wfn.org | Ecumenical Women establish Web site

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

May 30, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-31-71B{255}

NEW YORK (UMNS) -- Ecumenical Women 2000+, a group that includes United
Methodists, has established a Web site that provides information on issues
affecting women around the world.

The coalition, which monitors issues at the United Nations, offers
information, action alerts, worship resources and other Internet links
through its new Web site at www.ew2000plus.org .

Ecumenical Women 2000+'s goals include working within its members' faith
traditions to raise the status of women and human rights; promoting dialogue
between faith communities and the United Nations; offering a perspective of
liberation and justice for women to the U.N. community; and collaborating
with other nongovernmental organizations on women's issues.

The coordinating team for Ecumenical Women includes the United Methodist
Office for the United Nations, which has representation from the
denomination's boards of Global Ministries and Church and Society. The team
also includes the Anglican Consultative Council, Church Women United,
Lutheran World Federation, Episcopal Church, United Church of Christ and the
U.N. office of the Presbyterian Church (USA).

Organization members will sponsor daily events at the Church Center for the
United Nations during the June 5-9 special session of the U.N. General
Assembly. The session will assess progress made since a platform for action
was adopted at the 1995 Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing.

The 189 countries represented at the conference adopted the platform for
action by consensus. The nongovernmental forum that met in conjunction with
the conference drew 40,000 participants from around the world.

United Methodists and others involved in Ecumenical Women 2000+ participated
in the March preparatory meetings for June's special session. The coalition
worked with Religion Counts, an initiative of Catholics for a Free Choice
and the Park Ridge Center, to conduct a series of panel discussions called
"Religion: Women's Liberation, Women's Bondage." Panel members talked about
their struggle toward gender equality within their religious traditions.

Official United Methodist representatives to the June special session --
called "Women 2000: Gender Equality, Development and Peace for the 21st
Century" - include Mia Adjali, Darlene Amon and the Rev. Beauty Maenzanise.
Adjali is an executive and Amon, of Suffolk, Va., is a director of the
Women's Division, United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Maenzanise, a
student at Drew University, is from Zimbabwe.

Beyond the June event, Adjali noted that Ecumenical Women 2000+ would be an
ongoing concern, along with its Web site. "We're going to continue to update
it." 

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United Methodist News Service
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