Eleven U.S. seminary students will travel to other countries to learn about the leadership styles of women and share their own leadership methods in an effort to help develop leaders for global justice.

The experience is provided through the 2007-08 Georgia Harkness Scholarships, which awards $5,000 to women who are over age 35 and preparing for ordination as an elder in The United Methodist Church as a second career.

"We believe the Georgia Harkness scholars will be an inspiration to many women in countries where women’s ordination is still a foreign concept," said the Rev. HiRho Park, director of continuing formation for ministry at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

Scholars will be invited to visit both Honduras and El Salvador this year to immerse themselves in the experience of women there and to share their own determination to respond to God’s call to ordained ministry.

The number of recipients increased from 10 to 11 this year as part of the board’s strategic plan for 2007-2012. The recipients are chosen by a committee of United Methodist elders and board staff.

Harkness, the first woman theologian to teach in a Protestant seminary in the United States, dedicated her life to dismantling sexual and racial discrimination in The United Methodist Church and the world. Harkness taught at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill., and died in 1974. She was instrumental in the 1956 decision giving women full-clergy membership in The Methodist Church.

The endowment for the Georgia Harkness Scholarship Program is now more than $500,000, and the board plans to increase that to $1 million by 2012 in conjunction with the United Methodist Foundation for Higher Education. Local churches will have opportunities to invite Georgia Harkness scholars to speak about their faith journey as women leaders of the church.

The 2007-2008 scholarship recipients, their schools and annual conferences are:

• Gladys Frances Adams, Hood Theological Seminary, Salisbury, N.C., Western North Carolina Annual Conference
• Carolyn Jane Christman, United Theological Seminary, Dayton, Ohio, West Ohio Annual Conference
• Heather Ann Flaherty, Candler School of Theology at Emory University, Atlanta, North Georgia Annual Conference
• Cynthia "Cindy" Kaye Frisch, Duke Divinity School, Durham, N.C., Western North Carolina Annual Conference
• Peggy Ann Gibson, Memphis Theological Seminary, Memphis, Tenn., Mississippi Annual Conference
• Regina Lou Gile, Saint Paul School of Theology, Kansas City, Mo., Kansas East Annual Conference
• Suzanne L. Lyons, Eden Theological Seminary, St. Louis, Missouri Annual Conference
• Robyn J. Morrison, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, Calif., Yellowstone Annual Conference
• Beth Wilhelmson Mueller, Claremont School of Theology, Claremont, Calif., Minnesota Annual Conference
• Susie Hiss Thomas, Drew University, The Theological School, Madison, N.J., Louisiana Annual Conference
• Norma Magdalene Wiegand, Wesley Theological Seminary, Washington, D.C., Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conference.

For more information about the scholarship program, visit www.gbhem.org/Harkness.html or contact the Rev. HiRho Park at (615) 340-7409.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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Resources

Georgia Harkness

United Methodist Clergywomen

United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry

United Methodist Loans and Scholarships

Understanding the Kingdom of God