Episcopal Church Women
Fall Gathering, St. Luke’s, Hot Springs
October 13, 2007
The Episcopal Church Women are continuing to work to find meaningful ways to strengthen our spiritual lives and develop our ministries. We have visited two congregations this year to assist them in reorganizing and rejuvenating their ECW organizations: St. Luke’s, North Little Rock, and St. John’s, Harrison. In addition, Janet Farmer, ECW President for Province 7, gave our ECW Board a presentation on how to help churches do this at our June board meeting.
A year ago Fall Gathering 2006 was held at Trinity Cathedral in Little Rock. Our featured speaker, Harriett Neer of St. Theodore’s, Bella Vista, gave a lively presentation of her experiences as National President of ECW, and illustrated her talk with a video of scenes from the 2006 Triennial Meeting. Fall Gathering closed with the traditional Eucharist with Bishop Maze and installation of new officers.
In the spring, the ECW Board sponsored “Dreams, a Pathway to the Soul,” led by the Reverend Susan Sims Smith, Canon for Special Ministries, at Camp Mitchell March 9-10. An introduction to dream interpretation, presented Friday evening, was followed by intermediate material on Saturday, ending in breakout groups where participants practiced decoding a dream. Eighty-nine men and women attended.
The third annual “Time for JOY”, a program designed for young women living stressful lives, was held at Camp Mitchell, April 27-29. This year’s featured speaker was the Reverend Canon Susan Sims Smith, who spoke on relationships. This retreat seeks to provide experiences and teach skills that affirm and encourage young women on their spiritual journey. After the weekend, older women in their home churches extend this work by providing a supportive framework for living out that mission.
Women’s Institute, our primary annual retreat, was held at Camp Mitchell June 1-3, featuring the Very Reverend Marilyn Engstrom, Dean of St. Matthew’s Cathedral in Laramie, Wyoming. Her presentation, “Living in the Light,” was the theme for Triennial Meeting 2006, which she served as Chaplain. Quiet Day, led by the Reverend Lorrie Slaymaker and Nancy Hornstein, M.D., a postulant for holy orders, was “God’s Dawning Light: Our Soul’s Awakening.” An exhibit of the artwork of Alice Lynn Greenwood of Fayetteville, enhanced the weekend and carried out the theme of “Living in the Light.”
The second annual “Women of Vision” retreat at Camp Mitchell, held September 14-16, was attended by 11 women from across the diocese. This newly revised scripturally based leadership training program sponsored by the national Episcopal Church Women, was led by certified Women of Vision trainers Sandra Smith, Jenny Jackson, and Linda Hamon.
A new Diocesan Altar Guild Manual, compiled by Juddie Wachtel, our Altar Guild Director, was distributed to all congregations at the Diocesan Convention in February. ECW members from across the diocese contributed to the manual, and the diocesan ECW organization supported the effort.
In February, Sandra Powers and I attended a meeting of the Province 7 ECW Executive Board in Houston, Texas. The province will sponsor a Spiritual Growth Gathering, “Desert Mothers: Spiritual Practices From Women of the Wilderness,” March 7-9, 2008, in Oklahoma City. Sandra, of Holy Trinity, Hot Springs Village, represents Province 7 on the National Board and is our Past President.
As communication is central to everything we do, we continually strive to expand our communication through our website, www.arkansasecw.org, and the increased use of email.
Respectfully submitted,
Millie Hillard, Diocesan President