Church needs advocacy work by women’s agency, speakers say Sept. 27, 2004 By Bonny Stalnaker Roth* EVANSTON,
Ill. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Church needs advocacy on behalf of
women as much as ever, according to Carolyn Henninger Oehler. “Who
will benefit from your work on behalf of women in the church?
Everyone,” she said, addressing members of the United Methodist
Commission on the Status and Role of Women.
Oehler,
president of Scarritt-Bennett Center, spoke during the commission’s
Sept. 23-26 organizing meeting at Sherman United Methodist Church in
Evanston. A former president — serving from 1978 to 1984 — she offered
an overview of commission history from its beginning in 1972 as well as a
vision for the future. “It may take us a while, but we will become an
inclusive church,” she said.
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Garlinda Burton |
Members elected M.
Garlinda Burton as the commission’s chief executive, effective Jan. 1.
Burton had serve as interim top staff executive since November 2003,
following the commission’s decision not to re-nominate the Rev. Raponzil
“Ra” Drake and the Rev. Soomee Kim for 2004. Elected
as officers for the 2005-08 quadrennium are South Carolina Bishop Mary
Virginia “Dindy” Taylor, president; Eva Thai, Cerritos, Calif., vice
president; and Dianne Spencer, Decatur, Ga., secretary. Recently
retired Bishop Sharon Zimmerman Rader convened the meeting until the
election of officers. Rader reminded the commission: “No matter how many
women bishops, district superintendents, pastors, chairs of boards of
ordained ministry and other women leaders the church has, your work is
not over. Sexism is alive in the United Methodist Church.” The
agency’s plans include conducting a U.S.-wide sexual harassment survey
of lay and clergy, employees and parishioners, lay leaders, and seminary
staff and students this year. Members are also proposing a second
training for annual (regional) conference response teams, which serve
congregations whose pastors have been removed because of clergy sexual
misconduct. The
commission formed a task force on racism-sexism-globalism to work in
conjunction with the United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race
and the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. It also formed a
task force to increase funds in the Advocacy for Women Endowment Fund,
established by the commission to support emerging ministries related to
advocacy for women. Using
the commission’s meeting theme “Drawing from the Well,” the Rev. Judy
Loehr, a pastor from Alexandria, Va., led worship services each day,
accompanied by Jorge Lockward, with the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries. Currently
comprising 40 members, the commission ranges in age from high school
youth to older adults, represents 32 U. S. annual conferences and one
central conference, includes 19 racial ethnic persons, and has 15 clergy
and 25 lay members. Following the fall meetings of the central
conferences, the commission will receive three additional members to
bring its total to 43. *Roth is communications director for the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women in Evanston, Ill. News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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