Horison Methodist Women’s Fellowship turns 25

The Horison Methodist Women’s Fellowship celebrated its 25th birthday on Saturday, 1 June.

Founded by Elva Baisley-Weyer and Cynthia Micklethwaite, the women’s fellowship meets every month to do outreach programmes for different charities.

The hall was filled to capacity with women representing different churches, present to celebrate the big day with the Horison Methodist women. In between the prize-giving and speeches, Purple Grace Ministries entertained the guests with a number of performances.

An emotional Cynthia took to the stage to give some background about the women’s fellowship. She explained that it was started because they felt a need for a ladies group in the church.

“So many ladies attended that the group was organised with a President, Secretary and Treasurer. At one stage there were 65 members, but this has dwindled to the current 25, due to families moving away and members passing away,” said Cynthia.

She added that meetings are divided into Devotional, Cultural, Social and Service categories, and each month is dedicated to one of these ministries.

“We have had a variety of speakers, from social workers and Doctors without Borders, to missionaries and the Bible Society, among others. We have been entertained by the Western Line Dancers, the children’s band from Sparrow Village and other groups,” said Elva.

The women’s fellowships supports the Floroma Old Age Home in Roodepoort and Summit Village Retirement Centre. They also assist with catering during church functions. Their two main service projects are assisting with the Leratong Children’s Crisis Centre and Adult Rape Crisis Centre, where care packs are put together for the affected women. One of the founders, Cynthia Micklethwaite, knits teddy bears for the Children’s Trauma Unit.

“We also collect toiletry items for Santa Shoe Boxes each year,” added Cynthia.

“Every second year we celebrate our birthday by inviting the women’s groups from the other churches in the area for an afternoon of fun, fellowship and of course tea and cake,” said Elva.

This year, 12 churches from various denominations were represented.