBE, which we filmed and plan to add to
our website. And, he has agreed to speak for us at
significant academic meetings in the US,
and we raised the money for this.
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All
the sessions were intelligent and helpful. The fellowship
was rich, and though we had to adjust our tour to Mysore
because of a water strike, that additional day in Bangalore
gave a number of us an opportunity to meet Christians
advancing gender equality and justice in
Bangalore. We observed two HIV/AIDS hospices, an
orphanage for girls rescued from temple prostitution, and we
met many of their leaders during the conference
a few days later.
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The worship team
(WOW—Women of Worth) alone was
well-worth the cost of your ticket to India. They wrote a
number of original pieces. Blye me!! (as Lynley Giles would
say), these
musicians will be the future worship leaders of the church.
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We plan to
publish the papers from the conference in a compendium book,
and best of all, there is some discussion about holding a
similar conference in northern India in
the future. This is very good news!!
It will be an opportunity for
southern Indian egalitarians to support those in the north,
where the church is even more resistant to the message of
biblical equality.
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God was very
good to CBE on so many levels:
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All
delegates and speakers remained healthy
during the conference.
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There was great unity among
all who gathered.
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Travel
mercies were well in place and most everyone made their
flights in and out.
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CBE’s
equipment arrived there and back without damage, and
though we had some technical difficulties, out IT
Coordinator, Nathan St. Clair managed to collect the
lectures and even train and equip (with additional
software) helping the staff in Bangalore run future
events more effectively.
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We raised
enough money to balance the Indian conference budget.
CBE still needs to raise funds to balance our budget. If
you are interested, consider a donation to CBE, to help
defray the costs of one of the most amazing events we’ve
yet held.
Donate online.
We praise God for providing more abundantly
than we might have imagined! Thank you to everyone who
prayed for and supported us and our friends in India! Please
continue to pray for ongoing international dialogue and
partnerships as we work to further the cause of biblical
equality and justice.
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