Our History
Since 1941 women of the Church Women United Movement have held a vision of Christian unity and prayerful action. CWU was founded as a racially, culturally, and theologically inclusive Christian women’s movement to celebrate unity in diversity and work for peace in the world.
At its founding, the Movement was named United Council of Church Women (UCCW). Women of faith from three interdenominational women’s groups representing 70 denominations convened in Atlantic City, NJ in December, 1941 while bombs were being dropped and the world was at war. The United Council of Church Women’s first action was to circulate a petition signed by 84,000 church women “urging the United States at the signing of the United Nations Charter, to join and take its full responsibility in a world organization.”
The action received wide publicity in the media and Eleanor Roosevelt later involved the UCCW in a conference at the White House on “How Women May Share in Post War Policy Making.” Such action remains typical for CWU today as its quest for informed prayer for prayerful action continues. Women of the Movement affirm that prayer and action are inseparable and that both have immeasurable influence in the world.
I think about our modern day world. How fast we want things to happen. Our preference is to trim things down into in commercial sized segments. As 21st Century women we may work and think differently but our conviction for the work is similar. Our CWU mothers were true, fastidious, focused. So are we. They saw the work to be done, planted an idea, birthed it, named it, nurtured it, and watched it grow. They have left it in our hands. That makes my knees weak, but there are so many more of us now and potentially, many, many, more.
At its founding, the Movement was named United Council of Church Women (UCCW). Women of faith from three interdenominational women’s groups representing 70 denominations convened in Atlantic City, NJ in December, 1941 while bombs were being dropped and the world was at war. The United Council of Church Women’s first action was to circulate a petition signed by 84,000 church women “urging the United States at the signing of the United Nations Charter, to join and take its full responsibility in a world organization.”
The action received wide publicity in the media and Eleanor Roosevelt later involved the UCCW in a conference at the White House on “How Women May Share in Post War Policy Making.” Such action remains typical for CWU today as its quest for informed prayer for prayerful action continues. Women of the Movement affirm that prayer and action are inseparable and that both have immeasurable influence in the world.
I think about our modern day world. How fast we want things to happen. Our preference is to trim things down into in commercial sized segments. As 21st Century women we may work and think differently but our conviction for the work is similar. Our CWU mothers were true, fastidious, focused. So are we. They saw the work to be done, planted an idea, birthed it, named it, nurtured it, and watched it grow. They have left it in our hands. That makes my knees weak, but there are so many more of us now and potentially, many, many, more.
