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Church journalist chosen to lead women's monitoring agency

10/20/2003 News media contact: Linda Green · (615) 742-5470 · Nashville, Tenn

A head and shoulders photo of M. Garlinda Burton is available at http://umns.umc.org/photos/headshots.html.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - M. Garlinda Burton, editor of the United Methodist Church's Interpreter magazine, has been elected as the interim top executive of the Commission on Status and Role of Women.

Burton, 45, who has edited the magazine for eight years and is a former director of United Methodist News Service, will assume the position of general secretary Nov. 1. She will remain interim executive for a year.

Commission members chose Burton through an Oct. 16 e-mail ballot, according to Gail Murphy-Geiss, president of the women's monitoring agency. The election comes on the heels of the commission's decision not to renominate the Rev. Raponzil "Ra" Drake and the Rev. Soomee Kim as co-general secretaries for 2004. No explanation was given for the decision regarding Kim and Drake.

The churchwide Commission on Status and Role of Women, created in 1976, works for the full inclusion of women in the life of the United Methodist Church. Offices are in Evanston, Ill.

"We were looking for a person with some stature and prominence in the church because we were coming into General Conference and we wanted someone with a small learning curve who can negotiate church structures," Murphy-Geiss said.

Calling Burton respected, articulate and gifted, Murphy-Geiss said the commission is excited about the vision its new executive will bring.

Said Burton: "As a lifelong United Methodist, I've learned a lot about what the church is and what the church could be if we took our commitment to justice for women and people of color seriously. I've always admired the mission and work of the Commission on Status and Role of Women in keeping the issue of women's empowerment before the church."

The United Methodist Church, she said, is called to become something new for Christ's sake. "We cannot become new as long as we are holding on to old stuff such as old sexism, old racism, and I'm just glad to be a small part of an organization that is looking at how we become that new creation."

She expressed a commitment to examining how "we put some teeth" into the commission's mandate of holding the church accountable. "I am concerned that we have not given COSROW the power to hold the church accountable when it fails to support women, to empower women and to fight for women."

Burton has worked at United Methodist Communications for 20 years. In addition to serving as the news service's director from 2002 to last July, she worked for many years as a staff writer. Her current duties include editing Interpreter as well as overseeing the communications agency's Korean- and Hispanic-language ministries and InfoServ, the church's toll-free information service.

"Garlinda is an articulate advocate for inclusiveness and justice," said the Rev. Larry Hollon, top staff executive of United Methodist Communications in Nashville. "This appointment provides the whole church the opportunity to experience her skills and leadership in these areas and more. We will miss her energy and creativity at UMCom, but we are pleased that her gifts will be shared in a wider field of ministry."

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