Mission

Anglican Women’s Empowerment (AWE) is a membership movement of Episcopal/Anglican women and girls with a broad diversity of backgrounds, interests and skills.We work for gender equity and social justice around the world.

Seeking to be faithful to the Gospel, AWE gathers and connects women from the Anglican Communion to share resources and opportunities. We develop tools and training material which promote the transformative work of Christ in the church and our countries.

AWE enables and supports girls from the Anglican Communion to be equipped and empowered as advocates for equality and justice.

Our work is shaped by the issues defined by the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (click here for those) and the Beijing Platform for Action (click here to read it). We have monthly meetings with guest speakers and a large, yearly international gathering for the United Nations Committee on the Status of Women meetings.We welcome new members.

In 2009, the General Convention passed Resolution B019, recognizing AWE for its achievements:

Resolved, the House of Bishops concurring, That the 76th General Convention of the Episcopal Church recognize and affirm the advocacy and ongoing contribution of Anglican Women’s Empowerment, a group of women in The Episcopal Church whose missio is to support and affirm the nurturing and empowerment of adult women and hyoung girls throughout the Anglican Communion.

Every year we have sponsored talks and training open to all the delegates at the United Nations and the general public.   For example in 2004, Jane Williams, wife of the Archbishop of Canterbury, spoke at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine on Women as Peacemakers.  In 2007 and 2008 we co-sponsored talks on similar subjects by Jean Shinoda Bolen and Gloria Steinem.

In 2006 all our delegates (including a number of Bishop’s wives) united as peacemakers by signing a petition to the Anglican Consultative Council (ACC) asking that they make peace within the communion, since “our time together has proven that the things that unite us are greater and mightier than those that divide us.”  In 2007 our efforts led to ACC Resolution 13/31, calling all countries and dioceses to work toward the goal of 50% women in positions of top leadership and women’s desks in each country.

AWE had helped foster the initial or continued growth of several important organizations including International Anglican Women’s Network (IAWN), Beijing Circles and the United Nations Working Committee on Girls.

Delegates from around the world have been transformed by meeting women working for peace and justice in their countries.  For example:

• Bishop Dutta has started empowerment training and conferences for women in India and a delegate from Uruguay has done the same in her country.
• Meeting and talking to female clergy for the first time has been an inspiration for many delegates.  Some on their return home are working for the ordination of women in their provinces.  One dynamic priest from Kenya now aspires to become the first female Bishop in Africa.
• Delegates are inspired by the bravery of AWE sisters in war zones: women who walked across the battlefields in the Solomon Islands to demand that child soldiers give up their weapons; a Sudanese mother who has connected with mothers in Uganda to try to get them to stop their soldier-sons from invading her country.
• Perhaps the most dramatic example of the use of AWE sisterhood came when The Bishop of Northern Congo and other church members were  surrounded by rebels at a diocesan meeting.   His wife called her AWE sister who helped connect the group with representatives from Episcopal Relief and Development and the United Nations, assisting their evacuation and eventual safe return home.

Have a question? Please click here to get in touch with AWE.

“Investing in women is not only the right thing to do; it is the smart thing to do.” ~ United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon.