102 Women Attend a Virtual Global Orientation for Newly Elected Leaders

GC WM Provides an Orientation to Projects and Resources

GC Women’s Ministries Department held a virtual global orientation for newly elected Women’s Ministries (WM) leaders. There were 102 women at the second worldwide orientation for newly elected leaders. The previous orientation had an attendance of 69. “I Will Go Reach My World” is the theme for WM. Orientation attendees received a brief overview of the history of the WM Department, presented by Galina Stele, beginning with Sarepta M. Henry. More WM history can be found here.

Participants were introduced to the three current objectives of GC WM: nurture, empower, and outreach. Most of the resources available on the WM website center around these objectives. Two of the projects that GC WM leads are the Women’s Ministries Leadership Certification Program and Scholarshipping Our Sisters (SOS). Since 1991, more than 1.4 million dollars in scholarships were awarded through the SOS program.

Participants also learned that there are six issues that WM seeks to address for women: poverty, health, illiteracy, workload, abuse/violence, and lack of mentoring/training. Various resources addressing these issues are available on the WM website. One recent resource, introduced by Karen Holford, Flourish, was developed to support women’s mental health and well-being. Other resources introduced include resources for young women and teens. All of these are available on the WM website.

Racquel Arrais introduced attendees to the enditnow® initiative developed by WM in 2009. This initiative expanded into a collaboration between several GC departments not only to bring awareness to violence against women but also children and every age group. To increase participation in this initiative, the fourth Sabbath of August is a day of special emphasis.

The WM Department also promotes two other special days: the International Women’s Day of Prayer and Women’s Ministries Emphasis Day. For all of these days, WM developed special sermons, children’s stories, and seminars with slideshows available on the WM website. WM leaders can find a variety of useful resources and programs to share with their churches and communities.

Elected WM leaders and the division leaders present were encouraged to inform church leaders, equip them with resources, prepare for outreach, mobilize churches, speak out on all platforms, and to campaign on social media. Women’s ministry requires support and participation. Orientation attendees were encouraged to seek resources and ask questions. Many participants commented that they found the orientation useful and informative.