Acknowledgements that Matter

 

One of my earliest memories of men empowering little girls goes back to my 11^th or 12^th grade. This was when I was a couple of months into blogging and was getting a hold of vocalizing my stance on more controversial issues. It was during this time that I had particularly written about my feelings on being forced to cover my hair during worship and sent it as a WhatsApp text to a clergyman of my church, let us call him MM.

 

MM was more than delighted to read it. He even wanted to share it with his friends and sent me a screenshot of a particular response by a woman who didn’t even know me. I thought maybe a certain few would be able to relate to it and so decided to go ahead and put it on the blog. While putting it up, as protocol went, I also shared it around, not thinking too much about it. But one of the responses is something that will stick with me for life.

 

The next day or the day after, I received a message from another clergyman, let’s call him MV. I had sent him the blog because I remember him addressing more nuanced topics within the Christian spectrum during a youth conference and thought he would enjoy a slightly unpolished version of someone trying to strike the balance between faith and culture. And boy did I underestimate his response! He told me he mentioned my article in class that day since he was discussing the Pauline understanding of head coverings. At that time, I did not know that he was teaching in the Marthoma Seminary. He also told me that a student acknowledged that he knew me since we were from the same city. I was more than stunned. Being a 16 or 17-year-old girl and getting mentioned in a room full of men who were significantly older than me was not what I had expected when I wrote about women covering their hair. In fact, if someone had told me while I was writing it would happen, I would’ve used better words or toned my extremely obvious frustration down. It was not the most lexical piece of mine, but it was still noticed.

 

I don’t think the writing was solely important because I was a girl and it was a room full of men, obviously, but I do believe this is where empowerment begins. Being part of a relatively patriarchal church, sometimes women do feel that their voices go unheard or there is little to no place for them in certain aspects of the administration of the church. We need more clergymen who take these little steps to help undo this. We need more clergymen who make little girls (and women) know that they are seen, heard, noticed, appreciated, and valued.

 

Mothy Varkey Achen, if you are reading this, thank you! :')

(Special thanks to Merin Achen for being the reason I blogged that particular piece. This would’ve been incomplete without you as well :) )

 08.03.2021

To view the write-up mentioned, click here.