Hanging out with WELCA

This past Saturday, I was invited to lead a bible study at the regional WELCA conference.  WELCA, or Women of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is the national women's organization for the denomination.  There are WELCA groups at many local churches which then gather once a year in regional conferences (for us is it two counties in Connecticut) then biannually at a synod level and triannually in a national conference. 

I'm not all that familiar with WELCA, Bethlehem does not currently have a WELCA group, and I have never gotten too involved with a WELCA group mainly because of the age gap.  They are an aging group, I was the youngest at both this last conference and the one in the fall of 08 by at least a decade, and the average age at both conferences is probably in the late 60's if not older.  The WELCA group at my internship congregation met at 1pm on a Tuesday, they were mainly "the greatest generation" and they couldn't figure out why baby boomers and gen x'ers weren't able to attend.  And they got frustrated with a group of baby boomer women who met separately who did not want to be an official WELCA group.  And this coming fall is the first time that the New England Synod Biannual WELCA conference will not start on a Thursday but instead Friday so that working women and stay at home moms will not have to greatly rearrange their schedule in order to attend.

So not only is the group aging, they also do not relate well with young women mainly due to scheduling.  But lets also face it, it is odd to hang out with a bunch of people who are your parents age or older.  Now I have quiet a few female friends who are in their 50's & 60's, however if they all start talking about menopause I have nothing to contribute or if they start referencing TV shows from their childhood or political figures or events that occurred before I was born, it can become awkward. 

So I really don't know how to have WELCA reach out to younger women other than for the groups at the congregational level encouraging younger women (boomers, gen x'ers and even millennials) to start their own groups which allow them to do ministry as a group of women, whether they join the national organization or not.  

However I also love WELCA because I owe credit to WELCA for my call at Bethlehem. Briefly, in fall of '08 I was asked by my seminary to attend the biannual New England Synod WELCA conference to represent the seminary.  Most of the weekend I sat in a back room and needle-pointed but on the last day of the conference I weaseled my way into making a brief remarks to the gathering at the beginning of the business meeting.  During these remarks I mentioned that I was living in New Haven and awaiting a call. Aftwerward two women approached me to get my contact information to be a supply preacher.  Well I never heard from one of the women, but the other is a member of Bethlehem.  She then brought my info to the congregational council of Bethlehem, who then contacted me to supply preach, and then they contacted the synod office to explore a call option.

So I love WELCA for that, and I also think that WELCA, especially at local churches, do a lot of good.  They often raise money and goods for local charities, they hold dinners or breakfasts for social events for the congregation along with many other events that I can't begin to list since again I really am not all that familiar with WELCA. 

However I wanted to talk about the conference this last weekend.  It really was a nice day.  The theme for the day was "Come to the Waters."  Another female pastor lead a wonderful worship service and preached about love being one of the things that we need to survive.  I lead a bible study on Isaiah 55 which ended up being more about food than water.  And a woman did a great presentation as Katie Luther, Martin Luther's wife.  She dressed as Katie and told her life story from childhood to the death of Martin.  Katie Luther was nun who broke away from the Catholic church to follow Luther's teachings and she became a wonderful support to Martin during the reformation.  While she was never an actual pastor, she was in a lot of ways the first female Lutheran pastor.  It really was a nice day and I hope to continue to be involved in WELCA events in the future and maybe can help get some other younger women involved.