Our Pledge: “As Sisters of the St. Mariam’s Women Guild we pledge total involvement in our Sisterhood.  Our defense and strength is Our Blessed, Honorable and Pure Lady, Our Mother St. Mariam.  We pledge commitment to her virtuous ways, and to do our best to encourage, support and bring out the best in every sister to promote development of our Church.”

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Our Motto:  Adanet! Adanet! Adanet!  (Unity)

Harambe, Harambe, Harambe! (Come Together)

 

Purpose:  The St. Mariam’s Women Guild consist of all baptized women in our Church.  As women, our aim to promote unity and as one body we are seeking and learning to achieve spiritual, social and economic development under the guidance of the Church.

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Our Goal: To emulate our Blessed Mother St. Mariam.  Also to strive to live a virtuous life as mentioned in Proverbs 31. To evangelize to brothers and sisters in our community.  To organize functions to raise funds for the missionary work of the Church, promote our spiritual development and to serve within our Church Community.  To hold monthly  meetings to plan spiritual and secular activities to better aide the Church. To work closely with all other Organizations in the Church, namely Brotherhood, Youth, Gems and Princes.

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Spiritual Development: As women in the Church, we are ever learning about the faith, doctrine and dogma so that we are equipped to spread the teaching of the One Holy Apostolic Church. We try to emulate our Blessed Mother St. mariam and aim to follow Her Virtious ways, humility, charity, love, holiness and servitude.  After the observance of Her Yearly Fast (August 7-22nd) we hold our Annual St. Mariam Retret in Her Honor.  This is done during the spiritual celebration called Filsata (August 22-27th), one of the major Holy Day Celebrations.  Here we as sisters gather together and dedicate most of the day to Her by venerating Her through spiritual prayers from our Holy books and Scriptures, singing, feasting, serving and exchanging gifts to each other in Her name.  During this time, we share our encounter of Her Miracles and our testimonies of how it impacts our lives.  At this time, we offer special gifts to the Church in Her name.  We also assist in the special yearly Holy Day Celebration of the Kidane Mehret Kidane Selam Monestary in the Catskills Mountains. Since October 2017, during our monthly meetings under the guidance of Melake Ganet Kesis Tesfa Eyesus, Priest/Admministrator, we have been elevating our spiritual growth by learning more about the virtues and attributes of our Holy Lady th eVirgin Mariam and how we as women can learn and emulate Her character and strengths to aid in our daily lives.  We also plan and prepare for all our Holy day celebrations throughout the year.  These Holy Days are – St. Gabriel’s Day - Celebration in honor of our Patron Saint,  Filsata – the Assumption of Our Lady the Virgin St. Mariam, Hosanna (Palm Sunday), Tensae (Easter) Genna (Christmas).  We also assit our Sister churches in their Holy Day Celebrations. We also do alms giving, because charity covers a multitude of sins and is our Christian duty.  The Church possess several Holy Books on St Mariam which educates and guides us to live a more spiritual life as women.

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Community Involvement/Outreach:  Our Sisterhood is dedicated and committed to helping in our surrounding local communitites and also internationally.  We help in disaster situations to Ethiopia, Jamaica, Haiti, Costa Rico and locally we assist Essex County (Isaiah House, Newark Emergency Services, Turning Point) by donating medical supplies, school supplies, toiletries, clothing, perishable and non-perishable food items.  In conjunction with all the other Organizations, we visited the Grove Manor Nursing Home where we prepared and served a cooked meal, prayed, sung and interacted with the residents.  Every summer we host our Annual Family and Friends Day at the South Mountain Reservation.

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Social/Economic Development:  We work closely with all Organizations in the Church to support our Community during personal moments such as sickness, death, birth, marriage, hardships, etc.  We generate funds through arts and crafts, preparing lunch and dinner sales within the Church and the Community.  We collaborate with the Brotherhood to host large fundraisers, raffles and 50/50.  We pray that we will be able to do more when we move to our new Church.

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May the guidance, love and blessings of Our Holy Blessed and Perpetual Virgin St. Mariam, who is Virgin in Spirit and Body be with us all.  Amen.