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Rev. Dr. Marcia Blasi, programme executive for Gender Justice and Women’s Empowerment with the Lutheran World Federation, offered a reflection on women who have no social power—and yet call for justice.
“We know what it means to insist, to knock at doors that are closed, to speak and not be heard, to be called too emotional, too radical, too unreasonable, simply because we refuse to accept injustice,” said Blasi. “Many of us have been told to be patient.”
Blasi explained that, in Brazil, a judge released a 35-year-old man of the charges of rape to a 12-year-old, because the judge considered they were living as a couple—even though, in Brazilian law, it is absolutely forbidden to have any marriage before 16.
But because people spoke out and demanded justice, the man was sentenced to six years in prison.
“God is not asking for special favors or special ways,” Blasi said. “God grants justice.”
Justice belongs to the heart of God, she added. “Faith looks like communities that keep knocking until doors are open, or till the doors are knocked down,” she said. “On this day, we pray and act with women who cry out for justice in their homes, in churches, in courts, in workplaces, everywhere.”
With the Ecumenical Prayer Cycle, those gathered also prayed for the churches and people of England, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, and Ireland.
