Continuing the journey set forth by our mothers

Cyneatha Millsaps looks forward to the 2025 Mennonite Church USA Women’s Summit by pondering how women can better stand up for themselves and their sisters.

This blog is in preparation for the 2025 Mennonite Church USA convention, Follow Jesus ’25, and the Women’s Summit that precedes convention.

Cyneatha Millsaps is the executive director of Mennonite Women USA and the executive director of Goshen College Center for Community Engagement in Goshen, Indiana. Cyneatha has served as pastor in both the Central District Conference and Indiana-Michigan Mennonite Conference of MC USA. Cyneatha currently is focusing her energy on public education, specifically as it relates to Black/African American students, and leading Mennonite Women USA, as they seek to build an expanding coalition of women throughout the Anabaptist churches.

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As we prepare for the Women in Leadership Conference on July 8th, let’s ask ourselves: How are we passively upholding the patriarchal system we have been trying to actively dismantle for over a century?

Having worked within the Mennonite Church for over 25 years, I have witnessed firsthand how our very systems keep us locked in a never-ending struggle. Women have fought so hard to reach the top of the mountain, but how often do we pause to ask whether we should be climbing that mountain at all, whether we should have been climbing a different mountain, or if instead, we should be building community in our valley.

Whether as a pastor or a director, my journey to be my authentic self has been met with barriers of whiteness, patriarchy, and colonialism at every step. It is exhausting and, on many days, downright heartbreaking. But in those moments, it is my sisters who rejuvenate me, encourage me, and give me the strength to step back into the fight.

I look forward to our pause by way of gathering on July 8th. I look forward to basking in the warmth of my sisters’ sun. I look forward to learning from the brilliance of my sisters. I look forward to the light that shines when we are together.

But make no mistake—there are difficult conversations we must have. We must confront our own complicity. We must acknowledge our ongoing struggle to close the gender gaps our mothers began addressing generations ago. We must ask why only a few women are willing to sacrifice for others and what we have not fully learned from the movements of the past.

We need to be honest about our history—from the Suffrage Movement to the Feminist and Womanist Movements of the 1960s and ’70s, on to the Me Too Movement of the last two decades, and to the ongoing fight for reproductive rights, gender identity, and human rights today. I challenge each of us to reflect on these movements, the gaps between them, and how that work has shaped our freedom.

Let us also examine how the church and capitalism have worked to keep women in our place, particularly our participation in these systems. My hope is that you will come to this gathering seeking rest, so that you can leave feeling recharged.  Having first stood up for yourselves, I hope you will be ready to stand up for everyone. I hope that it moves you to regularly rest, regularly study, and regularly act to complete what our mother’s started.