Worship

Sunday, May 10, 2015 - 10:45am


Address:
Westminster Presbyterian Church, Mackey Hall
353 E. Pine St.
Wooster, OH 44691

Mother's Day
Today during worship we will join many around the world as we celebrate Mother's Day at Westminster. For many
churches, it is not a given to celebrate a "Hallmark holiday" and it is certainly not here at Westminster.  The reason many churches are wary of "celebrating" such a holiday is the fear of exclusion and rightfully so.  
By focussing on Mother's Day in worship we see it as an opportunity to reflect on the tension between the wonder of motherhood as well as the challenges and the grief related to it.  It is then, during such a celebration that we do not lose sight of those who do not have good relationships with their mothers; those whose mothers have passed away; those who want to be a mother, but can not be; or the exclusion of those who intentionally choose not to be a mother.  
Our Scripture for Sunday will be John 15:9-17 and it will point us in another direction for Mother's Day.  Through this Scripture, we will be able to look at this holiday from the perspective of Social Justice. This aspect of Mother's Day is nothing new as we look at the history of this holiday as noted by the Centre for Christian Nonviolence:
 
"Take a moment to contemplate the real origins of Mother's Day: the belief that women can create peace and justice through nonviolent love and community rooted in humanity rather than in geographical gangs. The movement to set aside a day for women's peacemaking began with two women: Anna Jarvis and Julia Ward Howe. Jarvis, a West Virginia mother of 11, worked to improve rural sanitation and healthcare before and during the Civil War. When the war ended, she worked to reconcile Union and Confederate families in her state. Meanwhile, Julia Ward Howe, the author of Battle Hymn of the Republic, was touring as a lecturer and witnessed the atrocities committed by both sides during the Civil War. Working with war widows and orphans, Howe was appalled, not only by the fatal casualties of violence, but by the other effects of war: economic devastation in both the North and the South, disease, and physical and mental disability. She devoted herself to building an international community of women creating peaceful resolution to conflicts. Although neither woman was successful during her lifetime in creating a permanent holiday, both worked tirelessly for the issues of peace and justice among and between people. In 1914, while women were picketing the White House and Congress for the right to vote, Woodrow Wilson declared a national Mother's Day, with pedestalizing sentimental rhetoric that assured mothers a gift, but not a vote or a voice in society's affairs. So today Mother's Day is an $11 billion dollar gift-day, utterly unrelated to its original purpose - which purpose humanity is more than ever in need of mothers pursuing and accomplishing, since no other grouping of human beings, whether religious or secular, seems to have the will or motivation to pursue it."(Republished from the Center For Christian Nonviolence)  



« Back to Calendar
Recent Newsletters
Sign Up For Updates

Give Now

Westminster accepts electronic donations through the Presbyterian Mission Exchange