Reflections on My Personal Women's Day

The first Sabbath in March is the International Day of Prayer for Adventist Women in our church calendar. On this day, women around the world are called upon to lead the services. We did the same in Tübingen and prayed especially for concerns that are important for women around the world. Jasmin Stanoschefsky, head of the Women's Ministries department in the Baden-Württemberg Conference preached about how we as women can and should make a difference in the world. In the afternoon, she organised a creative afternoon that met with interest.
The following day, March 8, was International Women's Day. Often these two days are not so close to each other. As a church, we do not usually pay special attention to Women's Day. It originated as an initiative of socialist organisations in the period before the First World War (1911) in the struggle for equal rights and suffrage for women. Since 1921 it has been celebrated annually on March 8. In 1975, the United Nations declared it United Nations Day for Women's Rights and World Peace. If women had more to say in the world, there would be more peace.
Jasmin had designed a beautiful card for us so that our women could pass this card on to other women. It was also distributed among the women in the refugee shelter in Tübingen. Therefore it was good that the text was both in English and German: "Be the woman you needed as a girl." We can be grateful for the women who made a positive impression on us when we were young, who made a difference in our lives. Especially young women and girls need guidance and mentoring. That is why it is important that we are there for them - on International Women's Day and every other day!
This year, despite the risk of the corona virus, I personally took International Women's Day very seriously. On Friday I followed the official ceremony at the United Nations via the Internet and was delighted that the Prime Minister of my home country, Sanna Marin, was invited to speak. www.youtube.com/watch
In the evening of March 7, I attended an event at which the film "Fighters for Peace" was shown. It is about the Nobel Peace Prize winner Dr. Denis Mukwege and the physician Dr. Schneider from Tübingen, who supports him in the Congo. In the panel discussion that followed, the journalist Susanne Babila, who made the film, talked to Dr. Schneider and Prof. Dr. Däubler-Gmelin. What can we do to stop rape as a weapon of war in the Congo? What do our mobile phones and the digitalised world have to do with it, and how can we intervene in solidarity for the Congolese women? The conversation made us think. You can see the film here: www.youtube.com/watch
n Sunday, on International Women's Day, a dialogue between the generations took place in the Herrenberg Town Hall. Prof. Uta Meier-Gräwe's topic was: "Equality remains the task of the century! Prof. Meier-Gräwe led the audience in her lecture from a fair division of labour between the sexes, to the implementation of equal pay for work of equal value and parity in parliaments. Afterwards, committed young women discussed with the speaker.
For the year 2020 UNWOMEN has chosen the slogan: Generation Equality. Within a century we have come a long way towards equality, but there is still a long way to go before we reach our goal. Hopefully it will not take another century!
Unfortunately, things are no better in our church either. On the contrary. When we see the development of women's opportunities within the Seventh-day Adventist Church, we must admit that it is declining. We are still a long way from equality - and yet it should not be thus. In fact, our church should be a leader in the equal treatment of women and men. It would be so easy to implement equal treatment if the desire were there.
As an addendum to Women's Day, on Monday I was able to learn about the life story of Greti Caprez-Roffler in Switzerland, who was the first woman to work as a pastor in the Reformed Church in Switzerland starting in 1931. In spite of all opposition, she was a strong and militant woman who, despite the family burden of being a mother of six children, always remained true to her vocation to serve as a pastor. She was ordained in 1963 after 30 years of work with eleven other female theologians. She considered this recognition of her life's work as a blessing from God. www.youtube.com/watch
In her sermon on Sabbath, Jasmin spoke about three women who made a difference in the world: Mother Teresa, Kathrine Switzer, who was the first woman to run a long-distance race, and Rosa Parks, the mother of the civil rights movement. So my Women's Day comes full circle: There are many women who have made a difference and changed the world and still do so. In my book "Mit am Tisch: Frauen in der Freikirche der Siebent-tags-Adventisten" ("Together at the table," available through amazon) I have included a list of many women of our church who used their gifts and their strength for the work of God. You and I - we can do that too!
Hannele Ottschofski