YWCA's Mission: Old or New?

I was walking past the newly renovated YWCA facility in downtown Portland a few weeks ago when I noticed that they had a new sign on the side of the building: orange lettering spelled out "eliminating racism" and "empowering women." Now I've seen this building hundreds of times over the years, and don't recall ever seeing this slogan before. I was taken aback (and impressed) by the straightforward message. In a society where many people deny that racism is even a problem (except for "reverse racism" which is apparently at an all time high!), simply seeing the word "racism" on a large building in a town that is close to 80% white, is very dramatic.

Had the YWCA created a new mission statement? Curious about the new logo, I checked the organization's website, and found information about their history of involvement in women's rights and racial justice. I didn't look through every page, but saw nothing about Christianity at all.

I had always been under the impression (due to the name) that the YWCA was very religious oriented, but it seems I may have been wrong? According to this article - written from a clearly fundamentalist Christian viewpoint - the YWCA has been "taken over" by non Christians and has "abandoned" spreading the Word about the Christian faith. I did a little digging and it looks as though the organization has recently undergone some revisioning or "reaffirming" (as the YWCA literature states) of its core values. There are at least a few folks who seem to be angry at the loss of Christian focus (article about UK president), but it is not clear to me if these folks were ever involved with the YWCA to begin with. They also seem to have a narrow definition of what a Christian is (providing birth control and handing out condoms is apparently a no-no). I have to wonder if the YWCA's dropping of things like Bible study groups is merely a reflection of the direction our Western societies have taken as a whole?

Worth reading: an informative article about the bold decision at the 1970 annual YWCA convention to "thrust our collective power to eliminate racism wherever it exists and by any means necessary." This reminds me of some of the resolutions declared at UUA General Assemblies past.

But what strikes me most about the YWCA situation is how plainly spoken their mission is, and also how it seems to have arisen out of a real consciousness and intentionality. Their work is not random. That is crucial. Institutional racism is no accident; it will not be undone by chance. As such, I'm very interested in how the YWCA made this happen at the organizational level, and how this has trickled down to local chapters. I've gone to a couple of different YWCA chapter sites; some mention the racism piece prominently, and others do not.

Another interesting piece is that in April of 2006, the YWCA-USA voted (70%) to lift the ban on men serving as leaders within the organization. It will be up to individual chapters to decide if they want to adopt this change. I wonder what kind of impact this will have after almost 150 years of being solely run by women?

I'm thinking of many things this morning, as I sit in my hotel room, listening to the thunder claps. I left sunshine and 75 degree temperatures in Portland for the stormy weather of New Jersey. I'm here to co-lead an anti-racism analysis development conference for the Metro NY district, but I have jet lag and am tired but not sleepy. As I rode the subway into the city this morning, a young woman standing in front of me took off her iPod headphones and asked me if the logo on my hoodie sweatshirt was a chalice. The shirt was from a young adult district con I attended last Fall. I said yes, and it turned out that she is an NYU undergrad from Massachussetts. She goes to All Soul's now. It's nice to be recognized by fellow "believers." It happens a lot when I don chalicewear.

(Photo by HSA: Several General Assembly 2006 Youth Caucus staffers in the tunnel of mirrors at the City Museum of St. Louis, April 2006)