It is a bit dangerous for a white male to write an entry reflecting on the "Long and Winding Road" of RCA Women's Ministries (article by Christina Van Eyl in the June 2009 Church Herald, pages 15-18), but here it goes.
I have been in the RCA my entire life (43 years), being raised in a home dominated by women (four sisters, no brothers). Together with my mother, both as children and now as adults, these five women have been and are very active in their local churches (two sisters are now Baptists, two are in RCA congregations, and my mother has also served as an elder in her RCA congregation). They have all taken various leadership roles, whether in ordained capacity or non-ordained lay leadership.
I have also served on staff in three RCA congregations (one as seminary intern, two as minister of Word and Sacrament). Each of these churches have women vibrantly involved in ministry - some as elders and deacons, some on staff, and many more in a multitude of ministries. And, each of these congregations witnessed the decline of official RCWM involvement, even as the churches grew and as women were increasingly involved in all levels of ministry. In each case the reasons were a little varied. Sometimes it was because a new generation of women's lives did not fit the older RCWM model of circles, with more formal gatherings and traditions.
But sometimes it was as much to do with the focus of RCWM's emphasis. What was RCWM's goal? My mother, for example, observed her perception of the RCWM's national body as mostly concerned about women in leadership roles. Even though she would eventually serve as an elder, the emphasis seemed to her out of touch with where most of her peers were living life. They weren't necessarily opposed to women in leadership. They just weren't interested in making it a focal point of women's ministries. The article in the Herald seems to confirm this focus. That focus is a good and noble goal, but it is not necessarily likely to be attractive to all women as the focus of their women's ministries in the local church.
Just because the national RCA denomination does not have a stated program for women does not mean that women are not active in the local church. In our own congregation, there are a number of women involved in leadership (and we can do more, certainly). But just as importantly, the women are vibrantly involved in varieties of groups and ministries: three bi-weekly English Bible study groups, one weekly Spanish Bible study group, a bi-lingual knitting ministry, a bi-monthly quilting group, creative memory group, and, yes, one monthly Bible study that carries on remarkably like the former "circles." There are many more women involved today than 10 years ago under the last days of RCWM. Their own sense of missional involvement continues with joy. It looks different, but the fruits are nonetheless present.
I do look forward to Synod's discussion of the future of coordinated work of women's ministry in the denomination. I wonder, too, what others have observed over the last two decades. Specifically, what should be the purpose of coordinated women's ministry in the denomination?