By MC USA staff
Artwork by Dona Park.
Women in Leadership (WiL), a ministry of Mennonite Church USA (MC USA), will gather via teleconference for a time of worship and encouragement on Saturday, Nov. 21, 2020 at 7 p.m. ET / 6 p.m. CT / 5 p.m. MT / 4 p.m. PT. The worship service is the final event in the “What We Need Is Here” webinar series, an online alternative to WiL’s in-person Women Doing Theology conference. Attendees are asked to register here by Nov. 19.
“We felt that it was important to end our online series in worship,” said Sue Park-Hur, denominational minister for Transformative Peacemaking. “This is a time to come together to rest and be renewed in God’s strength for the healing work before us as a church and as a nation.”
The one-hour service will include a message, worship, prayer and anointing. It is suggested that participants have a small amount of olive oil on hand for self-anointing.
Rev. Addie Banks, founder and CEO of the Groundswell Group and elder at Manhattan (New York) Mennonite Fellowship, will deliver the message based on 2 Corinthians 4:7-11.
Hyacinth Stevens, pastor of King of Glory Tabernacle in the Bronx and New York City program coordinator for Mennonite Central Committee East Coast, will lead the time of worship.
Mariann Reardon, minister of congregational care at Pasadena (California) Mennonite Church and a fine artist, will lead the songs.
“There is hope and healing in our togetherness,” said Stevens. “Let’s join and be refreshed, knowing all that we need is here!”
“I’m looking forward to a time of presence, where we can be together across time zones and spaces, gathered as sisters under our Mother’s wing,” said Reardon.
Women in Leadership is a Peacebuilding ministry of Mennonite Church USA that works to dismantle patriarchal systems in Mennonite Church USA. WiL focuses on 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. mennoniteusa.org/ministry/church-vitality/women-in-leadership/
Mennonite Church USA is the largest Mennonite denomination in the United States with 16 conferences, approximately 530 congregations and 62,000 members. An Anabaptist Christian denomination, MC USA is part of Mennonite World Conference, a global faith family that includes churches in 58 countries. It has offices in Elkhart, Indiana and Newton, Kansas. mennoniteUSA.org
But we have this treasure in jars of clay to show that this all-surpassing power is from God and not from us. We are hard pressed on every side, but not crushed; perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not abandoned; struck down, but not destroyed. We always carry around in our body the death of Jesus, so that the life of Jesus may also be revealed in our body. For we who are alive are always being given over to death for Jesus’ sake, so that his life may also be revealed in our mortal body.
2 Corinthians 4:7-11