Last month at the Oscars, Sarah Polley won the Adapted Screenplay Academy Award [Oscar] for Women Talking, a film based on Canadian Mennonite, Miriam Toew's novel of the same name. No doubt the power of community among women and listening to women’s voices as they process very difficult decisions and situations connected to many people in the Academy who voted to recognize this achievement in screenplay adaptation. Women Talking centers around #metoo type trauma and truth-telling in a Mennonite community. Throughout the story, based somewhat on true events, the women are constantly looking to the future and asking in their own ways, “what do we do now?”

I imagine Mother Mary sitting with friends after Jesus is arrested, then again after Jesus is executed asking the same question, “what do we do now?” In moments of extreme emotional pain, Mary probably gathered with her sisters, friends, cousins, neighbors around tables of whatever the 1st century equivalent to casseroles and cold cuts was, processing their horror as the special little boy they had raised as a community was in danger, then died.

What do we do now?

“The women who had come with Jesus from Galilee followed, and they saw the tomb and how his body was laid. Then they returned, and prepared spices and ointments. On the sabbath they rested according to the commandment. But on the first day of the week, at early dawn, they came to the tomb, taking the spices that they had prepared.
 
They found the stone rolled away from the tomb, but when they went in, they did not find the body. While they were perplexed about this, suddenly two men in dazzling clothes stood beside them. The women were terrified and bowed their faces to the ground, but the men said to them, ‘Why do you look for the living among the dead? He is not here, but has risen. Remember how he told you, while he was still in Galilee, that the Son of Man must be handed over to sinners, and be crucified, and on the third day rise again.'

Then they remembered his words, and returning from the tomb, they told all this to the eleven and to all the rest. Now it was Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Mary the mother of James, and the other women with them who told this to the apostles.”

Luke 23:55-24:10, NRSV

Mary and her community of women respond by coming together and engaging in ritual, listening carefully, and talking about what they found to be true. This Easter Monday and spring season you, me, and Christian women everywhere are invited to do likewise.

Who in your circles are part of your sisterhood? What rituals and traditions center you, especially when times are tough? Who do you need to listen carefully to? What truth-telling are you called to this Easter season?

What do you do now?


This Grapevine devotional was written by Erica Lea-Simka,
MWUSA Southwest Regional Representative
Together with Creation
Once risen—hallelujah!—Jesus stayed on Earth before joining the Creator. First mistaken as the gardener by Mary Magdalene, he stays for forty days healing and revealing his relationship to God. Let us follow Jesus and be found in gardens and tending to the great connection with all life.

Earth Day is April 22. In anticipation, MWUSA is thinking about how to live with a lower impact. We're learning from the Mennonite Creation Care Network and the Anabaptist Climate Collaborative. We're spreading the word about the Youth + Young Adult Climate Summit, July 7, 2023, at the Kansas City (Missouri) Convention Center. We're reading In Deep Waters: Spiritual Care for Young People in a Climate Crisis by the Summit's keynote speaker, Talitha Amadea Aho and Living Resistance: An Indigenous Vision for Seeking Wholeness Every Day by Kaitlin Curtice. Join us by interacting on our social media channels to build community around creation care.
On her social media, Sister Kaitlin posts that, “We are all connected by a string. Whatever we do with our bodies, with our hearts, travels across that connection and finds its way to someone else. We do not get to escape each other. This is kinship.” Let us count creation in our circles of sisterhood. As we see her unfurl the miracle of new life in the spring flowers and trees around us, let us consider our connection holy.
Together with Each Other
A dozen women got together the first of this month for a film discussion of Women Talking. One participant said,

"I found this time both powerful and intimate." 

A particularly powerful moment came when Proverbs 28:13 was shared. We talked about the women we meet with, the realities of closed communities, our compassion for victims, the elements of forgiveness, and many different perspectives and experiences of abuse. We brought a lot to light and it felt good to have the brave and safe space to reveal our hearts and minds to each other.

Another participant from that day suggested we gather again around a particular book or historical perspectives of women in the Bible and how it shapes Mennonite women today. What do you want to talk about? Click the button below to propose another topic of conversation, and we'll gather via Zoom with mugs of our favorite drink to share what's on our minds and listen with our hearts. 
MWUSA Donors enable women to come together in hope, healing and solidarity. We circle around the Bible, guided by women authored Study Guides. We are part of an international gathering of women who reflect on self care and each other care through Sister Care. Pooling our support for Scholarships makes new spiritual leadership possible every semester. God moves in our Conversations and Moves Us to places of growth. Every time we come together in person and online we make ever more links so our gifts and networks can bind the world in God's love.

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