Guisborough MWiB Celebration Sunday 19th October 2025

On the afternoon of Sunday 19th October 2025 a group of around 60 MWiB members past and present met at Guisborough Methodist Church for a wonderful time of stories, songs and fellowship together in celebration of the 70th Anniversary of our women’s groups continuously meeting at the Church since the Autumn of 1955.

We were treated to a performance of worship songs and hymns across the decades from the 1950s to the 2020s from local musicians Julie & Dave Booth, who were delighted with the audience participation especially in old favourites from the last century.

Rev Graham Smith, Minister at Guisborough from 1983-1994, and his wife Jean, a former Network President of our Tuesday at Eight group, were delighted to be able to join us to share their memories of times gone by. We were also very pleased that Connexional MWiB Co-Chair Rev Leonora Wassell was able to be with us, bringing greetings from Connexion along with congratulations on our anniversary and sharing in our time of worship together.

During a delicious afternoon tea when one of our longest serving members Ethel Hugill (95) cut our special anniversary cake we all had the opportunity to chat and catch up with friends old and new. We closed the celebration with a time of worship in the Church on the theme of “Our Story, Our Song” with our current Minister Rev Meg Peters.

In 1955, 70 years ago, a small group of Methodist women with a vision of caring within the local community & of sharing their faith formed the Guisborough Methodist Wives Club. Since then our groups continued to grow over many years, although nowadays we are fewer in number than before; in the name of Jesus, our Lord & Saviour,
We still meet together in faith and in action, supporting one another and also many local, national and international charities with fund-raising. We have changed our name & constitution to reflect the Connexional re-organisation of women’s movements within Methodism and have evolved alongside Women’s Own that became Women’s Fellowship while we went from Wives Club to Young Wives, to simply Wives and then to Tuesday @ Eight and now T@2 within the over-arching national Women’s Work, Network & Connexional MWiB charitable organisations, as well as the WFMUCW internationally.

Women’s Fellowship continues to meet on a Monday afternoon from 1.30pm; T@2 gets together for lunch on the 1st Tuesday of the month and meets at 2pm in Church on the 3rd Tuesday.

Pamela Stenson
Guisborough Methodist Church MWiB
Darlington District MWiB Ambassador