Whitby Baptist Women Celebrate Love

A friend loves

BY CHRISTINE DUMOULIN AND JUDY WHITE

ON FEBRUARY 4TH, nineteen women met in the worship centre of Whitby Baptist Church to celebrate love, Jesus, and one another.

Whitby Baptist Women (WBW) meets monthly with various members sharing the responsibilities for programming and snacks. The February 2023 program, based on Proverbs 17:17a, was A Friend Loves at All Times – Beyond the Hallmark Hearts, and the meeting included prayer, a devotion, a Bible-verse-with-love matching game (with prizes!), socializing, and plenty of laughter. One woman commented, “With such cold and snowy weather, I really didn’t expect many would show up this morning, and yet this is one of our largest groups since COVID. Thank you, ladies, for coming. There is something special about women being together! God has “wired us” for this.”

Even during the pandemic, these women had gathered. The church’s pastor at the time, Ross Carkner, stressed the importance of maintaining and building relationships despite COVID-19. WBW took up the challenge and met outdoors (their version of a tailgate party), on Zoom, masked and socially distant in the church when permitted, and now, February 4th, back to normal.

The group is growing: several ladies present for the Christmas Coffee (December), the Great Canadian Bible Study (January) and the Love meeting (February) are new members. How did that happen? Relationship. A friend loves.

Imagination and Leadership

“Maude Whiteside…exercised the gift of a delightful imagination. As Mrs. Albert Matthews… and a leader in women’s work, it made it possible for her to ‘sit where they sat’ and to see beyond the surface in personality or in situations. Linked with consecrated service and added to practical foresight, it accomplished amazing things when she held public office…Through her imagination a dream of Canadawide cooperation materialized into an important development in Canadian Baptist Women’s missionary work.”

— Alfreda Hall, Wheels Begin to Turn: The Story of Helping to Move Nations Christward, 100 Years of Missionary Involvement By Baptist Women of Ontario and Quebec 1876–1976, p.45