wfn.org | Women's Division Meeting

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (401
notes).

Note 401 by UMNS on Oct. 21, 1997 at 16:39 Eastern (3635 characters).

CONTACT:	Linda Bloom					589(10-21-71B){401}
		New York (212) 870-3803      			 Oct. 21, 1997

Women's Division begins
cleanup on dioxin products

	STAMFORD, Conn. (UMNS) -- Responding to the links between dioxin and a
variety of reproductive cancers, the United Methodist Board of Global
Ministries’ Women's Division will begin to clean up its own environment.
	During the Oct. 17-20 annual meeting here, directors voted to require the
division to use chlorine-free paper for all copying and publishing needs and
switch to chlorine-free products, such as toilet paper and paper towels,
wherever possible in its offices and facilities.
	The pulp and paper industry is a major source of dioxin, which can be formed
in manufacturing processes involving chlorine.
	In addition, the directors asked the entire Board of Global Ministries, its
mission partners and the more than one million members of United Methodist
Women (UMW) to do the same.
	The severity of the health threat from dioxin, particularly in terms of
breast cancer, was recognized in a resolution, "A Dioxin-Free Future," adopted
by the 1996 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's top
legislative body.
	Division directors also voted to become a sponsoring organization of the U.S.
Campaign to Ban Landmines and urge local members to participate in events
connected with the campaign's cross-country bus tour. A $5,000 contribution
was made to the campaign.
	The division endorsed an international campaign against exploitive child
labor called "Global March Against Child Labor," again contributing $5,000
toward its efforts.
	Responding to the needs of children was the theme of Division President Sara
Shingler's report. "At this moment, I see many women who are reaching out to
be with children," she said. "But I also see many women who need help to see
the problems and the solutions. I see the desire to be involved, but for many
women, the connecting of the 'want to' with the 'how to' needs to be
addressed."
	Connecting these women with resources, training and motivation is key, she
said, as well as emphasizing phase two of UMW's Campaign for Children.
	The work of United Methodist Women on behalf of children has paved the way
for the "Episcopal Initiative on Children and Poverty" adopted by the United
Methodist Council of Bishops, she added.
	In other business, Women's Division directors:
* approved a $50,000 grant to the World Council of Churches to help underwrite
a festival ending the Ecumenical Decade of the Churches in Solidarity with
Women Nov. 27-30, 1998, in Harare, Zimbabwe;
	* authorized spending $35,000 to create a web site on volume one and two of
the spiritual growth study, "The Bible: The Book that Bridges the Millennia;"
	* urged all UMW members to ask their members of Congress for more information
regarding the Multilateral Agreement on Investment and express concern about
how it is being negotiated;
* endorsed a National Day of Action for Welfare/Workfare Justice on Dec. 10;
	* learned that Talia McCray, a member of Park Hill United Methodist Church in
Denver and a doctoral student at the University of Michigan, has received the
1998 Theressa Hoover Community Service and Global Citizen Award;
* elected Lizzie Belle Williams of Kansas City, Mo., executive secretary for
leadership education, based in Dallas, effective Jan. 2 and affirmed the
mail-ballot election of Robin Small-McCarthy as executive secretary of racial
justice, effective June 27;
	* completed an attitude survey, embarked upon a common reading and a
journaling process, and formed covenant groups as 

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