Southampton District Day 4th October 2025
The Status of Women – A Way Forward
Keynote Speaker – Rev’d Leonora Wassell
The theme followed Leonora’s experience of visiting the UN annual conference on the subject in New York, and Leonora travelled south to share something of what she had learned with around 50 people at Romsey Methodist Church
A short time of devotion introduced the theme and was followed by a Bible study led by Rev’d Andrew de Ville based around Exodus 3:1 – 6 exploring the need to ‘pay attention’ to God, and the needs of others as well as ourselves.
Leonora’s keynote talk included messages from the UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres and his Deputy Amina J Mohamed highlighting the work in many nations to improve women’s experiences, and celebrating progress that has been made. However, aggression towards women now affects 1 in 3 in their lifetime, so there is still much to do, and we heard about some organisations involved in the ongoing efforts.
We were reminded of the annual 16 Days of Action campaign especially the 25th November when women unite to work towards the end of gender based violence, and also the Thursdays in Black campaign which Methodist Women continue to support.
Workshops were based around the theme with opportunity to write and present a Haiku poem, to create a postcard to send to an MP or a talk about the work of women’s refuges in the Southampton area which gained close attention.
Following some news updates, which included a presentation to Chris Stuckey as she retired from her District role, and an announcement that last year’s fundraiser for The Leprosy Mission raised £11, 783.00, everyone came together to share in Holy Communion linking the day’s theme to ‘Our Story, Our Song’, giving a sense of hope and positivity for the future.
