CCOK301

Preparations are underway for the annual Oklahoma Disciples Women Encounter. This year’s theme is “Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Peace Piece”. First Christian Church Moore is hosting the event July 8-9.

Online registration is available now, and you’ll find all the details on the Disciples Women webpage.

“Speak your piece,” and “Hold your peace” are two common idioms in the English language. The spelling is often confused. That is not the case when the theme was chosen for Encounter 2016. There is logic in the difference.

“Hold your peace,” generally means to keep silent or not to say anything about something. It is often in traditional marriage vows, and usually in wedding ceremony scenes in old movies. Generally it means hold your peace and accept the changes. If someone is “at peace” with the situation, he/she is then obligated to speak of it no more, to keep silent. That is to hold your peace. In those movie wedding scenes it is always a dramatic moment after the person performing the ceremony speaks the words, “If any of you has reason why these two should not be married, speak now or forever hold your peace.” In the movies this may be the time when the ex-lover runs forward and declares his or her love or some other shocking information that stops the ceremony.

The word chosen for Encounter 2016 theme is Piece; as in, your oration. Hold your piece. If you were at peace with the situation it would not need to be held. Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece implies that you have something to say on the matter, but if you do not share it at that time, you must hold it forever.

Speak your piece literally means to “speak aloud a piece of writing”. The understanding is we are encouraged to express our ideas, to make a statement.

To Speak Now or Forever Hold Your Piece also points us to scripture as the writing and wisdom on a situation, but if it is not shared, it must be held forever, perhaps lost to the situation. If scripture with God’s wisdom is held and not shared, we as disciples are not following God’s directive to share His word with the world.

Encounter 2016 is designed as your opportunity to be encouraged by the worship services, the keynote speakers, the workshops and your own reflective moments to be empowered to speak His word to the world.

The visual theme is PUZZLES. Why puzzles? Because living life as a Christian and striving to follow God’s plan for each of us, we encounter mysteries, enigmas, riddles, conundrums, posers, problems, dilemmas, and brain teasers; all puzzling. Each of us is a part of the bigger puzzle of society. We are all called to speak our piece with others and clarify our piece of God’s Kingdom here on earth.

Women’s status and freedoms were severely limited by Jewish law and custom in ancient Israel, as they were in essentially all other cultures at the time.

Christ overthrew many centuries of Jewish law and custom. He consistently treated women and men as equals. He violated numerous Old Testament regulations, which specified gender inequality. He refused to follow the behavioral rules established by the three main Jewish religious groups of the day: the Essenes, Pharisees and Sadducees. He ignored ritual impurity laws: Mark 5:25-34 He talked to foreign women: John 4:7 to 5:30 and in Matthew 15:22-28. He taught women students: In Luke 10:38-42, He taught Mary, sister of Martha.

Luke 13:16 describes how He cured a woman from an indwelling Satanic spirit. He called her a daughter of Abraham, thus implying that she had equal status with sons of Abraham. “The expression ‘son of Abraham’ was commonly used to respectfully refer to a Jew, but ‘daughter of Abraham’, was an unknown parallel phrase…It occurs nowhere else in the Bible.” It seems to be a designation created by Jesus.

He accepted women into his inner circle: Luke 8:1-3 describes the inner circle of Jesus’ followers: twelve male disciples and an unspecified number of female supporters (Mary Magdalene, Joanna, Susanna and “many others.”) It would appear that about half of His closest followers were women.

He appeared first to one or more women after His resurrection: Matthew 28:9-10 describes how Mary Magdalene and “the other Mary” were the first followers of Jesus to meet Him after His resurrection.  Women were present at Jesus’ execution: Matthew 27:55-56 and Mark 15:40-41 describe many women who followed Jesus from Galilee and were present at His crucifixion.

Jesus called women to be an integral part of His ministry then and He continues to call us today.

Now more than ever before, it is time for us to speak our piece. The puzzles of the world are challenging us each and every day.

The stated Christian Women’s Fellowship Purpose calls us to be proactive in our ministries. The CWF Scripture, 1John 1:3, calls us to “declare” to others what we have seen and heard. The CWF Opening Prayer we recite at every meeting and event calls us to service. Our CWF Benediction sends us into the world to “Speak our Piece!”

It is the hope of all who worked to plan, implement and present this Encounter 2016 that you experience an encounter with Christ that inspires you to be a speaker of His word to the world.

Amen

Penny Hampton,
Encounter 2016 co-director