February 16, 2025 –50th Anniversary Celebration
Disciples Women’s Ministry
Mount Olive East Christian Church, Martinsville, VA
The Women’s Ministry at Mount Olive East proudly celebrated its 50th Anniversary on Sunday, February 16, 2025. We are thankful to God for his faithfulness to this ministry over the past 50 years. Mount Olive East Christian Church’s Disciples Women’s Ministry is the legacy and vision of Deacon Odatta Redd. In January 1975, under her leadership, a Young Adult Christian Women’s Fellowship (CWF) was organized at Mount Olive East CC. Our Disciples Women’s Ministry is the product of her vision and is still viable and active. To recap a little history of Disciples Women’s Ministry at Mount Olive East CC. The ministry is 92 years old. It started in 1933 when Sisters Maggie Thomas and E.C. Starling organized the Missionary Society. In 1949, the Missionary Society became the Christian Women’s Fellowship. In 2006, the Quadrennial Assembly adopted the name Disciples Women’s Ministry. The women at Mount Olive East Christian Church have always been active in ministry for as long as our Church has existed for 125 years!
In celebration, honor, and tribute of our 50 years of service and ministry, Sunday February 16th our Disciples Women all sat together in morning worship in unity, wearing our Disciples women’s colors green and white, along with our corsages. The colors are green representing growth and the color white representing purity. We added gold leaves and gold beads to our white corsages with green and white ribbons to represent 50 years. The color gold represents achievement, optimism, success, and wisdom. We hung a banner in the sanctuary with the lettering on the banner captioned in gold writing,” Celebrating 50 years of Ministry.” Our Disciples Women’s Ministry is standing on the shoulders of all our mothers and the women of Mount Olive East who paved the way before us as examples of their steadfast leadership.
Over the past 50 years we have learned to be spiritual sisters. Our ministry has not only impacted our community and local church, it has expanded and grown to the regional, national, and international levels. We have attended and participated in retreats, SERF’s, Convocations, Assemblies, Quadrennials, and WW2W trips. We are blessed that women from Mount Olive East have held offices in each of these areas. We actively provide service, study and worship making Disciples Women’s Ministry an essential ministry in the Christian Church Disciples of Christ.
To highlight one of our greatest ministry accomplishments, in 2016 our Disciples Women’s Ministry along with Deacon Odatta Redd’s family were blessed to establish a Disciples Women’s Endowment Fund in Deacon Odatta Redd’s name. This fund has and will continue to provide for leadership training, outreach ministries, scholarships, and faith development.
Our Disciples Women’s Ministry is thankful for the support of our church family, Mount Olive East CC. Most of all we thankful to God for his guidance, his grace, and his mercy over the past 50 years!!
Margretha Kellam
President, Virginia Disciples Women Cabinet
