The tables at Green Valley Alliance Church were set with fine china. Green and pink napkins were cunningly folded into the shape of water lilies and lily pads.
“This is our first Christian Ladies’ High Tea,” said organizer Laurie Smith. “A traditional High Tea, but we are networking between churches.”
Women of all ages, representing churches that included Bradford Baptist, Green Valley Alliance, Hillside Community Church in Tottenham, and St. John’s Presbyterian, attended the event in Bradford West Gwillimbury.
They were served tea, sandwiches, scones and desserts, shared their ideas for outreach and church service on an idea board, and listened to a keynote speaker on the topic, "Women’s roles in the church.”
The speaker was Karen Proudlove Brown, a marketplace leader, area manager with Christian Horizons for the past 19 years, and a singer and minister.
It was an afternoon of prayer and encouragement, as Proudlove Brown directly challenged a Christian tradition that calls on women to be silent and limit their service to home and children.
“The Apostle Paul says we are to be silent, not to pray out loud,” she said, yet God “called us to be helpmeets, help-mates and to serve. Where do we fit? I believe that according to the word of God, women have a role to play.”
She urged the study of the whole Bible, not just the Book of Timothy, to understand the role of women as “helpmeets” in the church. The Book of Joel includes the passage, “In the last days… I shall pour out My Spirit on all flesh. My sons and My daughters shall prophecy.”
“Sons and daughters,” Proudlove repeated. “We cannot speak about Timothy and ignore Joel. If we believe Timothy, we must believe Joel.”
Alternating between a sermon and an inspirational talk, Proudlove had a message of encouragement for all the women present.
“Women, God has called us to arise,” she said. “Women, you’re called to labour for God in the vineyard,” to nurture the church and truth, and to support and lift up other women. “We need to learn how to build up and encourage each other, so that each voice can be heard.”
Connect with God to discover an inner strength, a gift, she said. “Ministry is calling each and every one of you. There is the ministry of health. There is the ministry of hospitality. There is the ministry of intercession… There is the ministry of prophecy.”
Women’s role in the church? “Our role is to stand up and be a witness for the Lord,” Proudlove said, and to use those gifts.
“I challenge you today to find what God is calling you to do. When you find that one thing, pursue it,” she said. “Women of God, use your voice… The Holy Spirit is on the move and he’s using women to advance his kingdom.”
