Helping Women Find Power (published in United Methodist Church Response publication, June 2018),
United Methodist Women Regional Missionary Emma Cantor Leads Workshops Across Asia.
Emma Cantor works across a wide stretch of the world where people speak dozens of languages. That’s not an obstacle for Cantor, a regional missionary in Asia for United Methodist Women, because she says there’s a common language women share no matter the political or cultural context.
“Every part of Asia has its own language, but what is common is the love that women have for God,” says Cantor, a deaconess from the Philippines. “I’m thankful that United Methodist Women has given me the opportunity to talk, to be in partnership, to pray with, to teach, and to be friends with these women.”
One of the places where Cantor has made friends is in Myanmar, which is also known as Burma. For more than a decade she has accompanied women there as their country has slowly emerged from crushing military rule and international isolation.
After more than a century of British control, then Burma achieved its independence in 1948. Yet democratic rule was short-lived, and a 1962 military coup launched the country into decades of authoritarian rule. A growing pro-democracy movement slowly gained international attention in the 1980s, and Aung San Suu Kyi became its leader. Daughter of Aung San, the principle architect of Burma’s break with Great Britain who was assassinated on the eve of independence, Suu Kyi had lived outside the country for more than 20 years. Yet her family’s stature thrust her into a prominent political role. Frightened by her rising popularity, the military placed Suu Kyi under house arrest, preventing her from traveling to Oslo to receive the 1991 Nobel Peace Prize.
Under continued domestic and international pressure, the military announced sweeping reforms in 2011. Although political and economic freedoms were expanded, the military remained the undisputed power behind the scenes. Those in charge were former military officers who swapped their khaki uniforms for suits and longyi—the sarong-type skirt traditionally favored by both men and women in Myanmar.
However military officers dressed, they watched as democracy activists continued to slowly erode their power, and by 2016 Suu Kyi became the State Counselor of Myanmar—the country’s de facto prime minister. While the world celebrated and eased sanctions against Myanmar, it remained clear that her power was limited. The military continued to be the final arbiter of power.
Despite the limits to her authority, or perhaps because of them, Suu Kyi is idolized by many in Myanmar. Yet many women in the country, like their political heroine, feel caught in the tension between wanting their rights respected and living in a political and religious culture that has pushed back against their empowerment.
Emma Cantor thinks that tension is the perfect place for mission to occur. Cantor started coming to Myanmar in 2005 to train Bible Women, who are laywomen in the Methodist Church who teach literacy and spread the Gospel in their rural villages. Over the years since, as the country has experimented with the promise and limits of democracy, Cantor has worked with a variety of denominations in Myanmar to expand the role and ministry of women within their churches and communities.
In October 2017, Cantor traveled to Kalay, a city in northwestern Myanmar that sits at the edge of Chin State, home of the ethnic Chin people. Often considered to be “doubly oppressed,” the Chin are a minority in a country where the dominant Bamar ethnic group controls most levers of power; moreover, the Chin are largely Christian in a staunchly Buddhist country.
Chin women sit even lower in the social hierarchy, and Cantor’s workshop was designed to challenge that by helping the women discover their own theological voice.
Interested also to read about Rev. Jessica Stonecypher (United Methodist Deacon) in an article entitled Growing Food, Growing Community, Growing in Faith. Jessica writes: I’m a farmer. Well, really, I’m more of a community organizer seeking to bring people together around the idea of farming. It’s an endeavor that I’ve been dreaming of for many years and I’m excited to be actively participating in a growing movement around local foods and urban agriculture in my community. When I discerned my call to environmental ministry, I knew it would be a struggle. There simply aren’t many who can wrap their brains around how or why an ordained minister would devote her life to such a vocation. But as I’ve grown into my role as a deacon, I’ve learned that I would be miserable without engaging in the work that drew me to set-apart ministry in the first place.
