wfn.org | Cherokee chief: 'The Methodist Church saved my life'

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

April 27, 1999  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn.    10-21-34-71B{233}

CHEROKEE, N.C. (UMNS) - Speaking to a packed house at the Cherokee United
Methodist Church,  Joyce Dugan, the first female principal chief of the
Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, declared repeatedly, "The Methodist Church
saved my life." 

She was a special guest during Sunday morning worship services April 25. 

As a young person, she said her first job was at the church, the only United
Methodist church on the Cherokee reservation. She earned 50 cents an hour
greeting weekday visitors and telling them about the church and the
Cherokees, a job she held for three years. 

When she was nearly 12, she said, the pastor's wife encouraged her to go to
Vashti School, an institution for girls in Thomasville, Ga., related to the
Women's Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Dugan
entered the eighth grade at Vashti and graduated with honors.

"That same preacher's wife who saw potential in me came to Thomasville to
see me graduate," she recalled. "The church saved  my life. It placed great
expectations on me. It said, 'You can do it. You will do it. We expect you
to do it.' " 

Noting recent instances of violence in society, including the high school
shootings in Littleton, Colo., Dugan said young people today are missing out
on spiritual values. "Prayers were taken out of the schools," she lamented.
"For many children, that was the only time they heard a prayer."

Acknowledging the strong influence of parents and friends on young people,
Dugan said some of the greatest values are learned in the church. Declaring
again that the Methodist Church had saved her life, Dugan revealed that as
an adult she has often come to the church when nobody was there to reflect
and meditate. 

"The church has given me power and strength that is vital to me and my
family," she said.  

"The church was our social life as well as our spiritual life," Dugan said.
"I don't know how many of us would have made if it had not been for the
church." She told of wearing discarded clothes that had been given to the
church and purchased by her mother at weekly rummage sales.  She thanked the
church for providing "physical as well as spiritual things we needed."

Dugan expressed joy at being a Cherokee and praised the resilience and
strength of the tribe.  

"Cherokee people are a proud people," she declared. "They have been able to
get stronger because of diversity. The people have rebounded. The Lord has
sent us many opportunities and privileges, and we have been able to
recognize them for the benefit of ourselves and our tribe."

Guests at the morning service included the Rev. Larry Wilkinson,
superintendent of the Waynesville District of the church's Western North
Carolina Conference, and about 65 governing members of the denomination's
General Council on Ministries meeting nearby at Lake Junaluska Assembly.
Pastor of the 218-member church is the Rev. Patrick Freeman, a native
Oklahoman.  He will be retiring soon and moving to Kansas.
 
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