Assembly leaders
shine through music, good works
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose The Rev. Don and Emily Saliers greet attendees during worship at the United Methodist Women's Assembly.
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At
the 2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly, the Rev. Don Saliers,
professor of theology and worship at Candler School of Theology, and his
daughter, Emily Saliers, half of the Grammy award-winning folk rock duo
the Indigo Girls, tell how music "takes us to places we wouldn't have
expected to go." The May 4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" event in
Anaheim, Calif., 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
#06474. Accompanies UMNS story #271. 5/8/06 |
May 8, 2006
By Linda Bloom*
ANAHEIM, Calif. (UMNS) — His father was a jazz musician in New York and his
daughter is half of the Indigo Girls, a Grammy award-winning folk rock duo.
The Rev. Don Saliers himself is a composer of sacred music, as well as a United
Methodist pastor and the William R. Cannon distinguished professor of theology
and worship at Candler School of Theology in Atlanta.
Together, Saliers and his daughter, Emily, demonstrated to participants at the
2006 United Methodist Women’s Assembly on May 6 how music “takes us to places we
wouldn’t have expected to go.”
Three “ordinary women doing extraordinary things” also told part of their
stories during the morning’s Bible study, led with exuberance by M. Garlinda
Burton, chief executive, United Methodist Commission on the Study and Role of
Women.
It wasn’t the first visit to Anaheim for Don Saliers. Twenty years ago, he
told the crowd, he had designed the liturgy for the 1986 United Methodist
Women’s Assembly, which took place there. Interacting through conversation and
music, he and Emily began with a prayer song of “peace, not affliction.” Father
and daughter have collaborated on a book, A Song to Sing, A Life to Live.
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose "Ordinary women can do extraordinary things," says M. Garlinda Burton while leading Bible study at the assembly.
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"Ordinary
women can do extraordinary things," says M. Garlinda Burton while
leading Bible study at the United Methodist Women's Assembly in Anaheim,
Calif. Burton is the chief executive of the United Methodist Commission
on the Status and Role of Women. The May 4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify
God!" event drew more than 7,000 participants and included workshops,
worship, exhibits and education, community building and opportunities
for contemplation. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo #06478.
Accompanies UMNS story #271. 5/8/06 |
The Saliers spoke briefly about the commitment of the Indigo Girls to social
justice issues and their work with indigenous peoples and how music can be “a
great tool of change” as the walls of oppression come down.
While Don Saliers has been an organist, choirmaster and president of the North
American Academy of Liturgy and the Society for the Study of Christian
Spirituality, Emily Saliers, an Emory University graduate, and her singing
partner, Amy Ray, got their start performing in bars.
There, she said, they found a sense of musical community. “Music really
transformed our lives,” she explained. “It brought us together and, more
importantly, took us out into the world.”
The participation of Emily Saliers at the assembly had been the subject of
criticism by the RENEW network, a coalition of evangelical United Methodist
women, because she has been open about being a lesbian. But both father and
daughter received an enthusiastic reception as they shared songs ranging from
Indigo Girls recordings to Duke Ellington’s “Come Sunday” to two different
musical versions of Psalm 139.
Three who shine
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A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose Casimira Rodriguez Romero tells how she was exploited as a house servant in Bolivia.
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Casimira
Rodriguez Romero, recipient of the 2003 World Methodist Peace Award,
shares her testimony as an exploited house servant during worship at the
2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly in Anaheim, Calif. Her
experiences led her to organize for the rights of domestic workers in
Bolivia and eventually throughout Latin America and the Caribbean. The
May 4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" event drew more than 7,000
participants and focused on social justice issues as well as offering
workshops, worship, exhibits and education, community building and
opportunities for contemplation. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. Photo
#06477. Accompanies UMNS story #271. 5/8/06 |
Building on the call in Matthew 5:14-16 to be a light of the world, Burton
introduced three women who “shine” in their own special ways.
For Casamira Rodriguez Romero, it was her teen-age experience as an exploited
house servant that led her to organize for the rights of domestic workers in
Bolivia and, eventually, Latin America and the Caribbean.
The recipient of the 2003 World Methodist Peace Award also learned along the way
that her Methodist faith and her convictions for social justice went
hand-in-hand. “With the permanent support of God ? I was able to go on with my
struggles,” she recalled.
Early this year, Evo Morales, the new president of Bolivia, named Romero to his
cabinet. “Today, my new responsibility is not just to serve the domestic workers
of Bolivia but to serve my entire country as minister of justice,” she told the
assembly.
Her appointment, she added, “has made visible the movement of domestic workers
around the continent” and has given a public voice to indigenous women.
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A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey College
freshman Kim Hallowell says the United Methodist Women's reading
program inspired her to become an advocate against child labor.
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College
freshman Kim Hallowell, the United Methodist Women's representative to
the 2004 Children's World Congress on Child Labor in Florence, Italy,
says the UMW's reading program inspired her to become an advocate
against child labor. Hallowell shared her story 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 and focused on
social justice issues as well as offering workshops, worship, exhibits
and education, community building and opportunities for contemplation. A
UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey. Photo #06476. Accompanies UMNS story #271.
5/8/06 |
It was the reading program of United Methodist Women that led Kim Hallowell, of
the denomination’s California-Nevada Annual (regional) Conference, to the issue
of child labor.
She started a club in her high school to advocate against child labor and was a
UMW representative to the first-ever Children’s World Congress on Child Labor in
Florence, Italy, in 2004. “The stories I heard made the issue of child labor
more real to me,” she said.
Now a freshman in college, Hallowell’s goal is to become a children’s advocate
for an international nongovernmental organization.
After devastating tornadoes struck Tennessee in 2003, Christy Tate Smith felt
called by God to respond. She became the disaster coordinator for the United
Methodist Memphis Annual (regional) Conference and now trains volunteers as a
consultant for the United Methodist Committee on Relief.
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A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey Christy Tate Smith tells how she became the disaster coordinator for the Memphis Annual Conference.
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At
the 2006 United Methodist Women's Assembly in Anaheim, Calif., Christy
Tate Smith shares her story on how she became the disaster coordinator
for the Memphis Annual Conference following devastating tornadoes that
struck Tennessee in 2003. As part of the first United Methodist
Committee on Relief inspection team in Louisiana, she also spoke about
the dignity and grace shown by survivors of Hurricane Katrina. The May
4-7 "Rise, Shine, Glorify God!" event drew more than 7,000 participants
and focused on social justice issues as well as offering workshops,
worship, exhibits and education, community building and opportunities
for contemplation. A UMNS photo by Paul Jeffrey. Photo #06475.
Accompanies UMNS story #271. 5/8/06 |
“God wants each survivor to walk away whole,” said Smith, who was part of the
first UMCOR inspection team in Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina hit.
The Katrina survivors that Smith has met have shown patience and gratitude under
very difficult conditions. “I went to a prayer meeting where survivors never
mentioned their own needs but prayed for others,” she said. “I saw dignity and
grace and hope and mercy.”
In the rousing style of a big-tent evangelist, Burton challenged her
“sensible-shoes-wearing, fund-raising, bazaar-hosting, prayer-shawl-making”
sisters at the assembly to be their own light in the world — through love,
charity, reconciliation and the fight for justice.
“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.
*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.
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