wfn.org | Clergy member Kathryn Johnson to lead MFSA

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

May 13, 1998	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-28-71BP{299}

NOTE:  A photograph is available with this story.

By United Methodist News Service

The Rev. Kathryn J. Johnson has been named executive director of the
Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA), effective Oct. 1.

Her election took place when the board of directors of the independent
network of United Methodists met May 7-10 in Binghamton, N.Y.

The MFSA board also authorized the preparation of a brief to the
denomination's supreme court, the Judicial Council, regarding same-sex
covenant services, and it addressed such issues as the international
treaty to ban landmines, the School of the Americas training facility,
global warming, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty for nuclear weapons
and the unrest in Chiapas, Mexico.

Johnson will succeed the Rev. George McClain, who is resigning after 25
years as MFSA's executive director. During his tenure, the organization
has grown from two to 31 chapters. At a special evening program honoring
McClain for his service, present and past MFSA presidents launched a
campaign to raise $25,000 for an endowment fund in his honor to
underwrite "spiritually grounded action for justice."  

McClain called Johnson "uniquely qualified to lead the Methodist
Federation into the next millennium," adding that her knowledge of Asia
will be useful "in this era of heightened importance of that region."

The 44-year-old clergy member of the New England Annual (regional)
Conference will be the sixth executive and first woman to lead the
91-year-old network. She currently is program director of the Asia
Pacific Center for Justice and Peace in Washington, D.C. She was a
former staff executive with the Church Coalition for Human Rights in the
Philippines and served as a mission intern in the Philippines through
the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

In action related to the recent trial of the Rev. Jimmy Creech, who
performed a same-sex covenant ceremony at his Omaha, Neb., church, the
MFSA board commended the United Methodist Council of Bishops for
resisting calls to convene a special General Conference on the issue.
The board will prepare a brief for the Judicial Council arguing that
statements in the denomination's Social Principles on same-sex
ceremonies or anything else cannot be the basis for "chargeable
offenses." 

MFSA directors also praised the Council of Bishops for urging that the
School of the Americas, a U.S. Army training school at Fort Benning,
Ga., be closed. The school has been called the "School of the Assassins"
by critics who charge its graduates have been involved in many
politically motivated killings of civilians throughout Latin America.

A special tribute was sent to Carol Richardson, a United Methodist
serving a six-month federal prison term for her nonviolent protest at
the School of the Americas. MFSA also honored George Baldwin, who led an
800-mile "awareness walk" from Washington, D.C., to the protest rally at
Fort Benning last fall.

In other business, the MFSA board:

*	called upon President Clinton not to repeal the one-year U.S.
moratorium on landmines but rather sign an international treaty banning
landmines;
	
*	asked the Council of Bishops to oppose global warming because of
its detrimental health effects, particularly on children;
	
*	protested the Mexican government's expulsion of peacekeepers
from Chiapas;
	
*	urged Congress to pass the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty; and
	
*	presented the Lee and Mae Ball Award for outstanding social
action to Bishop Susan Morrison of Albany, N.Y., Leland and Ginger
Keemer of Jersey Shore, Pa., Jean and Oran Brown of Staten Island, N.Y.,
and Phil Stanton of Binghamton.

The Rev. Sheila McCurdy of Mt. Airy, Md., was elected co-president,
effective in 1999. The Rev. Ulises Torres, Fitchburg, Mass., will
continue as the other co-president, and the Rev. Jan Munsey of Denver
was re-elected secretary. The next MFSA national board meeting will be
Jan. 27-30, 1999, in Charleston, W. Va.

# # #