wfn.org | COSROW to invite African women in September

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Jan. 24, 2002   News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
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EVANSTON, Ill. (UMNS) -- In an effort to strengthen its global connections,
the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women (COSROW)
will invite women from the denomination's African conferences to its annual
meeting in September.

The Rev. Stephanie Anna Hixon, COSROW's chief executive, told United
Methodist News Service that Africans would be among the six to eight
churchwomen invited to the September meeting. "This is an attempt on the
part of the commission to look at the linkages with women within the central
conferences and be better supportive of each other's ministries," she added.

The decision came as COSROW members experienced a presentation and Bible
study on African women during their Jan. 18-19 meeting in Evanston. The Rev.
Tumani Mutasa Nyanjeka, a United Methodist pastor from Zimbabwe and
professor of history and religion at Gammon/Interdenominational Theological
Center Seminary in Atlanta, spoke about the cultural, political, social and
theological contexts surrounding African women.

"When African women are called to church, they are called to community," she
explained. "The essence of the African church is that God calls us to
celebrate life. African women tap into the worldview that all of life is
linked together in complex relationships."

A highlight of the January meeting was a banquet celebrating the ministry of
Cecelia Long, who was a member of COSROW's general secretariat from 1989 to
2001. The salute to Long, who now works with the denomination's General
Council on Ministries, was postponed when COSROW's September 2001 meeting
was cancelled.  

Hixon continues as a member of the general secretariat, but she will leave
that position at the end of this year. A search committee, working on
filling the two vacancies simultaneously, noted in a report that it had a
"diverse pool of applicants" but that it was seeking more lay applicants.
COSROW hopes to have the two new executives in place by the end of 2002. 
# # #
Bonnie Stainaker Roth, editor of The Flyer, COSROW's newsletter, provided
information for this story.

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United Methodist News Service
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