May 28, 2019
By Katrina Goodrich
The world is a smaller place than it was in 1844. The newest communication technology released that year was the telegraph. Today we have cell phones and the internet; we can hop on an airplane and be halfway around the world in less than a day. But while the world is a smaller place today, the distance between people is larger than ever. I suspect that if you were to take a survey of people today you’d find that overwhelmingly they find it difficult to make connections with their peers. Sometimes even making acquaintances can seem an insurmountable task. I’ve had so many conversations with different people on this topic and, truth be told, I had no idea how difficult they found it to simply meet new people and make friends.
Now with that depressing observation out of the way, how amazing is it that our denomination has a periodical developed by, for, and about Seventh Day Baptists with a goal of connecting to and informing one another? That was the goal when the Sabbath Recorder began as a weekly publication and that goal hasn’t changed 175 years later. There is something special about being a part of that.
Reflecting on the recent meetings of the Women’s Board and Society, a pattern becomes evident that echos the goals of this publication. Looking back on the founding of the Women’s Society, the ladies of that generation wanted to form a group (specifically women in the denomination) that could connect new people to one another and aid in the goals of the denomination. The Society was founded as an auxiliary to the conference to make certain that the other boards and agencies could operate. Today we’re still working to make sure that goal is being met although things look a little different now.
As a Board and a Society of the Conference we are looking for ways to go forward helping with the goals of Seventh Day Baptists of USA and Canada, Ltd. Some of that goal involves utilizing our scholarship program for Seventh Day Baptist women who are looking to further their ministerial education through classes, workshops, and seminars. This is called the Tuition Fund and you can find out more about it on our website www.sdbwomen.org.
We also want to further this goal through utilizing the Stephanie Sholtz Wellness Fund. This fund is for SDB pastors and their families to help with their mental and physical wellness. Stephanie understood the great need for the availability of counseling and help for pastors and their families who are frequently exposed to stressors and may need an outside source to cope with those stressors in a healthy way. This is a confidential program and more details can be found at our website as mentioned above. These are just two underutilized (in my opinion) programs the Women’s Society offers to members of the Conference.
Part of the onus of responsibility of being the editor of this page is the continued effort to keep members of the Women’s Society and conference well informed on the actions of the Board and its members throughout the year. So this year we are focusing on what SDB women are doing in and for their communities. This month in lieu of mentioning any specific group, I’ve chosen to highlight two programs of the Society that are building blocks for community outreach—the education and equipping of leaders and aid for their greater well being. Please utilize these programs so that in the next 175 years we can say that we are continuing the work that began so many years ago.