Kenyan USFW Conferences

December is the season for USFW Conferences in Kenya! Each of the 15 Yearly Meetings holds its annual women's conference during this month. I was privileged to attend most of the conferences during December 2005 (even if only for a few hours), and I was deeply grateful for the ministry of the women, and energized by being in their presence.

Attendance at each of these 5-day conferences ranged from 200 to 1,000 women, with a few men also sitting in (notably the Yearly Meeting officials). The programme format was the same at every conference, but the topics covered varied. In each place, there were sessions for worship; bible study and interpretation of the theme by the main speaker; teaching sessions on topics of interest, USFW business, and memorials. Special topics included: church leadership, HIV/AIDS, women in ministry, agriculture, courtship and marriage, Christian motherhood, nutrition, peace and nonviolence, widows and orphans, and women's rights to succession and inheritance. And of course, there is always much singing and praying when women gather!

Below are just some of the highlights of my three-week whirlwind tour of USFW Conferences in Kenya:

At one of the Conferences, I listened to a male doctor from the District Hospital teach about AIDS prevention. As I listened, through a translator, I was disturbed by the inadequacies of his message, and by his absolute lack of understanding of the disempowered situation of women in their own homes and marriages. I was so proud of the women in that USFW when, during the question and answer time, they really took this man to task for not speaking to their condition! They concluded the session by vowing that next time they would make sure a woman doctor spoke to them about AIDS.

One of the things we in FUM Africa Ministries are trying to encourage is intervisitation between the Yearly Meetings in East Africa. Most of these Yearly Meetings are not aware of the activities, even of their closest neighbors. I was therefore surprised and encouraged to find that the women are already visiting each other's conferences. Or perhaps I should not be surprised, since it was the women who first came together across the Yearly Meeting divisions to pray for peace, leading to the reconciliation and constructive relationships that exist today. At each USFW Conference, I found five or ten women from other Yearly Meetings, who had been sent as official representatives. They were treated with great respect and appreciation, and I can imagine that they carried back reports of the activities and good ideas of the conference they visited. If only the main YM sessions could have this amount of interchange! Once again, women lead the way.

I was tremendously moved by a ceremony I witnessed in one Conference. Called the Taa Ceremony ("taa" is the Kiswahili word for lantern light), it was an occasion for honoring elderly women who were retiring from service in the church. Each of the eight women being celebrated was dressed all in white, with a bridal veil on her head and colored garlands around her neck. One by one they were escorted down the aisle by younger women encircling them with dancing and singing. They were brought to the front of the church, prayed over by the USFW Pastor, and given the gift of a lantern. These women were so old, so beautiful, so wise, and so loved. I found myself wishing that I might attain even half of their spiritual maturity during my life-time.

In every place, I brought greetings from Friends United Meeting. My message was one of encouragement and empowerment, reminding the women that this is no longer the early days of Friends in Kenya. No longer should they wait for missionaries to come from outside the country, to teach and lead them. Rather, they are to be the Quaker missionaries of the 21st century. Theirs is the witness the world needs. Theirs is the example of faithfulness that will touch hearts and change lives in these days. Certainly they have touched my heart and changed my life. I praise God for the faithful and wonderful women of the USFWs of Kenya.

-- Eden Grace