July 3, 2024

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Inspired by a recent Anabaptist World article about a new Smithsonian quilt exhibit, Erica (MW USA Southwest Regional Representative) and I decided to meet up there when she was in town for the Young Clergy Women International conference. We marveled over the exquisite quilts, shared stories about the talented quilters in our lives, and let the exhibit captions drive a conversation of both learning and identifying what we would expand upon had we written them.

Then we sat down on a bench at the entrance of the exhibit, realizing we had picked more than just an apropos meet-up spot. We felt inspired to nurture sisterhood! We mused about the various ways Mennonite, Amish, and Anabaptists describe our differences and how lovely it is to share the similarities that make us a particular community. And on the quilt-loving characteristic of our community, we determined women within driving distance of the capital should make a plan to gather your sisters and come see the exhibit.

For others, let's engage with this textile tradition too. “Visit” a bit of the exhibit through our pictures here and find the online exhibit here. One thing you'll notice is that many of the quilt's creators are unnamed. Can you help fill in the blanks? Email us about your way into quilting or about the quilters you admire. The exhibit focuses on the paradox of quilting as a utilitarian practice and an aesthetic endeavor. Do quilts carefully mounted in a museum change or reinforce your lived experience with them? Is it too different from assembling fabric over time in a sewing room, too formal compared to adorning the beds of your childhood home, or just another version of preservation on a quilt rack in the living room after the latest relief sale?

To further explore, we invite you into a shared reflection from right where you are. Let's go get the quilts we treasure and hold them in our hands. Then, come back here and read through the following guide for a meditative reflection.

Visio divina is a prayer practice prompted by visual art, compared to lectio divina which is prompted by written text. You’re invited to sit with a quilt prayerfully as a tactus divina practice prompted by the touch and feel of the item in your hands.

Start by breathing deeply and trusting that God, our guide, is within you at this very moment.

Hold the quilt in your hands. Notice how each part comes together to make a greater whole. Consider how God is calling you to be both uniquely you, and also part of community.

Feel the weight of the quilt in your hands or lap. Breathe deeply for about a minute. 

Feel the outer edges of the quilt and ask God to smooth out your rough edges, your places of needed growth.

Feel the different fabrics that come together in harmony and ask God to bring together your various roles and responsibilities as you seek balanced wholeness.

God, thank you for stitching me together before I was born. Show me today and each day opportunities to reach for the hem of Jesus’ garment as I seek healing from all that ails my weary soul.

Thanks to Erica for writing this comforting tactus divina exercise. If any of this reflection, any of the questions or images here, or your visit to the exhibit or one like it prompts your story, please share it! We feature longer commentaries in our Women's Voices blog and are always delighted to share a sentence or two to a paragraph on our social media feed. Send in pictures of your quilts or share about another example of skill rooted in Anabaptist community. Mennonite Women USA loves being stitched together in beautiful community with you!

Suzanne Ayer Lay

MW USA Communications Director

We gathered around the theme of mental health awareness for our last Coffee and Conversation, led by a panel of women with diverse experiences. 

Jamie is a certified peer support worker who has been struggling with schizophrenia since she was 15. She said that she has always been very open talking about her illness and started advocating as soon as she got her diagnosis. "I found a purpose in supporting others," she explained. "I'm very invested in people and just being supportive of people." In describing what works for support, Jamie said mental illness is not an individual thing. At the very least, it is a family thing, but families are often overlooked and not included in the treatment. That must change.

Another panelist, Joanne, had a loved one living with mental illness. Joanne, who works in ministry, thinks we have a lot to learn from folks who have spent much of their time being cast out of society. She asked, "Can you imagine what it's like to experience [severe mental health symptoms] and reach out to have your pastor find you a nuisance?" Just like we would accompany someone on their journey with a broken leg, so should we accompany a person with a mental illness. As ministers in our circles of care, we can extend the same care for invisible challenges that we more instinctively extend for visible ones. We can inform ourselves by learning ways to lend support, all the while caring for ourselves by holding healthy boundaries.

Deborah, a panelist currently working as a therapist, lifted up our very gathering: “It’s really beautiful when we take our wounds, our stuff, and what we've been given, and we turn it into wisdom to help others.” Deborah has also been on the other side of therapy to overcome early trauma. She went on to say, "Talk therapy is beautiful, and in many ways, it's a gift we've been given as women: To have someone say, I see you. I hear you. You have a right to your feelings." Deborah encouraged each of us to not journey alone. Getting help takes courage, but it also breaks stigma.

A participant enriched the discussion by describing a game changing mental health first-aid course she took. She already knew how to respond with first aid for physical injuries, but would shy away from a mental health challenge, because that seemed reserved for experts. After the course, the same situation is not nearly as scary. “We are persons first and then we are the diagnosis, whether it's someone bleeding or in trauma,” she said, highly recommending the training. 

Jamie concluded the conversation with a crucial call to tell your story and enlist your church to be part of your family. MW USA was so grateful for this thought-provoking (and at times, heart-pounding) conversation. That's what Coffee and Conversation is: A place we can really dig into difficult topics so we can better know others, become inspired by new ways of thinking, and feel the support of a community of women who commit to gathering together. 

Join in for our next Coffee and Conversation about Disability Pride on Wednesday, July 24 at 6:30 pm Eastern/3:30 pm Pacific.

Led by a panel of Anabaptist women who are disability advocates, we'll talk about how we can better honor and celebrate each person's uniqueness to cultivate communities that better reflect and embrace all who are a part. 

Join us September 20-22 for spirit-filled worship, relaxation among women, trails to wander, and water to rest by. MW USA is delighted to be planning a time of connection and gathering for this year's Women's Retreat at Camp Friedenswald in Cassapolis, MI. It is a tradition of the Central District Conference, but it is open to ALL women.

You are invited to retreat into the wilderness and immerse yourself in sisterhood. Choosing Sisterhood is about celebrating the women in your life. We hope you'll bring your mother, grandmother, sister, daughter, or friend. Choosing Sisterhood is also about making a conscious choice to engage with women you don't know. Challenge yourself to invite a new friend, someone you want to get to know better. We will be honoring the various Sistering with photos and hand crafted frames. 

Nora Marleni Martínez de Linares is an International Women’s Fund (IWF) scholar studying at SEMILLA in Guatemala. She thanks you for your faithful collaboration through IWF.

This is the third installement of updates from a recent Movement of Anabaptist Women doing Theology from Latin America (MTAL) gathering in El Salvador where IWF participants set aside time to write to us about the impact of your IWF donations. A special thanks to Linda Shelly at Mennonite Mission Network for coordinating, translating, and delivering these notes to better connect us.

"Agradezco a Dios grandemente por ser fiel y caminar a nuestro lado, y a ustedes por ser fieles colaboradoras para engrandecer su Reino. Es de mucha alegría para mí, poder ser bendecida a través de la beca que se me ha brindado y así poder continuar con estos estudios que son de mucha bendición a mi vida, familia y ministerio. En cuanto a mis estudios con SEMILLA, culminé un Diplomado en paz y justicia y, en el mes de enero de 2023 comenzamos con la licenciatura via Zoom; siempre con las expectativas de aprender, redescubrir y acercarnos más al conocimiento de la palabra, compartirla y, hacerla práctica por medio de nuestras acciones y, vivir el evangelio siempre a la luz de Jesus. Paz y muchas bendiciones mis amadas hermanas."

"I thank God greatly for being faithful and walking by our side, and I thank you for being faithful collaborators for the growth of the kingdom of God. It is a great joy for me to be blessed through the scholarship that has been given to me and to be able to continue with these studies that are a great blessing for my life, family and ministry. As for my studies with SEMILLA, I completed a diploma in peace and justice, and in January 2023 we began the university level degree via Zoom; always with the expectations of learning, rediscovering and getting closer to the knowledge of the Word, to share it and make it practical through our actions and live the gospel always in the light of Jesus. Peace and many blessings my beloved sisters."

Don't forget to email us images of the worship visuals in your sanctuary! And look for our social media posts with this tag: #CelebratingWorshipVisuals. We are celebrating the diverse and creative ways we visually set the tone for worship!

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Being an MW USA donor makes a way for women to find their prophetic voice and find each other for embracing the whole world in God's mothering love. That is the love of one from whom we are born and the One in whose image we are created. It's the nurturing, embracing, exuberant love of aunties, mentors, daughters and dear friends. And where the world knows this love, people find unconditional belonging, satisfying joy, and lasting peace.

The ways of MW USA involve learning, supporting, listening, sharing, and caring. We learn with each other by gathering around women-authored Bible Study Guides. We support women across the world studying for spiritual leadership with annual IWF Scholarships. We Choose Sisterhood by listening to those who are different. We share our own story by engaging in Coffee and Conversation and writing for the Women's Voices blog. And we care for ourselves and each other through international Sister Care gatherings.

We love in these ways to make as many ways as possible for all to know God's love. Donating makes a way.

Mennonite Women USA

www.mennonitewomenusa.org

office@mwusa.org

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