wfn.org | United Methodists stand for children

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (2989 notes).

Note 2988 by UMNS on June 3, 1996 at 16:41 Eastern (7150 characters).

[B
SEARCH:   Stand for Children, rally, march, children, youth,
          coalitions

  UMNS stories may be accessed on the Internet World Wide Web at:
                   http://www.umc.org/umns.html

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the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                      274(10-30-71P){2988}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            June 3, 1996

Thousands of United Methodists
"Stand for Children" on June 1

     WASHINGTON (UMNS) -- United Methodists who came from
throughout the country to take part in the "Stand for Children"
rally here June 1 expressed excitement and pleasure despite such
hardships as 14-hour overnight bus rides, miles of walking and
hours of standing.
     The pageantry was done simply but stirringly.
     Twenty-five children's choirs combined to make the 2,000-
voice America Sings choir that stretched several rows deep across
the east face of the Lincoln Memorial. The blue-and-white-clad
young people ranging in age from 5 to 18 sang, gestured and danced
in near perfect synchronization intermittently throughout the
almost four-hour program.

     National Park Service officials estimated the crowd size at
200,000 people.
     At noon, 10,000 children and their adult companions sang and
chanted as they paraded with banners flying across Memorial Bridge
from Arlington Memorial Cemetery to the Lincoln Memorial grounds.
It was an awesome sight.
     Among them were 38 children and youth from Children and
Family Urban Ministries in Des Moines, Iowa. They accompanied
Donna Kay Campbell, a church and community worker of the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries, who arranged the trip to
include a day for visiting such sights as the White House and
Smithsonian Institution.
     One boy from the group, Brion Perkins, accompanied Bishop
Charles W. Jordan to the VIP seating area on the stage in a
colorful procession of religious leaders that began the interfaith
service.
     Taking part in that service were Carolyn Johnson, president
of United Methodist Women, who read Matthew 19:13-15. Her
presentation represented Christianity among several readings from
sacred texts.
     The Rev. Joan Brown Campbell, general secretary of the
National Council of Churches, offered the invocation in
partnership with heads of the regional council of churches. 
     Johnson and Campbell, along with the other participants, each
were escorted to the microphone by a child. In Campbell's case,
that was her granddaughter, Catherine Joanna Campbell-Morrison, 6.
     During the peppy musical numbers that preceded the service,
the choir strutted in place, young dancers took over the stage and
in the handicapped area some people joined in wheelchair dancing
while one aide dog added a loud voice to the songs.
     In the press area nearby, child journalists went about the
task of covering the event along with their counterparts from
adult-staffed media.
     Large TV screens and speakers elevated above the crowd
conveyed the stage events to the people massed along the
Reflecting Pool and beyond.
     For Leta Guild of Lansing, Mich., this was her first such
demonstration. A retired kindergarten teacher and mother of two
grown daughters, she said she made the trip "because I believe in
standing up for children's rights." Guild is secretary of the
Western Michigan Conference United Methodist Women.
     The Rev. Theodore Loder and 120 people from the Germantown
United Methodist Church in Philadelphia displayed a large banner
naming their congregation, which long has been involved in social
justice issues, he said, including Headstart for pre-schoolers and
a job training program for school drop-outs.
     "I think it's coalition building time," Loder said,
suggesting that such organizations need to deal locally with the
needs of victims of abuse and neglect and also address the
structure issues related to the use of public budgets, the schools
and job training.
     He cautioned that although churches need to do more to
address local problems, they cannot bring enough resources to bear
without partnering with government and industry.
     With Loder was John Riggan, who heads the National
Association of Child Advocacy, a group of state and big city
coalitions concerned with children. He warned that in this time of
decentralization, child advocacy and action groups need to be
organized at state and local levels or they, and the children,
will lose out. The state of children is "worsening," he said.
     The Philadelphia Citizens for Children and Youth had brought
400 busloads of people to the rally, the men said.
     "I think it was wonderful. I think it was great," enthused
the Rev. Carol Ann Parsons of Putnam (Mass.) United Methodist
Church, who came with several members of a congregation already
active in supporting and advocating for children.
     "Wow!" was the reaction of Bobbie Griffin from Milwaukee,
Wisc. She said she had never been to a rally but was excited by
seeing people ranging from infants to the elderly all gathered for
the same reason. She and several friends were continuing on a
train safari that was to include an excursion to Wesley-related
sites on St. Simon's Island, Ga.
     "We rode all night and walked all day," said Christine
Murphy, an Episcopalian laywoman who journeyed from Michigan on
the same bus with her sister, Theresa Cochran, wife of clergyman,
the Rev. James Cochran of Dixboro United Methodist Church.
     Ila Hanson, 80, of Saginaw, Mich., said she was glad her
granddaughter, Jenna Bailey, 13, had accompanied her as she was
not quite up to all the walking in the sun. Jenna, who took off
her socks and found water to convert them into cold compresses,
applied them to her grandmother during strategic stops. Jenna was
also delighted to walk through the nation's Capitol and to see the
collection of First Lady's gowns in the Smithsonian, while her
grandmother waited on a bench outside.
     The United Methodist Building, although located two or three
miles from the Lincoln Memorial, served as a hospitality area for
some of the many United Methodists who attended the rally. Out-of-
state buses dropped weary travelers in the morning hours and
picked them up even more exhausted at the day's end.
     Four agencies of the church -- the Women's Division and the
Boards of Discipleship, Global Ministries and Church and Society -
- provided beverages and snacks as well as white baseball caps
that read "UMC 4 KIDS" to an estimated 2,000 to 2,500 United
Methodists.
     Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference United Methodist Women
contributed leadership for hour worship services, 300 sack lunches
for children, hug-me dolls and games so that every child who came
to the building could have a souvenir.
     In a pre-rally interfaith service May 31 at the National
Cathedral, United Methodist Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, president of
the National Council of Churches, gave the homily.
                              #  #  #

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