CBE Conference in Australia

We were blessed to be able to attend the CBE conference in Melbourne, Australia in June. We chose to travel across Australia by car and caravan, catching up with relatives and friends in South Australia and Victoria along the way. All in all we were away from home for 3 months as we then travelled up the East Coast of Australia to visit one of our sons who resides with his family on the Gold Coast in Queensland. It's a week today since we actually set foot back in our house here in Warnbro, Western Australia because we visited 2 other sons and their families, one in Busselton and another in Lesmurdie WA. The Conference seems like eons ago already but it was so good to meet with likeminded people in our own country. There seems to be a conspiracy of silence here in Australia with most church people not really interested in persuing the topic. For many the issue appears to be done and dusted, perhaps because for them it was locked into Women's ordination and now that that is somewhat settled there doesn't appear to be any need to debate further. The sad reality is that it is far from over. Women are still limited in what they can do, or how far they can go, within the Church at large and the whole issue of 'headship' is not being addressed in this context at all. For a more full report on the Conference content the topic can be explored on the CBE Scroll. Just follow the link to the Scroll supplied on the homepage of this blogsite. There were many challenges over the Conference weekend, especially in the workshop sessions, but for me the last keynote address by Cheryl Catford was the icing on the cake. Her insights into what has been put forward as the 'Third Wave of Feminism' was most powerful and helpful in understanding these secular developments and their impact in proclaiming the gospel (Good News of Jesus) for the present and the future.