ABSTRACT
The life of the church arises from the love of our Trinitarian God. It is this love that is the source of all mission and empowers the church to be engaged in mission for the love of the world. Violence against women is systemic and embedded in the fabric of our cultures, traditions, politics and economic systems. For the church that follows Jesus, the Prince of Peace who affirmed women and who saved the woman caught in adultery from a violent death by stoning, this is a justice issue with which the church must be involved. Atola Longkumer, from India, claims that ‘discrimination, exclusion, marginalisation and even violence’ exist within the church. A missiology of comforting draws from the power of the Holy Spirit to comfort, transform and heal–both humanity and creation. The Holy Spirit, also known as the Comforter, is the one who comforts the broken, the afflicted, the suffering.
