3 minute read
ENDOW: Bringing Women Together in Fellowship and Faith
When Karen Powers was asked to sit in on an ENDOW meeting at her old parish on the mainland, she had no idea that it would kickstart a huge part of her spiritual journey.
“I realized I was getting so much out of it,” she says. “When I moved here, I knew that the women of ENDOW had impacted my life, but I didn’t realize how much until I got the email, and I saw that they were getting started, and I realized how much I missed it.”
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ENDOW stands for “Education on the Nature and Dignity of Women,” and the program encompasses small groups of eight to 12 women who meet once a week for study, discussion and fellowship. St. Theresa has two ENDOW groups — one that meets in the morning and one that meets in the evening. Karen thought ENDOW was the perfect program to provide a space specifically for women of the parish to connect.
“The reason I thought ENDOW would be a great fit is because of the relationships I formed in my group back at my old parish — I still hear from these women and often get random messages from them, saying that they miss me and hope all is well,” Karen says. “These are all people I met in and because of this study.
“I got to know them, I got to know about their families, and we stay in touch to this day,” she adds. “Even the women with whom you might find yourself disagreeing with their opinions, you are still able to see their vulnerability, which brings out their humanity. It’s all about what St. Pope John Paul II called the ‘feminine genius’ — thinking about some of those women brings tears to my eyes.”
The groups are designed to meet for an hour and a half to 2 hours at a time, and ENDOW provides a wide variety of studies, covering topics such as Pope John Paul II’s Letter to Women, the Doctors of the Church, St. Thomas Aquinas, Christian suffering, the Virgin Mary, women saints, and several papal encyclicals. Meetings are structured to allow every group member to speak and participate, with a facilitator to guide the discussion. Sessions normally run for eight weeks. Fellowship — often including snacks! — before or after the study is encouraged, as well. St. Theresa’s ENDOW groups are open to women of all ages, and a wide age range is represented among the groups.
“When you have your discussions, it’s really good to have women who are just getting started and sometimes can’t see the light at the end of the tunnel, all the way up to women who have been through everything and can share their experiences,” Karen says. “The relationships you build are very deep, and you can be yourself and get so much support.”
While the parish’s evening ENDOW group had to cut their meetings short due to the COVID-19 pandemic, participants have nonetheless shared good feedback and hope to continue meeting when social distancing restrictions are lifted. Karen hopes that as the groups continue to learn and grow, the women will benefit spiritually as much as she has.
“The comments have been great — it has been good for them and for the parish, and they would like to see it continue and to add more people,” she says. “It has really made me look at my faith through a different lens, the lens of God. It has softened some of my edges, and has sharpened me in other aspects. I think about my prayer life now more than I ever did before — and more than that, I take those thoughts and I put them into action. The women in these groups really want to see each other lifted up — you really see people and get to know them. Who wouldn’t want to bring this to a church that didn’t have a women’s group like this before?”
