I enjoyed re-reading Geoffrey Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, even though we decided not to take the day trip out to Canterbury...just not quite enough time. Several of the stories are pretty bawdy, but his intension was to offer it in satire and irony.
His feelings about women's social roles and rights are surprising, given that he was writing in the 1380's and '90's. Through the character of the Wife of Bath, he lifts up and criticizes all the mixed conflicting messages that are expected of, written about, or preached to women.
After the Cleric tells a tale about Griselda, who allows herself to be tested and tormented by her husband for many years, Chaucer breaks into the flow of the tales through the words of "Chaucer's Envoy" who says, "Oh, noble wives, full of high wisdom, let no humility nail down your tongue...Don't be hoodwinked in your innocence; take the control into your own hands. Engrave this lesson deeply in your memories, for it will work to the common profit of mankind. You wives, strong as big camels, stand up for your own rights; don't allow men to do injustices to you. And weak wives, feeble in battle, be fierce as a tiger yonder in India."
To bring all these characters and stories together, Chaucer used a pilgrimage from London to Canterbury. It provided a time and place for 20+ people of vastly different social & economic circles to come together on relatively equal footing, to tell their stories and--more important--to interact with and affect each other, primarily over the issue of fidelity and relationships. For examply, once the Wife of Bath finishes her prologue and story, nearly everyone that follows somehow references her or begs her pardon. Various characters are given opportunity to air their grievances (or insults) against the other, and then are forced to hear the other side. Normally, most of these people would not be seen interacting with one another, but here they all come under the "Host's roof and rules"--even as they journey.
This relates to something R. Kevin Seasoltz suggests as a goal of a church community: "The pilgrims leave their familiar lives behind and join for a time an egalitarian community on a liminal journey toward a sacred space or place. Following their journey, ...the pilgrims reenter society as new persons who have been changed by the experience" (A Sense of the Sacred, p. 73). Think of going to a youth or women's gathering, to a Promise Keepers' event, a mission trip, or the 3-Day Breast Cancer Walk. Besides the stated social goal/destination of these events, the real "agents of change" for each individual are the friends and strangers with whom we enteract along the way or during the event.
Seasoltz goes on, "[Similarly,] a sacred space [like a church building or sanctuary] puts people in a place that is 'bewixt and between'; it is distinct from the secular spaces that people occupy most of their lives, but it is not the final resting place where people hope to find their lasting home. While in the sacred space they leave behind the structures that often pit them against one another...Christians are gathered for penitential purposes, to acknowledge their need for the saving presence of God, and to be transformed so that they might be able to live in the secular structures of society in a way that is consonant with their calling to be faithful disciples of God and brothers and sisters to one another in Christ and through the power of the Holy Spirit" (ibid.).
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