Sisters' Class Journal

SISTERS' CLASS JOURNAL

Houston Ecclesia, Texas, USA

Saturday, March 4, 2000

Our Sisters' Study Group was hosted this week in my daughter's home, Sis. Angela Drake. I am so blessed to have her near me, only a few minutes away. Since Angela was also coordinating the cake decorating activity, I came over early to help make eight batches of butter cream whipped icing. When I arrived the house smelled like cake and butter cream, ummmmm! As I walked in the door I saw the dining room had been transformed into a cake decorating party room.

Angi and I spent the most pleasant morning in her homey kitchen. I was stationed at the mixers and Angi was tinting the finished icing with the slightest touch of yellow butter cream coloring. Working in someone else's kitchen is always fun for me, but working in your own daughter's kitchen is a special joy.

Sis. Angi Drake mixing up heaps of butter cream icing

We finished the last batch of icing just as the first sisters started to arrive. Since the icing was finished and I was the "ox that treaded" it with the beaters, I rewarded myself with a bit of the icing that was left on the beaters - I did share with my dear mother-in-law, Sis. Billie Clements.

Sis. Billie Clements and me

sharing the sweetness of the day :-)

Arrival time is always exciting as we all anticipate the happy and fun times about to begin. As Sis. Tracy enters the front door she takes a picture of those who had just walked in ahead of her.

Sis. Isabel Luff, Baby Nathan Luff, Sis. Nancy Whitehurst,

and Sis. Rikke Clements arriving for Sisters' Study Group meeting

Our precious Carmel Glumac (daughter of Sis. Sharon Glumac)

receives a welcoming hug from Sis. Tracy Boswell

We started our study with an opening prayer and the singing of the beautiful song "The Shadow of His Wings" written by Sis. Julie Anderson of the Royal Oak Ecclesia in Michigan, U.S.A. During a recent visit, Sis. Debi Wilhoit's talented daughter, Sarah, taught me and Sis. Angi this wonderful song. Sis. Angi liked it so much she wanted to teach it to her Sunday School class so we introduced it to the sisters. We have found that one of the quickest ways to teach a new song to the children is to first teach it to their mothers. All the sisters loved the song too and sang it with enthusiasm, and even a few tears. It's a very moving song.

We would like to take a moment here to thank Sis. Julie Anderson for her many labors of love in producing so many beautiful songs that have time and time again made our hearts soar, strengthened our faith and encouraged us in the Truth. A few Sundays ago I was walking past the Children's play room after meeting and there on the floor playing and singing to himself was little Nathan Luff, just turned two. I stopped just outside the door and listened. He sang away "Jochebed put baby Mooooses in the river, in the river.....Jochebed put baby Moooooses in the river Nile long. In a basket safe and strong...in a basket safe and strong......" By the time he got to the "basket" I felt tears burn my eyes. I wondered then if Sis. Julie had any idea how far reaching her songs had spread to the lives of so many, even to the little ones, so precious in Yahweh's sight. Thank you for sharing your talents Sis. Julie, we thank Yahweh upon every remembrance of you.

In our study of the woman's headcovering topic, we continued on page 99, "Exposition of 1 Corinthians 11:1-16", in the excellent book, Man and Woman, by Bro. Michael Lewis. We read around paragraph by paragraph looking up the Scriptural references and discussing the points raised. We carefully considered the two different words chosen for the word "covering":

"Katakalupto" meaning to cover fully or completely, which was used throughout verses 5-13; which is also translated "veil" in the R.S.V. and many other versions. The use of this word and the other translations make it plain that the issue is related to a head covering, not the growth of hair, long or short.
"Peribolaion" meaning something cast around used in verse 15. In the context it speaks of the long hair of a woman which is her glory like a mantle cast around. The word is also translated "vesture" in Heb. 1:12 ("mantle" in the R.S.V.). This "glory" is not to be displayed in the assembly of believers before the presence of Yahweh, Christ and the angels.

The intended (and commanded) covering in the ecclesial meeting then is the "katakalupto", the head covering or veil. No other custom or practice is recognized in the ecclesia of God. That all the ecclesias in the body of Christ are to have the same approach to this headcovering issue (1 Cor. 11:16) reminded us that the issue of a woman's silence in the ecclesial meetings was also recognized to be "as in all churches of the saints" 1 Cor. 14:34.

Carmel Glumac (daughter of Sis. Sharon Glumac)

listening with interest to the discussion

We looked at several interesting verses relating to "glory":

1 Cor. 10:31 - "Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."
Isa. 4:5 - "And the LORD will create upon every dwelling place of mount Zion, and upon her assemblies, a cloud and smoke by day, and the shining of a flaming fire by night: for upon all the glory shall be a *defense (*see margin = "covering").
Isa. 42:8 - "I am the LORD: that is my name: and my glory will I not give to another. . ."

So it follows that in the public assembly of the saints, in the presence of

the angels, who glorify God only, and
Christ, who glorifies God only, and
the only wise God, to whom all glory is due (!)

it is entirely appropriate and respectful to cover the glory of man - the woman's hair.

The questions were asked:

If, as some say, hair is intended to be not only a woman's "natural" covering but also her "spiritual" covering why would God have to instruct and command women to wear hair?
If, as some say, hair is also a "spiritual" covering surely Paul would not instruct women to remove it by cutting it off. (However, instructing an unsubmissive woman to cut off her natural glory would be fitting.)

The excellent information in the book sparked such a rich discussion. My notes fail to bring it all back to share with you now.

I do recall that when we discussed I Cor. 11 verses 11 and 12 that we saw that the reasons for a woman's headcovering are rooted all the way back to Eden and therefore the command is not related to the current social situation, then or now. And until the Kingdom come when "male and female" will have "dominion . . . over all the earth" together as one, we women must recognize our role and position inherent upon us in Eve's creation:

Woman was not created equal with the man, man came first and is the head of the woman for she came out of him.
Men and women are distinctly different and are treated as such in the Scriptures:
- The curses given to Eve for her sin were different from those given to Adam.
- The sphere of service and way of life of men and women are different in many ways in the Scriptures. In the Old and the New Testaments, the men are to do this, and separately and distinctly the women are to do that. (See 1 Pet 3:4-7)

Why is it that submission to our God-appointed head is sometimes so hard to be accepted by many women (and even some sisters)? Every man and woman is subject to someone. Even Christ, our exalted savior and the coming King of all the earth, is subject to his Father, Yahweh (1 Cor. 15:28).

Well, needless to say, we had a wonderful and uplifting study and the time sped past lunch time before we reluctantly brought our study to a stopping point.

We closed our study time with again singing the new song "The Shadow of His Wings", which this second time rang out with the emphasis on the power of the beautiful words:

"Rising high above the lower thoughts of man;

Reaching out to others with an open hand

Rising up to serve God with a heart that sings!

Venturing no further than the shadow of His wings."

We enjoyed a lovely lunch in a private room at the Two Friends Tea Room near Sis. Angi's home. Our headcovering discussion continued all through lunch!

Chatty Happy Lunch!

After lunch we all hurried back to Sis. Angi's house eager to start our afternoon activity of cake decorating. Sis. Angi had everything all ready.

The cake decorating table awaited us after lunch!

Everything we needed was set before us to create our "Fruit of the Spirit" cakes. Sis. Angi patiently led us through how to level the layers and smoothly apply the icing. Then came the fun part - decorating! Sis. Angi had set out by each Sister's place a cute "cake" box filled with decorating tips and a coupler that each sister could take home with her afterwards. She showed us how to attach the decorating tips to the icing bags. After our bags were full of icing she demonstrated the various designs that could be made with the tips and let us practice on paper plates. We often just ate our mistakes! After we were more comfortable with our new skills, we started making stars and swirls and shells on our cakes. Then we each chose a fruit of the spirit to write on the top of our cakes. I chose "joy" because it was the shortest as I found the writing part the hardest. Several chose "love". No one chose "long-suffering".

We each had a supply of candy fruits at our place which we placed in various patterns on our cakes. We placed all we could and we ate the rest!

Sis. Nancy Whitehurst was holding her almost two year old grandson, Nathan Luff, on her lap as he was "helping" her decorate her cake. He wanted to "smell" it so she leaned him over to get a whiff but he could not resist and took a bite out of the top of her cake. We all almost squirted icing everywhere laughing at that antic. :-)