Bits of Yarn, Calico and Velvet Scraps                                                            Page 9

Not that I felt distorted. This was just the way life

was and I was not unhappy. I saw the world as

beautiful and good but religion told me, 'The best

thing you can do with the best thing you've got is

sacrifice it!' 'God so loved the world' but the god

said 'Leave the world, die to self, body,

womanhood, family, everything!' So I did that. I

went as far away from 'the world' as I could. And I

learned much of value in that journey.

Years passed until one day a window was opened

on the world. Slowly interplay began between

church and world and me and world. I went

exploring. I felt quite safe. Everything I loved was

still intact. God was in His heaven, after all.

The first new world I entered was that of modern

biblical criticism. Linked with that, the liturgical

movement held sacred symbol up to the light for

closer scrutiny. At the same time a stream of new

theologies was expanding into a river. Liberation

theology carried all before it and opened the way,

and my mind, to feminist theology.