"Lifting the Mask" - Women's Ministries Conference

Royal Court Conference Centre, Coventry

15-17 November 2002

From Thursday 14 to Sunday 17 November approximately 400 Adventist women attended a Women's Ministries Conference at the Royal Court Conference Centre in Coventry. This was the largest ever gathering of Adventist women in the territory of the British Union Conference attracting more than twice as many attendees as the last Union-wide Women's Ministries Conference which was held at Newbold College in 1999.

The event was organised by BUC Women's Ministries director Mrs Heather Haworth and was heavily oversubscribed. Speaking in an interview for the Adventist Television Network Mrs Haworth said that they had finally had to limit the bookings as there simply was not enough accommodation for everyone who wanted to come. "We booked all the beds that we could in the Royal Court Hotel, then booked two other hotels, but after that we had to stop," she said. 

Approximately fifty women arrived on the Thursday to socialise and make use of the excellent leisure facilities provided by the Conference Centre, but the main programme started on Friday evening with a welcome address presented by North England Conference President Pastor Egerton Francis and his wife Cynthia. On Sabbath morning the Sabbath School time was replaced by a number of different seminars with themes ranging from AIDS HIV and the Church, to Worship for Busy Women. When asked about the hard hitting nature of some of the seminars Mrs Haworth replied that Adventist women today feel more confident about revealing the real stresses of their lives, the ones they've kept hidden for so long beneath their well-made spiritual masks.

The concept of "Lifting the Mask" gave the conference its title and ran as a theme through each of the seminars, with women being encouraged to "say it like it is" and develop an atmosphere of trust between themselves.

The main Sabbath address was given by Mrs Audrey Balderstone who illustrated her talk with a dramatic flower arrangement depicting the passion of Christ. The flower arrangement was built up gradually throughout the talk, and concluded with dozens of women from the audience coming forward, bringing a variety of different flowers to be added to the spectacular displays at the front.

On Sabbath evening the Conference took on a lighter note with a masked three-course meal. Louise Clarke, who was MC for the evening, had the ladies in stitches with her tale of how Mary McFarlane had kidnapped her so that the "Ground Force" TV crew could do her garden. While this was going on attention focused on a gorilla in the audience. Eventually, during a fashion parade, the gorilla was unmasked and proved to be a man, Philip Jackson, who with his wife went on to lead in the games and fellowship that lasted until the early hours of Sunday morning.

The weekend saw many new friendships made, serious issues discussed, and important plans laid for the future. A collection to support women in different parts of the Trans-European Division raised over £1,000.

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