wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 384-Women's commission provides better online access

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Women's commission provides better online access

>Sep. 16, 2008

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umc.umc.org.

>A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

A redesigned Web site for the United Methodist Commission on the Status
and Role of Women offers a wider variety of online resources in a
user-friendly format.

The old site "was basically a notebook for text" that "had the skeleton
of the organization" but no flesh, said Lindsey Graham, the commission's
Web editor.

The new site, launched in early September and designed by X9
Technologies based in High Point, N.C., allows the commission to provide
more online resources.

That was a key goal, according to M. Garlinda Burton, the commission's
chief executive. "We realized there is a whole community of folk who
already look to our Web site for resources and want us to offer more
things," she said.

The end product means faster communication and more information. "It
also allows us to work more immediately with sisters and brothers
outside the United States," Burton said.

Burton's welcoming message on the home page (www.gcsrw.org) spells out
the commission's duties-confronting institutional sexism, advocating for
women facing discrimination, nurturing the gifts of women to the church
and training church leadership to recognize and address sexism and
sexual misconduct.

The Web site's format allows for greater exploration into those issues
in a more visually pleasing way. "We've gone from this block of text ...
to a much more personalized 'here's who we are, we want to be able to
help you' (site)," said Graham, a candidate for ordination in the West
Virginia Conference and now completing her master's thesis at
Garrett-Evangelical Seminary in Evanston, Ill.

Graham noted that many calls to the commission's office relate the "if
this happens to you" page on its Web site. That page gives examples of
sexism, sexual harassment and sexual abuse and offers a link to the
separate sexual ethics Web site.

Other major resources include an educational curriculum, statistics and
studies, tips on advocacy for all levels of the church, a reference
guide to church law, worship resources, book reviews and information on
women bishops in The United Methodist Church.

Blogs and discussion groups will be developed later. Burton intends to
start a blog on her personal observations about the involvement of women
in the church. She wants to point out "where doors are open" in the
denomination and "where the church still needs to do work" in terms of
sexism.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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