wfn.org | Honors abound at Women of Faith breakfast

[PCUSA.NEWS@ecunet.org]

02-July-1996 
 
GA96018 
 
Honors abound at Women of Faith Breakfast 
 
ALBUQUERQUE--Sarah Hunt, a Columbus, Ind. Presbyterian who has ministered 
in her congregation for 80 years, Arlene Naquayouma, a Native American who 
ministers to tribal and traditional congregations across the southwest, and 
Lillie A. Ross, the oldest, yet still most active member of her Baltimore 
congregation, were chosen from 160 nominees to receive the 11th annual 
Women of Faith awards.  The awards are given by the PCUSA Women's 
Ministries program area. 
 
    Additionally, a special award for WomanWitness went to Dr. Lee Yon-Ok 
of the Presbyterian Church of Korea, while writers Ann Weems and Jane 
Parker Huber and "foresisters" Louisa Woolsey, Margaret Towner and Lois 
Stair were recognized. The sold-out event at the Hyatt's Grand Pavilion was 
attended by more than 550 women and men. 
 
     "Sharing Wisdom" was the 1996 sub-theme of the on-going WomanWitness 
theme and the basis for honoring Hunt, Naquayouma, Ross and Lee. "Happy are 
those who find wisdom and those who get understanding..." the litany 
declared, as "the value of wisdom is more precious than silver and 
gold...praise be to God for women who share wisdom." 
 
    Hunt, unable to attend, was presented on video as she responded to 
praise for her years of inspiring others to action through building 
personal relationships. She called her audience to think back on change in 
the church in decades past: women on sessions and as pastors, men as Sunday 
School teachers, church-sponsored pre-school programs and day care, all of 
which she sees as due to wise guidance from the national program of the 
church. She sees the church now as called to be open to new ways, and finds 
positive changes coming through the cooperation of world religious leaders. 
 
    The psalmist's prayer, "You desire truth in the inward being --- 
therefore teach me wisdom in my secret heart," characterizes the life of 
Arlene Naquayouma of Phoenix, Ariz. Her people are Tokhono O'odham (People 
of the Desert) on the Casa Blanca reservation about 60 miles west of 
Tucson. She grew up there and attended the Presbyterian boarding school in 
Tucson. Much of her ministry has been through choral music of various 
tribes for whom she has translated hymns. She has nurtured family and 
friends of all ages, served as a director of Cook College & Theological 
School and the General Assembly Native American consulting committee. In 
addition to the award she received, she was honored with a surprise 
appearance and performance by the Presbyterian church choir from her home 
reservation. 
 
    "I give all honor and praise to our Lord Jesus Christ," said Lillie 
Ross in response to her citation for being officially the "mother of our 
congregation." The 94-year-old who still travels widely is attending her 
30th consecutive General Assembly. 
 
    Ross, a member of the Madison Avenue Presbyterian Church for 80 years, 
has served as Sunday School teacher and youth fellowship leader, deacon, 
tutor, first woman elder, founder of a learning center and a pre-school day 
care program both named for her, and developer in her presbytery of 
Presbyterian Women's least coin offering. 
 
    A woman of strong convictions, Dr. Lee has communicated them with such 
power over the past 40 years that they have developed into programs which 
have changed the lives of thousands. A keystone to her ministry is 
development of education for women in Korea, a vision that has shaped the 
Presbyterian Church of Korea as well the country itself. Her efforts have 
led to the National Organization of Korean Presbyterian Women and a 
magazine, "New Christian Home," through which she shares her wisdom with 
women throughout her church. 
 
    Highlighting the breakfast program was a series of three dramatic 
presentations by Kathy Nash to honor "first women" of the Presbyterian 
Church family. She first depicted Louisa Woolsey who felt and tried to 
discount God's "call to preach" in the 1870s. But God's message never 
changed for Louisa, and after several family traumas she was the first 
woman ordained to ministry in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church. 
 
    Likewise Nash depicted Margaret Towner, first woman ordained to the 
pastorate in the Presbyterian Church U.S.A. in 1957, even though she was 
once known to say "one thing I will never do is church work." 
 
    Nash's final tribute was to Lois Harkrider Stair, elected in 1971 as 
first woman moderator of the UPCUSA, who while known as "the winsome woman 
from Waukesha, Wisconsin," was able to embrace and bring together those in 
her church alienated by the furor over Angela Davis. 
 
    In a brief visit to the gathering, Moderator John Buchanan, immediately 
joined the spirit of the day in tributes to two women he has long admired. 
While the first, Mary Evans, was responsible for doggedly pursuing him (in 
the name of the church) and his class of junior high boys as they grew up 
and went to college, his second citation went also to Lois Stair for 
modeling for him what a moderator truly is. 
 
 
Midge Mack 

------------
For more information contact Presbyterian News Service
  phone 502-569-5504             fax 502-569-8073  
  E-mail PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org   Web page: http://www.pcusa.org 

--