Millicent and Jesus

Earlier this year a statue of Dame Millicent Fawcett was unveiled in Parliament Square, London.  It was the first statue of a woman to grace the square.  Millicent was a strong supporter of the Women's Suffrage movement, becoming leader of the National Union of Women's Suffrage Societies, a group which believed in using non-violent tactics to persuade the government that women deserved the right to vote in elections.  This year (2018) is the 100th anniversary of the historic moment when women were finally given the right to vote.

Following the giving of Royal assent to the Bill to enfranchise women and the subsequent declaration later that year of the end of the First World War, Millicent decided to retire from active political work.  On New Year’s Day, 1920, she received a cheque from a group of Suffrage friends as a token of their gratitude for her work, with the condition that she was not to give it away.  She decided to take the opportunity to do something which she had long desired, namely travel to the Holy Land.  In February 1921 she set off on her journey, accompanied by her sister Agnes.

I am currently reading Millicent’s book, ‘Easter in Palestine, 1921-1922’, in which she recounts her travel experiences.  It is a fascinating volume.  As may be expected, she describes many of the places they visited, but she also comments on the political situation, and her passion for women’s rights shines through in several places.  One of the chapter headings, for example, is ‘A Suffrage Meeting in Jerusalem.’

A passage in the book which particularly took my attention was when the sisters visited Nablus, the site of Jacob’s Well, thought to be the place where Jesus had a remarkable conversation with a Samaritan woman (recorded in John chapter 4).  Millicent Fawcett comments:

‘The He should have revealed to her the innermost heart of His own doctrine of the relation of God to man and the nature of true worship is one of the most marvellous things in His whole marvellous history.  This great teaching was offered to one of the despised sex belonging to a despised people; and that it was offered to a woman at all has ever been like a guiding light on a dark and often tortuous journey to those who have been workers for the development of women’s freedom and citizenship.  The whole story is so wonderfully told we cannot go back to it too often.’

It is right that we acknowledge the debt which is owed to people like Millicent Fawcett for the tremendous dedication and commitment which they gave in the struggle for women’s suffrage.  I find myself tremendously encouraged by the fact (which is often overlooked) that Millicent found in the gospel story, and particularly the ministry of Jesus, inspiration for her efforts.  A reminder that in God’s eyes we are all equally loved and valued  As St Paul writes, ‘There is no difference between Jews and Gentiles, between slaves and free people, between men and women; you are all one in union with Christ Jesus’ (Galatians 3.28).  If only our world today could live in the reality of those words!