Rev. Dr. Shannon Dycus (Photo by Mackenzie Miller, Anabaptist World)
“Sisters, we’ve been brainwashed,” said Rev. Dr. Shannon Dycus, interim president of Eastern Mennonite University, in her keynote address to 185 attendees at MC USA’s Women’s Summit, July 8, in Greensboro, North Carolina. She explained that women carry the weight of systems of oppression that measure their worth by labor and productivity. “There is a binary that tells us that we either need to be working like a machine, or we can rest and fear that we aren’t doing enough,” she said.
The event, hosted by MC USA’s Women in Leadership ministry, addressed this dichotomy by inviting participants to consider a radical way to think about rest – as not just a necessity, but as an act of defiance. This was reflected in the theme for the Summit: “Beholding it Together: Rest and Resistance”
“Rest is a portal to seeing ourselves more fully,” said Dycus, even while admitting that she struggles with “the grind,” the guilt and finding rest.
Dycus explored the importance of rest by highlighting the words and experiences of three women:
- Tricia Hersey, author, theologian and activist, who coined the term “rest as resistance,” upheld the tenet that our bodies are sites of liberation, an inclusive idea that means we all have what we need to rest, explained Dycus.
- Harriet Tubman, an abolitionist and social activist, woke up from a dream in 1862 chanting the phrase, “My people are free.” Dycus asked: “If Harriet Tubman could talk about freedom in the present tense while posters were hanging around the country marking her as a fugitive slave, then, why aren’t we leaning toward the possibility of our dreams to be bold, to be robust in this moment where anti-blackness, anti-immigration and state violence reign in our streets?” asked Dycus.
- Rosemarie Freeney Harding, organizer, teacher, social worker, and co-founder of Mennonite House, an early integrated community center in Atlanta, taught that resting together nurtures community. “What if we understood rest as the basic need that it is, and committed our buildings and our resources to meet this shared need?” Dycus asked.
“There is power in our bodies, power to rest, which becomes power to resist and heal, power to imagine and hope, power to change things as they are, if we close our eyes and rest,” she said. Dycus then mused that Mennonites don’t know what to do with this teaching. “Everything about being Mennonite means that, when there’s something wrong, we do something – we get up, we cook, we quilt, we pray and we start a committee, right?” she asked, which was acknowledged by a chorus of laughter.
Dycus then led the audience through a five-minute, meditative exercise. She exhorted them to rest to imagine new possibilities and closed with the lyrics from a lullaby from the Nap Ministry.
The Women’s Summit also included two panel discussions that explored the theme of Beholding — the act of seeing, being seen, and reclaiming power through storytelling. (Please read more about the panel discussions here.)
June Miller of Rockingham, Virginia, said, “To hear women vulnerably share about struggles and about the ways they overcame, empowering other women along the way, was nourishment to my soul. Thank you to the planning team who made it welcoming and inclusive of all.
In the afternoon, attendees participated in a fishbowl activity, a time of sharing and listening to each other, facilitated by Daniela Lazaro-Manalo and Katerina Gea.
Mindy Nolt of Lancaster performed an original song, titled “I will hold you up.”
The attendees then had an opportunity to create their own healing tea from their choices of lavender, chamomile or raspberry leaves and to share some spicy, brewed ginger tea.
The Women’s Summit closed with singing, prayer and a time of anointing, in which participants were blessed to return to their communities, renewed and empowered.
The Women in Leadership Steering Committee curated the day to nurture women’s leadership and presence in the church. It was the first in-person event hosted by Women in Leadership since the pandemic. The Steering Committee members are Abby Endashaw, Lynette McIntosh Madrigal, Daniela Lazaro-Manalo, Shannon Dycus, Katerina Gea, Sue Park-Hur, and Lorraine Stutzman Amstutz.
This event was made possible through the generous sponsorship of The Schowalter Foundation and the Fransen Family Foundation.
MC USA’s Women in Leadership works to dismantle patriarchal systems in MC USA by empowering women to live out the call of God on their lives, increase their capacities, and contribute their wisdom in congregations, area conferences, agencies and institutions.
MC USA is an Anabaptist Christian denomination, founded in 2002 by the merger of the Mennonite Church and the General Conference Mennonite Church. Members of this historic peace church seek to follow Jesus by rejecting violence and resisting injustice. MC USA’s Renewed Commitments state the following shared commitments among its diverse body of believers: to follow Jesus, witness to God’s peace and experience the transformation of the Holy Spirit. Mennoniteusa.org
Written by Cami Dager.