Meet the Elizabeth Group

Jan 3, 2024 | by Liz Motley

In 2013, Rev. Donna McKee gathered a group of women who wanted to deepen their discipleship. A group of twelve women began to meet on Thursday afternoons in the parlor for a book discussion. These women became the first covenant group. After ten years, around twenty-five women have been members of this group.

The twenty-three books that have been discussed vary from Rob Bell’s Velvet Elvis, Repainting the Christian Faith to Leslie Weatherhead’s The Will of God to books by Richard Rohr, Joan Chittister, Barbara Brown Taylor, and many other well-known Christian writers. During covid, these ladies meet over Zoom to discuss The Four Witnesses by Robin Griffith- Jones, a British writer, taking two years to cover the book due to his complex writing style!

One year, Rev. McKee challenged each covenant group to participate in an Advent study. The Elizabeth Group chose Shine! Light for All People by Patricia Farris. During our discussion, the group realized that Elizabeth, John the Baptizer’s mother, became a spiritual mentor to Mary. She called out Mary’s gifts. She supported her intuition and her choice. She helped Mary became the person God was calling her to be.

The ladies realized that all of us, young and old, sometimes need the support and mentoring of an Elizabeth to help us see ourselves in God’s light. It’s not easy work for most of us. We have doubts. We tend to undervalue our own gifts. We rarely trust our own great potential. Fortunately we don’t make this journey alone, but in the beauty and the power of Christian community. When it is hard for us to see our own gifts, when it is difficult to claim our potential, we need an Elizabeth in our lives. Thus this group of ladies became the Elizabeth Group.

As women have had to leave the Elizabeth Group for one reason or another, they are told that they always have a seat at the table. The reading of these books challenge each member. The ladies meet for lunch in September to choose the books and to volunteer for times to facilitate the discussion.

At each week’s meeting, the women commit to put aside the world for the hour and a half discussion and to be fully present during their time together— a time of support, affirmation, discussion, and prayer. Each woman who has been a member of this group is committed to help each others grow in their discipleship.

(Picture: In November the Elizabeth Group met to celebrate Dolores Master’s birthday.)