Horizons: November/December 2019
November/December 2019
Standing on the Shoulders of Empowered Women – USA Mission Experience to the Finger Lakes Region, New York
The 2019 USA Mission Experience invited Presbyterian Women to consider how the Finger Lakes region and its people have shaped our culture and the way we relate to one another. Abolition and women’s suffrage—two movements depicted on the cover—were turning points for our country.
About the Cover
- Lloyd Lillie’s The First Wave statue honors the women who organized the first Women’s Rights Convention and a few of the men, including abolitionist Frederick Douglass, who supported equality for women.
- Holding marches (like this one from around 1900), wearing white, creating pam-plets and giving speeches were a few strategies of the women’s suffrage movement.
- Suffragists celebrate victory after the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 which said a person could not be prevented from voting based on their sex.
- Abolition and women’s rights movements informed one another and had many shared supporters, such as Matilda Joslyn Gage.
- After escaping slavery, Harriet Tubman made more than a dozen missions back to slave territory to rescue others. Between those she rescued and those she guided or moved through the Underground Railroad, more than 300 enslaved people found freedom with Harriet Tubman’s help.
- Advocacy for women moved beyond the Finger Lakes Region, like this suffrage parade in New York City in 1911. More than 3,000 marchers called for women’s voting rights and protested the deplorable working conditions faced by women in sweatshops—sweatshops such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory where 146 people died in a fire.
- PW’s USA Mission Experience participants found a lot to love about New York’s work for equality and justice.
- The suffrage movement in England, shown here in London in 1912, drew ideas and strategies from the United States movement. England recognized all women’s right to vote in 1928.
USA Mission Experience participants witnessed the way the people of this region continue to pursue justice and offer hospitality.
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Features
The Finger Lakes Area of New York State
Lois Carter highlights unique qualities of the Finger Lakes Region. It has been a transportation hub, an origin of religious movements and a destination for people seeking freedom. Learn about the movements that took root in northwestern New York and profoundly changed the social fabric of the United States.
The Haudenosaunee: Sharing the Law of Peace
Prior to European colonization, the area we call New York was home to a number of Native American tribes, including the six that formed the Haudenosaunee Confederacy. Learn more about how the tribes came together and the culture they share.
Following the North Star: Honoring Abolitionists
Erma Jones honors the lives and legacies of abolitionists whose names we know, but whose stories cannot be told too much—Harriet Tubman and Frederick Douglass. Erma reflects on the legacy of racism in the South and grieves for the lives lost and diminished by slavery and racism.
A Caged Lioness: Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Her Legacy
Yvonne Hileman shares insights about the women’s rights and suffrage movements from her interview with Coline Jenkins, the great-great-granddaughter of Elizabeth Cady Stanton. Coline talks about the empowered women in her family, and what she thinks about women’s rights and equity today.
Safe Haven: Where the Holocaust Came to America
Rita Hooper reflects on the significance of the Fort Ontario Emergency Refugee Shelter, the only refugee center in the United States during World War II. Enduring a frightening journey to the United States, the refugees found welcome from the community, if not always the government.
Achieving Change Through Solidarity
Gabriela Quintanilla details the origin of Rural & Migrant Ministry, and the programs that it offers today to ensure welcome, justice and community for farmworkers and migrants in New York.
A Community of Welcome
Carissa Herold and Virginia Champlin applaud the churches, groups and individuals who helped educate, feed and welcome the USA Mission Experience to the Finger Lakes Region of New York.
PW Resources
Celebrate the Gifts of Women Liturgy for 2020
Honoring Women’s Spirituality, Struggle and Survival
Rosemary C. Mitchell
Bible Study Resource
Danilie C. Hilerio-Villanueva offers reflections and questions for use in studying Lessons Five and Six of the 2019–2020 PW/Horizons Bible study, Love Carved in Stone: A Fresh Look at the Ten Commandments by Eugenia Anne Gamble.
Fellowship of the Least Coin
Executive secretary of Fellowship of the Least Coin, Liza B. Lamis shares the hallmarks and history of this prayer movement and announces the programs receiving grants this year funded by least coins from around the world.
Departments
Devotion
Just As You Are Doing
Rhoda Frasier
Unpacking the Theme: Scripture Study
Freed and Inspired
Jo Ann Burrell
Books
Pages Worth Turning
After the Offering
Honoring the Legacy of Katie Geneva Cannon
Johanna W. H. van Wijk-Bos
Mosaic
News and Information About Presbyterian Women and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.)
Working for Justice and Peace
ABCDE: Five Ways to Help Unsheltered People
Anita Coleman
Stories from the Ages
The Intersection of Faith and Action
Hillary Moses Mohaupt
Strengthening the PC(USA)
Changing the Boundaries
Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri
