wfn.org | COCU honors United Methodist laywoman

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

January 25, 1999	Contact: Linda Bloom*(212) 870-3803*New York
10-21-71B{038}

NOTE: This may be used as a sidebar to UMNS story #039.

ST. LOUIS (UMNS) - A United Methodist laywoman involved in the ecumenical
movement for more than 50 years was honored Jan. 23 by the Consultation on
Church Union (COCU).

Margaret Sonnenday, a member of Grace United Methodist Church in St. Louis,
received the organization's first Christian Unity/Racial Justice Award
during a banquet honoring COCU veterans.

"I can't imagine anything more rewarding than to receive an honor for
commitment to unity and racial justice," she said after accepting the award.

The award was given for "significant involvement or achievement" in those
categories, particularly in the state where the consultation's 18th plenary
was being held. The recipient also should "exemplify the qualities of life
necessary to achieve reconciliation among the Christian churches and within
the human family."

Sonnenday's achievements began in 1948, when she began working locally for
Church Women United. She eventually served as the organization's national
president, from 1974-77. She also represented the United Methodist Church at
the World Council of Churches (WCC) assemblies in Nairobi and Vancouver,
serving as chairwoman of the WCC Women's Desk from 1975 to 1983.

For the National Council of Churches, she served a three-year term on its
governing board and led the search committee that hired the Rev. Joan Brown
Campbell, the NCC's present general secretary.

Her involvement with COCU began with the 1970 plenary, also in St. Louis,
where a draft plan for unity was adopted. "I believed in that plan then and
I made a lot of speeches in a lot of churches trying to interpret that
plan," she told banquet participants.

But that particular plan was abandoned and gradually, Sonnenday said, she
realized that church unity "is a long and arduous journey.

"I believe that church union, just like Christian faith, is not an
accomplishment, it's a continuing adventure," she explained.

She served 12 years on the consultation's executive committee and was a
member of the local arrangements committee for the 1999 plenary.

Within the United Methodist Church, Sonnenday has served on the Board of
Global Ministries and the Commission on Christian Unity and was a trustee of
St. Paul School of Theology in Kansas City for 22 years.

In St. Louis, she was a leader in Church Women United's "Urban Causeway"
program, which provided information and programs on the needs of people in
the inner city, and has helped bring Jewish, Muslim and Christian women
together for regular dialogue.

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