wfn.org | United Methodist women continue mission, social action work

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Oct. 10, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) - The new president of the Women's Division of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries called for a continuing emphasis
on inclusiveness, social action and ministry to women, children and youth
during an Oct. 6-9 annual meeting.

Genie Bank of the denomination's Detroit Annual (regional) Conference, will
lead the division, the administrative body of the one-million member United
Methodist Women, during the 2001-2004 quadrennium.

Other new officers include Brenda Brown, North Carolina Conference, vice
president; Judy Nutter, West Virginia Conference, vice president and
chairwoman of Christian Social Responsibility; Myrtle Clingenpeel, Oklahoma
Conference, vice president and chairwoman of finance; Diane Vogler, North
Arkansas Conference, vice president and chairwoman of membership and
organizational development; and Mee Sue Park, California-Pacific conference,
recording secretary.

Division directors continued to affirm their stance against global racism by
committing to send a delegation to the United Nations Conference on Racism
next August in South Africa. Directors also approved a grant of $15,000 to
the Center for Democratic Renewal for a third reprinting and update of its
manual When Hate Groups Come to Town, and a grant of $25,000 to the Center
for Constitutional Rights to support African-American workers facing
discrimination and hostile working conditions at Ingall's Shipyard in
Pascagoula, Miss.

Recognizing the denomination's continuing commitment to the Jubilee 2000
movement, an effort to reduce the debt load of developing countries,
directors approved a $25,000 grant to the Jubilee South Secretariat. Other
social action grants approved included $25,000 to the Center for Women's
Policy Studies for the creation of a new foreign policy institute focusing
specifically on women policy-makers; $25,000 to Adventures in Health,
Education and Agricultural Development for a women's health teleconference
on Oct. 13 at Tuskegee University; $25,000 to the Women's International
Coalition for Economic Justice for U.N.-related resources; and $15,000 to
the Youth At Risk Tour Program to educate youth on the issue of mandatory
drug sentencing.

The division's National Committee on Ministries with Women, Children and
Youth, which works with United Methodist-related mission institutions and
agencies around the country, recommended that those groups "evaluate their
wage structure and be pro-active in setting goals which move staff towards
earning a livable wage." The proposal, approved by directors, is aimed at
making the institutions role models "by advocating for just and fair higher
federal minimum- wage legislation."

In membership-related matters, directors approved a budget of $130,000 for
the division's work with Korean-American women and $65,000 for the Hispanic
ministries budget for 2001. Grants of up to $500 - for a maximum total of
$10,000 annually - will be made available over the next four years to
district and local units of United Methodist Women working with teen and
college/university women.

Directors learned that 872 new units of United Methodist Women have been
organized since a six-year membership campaign was launched in 1996. Of
those, 30 are district units, which are formed by women from different
churches who organize outside a local church. The district units include
five college and one university unit, two teen units and a new unit at a
prison. The first Russian-American unit was organized recently in the
Baltimore-Washington Conference.

In other business, Women's Division directors:
·	Gave the 2001 Theressa Hoover Community Service and Global Citizen
Award to Regina Nesmith of Nesmith, S.C., whose project deals with health
concerns of African-American women in rural South Carolina.
·	Elected Marsha R. Base as assistant general secretary in
administration for the Women's Division, effective Jan. 1.

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United Methodist News Service
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