Spending four days with 40 women who are leaders across the Anglican Communion has increased the Rev. Carolyn Adhola’s support system, and strengthen her skills as a mentor.
Adhola, who serves as priest in charge at St. Mary Magdalene Church in Silver Spring, Maryland, has mentored and been mentored as a priest on several continents in the Anglican Communion. She added more knowledge to her toolkit during a Women Mentoring Women Conference, which met February 25-28 at Virginia Theological Seminary.
More than 40 women leaders from across the Anglican Communion strengthened their bonds by discussing challenges and joys during the conference.
Adhola, who served as a small-group leader, said the topics included their histories and others’ journeys in church leadership, and the role of mentoring. Each presentation was followed by a time for small-group discussion and learning.
Hosted by the seminary’s Center for Anglican Communion Studies, the gathering offered women the opportunity to build friendships, learn from one another, and explore issues facing women in leadership, as a way of empowering them in their ministries.
The key message for Adhola was that mentorship equals listening, learning, and acting.
“It’s not one-way, that older women are here to mentor younger women. We learn from each other,” she said. “Some of us are not old in terms of age, but through hearing about challenges, we wonder, ‘How did you come out of that?’” Sharing stories made it easier for participants to learn from each other.
Adhola left the conference with ideas about how she can work with women in different parts of the Anglican Communion. “I will be able to share projects that I do,” Adhola said. “We also know how we can support each other in all that we do.”
Ellango Dino Estelle, president of the Mothers’ Union in Cameroon, planned to visit Adhola’s church on March 2. “She will be able to see what we are doing,” Adhola said.
In addition to personal connections, the group will continue to communicate ideas and needs via WhatsApp.
The conference was funded by a grant from Trinity Church, Wall Street, which also supported leadership training for young people in Kenya, Mexico, the Middle East, Southern Africa, and the Philippines.
Connecting with members of the Anglican Youth Network was one of the highlights for Adhola, whose network partner is a woman in Hong Kong.
“I am willing to join the partnership and see how I can connect her with some of the young people,” said Adhola, who has worked with young people on different continents.
Those attending the conference were bishops, former archbishops, rectors, women working in NGOs and church organizations, and VTS students. Participants came from across the globe representing Africa, Asia, Oceana, the Middle East, Latin America and the Caribbean, Europe, and North America.
Attendance at the conference was by invitation, to provide a protected space for women to talk openly and in safety.
Dr. Ian Markham, dean of VTS, said that conversation topics included histories of women’s exclusion and their persistence in overcoming challenges, current issues of poverty, war, and threats to women’s well-being, the critical voices of young leaders, and strategies for strengthening women’s leadership in the future. They also watched the documentary The Philadelphia Eleven, about the first women ordained as priests in The Episcopal Church.
“The Conference empowered Anglican women to lead with nuanced understandings of self, history, and context, and provided a space for Holy Spirit-led visioning and dreaming,” said the Rev. Katherine Grieb, Ph.D., director of the Center for Anglican Communion Studies. “It was exciting to hear powerful testimonies from so many leading women from around the Communion.”
Bishop Rose Okeno, the first diocesan bishop in the Church of Kenya, presided at the closing service, and the Rev. Canon Rachel Carnegie, former executive director of the Anglican Alliance, preached.
The Rev. Meredyth Albright is a longtime journalist and rector of St. Augustine’s Episcopal Church in Rhinelander, Wisconsin.
