Commission offers lifeline to women in the church
By Linda Bloom*
Sept. 25, 2007 | SAN FRANCISCO (UMNS)
Bishop Mary Taylor
|
For individual women in the church, the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women can be a lifeline.
The Rev. Elizabeth Lopez, for example, remembers the support that the
Rev. Nan Self, then a commission executive, offered to her more than 30
years ago. New to ordination and the church bureaucracy, Lopez said she
found herself in a bewildering, humiliating situation as a nominee for
the board of directors of the denomination's General Council on
Ministries.
Self sought her out and gave her the encouragement she needed, Lopez
told commission directors during their Sept. 20-22 annual meeting in San
Francisco. Even now, COSROW "is still the voice of countless women,"
she said.
The commission has created "the space for women to speak," added
Lopez, who currently serves as superintendent of the Metro West District
of the United Methodist Minnesota Annual (regional) Conference. "If
this voice is silenced, how will the church be accountable?"
'A powerful gift'
Bishop Mary Virginia "Dindy" Taylor of Columbia, S.C., who is
COSROW's president, said that, as a clergywoman, the commission "has
been a support group throughout my ministry."
She told United Methodist News Service she was pleased to hear
stories from individual women – whether seminarians and professors at
Boston University or Native American clergy and lay women in Oklahoma --
as the commission met over the past four years and to lead advocacy
work that has resulted in "much more attention" to issues of sexual
ethics and misconduct in the church’s annual conferences.
Garlinda Burton
|
"To see how the church is progressing is a powerful gift," the bishop said.
COSROW's achievements during the past quadrennium have included
developing and distributing a new online curriculum, "Women Called to
Ministry," for local churches; bringing more than 200 church leaders and
representatives of five church agencies together to discuss prevention
of sexual misconduct; launching a sexual ethics newsletter and Web site;
and participating in the 2006 celebration of the 50th anniversary of
full clergy rights for women in The United Methodist Church.
Survey planned
A denomination-wide survey on issues related to clergy spouses,
conducted in cooperation with the United Methodist Board of Pension and
Health Benefits, is being planned, according to a report from M.
Garlinda Burton, the commission's chief executive.
"We have reached out to clergy spouses and said to the church that we
need to pay attention to the concerns of clergy spouses and families
and ensure that they are not isolated and taken for granted as they
serve alongside the clergy family member, and that the church must
provide support and pastoral care when there is a divorce or other
crisis in the clergy family," she said.
Monitoring, reporting and advocacy for the inclusion of women at all
levels of church life remain priorities for the commission, and Burton
encouraged departing directors to continue the ministry.
"Your local church and annual conference should have at least a basic
policy for preventing and addressing sexual misconduct and abuse, and
if they don't, they should have you 'up in their faces' asking why and
offering to facilitate training and policy development," she declared.
"Women and girls should be more visible in traditional and
nontraditional leadership roles – and more men should be teaching Sunday
school and working in partnership with their sisters," Burton added.
"Christian education should include curricula and discussion about
the forgotten history of women as preachers, judges, prophets, disciples
and leaders from the Old Testament right through to today. Your annual
conference should have monitoring tools and teams at work each year."
She urged women of all ages, both clergy and lay, to study and work
together, fighting sexism and "mentoring new women into faith and
leadership."
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
Audio
Garlinda Burton
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Resources
COSROW
Women Called to Ministry |