The Work of Their Hands: Mennonite Women’s Societies in Canada

Forsideomslag
Wilfrid Laurier Univ. Press, 16. okt. 1996 - 172 sider

Impelled by a call to share their gifts through service, Russian Mennonite women immigrating to Canada organized their own church societies (Vereine) as avenues of mission and spiritual strengthening. For women who were restricted from leadership positions within the church, these societies became the primary avenue of church involvement. Through them they contributed vast amounts of energy, time and financial resources to the mission activity of the church. The societies thus became a context in which women could speak, pray and creatively give expression to their own understanding of the biblical message.

Using primary sources such as reports, letters, minutes, etc., as well as society histories, interviews and survey data, Redekop charts the development of these societies, from the establishment of the earliest ones in the 1870s to their flowering in the fifties and sixties and their decline in the eighties and nineties.

The Work of Their Hands elucidates the context in which Mennonite women lived their identity as Christian women, one considered appropriate by themselves and the institutional church. It also shows how changes to the societies, including declining membership and a shift in their primary focus from sewing and baking to one of spiritual fellowship, reflect the changing roles of women within the church, the home and the wider society.

The Work of Their Hands is an important book in the history of Mennonite women’s spirituality and will be a valuable resource for religious studies, women’s studies and Canadian history.

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Indhold

Introduction
1
Part One Background and Precedents
7
18741952
37
19531969
55
19701995
81
Appendix A
135
Appendix B
143
Bibliography
149
Index
167
Copyright

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Populære passager

Side 72 - For the love of Christ constraineth us, because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead; And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them and rose again.
Side 72 - And on the morrow when he departed, he took out two pence, and gave them to the host, and said unto him, Take care of him; and whatsoever thou spendest more, when I come again, I will repay thee. Which now of these three, thinkest thou, was neighbour unto him that fell among the thieves? And he said, He that shewed mercy on him. Then said Jesus unto him, Go, and do thou likewise.
Side 72 - And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.
Side vii - For he that soweth to his flesh shall of the flesh reap corruption ; but he that soweth to the Spirit shall of the Spirit reap life everlasting. And let us not be weary in well doing : for 'in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.
Side 42 - Let him that stole, steal no more, but rather let him labour, working with his hands the thing which is good, that he may have to give to him that needeth.
Side 42 - Now there was at Joppa a certain disciple named Tabitha, which by interpretation is called Dorcas : this woman was full of good works and almsdeeds which she did.
Side 42 - But let every man prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.

Om forfatteren (1996)

Gloria Neufeld Redekop received her Ph.D. in Women and Religion from the University of Ottawa. She has taught in the Department of Religion at Carleton University and as an independent scholar has recently engaged in research on women and war.

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