FAITH AND FEMINISM
Author holding sessions to discuss ‘reconstructing’ an evolving belief
Sarah Bessey is a sought-after speaker at churches, conferences and universities around the world. She is also the author of the bestselling and critically acclaimed books, Jesus Feminist and Out of Sorts: Making Peace with an Evolving Faith.
Bessey is regarded as a somewhat provocative author. Her first book, Jesus Feminist, is an invitation to revisit the Bible’s view of women.
“This book explores God’s radical notion that women are people, too,” Bessey says. “To me, it is a book about the Kingdom of God and what it looks like to fully embrace God’s dream for humanity in those places where we still have a long way to go — church, leadership, marriage, all of it.”
Bessey says she wrote the book because following Jesus was what made her into a feminist.
“I’m not a feminist in spite of my faith. I’m a feminist because of it, and the book is my story of discovering God’s heart for women and the ways the Church can celebrate, affirm, and support the voices and experiences of women.”
When her book first came out in 2013, Bessey says using the word ‘feminist’ felt very risky in traditional Christian spaces, but it has become clear to her how important it is to have women of faith involved in conversations of feminism.
“I believe the Church can be an example to our culture of what equality and full inclusion looks like. We haven’t always got that right. We have a long way to go still, but I think this gives a vision of what is possible and what is hopeful at this time.”
Out of Sorts has been described as a riveting new study of Christianity that helps one to wrestle with and sort out their faith. Using a mix of beautiful storytelling and Biblical teaching, a style described as ‘narrative theology,’ it helps the reader grapple with core Christian issues.
Bessey is a prolific writer who contributed to the NIV Bible for Women: Fresh Insights for Thriving in Today’s World and many other venues. She has commented on religion for many leading newspapers, and her writing has appeared in The Huffington Post as well as numerous Christian publications.
Bessey is also an award-winning blogger.
“I began blogging in 2005 and never imagined I’d still be writing in that medium all these years later,” she says. “I blogged at first to connect with friends because we had recently moved. But my blog quickly became a place for me to process my faith and spirituality along with my experiences as a mother. I was undergoing a pretty dramatic shift in my faith at that time and began to write my way through it, processing my questions, my doubts, my struggles, my learnings.
“It feels like I wrote my way to a whole new self,” she says. “I met with God there, and I now see blogging as a form of minis- try, though not in the way I would have understood the word years ago. Blogging has been a revolution for faith-based writing. I regularly see that the boldest, most authentic writing happens on the internet.”
Bessey says blogging has also given women like her — “women who wouldn’t otherwise have got past the gatekeepers of evangelicalism” — the platform to write and lead in matters of faith, Scripture, theology.
“There are a lot of us who are often outside the usual power and leadership structures of the Church,” she adds, “who have found each other on the internet through blogging, and it’s a joy to see those voices being listened to more and more.”
Bessey will be speaking in Saskatoon on April 27 and 28 at Emmanuel Baptist Church. She is doing a three-session conference on the subject of ‘Making Peace with an Evolving Faith.’
“I will be speaking about the process and experience of deconstructing and then reconstructing your faith,” Bessey says. “So many people today admit to feeling disenfranchised or alienated from their faith, or their church, or their old ways of understanding the world. My hope is to be able to come alongside those folks whose faith is changing or evolving.”
The cost of the conference is $65; tickets are only available online at www.eventbrite.ca.
The session on Friday, April 27, begins at 7:30 p.m.; the Saturday sessions begin at 10:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.
The conference is for all ages and everyone is welcome. There is no child care available. Coffee and snacks will be provided, but people are encouraged to bring a bag lunch on Saturday.
For more information on Sarah Bessey, please visit her website: www.sarahbessey.com. For questions regarding the conference, email: heypriest@ebap.ca or kari@ebap.ca.
Emmanuel Baptist Church is located at 1636 Acadia Drive.