Women Walking Together in Faith - April 2018 - Tending and befriending

After a busy summer and fall, I am trying to catch up with posting several articles that appeared in the Canadian Mennonite.  My apologies for not having kept up-to-date!     ~ Liz Koop

Below are excerpts from Elsie Rempel's article which appeared in the Canadian Mennonite issue dated April 9, 2018.  The complete article can be found at 

https://www.canadianmennonite.org/stories/tending-and-befriending.

Elsie is Mennonite Women Manitoba's Interim Chair and the MW Canada Secretary.

From time immemorial—as the biblical story of Ruth and Naomi illustrates—developing friendships and tending relationships have often been a woman’s “go-to, our have-to, our live for,” especially during times of stress. In the current season of stressful change within Mennonite Church Canada, tending relationships may be especially important to the health of the church. Drawing on women’s gifts for making connections can help us thrive rather than divide or shrivel.

. . . . . . 

As our regional churches take on increased responsibility and ownership of church life, we have new opportunities to use, recognize, celebrate and reap the benefits of this newly named gift.

Mennonite Women Canada and its regional groups want this “tending and befriending” to happen, and we do this by having day-or weekend-long inspirational retreats. For example, MW Manitoba’s annual spring retreat takes place on April 28, 2018, at Charleswood Mennonite Church in Winnipeg, with guest speaker Moira Somers addressing the theme of “Resilience.”    Tend and befriend!

Members of the Mennonite Women Manitoba working group, from left to right: 
Laura Funk, Elsie Rempel, Larissa Pahl, Elsie Wiebe, and Kathy Giesbrecht. 
(Photo courtesy of Elsie Rempel)

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CONNECTIONS FALL 2018

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Connections

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Fall issue is now available!

CLICK HERE

Elsie Rempel enjoying the fall colours!

Is Women's Day still relevant?

Participants at the 2017 B.C. Women's Day gather outside to chat.  Changing
times and perspectives on women's ministry have put the future of the
annual gathering in doubt.  (photo by Amy Dueckman)

Mennonite women in British Columbia have been coming together each spring since 1939 for Women’s Inspirational Day, a time of spiritual encouragement and fellowship. But as the planned date of May 6, 2018, approached, still without a coordinator or location for the event, some were questioning whether the annual spring gathering has seen its day.

Waltrude Gortzen, who has acted as Mennonite Church BC’s women’s coordinator for 10 years, stepped down earlier this year. She had been the driving force behind keeping this annual event going, along with the fall women’s retreat.  “I’ve been asking and asking for new members, and nobody has stepped up,” says Gortzen. “This year I said, ‘I’m done.’ I’ve been here 10 years. If it falls through the cracks, it falls through the cracks.”

Not wishing to see the event die after almost 79 years, Janette Thiessen, MC BC’s office administrator, took up the reins herself. She arranged for Elsie Rempel of Winnipeg to speak, found a caterer and contacted four churches to host before getting a successful response from Langley Mennonite Fellowship. She also dropped the word “inspirational” from the event, instead promoting it as simply Women’s Day.

“I couldn’t see it not happening,” says Thiessen. “I’m of the era that says I will keep something going until it doesn’t seem practical anymore. Are we flogging a dead horse? When 100 women show up, I think it’s worth it.”

Times have changed since 1939, when BC Women in Mission (BCWM) held its first Inspirational Day. At that event, the offering taken to be used for purchasing sewing materials totalled $2. Women of the day were gathering regularly to sew materials for overseas relief and missions projects. Modern women who do not sew, who are employed outside the home, or who have other social activities in their lives, no longer find such a model relevant.

Gortzen says the planning committees don’t know how to reach the younger women. “Younger generations are plain not interested; they have no clue to our history,” she says. “They say ‘It’s not for me, it’s for the older women.’ Or they say, ‘We have our care group, why do we need anything else?’ ”

Thiessen believes there is a tension in trying to find topics and speakers to cater to younger women and satisfying older women who have been coming faithfully for many years. She believes that “younger women aren’t so much into conferences. They’re more into their blogs and other things.”

Sue Kehler, who was BCWM president from 1994 to ’96, recalls planning and participating in many Inspirational Days. Now in her 80s, she still enjoys attending. She recalls when Women’s Day was up to an entire day or a day-and-a-half long.  “I believe strongly that women should certainly have a voice in the church and do believe [the Women’s Days] have been serving a purpose,” says Kehler. “It is true that we are struggling, and I think the biggest reason is that younger [women] want to do things together with their husbands.”

So far, the fall women’s retreat at Camp Squeah has been well attended, but it too is dependent on a volunteer committee. Two committee members are ending their terms this year, so the future of the retreat remains to be seen.   

“If we don’t have a women’s coordinator, I don’t know that we can continue,” says Thiessen.

This article was written by Amy Dueckman (BC Correspondent for the Canadian Mennonite) and appeared in the April 23, 2018 edition.

Vineland Women host Carol Penner

Eighteen women gathered on Monday afternoon for the opening session of the 2018-19 Women's Bible Study at Vineland United Mennonite Church.  The leaders, Adelaide Fransen and Mary Eleanor Penner, had invited Carol Penner, the writer of the 2018 Bible Study Guide "Every Day Worship" to join us.  We were delighted and honoured that she accepted.   Carol's warm and friendly smiles cheered up everyone on this dreary fall afternoon and we enjoyed hearing how she came to be the writer and how she decided on the theme for this devotional booklet.  After autographing our copies of "Every Day Worship" Carol led us through the first lesson and we enjoyed visiting over coffee, tea and refreshments.  Our group meets every other Monday afternoon through the fall and winter.  Carol mentioned that she would be delighted to meet with other groups in the area who are using her material.  She can be reached at c2penner@uwaterloo.ca

Carol autographing our copies of "Every Day Worship"

Carol has a blog with worship resources at http://carolpenner.typepad.com/leadinginworship/

Circles of Sisterhood --- A Book Review

Circles of Sisterhood

A History of Mission, Service and Fellowship in Mennonite Women's Organizations

by Anita Hooley Yoder 

Herald Press, 2017, 315 pages

Reviewed by Barb Draper

Editorial Assistant to Canadian Mennonite

The golden age of Mennonite women’s organizations in Canada and the United States came in the years between 1940 and 1970, writes Anita Hooley Yoder in Circles of Sisterhood. In both the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church, women were highly involved, getting together to work at sewing projects on a monthly basis. Many congregations had several groups arranged by age, including girls.

The motivation for all this activity was mission and service, but fellowship was always an important factor. Like in other denominations, Mennonite women first organized to support missionaries overseas and to help the poor in North American cities, but as needs increased during the Second World War, they ramped up their output. When relief sales were organized, it was the women’s groups that provided many of the donated items and a significant part of the labour.

The earliest recorded Mennonite women’s sewing circle in Canada began meeting in Gretna, Man., sometime before 1900, but it was many years before Manitoba had a provincial organization. The (Old) Mennonite Church congregations in Ontario were slower to get started, but sewing circles expanded rapidly in 1917, when a women’s missionary society was organized within the denomination.

The number of women’s groups declined through the late 1960s and ’70s. Sewing remained important for some groups, but others began to emphasize Bible study and women’s spirituality. Women’s retreats became popular activities, and the broader organizations began to support women studying theology.

Mennonite Women Canada became an organization separate from the U.S. in 2000. While sewing —mostly quilts and comforters—continues today, the churchwide women’s organization tends to put its focus on spiritual growth and fellowship.

While Hooley Yoder does give an overview of all the work done by women, she devotes most of the book to descriptions of the changing role of women. In the early years, some groups had to have a man open their meetings with prayer, but over time women developed leadership skills that they came to use in other church settings. The author writes from a feminist perspective, describing in detail the occasions when male church leaders seemed to disrespect the work of women.

As a person who sews, I wish the book had more detail about the amazing amount of material aid that must have been provided by Mennonite women’s groups over the years. The author tends to gloss over the clothing that was sewn and mended, the quilts and blankets made, the meals catered and the many other ways women carried on the work of the church. She gives extensive coverage to the process of women acquiring recognized leadership positions in the church, but her tone towards those who continue to get together to sew is almost condescending.

The book ends with an honest reflection on the future of Mennonite women’s groups. Hooley Yoder is not confident that they will continue but recognizes that they are striving to be relevant for the women of today.

***This book review appeared in the Canadian Mennonite February 12, 2018 issue.