San Diego 2023. Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry Conference and Ecclesiology and Ethnography North America Conference.
Thanks to the support of the Lois Freeman Wilson Fund, I was able to attend two important conferences that brought great insight into my theological education:
PANAAWTM(Pacific, Asian, and North American Asian Women in Theology and Ministry) Conference 2023 and EENA(Ecclesiology and Ethnography North America) Conference 2023
As a doctoral student who can work only part-time while being a full-time student, receiving financial support from the Lois Wilson Freeman Fund helped me greatly to experience embodied ecumenical theological education.
PANAAWTM is a conference for women and gender non-confirming Asian descent in North America doing theology and ministry. In the past two years, I attended the PANAAWTM conference online, in which I learned the ecumenical ways of “being an anti-racist and promoting cross-racial solidarity” as well as about resilience in a time of pandemic. This year’s in-person conference theme was “Ecojustice Rising: Re-Weaving Our Future,” and we focused on liberating the church and theology from anthropocentric capitalism and militarism.
Ecojustice is one of the issues that I am feeling the most need to engage critically and theologically in this time of climate crisis. As the gendered, sexualized, and racialized aspects of the climate change challenge us to reflect critically on our relationships with the earth and re-imagine life-centric theologies, I was able to learn and experience ways to critically converse on the future of eco-spirituality, eco-feminism, eco-theology, and eco-eroticism, during the PANAAWTM conference. I learned that current theological reasoning that encourages people to imagine the “new heaven and the new earth” beyond and separated from this current world leads people to irresponsibly care for the earth we live in. Experiencing nature with my own body during the conference was also very meaningful to paying attention to the greatness of nature that God has created and reimagine the new heaven and new earth in this current world I breathe and live in.
Furthermore, as the PANAAWTM conference also considers mentorship and solidarity for AAPI women and gender non-confirming Asian descent important, being at the conference in person empowered me spiritually and mentally. The conference greatly encouraged me to become a justice-focused leader and taught me ways to be a resilient woman of Asian descent during a time of hatred based on identities and climate crisis.
The Ecclesiology & Ethnography North American Conference allowed me to have creative conversations across diverse specialisms and learning at the intersection of qualitative research, theology, and the world church. In presenting my paper to and conversing with scholars from diverse faith backgrounds, I gained invaluable ecumenical sensitivity and insights. Focusing on my prospective doctoral work, I engaged with scholars and church leaders across the world to sharpen my research on “boundary-crossing preachers” who overcome and cross the racial, cultural, and identity boundaries to initiate social transformation. Engaging with scholars/leaders from diverse backgrounds and faith traditions, and growing further as an ecumenical and integrated scholar myself was one of the most meaningful experiences I had early this year.
Once again, I greatly thank the Lois Wilson Freeman Fund for supporting me to experience the embodied ecumenical theological education that brought indispensable theological insights.
With much gratitude,
HyeLim Yoon
