wfn.org | Women offer global perspective to commission members

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Sept. 23, 2002	    News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-31-33-71BP{424}

NOTE: Photographs are available.

By Linda Bloom*

SEATTLE (UMNS) - On the day in 1995 when Liatu Kane was ordained as the
first female United Methodist pastor in Nigeria, the women packing the
church burst into joyous song.

Hidden from the crowd that day were the struggles Kane had endured - the
challenges of living in poverty, raising a family and securing an education
- to reach that point.

She recounted some of those experiences when the United Methodist Commission
on the Status and Role of Women met Sept. 19-22 in Seattle.

Kane was one of five women from the denomination's central conferences in
Asia, Africa and Europe who helped provide commission members with a global
perspective of the concerns of women in the church.

The Rev. Grace Imathiu of Kenya, who recently served a church in Green Bay,
Wis., set the stage for the presentations and discussions with her Bible
studies. She also commended commission members for taking time to listen
carefully to "those of us who tell our story in our own way." Too often, she
noted, such stories in the church only serve as "an interlude to bigger,
more urgent business."

Women's work in the Nigerian church has grown considerably since the church
officially became a part of United Methodism in 1992, according to Kane.
United Methodist Women offer various programs to educate, assist and empower
women, but for those who have followed the path to ordination, now five in
all, it hasn't been so easy.

On her own ordination day, Nigerian women - even some who were not Christian
- loudly expressed their approval. "To them, it was an achievement, it was a
privilege, it was a time for women," Kane recalled.

She herself was less certain and had even decided to withdraw two days
before the service. Her husband, who was supportive of her ministry,
convinced her to reconsider that decision.

The struggles did not end with ordination. Once the novelty of having a
woman pastor wore off, she reported, "many are times when I felt I am not
needed, I am not wanted." In 1998, she even went without a salary for three
months because her district superintendent didn't think she deserved it.

On a personal level, Kane's problems deepened with the death of her husband.
Now, in addition to facing the cultural and legal biases against widows in
Nigerian society, she must support her five children, ages 12 to 22, and her
elderly father. She also continues to pursue her studies and is enrolled at
Methodist Theological Seminary in Ohio.

In Estonia, the ordination of women is even more of a problem, according to
Meeli Tankler. The June annual conference of the Estonian church was
considered "revolutionary," she said, because two women were proposed as
probationary members working toward ordination.

Although Estonia is the only annual conference in the denomination's
Northern Europe Central Conference that had no female pastors, Tankler
believes the women would not have been accepted this year if they had not
been presented along with five male candidates. Even then, she added, church
delegates "looked at them (the women) differently and asked different
questions of them and made very different comments." 

At the local level, however, the reception has been positive. She noted that
the two women have been well accepted in the congregations they have served
so far.

Tankler, who is married to the Rev. Ullas Tankler, pastor of the Agape
Center in Parnu, added that "sometimes we complain that too much is expected
from pastors' wives." But in certain cultural contexts, she explained, it is
the only way women can fulfill expanded roles in the church.

In the West Angola Annual Conference, women's work is well organized. A
general board, 10 district boards and 249 local boards serve about 60,000
women, of whom 22,000 are registered members.

Marcela Sobrinho, a married mother of nine and grandmother of three, is the
conference's general director of women's ministries, with diverse projects
that include the vaccination of children, education about human rights,
evangelism and Christian outreach.

"Women are, without question, the most expressive group of our church," she
told commission members through a translator.

Literacy remains one of the greatest challenges in Angola. "We have women
who are group leaders and they don't even know how to read and write,"
Sobrinho said.

Despite that handicap, women played an active role in the peace process and
April cease-fire agreement that finally ended Angola's 25-year civil war.
Now they are struggling to rebuild a country that the United Nations
considers to have the worst humanitarian crisis in the world today.

In recent months, Sobrinho has visited several areas where displaced people
have returned home. "These populations are trying a new beginning, and they
desperately need our support," she added.

In the Philippines, the establishment of a commission on the status and role
of women on an annual conference level has provided a way in which women can
have their grievances addressed. Before, according to the Rev. Maria Sol
Sioco Villalon, "our women, the deaconesses especially, did not know how to
pursue complaints."

Besides setting up a commission in the late 1980s, the women of her annual
conference in the southern Philippines conducted surveys and other informal
research on the conditions of women inside and outside the church, the
involvement of women in leadership and the various problems that women
faced. After these reports were completed, she said, the bishop organized
committees to review and process complaints. Eventually, two clergy were
suspended and expelled because of complaints of abuse.

Still, the most active workers in the United Methodist Church in the
Philippines - the deaconesses trained in teaching, preaching and healing -
are taken advantage of, according to Emma Cantor, who lives in the northern
Philippines.

She recounted her own experiences of being overworked as a deaconess with
little economic compensation. "I loved the work, but it drained me," she
said.

Although progress has been made, Cantor noted that it took 100 years of
effort before the 1996 United Methodist General Conference, the
denomination's top legislative body, declared that deaconesses can be
members of an annual conference with both voice and vote.

Gender and cultural biases remain. When Filipino deaconesses recently banded
together to present the Rev. Elizabeth Tapia as a candidate for bishop, both
men and women in the church attacked Tapia "on a very personal basis,"
Cantor said.

The five women also provided suggestions as to how the Commission on the
Status and Role of Women and other bodies of the church could strengthen
their ties with women in other parts of the denomination.

"There is no support system in the Estonian United Methodist Church for
women," Tankler said, pointing to the need to strengthen women's programs
there.

Kane noted that her exposure to and connection with United Methodist women
from other countries, such as when she attended a clergywomen's
consultation, have helped her in her ministry. "Each time I felt very alone,
I remembered these women," she explained.

She also asked commission members for their prayers. "When my husband died,
God opened my eyes to the body of Christians praying for me," she said.

In Cantor's opinion, "the voice from America" can help legitimize an issue
or position in the Philippine church. "If issues of women can be solved
through legislative policies in the church, it helps a lot," she said.

In other business, COSROW hosted a gala celebration of the ministry of the
Rev. Stephanie Anna Hixon, who will leave the agency in December. Hixon and
Cecelia Long, now at the General Council on Ministries, had served together
as the top staff executives of the commission until reaching the 12-year
term limit imposed by the denomination.

Succeeding them are the Rev. Soomee Kim, formerly pastor of First United
Methodist Church in San Fernando, Calif., and the Rev. Raponzil "Ra" Drake,
formerly pastor of Newman United Methodist Church in Lincoln, Neb. Both
began their duties Sept. 1. 

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*Bloom is news director of United Methodist News Service's New York office.

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United Methodist News Service
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