Eleven women receive seminary scholarships
By United Methodist News Service
June 15, 2007 | NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS)
Georgia Harkness
|
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 Rev. Hirho Park
|
"We believe the women who have been selected to receive the scholarship named for her will continue her work," Park said.
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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