wfn.org | Thomas-Sano named to post at church's racial monitoring agency

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

Feb. 28, 2000	News media contact: Joretta Purdue·(202)546-8722·Washington
10-33-71B{099}

ARLINGTON, Va. (UMNS) - An Asian-American leader in the United Methodist
Church has been named an associate general secretary of the denomination's
racial monitoring agency.

Kathleen A. Thomas-Sano, executive director of the National Federation of
Asian American United Methodists, will join the staff of the Commission on
Religion and Race in June. She will be the agency's liaison with the
church's Western Jurisdiction and the Asian-American and Pacific Island
members and congregations. Her other duties will include participating in
the agency's monitoring and review processes.

Besides her employment with the federation, Thomas-Sano serves as a
part-time consultant with the Western Jurisdiction Inter-Ethnic Coordinating
Committee. Previously, she had been an associate council director of the
California-Nevada Annual Conference Council on Ministries. She has also
served the Pacific and Asian American Center for Theology and Strategies as
acting director and associate director. 

Earlier in her career, she worked for the United Methodist Development Fund
and the National Division of the churchwide Board of Global Ministries. A
native of Hawaii, she also served in the Hawaii Mission, now the Hawaii
District.

Thomas-Sano is a member of or relates to the Inter-ethnic Strategy
Development Committee, the National Committee on Korean American Ministries,
the National Committee on Chinese American Ministries, the Asian American
Language Ministry Study Committee, the Asian American Staff Forum and
several regional Asian-American caucuses.

She has been a voting member of the churchwide Commission on Christian Unity
and Board of Global Ministries. She has volunteered with the United
Methodist Development Fund and the United Methodist Church Bicentennial
Planning Committee, among other groups. Thomas-Sano also served on the
governing board of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the U.S.A.,
and was an accredited visitor to three World Methodist Conferences and two
World Council of Churches assemblies.

Thomas-Sano and Bishop Roy I. Sano of the church's Los Angeles Area were
married in 1975. 
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United Methodist News Service
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