Faith, action
converge at United Methodist Women’s Assembly
|
A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Jan
Love, chief executive of the United Methodist Women's Division,
addresses the 2006 United Methodist Women’s Assembly during closing
worship.
|
Jan
Love, chief executive of the United Methodist Women's Division,
addresses the 2006 United Methodist Women’s Assembly during closing
worship. The May 4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" themed event in
Anaheim, Calif., drew about 7,000 participants. Love pointed out that
for more than 137 years, United Methodist Women has "literally saved and
served the lives of millions of women, children and youth" through its
mission programs. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06479. Accompanies
UMNS story #272. 5/8/06 |
May 8, 2006
By Linda Bloom*
ANAHEIM, Calif. (UMNS) ? In a “scary time” when war, terrorism, environmental
calamity and unchecked poverty and disease are looming fears, United Methodist
Women can still make practical expressions of their faith.
That was the closing message from Jan Love to participants at the 2006 United
Methodist Women’s Assembly. Love is chief executive of the Women’s Division,
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
As a start, women can deepen their understanding of their own salvation and
express the joy of their faith. Then they can “make every day a mission day,”
according to Love. “Continue with more determination to practice love, mercy,
kindness and justice in your home, neighborhood, our nation and across the
world.”
New members can be recruited and shown how United Methodist Women “embraces all
God’s people” and advocates for women both inside and outside the church.
“Tell them that you belong to an organization that refuses to offer religious
excuses or legitimization for violence, vengeance, deprivation and
discrimination,” Love said.
|
A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose A procession of banners carried by United Methodist Women opens the 2006 Assembly.
|
A
procession of banners carried by United Methodist Women representing
the 63 annual conferences opens their 2006 Assembly in Anaheim, Calif.
The 7,000 attendees at the May 4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" themed
event participated in workshops, worship, exhibits and education,
community building and opportunities for contemplation. A UMNS photo by
Mike DuBose. Photo #06481. Accompanies UMNS story #272. 5/8/06 |
For more than 137 years, United Methodist Women has offered the love of Christ
and “literally saved and served the lives of millions of women, children and
youth” through its mission programs, Love pointed out. Under the theme, “Rise,
Shine, Glorify God!,” about 7,000 members gathered May 4-7 at the Anaheim
Convention Center for worship and workshops, exhibits and education, community
building and contemplation.
They filled out “money transfer forms” to lobby Congress for a more just budget;
raised in excess of $20,000 for mission through an early-morning, 3.1-mile walk
and delivered more than 2,000 handmade prayer shawls for later distribution by
mission institutions.
Love said she considered the assembly to be “a great big family reunion,”
strengthening community and “deepening people’s understanding of their own faith
journey.”
The event opened with a grand procession of banners representing the 63 annual
(regional) U.S. conferences of the United Methodist Church. Three large puppets
in rose pink, green and blue — symbolizing the assembly logo — followed,
swirling and billowing up the aisles to the central stage.
Kyung Za Yim, Women’s Division president, welcomed participants and guided them
in a call to worship accompanied by Latino, Tongan, African and Native American
drumming. Chikara Daiko, a group from Centenary United Methodist Church in the
“Little Tokyo” neighborhood of Los Angeles, received an enthusiastic reaction
for their Taiko — or classical Japanese — drumming.
Speaking with courage
Social justice issues were a key focus of speakers May 5. Wahu Kaara, founder of
the Kenya Debt Relief Network and a candidate in the 2007 presidential
elections, knows living examples of the feminization of poverty and told the
women they must speak “with unflinching courage” on the injustices that divide
the world into “haves and have-nots.”
|
A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Anna Deavere Smith gives a presentation on her style of interviewing subjects and interpreting their words.
|
Anna
Deavere Smith combines the journalistic technique of interviewing her
subjects with the art of interpreting their words during a performance
at the 2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly in Anaheim, Calif. The May
4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" event drew more than 7,000
participants. The gathering offered workshops, worship, exhibits and
education, community building and opportunities for contemplation. A
UMNS photo by Mike Dubose. Photo #06482. Accompanies UMNS story #272.
5/8/06 |
Silvia Regina Lima e Silva, a Latin American theologian, called attention to the
U.S. immigration debate by condemning the proposed fence between the United
States and Mexico and calling increased border patrols “a manifestation of a
growing racism and xenophobia which are becoming part of everyday life.”
Anna Deavere Smith, known for her performance art about controversial issues —
such as “Twilight: Los Angeles,” which focused on the 1992 civil unrest
following the Rodney King verdict — gave an evening presentation about her
journalistic style of interviewing subjects and then interpreting their words.
She spoke warmly of her upbringing in the Union Memorial United Methodist Church
in Baltimore — although she confessed she is now an Episcopalian — and talked
about how she likes the repetition of words through the Bible and prayer.
Her grandfather told her that “if you say a word often enough, it becomes you.”
By repeating the words of the people she has interviewed and recorded on tape,
Smith became a Jewish woman dealing with a Sabbath dilemma in Crown Heights,
Brooklyn; a male doctor talking to a meeting of traditional healers in Uganda; a
female prison inmate remembering how domestic violence led to the death of her
daughter; and a Korean store owner bitter over the burning of her shop during
the Los Angeles riots.
Shining the light
On May 6, the Rev. Don Saliers, a composer of sacred music and professor at
Candler School of Theology, and his daughter, Emily, one half of the Indigo
Girls, demonstrated through song how music “takes us to places we wouldn’t have
expected to go.”
Three women — Casimira Rodriguez Romero, the new minister of justice for
Bolivia; Kim Hallowell, a young adult and advocate against child labor; and
Christy Tate Smith, a disaster consultant for the United Methodist Committee on
Relief — provided personal examples of how Methodist women shine their light on
the world.
|
A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Members of Chikaro Daiko play Taiko music during opening worship at the 2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly.
|
Members
of Chikaro Daiko, a Japanese drumming group from Centenary United
Methodist Church in Los Angeles, play Taiko music during opening worship
at the 2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly in Anaheim, Calif. The
May 4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" event drew more than 7,000
participants. The gathering offered workshops, worship, exhibits and
education, community building and opportunities for contemplation. A
UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06480. Accompanies UMNS story #272.
5/8/06 |
Their stories were incorporated in a Bible study led by M. Garlinda Burton,
chief executive of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of
Women, who urged assembly participants to find their own way to shine.
“We’ve got the love of Christ, the chutzpah of the Holy Spirit and more than 200
years of shining backing us up as Methodists,” she declared.
The drummers of the opening worship represented the vast diversity of cultural
arts found throughout the assembly. Sanctified Souljahz!, a group of youth
connected with New Entra Casa, a San Diego program for ex-offenders and their
children, offered a version of liturgical dance that members call “body
worship.”
Orquesta Candela, a Hispanic Christian salsa band from Los Angeles, roused the
audience, and a Tongan women’s choir and youth dance group from St. Mark United
Methodist Church in Anaheim drew wild applause.
Saturday evening’s entertainment featured the Clark University Steppers from
Atlanta, performing a style of dance with roots from Africa, and the Ewha
Alumnae Choir of Seoul, Korea, composed of the Methodist-supported Ewha
University and Girls’ High School.
*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.
Related Video
Assembly 2006 Online Videos
Related Articles
Poor also have dignity, speakers tell Women?s Assembly
Assembly leaders ?shine? through music, good works
Diversity marks 2006 United Methodist Women?s Assembly
Methodist activist joins cabinet of new government
United Methodist Women to explore immigrant rights
Bolivian combines faith with fight for rights of household workers
Resources
United Methodist Women
UMW assembly
|