The illustration in the children’s story book showed a wagon with three flower pots. My three-year old grandson counted four. I asked him to count them again. “I don’t need to, Grandma,” he said. “I know there’s space in the wagon for four.”
I wonder what story he would have imagined if I had pursued his answer. I also wonder what the future story will be for church women’s organizations, such as Saskatchewan Women in Mission (SWM), as we make the transition to living in an “open space” in our wagon.
Organized in 1943, SWM held its final event, the women’s retreat, last fall (see Nov. 9, 2015 issue, page 16) and is revoking its charitable status. Mennonite Church Saskatchewan (MC Sask) will forward donations from still-active women’s groups, if requested, to ongoing projects such as Mennonite Women Canada’s Opportunities for Giving, Bible study guides, church camps or specific missionaries. A women’s ministry representative has been created within MC Sask to nurture women’s connections, especially through retreats. Meanwhile, volunteers will plan the 2016 retreat.
Reflecting on this transition, Ruth Quiring Heppner (last treasurer of SWM), noted, “as we move on, let’s not get weary in doing good, for it is in serving others that we are blessed.”
Many congregational women’s groups are also in transition as their numbers decline. Disbanding, even reducing activities, are difficult choices. However, if groups are unable to do God’s shalom work, their desire is that others—women and men—will use their gifts and energy for that purpose.
On a personal level, I remember the wooden-handled knitting bag that my mother took to every Naehverein (sewing circle). There women would gather to knit, embroider or crochet articles for their mission sales to support missionaries and local needs, while enjoying each other’s fellowship.
When my husband and I settled in Rabbit Lake, Sask., and again, as Mennonite Central Committee workers in Jos, Nigeria, I happily joined women’s groups, because singing, studying the Bible and making blankets together were, and still are, meaningful activities. Later, as Christian feminism, women theologians and spiritual leaders, helped to shape my faith, it remained important to me to belong to a denominational body that nurtured women’s gifts and skills for leadership and service.
For my daughters, who live in large cities with their young families, friendships with other women continue to be vital as they interact as playground moms, neighbours, book club members and at church. Nurturing spiritual growth, environmental care, community building and openness to others are important aspects of their faith, even though their activities are different.
As times change, it is a significant task to stop to reflect on and celebrate the work and witness of the past, to learn from and be thankful for older women. The familiar “flower pots” don’t need to be tossed out nor should they be held in tightly-clenched hands. With patient pauses can come fresh courage and a renewed reliance on God’s Spirit to explore the opportunities created by that open space in the wagon.
Such opportunities are God’s gift to us, encouraging us to imagine and explore fresh approaches to traditional priorities, consider timely responses to contemporary issues, or work with expanded relationships. New questions, interests and insights may change the story entirely, but we can be confident that the gospel of Jesus Christ is always new and life-giving, with the potential to change humanity’s story.
Such explorations are an ongoing task which, according to 1 Corinthians 13, must be undergirded and permeated by God’s gracious and forgiving love, in all we do, past, present and future. Unless we do that, all our efforts are bankrupt and we’ll sound like clanging cymbals or noisy gongs.
However, if we “trust steadily in God, hope unswervingly and love extravagantly” as Eugene Peterson puts it, we, like my grandson, may come to know that there’s plenty of space in the wagon for many more pots of flowers to bloom in the future!
Naomi Unger lives in Rabbit Lake, Sask., with her husband, Don. She is a retired lay pastor and served on the program committee of SWM for six years.
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