wfn.org | Five Outstanding Women Honored

[PCUSA.NEWS@pcusa.org]

15-June-1997 
GA97022 
 
                   Five Outstanding Women Honored 
 
                           by Eva Stimson 
 
SYRACUSE--Five outstanding women were honored for their lives of faith at a 
breakfast Sunday sponsored by the Women's Ministries Program Area of the 
Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). 
 
    Women of Faith awards were presented to Sue Sterling Montgomery of 
Grove City, Pa.; Beulah S. Travis of Syracuse, N.Y.; and Jean Kim of 
Seattle, Wash.   In recognition of the denomination's Year With Latin 
Americans, two special Woman Witness awards were given to Yolanda S. 
Hernandez, a member of the Women's Program Area staff based in New York 
City, and Elsa Tamez, president of the Latin American Biblical University 
in Costa Rica. 
 
    Sue Montgomery:  An outspoken advocate for those facing mental or 
physical challenges, Sue Montgomery is a chaplain at Polk Center, a 
residential care facility for people with mental retardation.  She knows 
firsthand about such challenges.  An undiagnosed birth defect caused the 
bones of her legs to deteriorate, seriously affecting her mobility.  She 
rolled smoothly up to the podium in a wheelchair to accept her award, 
joking that she had once been convicted of "speeding in the hallways" at 
Polk Center. 
 
    Instead of talking about herself, Montgomery told about her friend 
Viola, a resident of Polk Center, "a woman who has no voice but who 
emanates faith."  Viola loves church, she said, but "whenever Viola attends 
church, she's a visitor."  Many ministers believe people like Viola should 
not be allowed to join the church, she explained, because they do not have 
the cognitive ability to master basic beliefs and doctrines. 
 
    Montgomery challenged her listeners to "make sure your church is 
accessible" to people with disabilities and get to know people with mental 
retardation.  "When we silence the voices of people with mental 
retardation," she said, "we silence the voice of God." 
 
    Beulah Travis:  This remarkable 90-year-old Christian educator is still 
too busy to take vacation, much less retire.  She is the founder and 
director of "Exploring Your World," an enrichment program based at First 
Presbyterian Church United in Syracuse that ministers to some 300 
inner-city children a year. 
 
    Travis has served the Presbyterian Church for 67 years, starting out as 
a Sunday school teacher in Rochester, N.Y.  "I've done things no one else 
would think of doing," she remarked.  "We had report cards when I ran the 
church school.  This was a shock to the parents_but they stopped sleeping 
in as much on Sunday mornings." 
 
    Using her own career as an example, Travis encouraged listeners to 
"Live your faith in risky ways.  Live it with joy." 
 
    Jean Kim:  Remembering the homelessness she faced in South Korea as the 
child of refugee parents from North Korea, Jean Kim decided to do something 
to help homeless women in Seattle, Wash.  Six years ago she founded the 
Church of Mary Magdalene for homeless women who are victims of violence, 
poverty, unemployment, mental illness and substance abuse.  The church has 
grown to include some 400 women. 
 
    Each Saturday morning Kim prepares a hot breakfast for the women before 
worship in a local Methodist church building.  Also available to the women 
who come are personal care facilities, counseling and referrals, health 
care, help with resume preparation and classes in computers, sewing and 
aerobics. 
 
    Kim accepted her award "in the name of all homeless women."  The 
T-shirt she wore proclaimed: "End Homelessness for All Women." 
 
    Yolanda Hernandez:  "Nobody ever says, `Yolanda who?' " said Hazel 
Fuhrmeister, presenting a Woman Witness award to this longtime church 
worker.  "There are thousands of homes," she continued, "where Yolanda is a 
household word." 
 
    Ever since coming to the United States from Cuba in 1961, Hernandez has 
worked tirelessly to involve and empower Hispanic women in the Presbyterian 
Church.  She is currently busy making arrangements for international guests 
attending the Churchwide Gathering of Presbyterian Women in July. 
 
    Hernandez urged her listeners to get to know their Hispanic neighbors. 
The Year With Latin Americans, she said, "offers us the opportunity to be 
open to transformation in relation to them." 
 
    Elsa Tamez:  This dynamic Latin American theologian is best known for 
her "One Million Names" campaign, to construct a new seminary campus funded 
by gifts honoring women around the world.  Each dollar sent to the campaign 
to rebuild the Latin American Biblical University is to be accompanied by 
the name of a woman who has been a leader, role model or source of 
encouragement to the donor. 
 
    "Women's names are very important, because women are so invisible," 
Tamez has said.  She was unable to attend the General Assembly, but Nancy 
Johns, who has helped coordinate the fundraising effort, accepted the Woman 
Witness award on her behalf. 
 
    Johns reported that ground has been broken for the new university 
campus.  The campaign so far has netted $500,000_half the amount needed for 
rebuilding.  "But we're falling short of names," she added.  Donors have 
contributed close to 50,000 names of women from 133 countries.  She 
encouraged listeners to send in names of women who have made a difference 
in their lives. 
 
Special Event_Wednesday, June 18 
First United Presbyterian Church in Syracuse will host a celebration of the 
40th anniversary of the ordination of women in the Presbyterian Church. 
Come and meet the Rev. Margaret Towner, the first woman ordained to the 
ministry in the Presbyterian Church, at a reception from 5:30-7:30 p.m. 

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