N.E.W. – the Network to Empower Women

Biography of Marchiene Rienstra, Author
THE FUTURE FOR WO/MEN

Marchiene spent the first fifteen years of her life in India and Pakistan. There, her strong sense of fairness was often offended by the way she saw girls and women treated. When boys were born, there was great rejoicing. When girls were born, not so. Women and girls were confined and mistreated in many ways. Upon returning with her family to the United States, she saw the same unfairness, only in a more subtle way. She noticed that in the 50's, a girl´s worth was measured by whether she could "catch" a good man. The roles women could expect to play was far more limited than those men could look forward to. Sexist attitudes were common.

She decided she could not accept this state of affairs. She went by herself to Africa to teach and work in an orphanage. There, she met her husband. Then, while she was raising a family, she attended Calvin Seminary, and became the first woman to graduate with a Master of Divinity degree, and the first to apply for ordination as a minister in the Christian Reformed Church. When this was denied her, she joined the Presbyterian church, and was ordained by them as a minister. She founded two new churches and served in several denominations in her long career as a minister, including being the first woman senior pastor of a large church in the Reformed Church in America.

Throughout her years as a minister, Marchiene spoke out in writing and in person for the equality of women, and the freedom to fully use their many talents and great wisdom. She insisted that both church and society were suffering greatly by restricting women. In personal counseling, spiritual direction, and retreats for women, Marchiene encouraged women to challenge the status quo and be all they could be, in spite of the obstacles.

Through experience and extensive study of the status of women in history and culture, Marchiene became convinced of the absolute necessity for the empowerment of women, and as part of this, the honoring of God´s Feminine aspect. She wrote the book SWALLOW´S NEST (available through Xlibris) so that women and men who saw the need for a feminine version of the Psalms could use them for prayer and public worship. This book also offered selections from great women mystics often overlooked, and application of the Psalms to contemporary situations. (Click here to read excerpts from SWALLOW´S NEST on the Xlibris web site.)

Most recently, Marchiene earned a Master´s degree as an interfaith minister from the All Faiths Seminary in New York City, and founded the Interfaith Institute at Mother´s Trust, Mother´s Place. She did this because of her interest in universality and the bedrock values that underlie the world´s religions and cultures. She discovered that the Golden Rule – Do unto others as you would have them do unto you – is not unique to the Jewish or Christian traditions. It exists in some form in them all. "If this wisdom were applied to the relations between men and women," she reasoned, "the world would be a far better place!"

This conviction, along with her life-long experience as a woman, led Marchiene to write the book THE FUTURE FOR WO/MEN, published by Xlibris in December 2003. She intends that the book, along with this web site, will create a world wide Network to Empower Women, abbreviated N.E.W. Her book explains her vision, why such a network is needed, how it works, how anyone can join it, and how someone can create a N.E.W. Circle wherever they live. She intends to keep writing more books to empower women for full partnership with men.