A better future
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A better future

When the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) began allowing the ordination of women as clergy, Helen Reitsma anticipated positive change for the church she attends in Brantford, Ontario. Twenty-five years later, however, her congregation still has no women in office, let alone female clergy. Even so, she says, “a lot of stuff is really run by…

The hostile ‘big tent’
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The hostile ‘big tent’

“It’s really hard to keep loving a denomination that doesn’t love you back. Honestly, it’s getting harder and harder to stay.” That’s one of many sobering responses to a Christian Courier survey of ordained women in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) a quarter century after the denomination opened that office to women. Of the 20…

Creating space
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Creating space

Amanda Bakale can still picture the first time she saw a woman step up to the pulpit to preach, her long lavender skirt swishing in the silence of the sanctuary. “I remember the movement of her skirt,” Bakale recounts, years later. “Not a suit, but a beautiful, flowing skirt. And a body that looked like…

An Alberta journey
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An Alberta journey

Decades before the first woman was ordained in the Christian Reformed Church (CRC), groups of women (and some men) with a vision for the full expression of women’s gifts were at work, opening a path toward leadership. For me and other Edmonton women, that journey began in 1983 with informal house meetings and grew into…

Serving in the shadow of ‘maybe’ after 25 years
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Serving in the shadow of ‘maybe’ after 25 years

Twin nieces turned 25 the day I began writing this article. They were born in 1996, the very year when the synod of the Christian Reformed Church (CRC) first approved women for ordination and gave congregations the option of calling women as Ministers of the Word. Born prematurely, those two tiny girls spent agonizing months…

Prairie Dreamers

Prairie Dreamers

A sense of abundance enfolds Sunrise Farm in east central Alberta, the fruit of 20 years of working in harmony with creation. Since shifting to holistic management and certifying as organic, Don and Marie Ruzicka have created a “7-11 convenience store” for a growing diversity of species.

Edmonton farmer battles to protect prime land from urban sprawl
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Edmonton farmer battles to protect prime land from urban sprawl

In a sunny living room overlooking the forest, Jim recalls addressing a parade of planning boards and councils over the decades, drawing on soil science and his own experience to make the case that this land must be stewarded.