Leadership
of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women discuss
their goal of �wanting to know Christ and making Him known.�
Leadership
of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women discuss
the organization�s goal of �wanting to know Christ and making Him
known,� during a meeting at the United Methodist-owned Church Center for
the United Nations in New York. From left are: Khushnud Azariah, Thelma
Johnson and Cynthia Pozzo. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin. Photo number 04-332, 8/10/04
Aug. 10, 2004
By Linda Bloom*
NEW YORK (UMNS) – Diversity is perhaps the greatest resource of the World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women.
The
organization’s West African membership developed study materials for
2003-04 on HIV/AIDS. The East Asia area has produced study materials for
2004-05 on violence against women, which links with the World Council
of Churches’ Decade to Overcome Violence.
Binding
the federation’s roughly 5 million members, according to Rosemary Wass,
is the goal of “wanting to know Christ and making Him known.”
Wass,
of York, England, is the federation’s world president. World officers
and the group’s executive committee met in August at the United
Methodist-owned Church Center for the United Nations in New York.
During
the federation’s 10th world assembly in 2001, delegates passed
resolutions on five issues for study and action by its nine regional
areas – racism, violence, gender justice, children and HIV/AIDS. The
women also endorsed a resolution on “personal and community
spirituality.”
How
those issues are addressed can vary depending on where federation
members live, according to Thelma Johnson of Cincinnati, Ohio, the world
treasurer. “Regardless of what the denomination is, the culture has a
lot to do with what’s happening with the church,” she explained.
Between
the 2001 assembly and the 2006 world assembly in Korea, the federation
has sponsored seven area seminars and the West Asia seminar is scheduled
for Nov. 24-29 in Sri Lanka. The officers have attended all the
seminars, according to Wass. “Wherever we go, there are stories that are
very pertinent to the resolutions,” she said.
Some
of the issues have had a direct impact on membership. Cynthia Pozzo,
the federation’s world vice president and its U.N. facilitator, noted
that some members from Africa have died from HIV/AIDS and others have
had to move because of war or civil conflict.
Gender
justice remains an issue in many countries – even at the local church
level, where women raise funds and do other work for the church but are
not allowed to share in decision-making. But education about gender
justice is helping to open doors, Johnson pointed out.
Khushnud Azariah
Khushnud
Azariah, an ordained minister of the United Church of Pakistan and the
World Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women�s president
emerita.
In
Pakistan, where women still are constrained by a patriarchal system, “we
are putting a lot of emphasis on women’s education, on empowerment,”
said Khushnud Azariah, an ordained minister of the United Church of
Pakistan and the federation’s president emerita. “Even rural women in
Pakistan are developing confidence in themselves.”
Young
men also need to be educated about gender justice, she added, pointing
out that since Christians are a very small minority in Pakistan, the
Christian men also feel marginalized.
Janice
Clark of Birmingham, England, the federation’s world secretary and
webmaster, believes there are links among the issues of gender justice,
violence and HIV/AIDS. “There is a lack of respect for women in the area
of sexuality,” she said.
Informing
and educating the membership – which pays an annual fee of three cents
per member, for those who can afford it – is a concern when some do not
have access to the Internet, to reading materials or cannot even read or
write.
But
the spirit of the women helps overcome such obstacles. At the West
Africa seminar, Pozzo said she found the women from Sierra Leone “were
some of the most positive women we met with,” despite their struggles
from a long civil war and its aftermath.
“The
more we are pushed to the margins, the more we feel called or
challenged,” said Azariah, who added that she has dealt with her own
marginalization by working with less fortunate women and children. “The
more you relate with people who are poor and oppressed, the more
energized you are.”
More information can be found at www.methodistandunitingchurchwomen.org, the federation’s Web site.
*Linda Bloom is a United Methodist News Service writer based in New York.
Korean News
