Mark your calendar for Sunday, March 16 from 3-5 p.m.
Women at the Well, the Iowa Conference's mission congregation inside the Iowa women's prison in Mitchellville, is hosting a worship service at First United Methodist Church, 1001 Pleasant Street in Des Moines.
Bishop Julius Trimble will be preaching, based on the story of the woman at the well from John 4, which is appointed for a Sunday later in Lent.
As we remember "The Other Woman at the Well" through this celebration of ministry, we will also welcome special music and more.
You will enrich our worship if you'll bring a small container of water from where you are to add to our "well" as we remember our baptism that includes so many others.
Linger after worship to share some light refreshments while you connect with the ministries of Women at the Well and with other groups that work in support of women in prison.
Other highlghts:
· The choir from Burns UMC in Des Moines will be sharing their gifts.
Mary Ellen Lewis and friends will be offering interpretive dance.
We will share Holy Communion.
· Along with the light refreshments afterwards will be the opportunity to visit about our partner church program, our reentry teams, as well as with some of our allies in work for this population, including Friends of Iowa Women Prisoners, NAMI, Prison Congregations of America, and more.
This event falls during Criminal Justice Month.
Women at the Well has just passed its 8th anniversary as a congregation at the prison in Mitchellville.
Later in March the “woman at the well” Scripture is in the lectionary, so many of us will be preaching it.
This is an opportunity to gather around this Scripture and around this ministry and celebrate the living water that is welling up in and through the Iowa Annual Conference and beyond.
Too far away to join in? We are working on making this event accessible remotely through the conference website. Perhaps you would also join in lifting up Women at the Well in your prayers and through a special offering during March.
Questions? Contact our administrative assistant, Dan Schott, at 515/822-4599 or womenatthewell@iaumc.org.
You can also watch our Facebook page, "Women at the Well UMC," where we'll be posting updates as this event approaches.