This year we are celebrating the 40th anniversary of RCWMS. Forty years! Amazing. Born of a spark of imagination, inspired by a conversation between RCWMS founder and leader, Jeanette Stokes, and her mentor, Helen Crotwell, the Resource Center has endured for forty years. Founded to support the small and growing community of women clergy in the South, RCWMS has continued that mission, while also supporting the creative, spiritual, and activist lives of a dynamic and growing community of women and their families.
On October 7th sixty of us gathered at the Scrap Exchange in Durham to mark the occasion with good food, good company, and art-making. The afternoon started with a delicious pot-luck lunch, served on real plates with real napkins and borrowed flatware, to honor our commitment to the environment. After lunch came workshops offered by women who have led various RCWMS programs over the years: participants made shrines with Charron Andrews, protest signs with lizzie mcmanus-dail, and personal icons with Bryant Holsenbeck. We wrote about “what has rooted and unrooted us” under the guidance of Carol Henderson.
We heard brief reflections from long-time friend of RCWMS, Rachael Wooten, RCWMS board members Solita Denard and Barbara Anderson, and Jeanette. And we had a surprise visit from another long-time supporter and current mayoral candidate, Steve Schewel. We participated in a raffle for a beautiful quilt made by RCWMS board member Márcia Rego. Throughout the event, attendees wrote their wishes and appreciations for RCWMS on handmade leaves, which they tied to a tree created by RCWMS artist-in-residence Bryant Holsenbeck. The tree now lives in a corner of the RCWMS office. If you weren’t able to make it to the celebration, you can still stop by and write on a leaf to add to the tree.
The day was a family affair, with feminists ranging in age from 19-months to their eighties. We rounded out the celebration by singing “Happy Birthday” to RCWMS and enjoying cake. Many of us left that evening inspired to keep weaving together feminism and spirituality, and to help RCWMS continue its work for the next 40 years.
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