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Women 'come to the waters'

Women of the ELCA triennial participants hear calls for bold action

Nadine Robinson, a member of St. Mark Lutheran Church, San Francisco, sat in a comfortable chair at the Women of the ELCA Seventh Triennial Gathering, July 10-13 in Salt Lake City, knitting a soft yellow cap to benefit a premature baby.

Under the gathering theme, “Come to the Waters,” dozens of women worked at a sewing cottage and eight “docks” knitting caps, crocheting scarves, quilting blankets, assembling health or school kits, exploring what it’s like to be a woman without access to running water and more. “The Landing” offered women from around the world the opportunity to host hour-long, small-forum discussions.

“God doesn’t call us to survival,” Elizabeth Eaton, bishop of the Northeastern Ohio Synod, preaches at the closing worship service of the Women of the ELCA Seventh Triennial Gathering in Salt Lake City.

During worship, Bible study and plenary sessions, leaders urged the more than 2,000 women in attendance to take bold action. Rounding out the event were 23 workshops, including ones for teenagers, and a run/walk/roll event that drew 400 participants. (See also "Women of the ELCA lead the way.")

Reclaim religion

Joan Chittister, a Roman Catholic nun and co-chair of the Global Peace Initiative of Women, gave a keynote speech. She asked women to reclaim religion from “a world that calls itself religious but functions as if it were not.”

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