The Clinton County Chapter of Church Women United (CWU) will resume meetings this fall, and the organization is celebrating 80 years of existence with the theme “The Legacy Continues.”
In 1941, three organizations — the Council of Women for Home Missions, the Committee on Women’s Work of the Foreign Missions Conference, and the National Council of Federated Church Women — combined to form one national organization, the United Council of Church Women (UCCW) representing women from 70 Christian denominations.
The first action of UCCW was “urging the United States, at the signing of the United Nations Charter, to join and take its full responsibility in the world organization” with a petition signed by over 84,000 women.
Later Eleanor Roosevelt became involved in a conference at the White House on “How Women May Share in Post War (WWII) Policy Making.” The name was changed to Church Women United and became a national ecumenical Christian women’s movement representing Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian women totaling over 26 supporting denominations and organizations.
Church Women United’s mission is to be a racially, culturally and theologically inclusive Christian women’s movement celebrating unity in diversity and working for a world of peace and justice specifically for women and children.
CWU strives to provide for its members resources and information on a wide range of social justice issues, opportunities for worship and action, and an expansive network of women and women’s organizations working to ensure a better world for all.
CWU now conducts three annual wordship celebrations:
• World Day of Prayer takes place the first Friday of March and brings together in prayer women from 170 countries.
• May Friendship Day focuses on “creative and healing relationships” that exist in the local community. It is typically celebrated the first Friday in May and is an all-day meeting
• World Community Day is an inclusive worship service that includes opportunities for interfaith participation to further CWU’s commitment to peace and justice among all peoples and all nations.
Mark Nov. 12, 2021 on your calendar as CWU will celebrate World Community Day. There has been no greater time than this catastrophic era for the need of Church Women Uniting.
