Wikipedia
Re-Imagining, the Minneapolis interfaith conference of clergy, laypeople, and feminist theologians ( feminist theology) in 1993 stirred controversy in U.S. Mainline Protestant denominations, ultimately resulting in the firing of the highest ranking woman in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Re-Imagining: A Global Theological Conference By Women: For Men and Women, grew out of a U.S.A. Mainline Protestant response to the World Council of Churches' Ecumenical Decade: Churches in Solidarity with Women 1988–1998. Participants met at the Minneapolis Convention Center during November 4 through 7, 1993.
It brought together 2,200 people, one third of them clergy, and most of them women. 83 men registered. Attendees represented 16 denominations, 27 countries, and 49 states. (Nevada was not represented.) All presenters were women. The conference aimed to encourage churches to address injustices to women worldwide and promote equal partnership with men at all levels of religious life. In recognition of supporters' view that traditional Christianity's male-centered language and images have often stifled and hurt women, organizers chose "re-imagining" as the theme. International theologians were invited to address the theme as it applied to God, Jesus, church, creation, community, and world. Other presentations carried the theme through "Church as Worshipping Community," "Language/Word," "Sexuality/Family," and "Ethics/Work/Ministry." After four days of community and freedom of discussion with like-minded women, hearing internationally recognized feminist theologians advance new ways of thinking about Christianity, and hearing their deity referred to with female pronouns, attendees reported having a transformational experience. A number of similar conferences had been held, but the size, scope and creative atmosphere of Re-Imagining eclipsed anything that had come before.