Through the Eyes of a Woman

Some time ago I discovered Kate Bushnell and how she has made a difference for women in society. When I found “Daughters of Deliverance” by Lorry Lutz, I was keen to read more about the life of this often overlooked but astonishing woman. A medical doctor and missionary, a speaker for the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, and a passionate proponent for the liberation of women from forced prostitution, Kate Bushnell saw the appalling situation of many women. Proposed as light summer reading, it took me back to 1879 when Katherine Bushnell felt called to work in China as a medical doctor, but the book was by no means light reading. Compelling, yes. Heartbreaking, definitely. Her years in China were destined to lead Kate to find her calling, not only to heal people’s bodies but to engage in liberating women from the cultural restrictions of patriarchy. She wanted her life to make a difference. I wonder if we today realize how painful life must have been for girls and women in Chin

   I used to think that “old” was something conservative. After all, people who love old things, like antiques, conserve things from the past. When I first heard of the Old Catholic Church, I thought they must be even more conservative than the Roman Catholics. Far from it! The Old Catholics are the progressives, but they look back to the old times when the church was egalitarian. They have revived the old faith of the first church. After the First Vatican Council (1870) introduced the dogma of the infallibility of the pope, the Christians who rejected the new dogma were excluded from the church and called themselves Old Catholics, referring to the Old Church, i.e. the first Christian church communities. Thus they wanted to be dissociated from the “new” Roman Catholic Church with all the doctrines that had been added during the centuries. The church now has about 70,000 members in Germany, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic, Poland, and the Netherlands. The Old Catholics brea