Skip to Main Content
Women of the ELCA
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Tools For Leaders
  • Publications
  • Daily Grace
  • Contact
  • Ministry & Action
    • Discipleship
    • Justice
      • Human Trafficking
      • Racial Justice Advocacy
      • Racial Justice Advocacy Network resources
      • Domestic Violence
    • Membership
    • Stewardship
      • Thankofferings
      • Faithful Friends
      • Katie’s Fund
      • Gift Planning
    • Special Initiatives
      • Raising Up Healthy Women & Girls
      • Dear Friend in Christ
    • Scholarships
      • Lutheran laywomen
      • Lutheran Ordained Ministry
  • Resources
  • Blog
  • Events
  • About
    • History
    • Executive Board
    • Staff
    • Get Involved
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Tools For Leaders
  • Publications
  • Daily Grace
  • Contact
« Back to All Daily Grace

Our ancestors in faith

3.1.2014
|
Daily Grace

At the turn of the 20th century, many men considered the formation of church women’s societies a new, radical, and even dangerous idea. Whispers persisted that these groups actually served as a cover to promote “woman’s rights propaganda.” When such organizations did manage to form, the congregation’s pastor usually attended the meetings and led the program. After all, worried one alarmed pastor, if women were left to their own devices, “Who knows what they will pray for?”

These women are our ancestors in faith. Without their determination to organize into societies—often in the face of opposition from those they loved best—the church would not have been planted overseas or in the cities and towns that sprang up across the country in the early 20th century. We owe a great debt of thanks to our grandmothers and great-grandmothers and the countless other women whose stories we may never fully know.

This message is adapted from “Threads in Women’s Hands” written by Susan Wilds McArver in the January/February 2005 issue of Lutheran Woman Today (now Gather) magazine. Today we kick off Women’s History Month.

Share

Sign up for Daily Grace

Daily Grace is an on-the-go companion for your journey, offering a faith reflection every day. Encounter God’s extravagant, boundless and often surprising grace by signing up for a daily email message. You can also download the newly updated app for your IOS and Android devices.

Women of the ELCA
21h
Women of the ELCA
@WomenoftheELCA

#ArchivesHashtagParty Another predecessor organizations. The General Council - Women's Missionary Society - Executive Committee - General Convention, Trinity Lutheran Chapel, Lancaster, Pennsylvania, 1911. #WeAreWELCA #ActBoldly From ELCA Archives. @ELCALutherans pic.twitter.com/isggyQyVuy

Expand reply reply retweet retweet favorite favorite
Back to home

8765 W. Higgins Rd.

Chicago IL 60631

800-638-3522

[email protected]

Stay In Touch

Sign up for the WELCA Newsletter

Explore WELCA
  • Ministry & Action
  • Daily Grace
  • Resource Library
  • Events
  • Blog
  • News
  • About WELCA
  • Tools For Leaders
  • Publications
  • Donate
  • Shop
  • Photos
Explore Publications

Bold Cafe

A Lutheran perspective for women of Christian faith or any woman who is interested in how faith relates to the issues facing women today.

Gather Magazine

A mix of articles, theological reflections, devotions and stories of comfort and challenge that help readers grow in faith.

Cafe Podcast

Subscribe to our podcast:

Click to subscribe

© Copyright 2022 Women of the ELCA. All Rights Reserved.
  • Privacy Policy
  • Sitemap
  • Contact
  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • YouTube
© Copyright 2022 Women of the ELCA. All Rights Reserved.