wfn.org | ELCA Women Do Make a Difference, Says Myrlie Evers-Williams

[News News <news@ELCA.ORG>]

ELCA NEWS SERVICE

July 10, 1999

ELCA WOMEN DO MAKE A DIFFERENCE, SAYS MYRLIE EVERS-WILLIAMS
99-WO-08-MR

     ST. LOUIS (ELCA) -- Your organization says that women do make a
difference, Myrlie Evers-Williams, past chair of the National
Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), told 4,000
participants of the Fourth Triennial Convention of Women of the
Evangelical Lutheran Church in America (ELCA).
     The convention is meeting here July 8-11 at the America's Center.
The organization's three-year theme, "Live God's Justice," is unveiled
at the convention amid Bible study, keynote addresses, workshops,
business sessions and elections.  The theme is based on the Bible verse
Micah 6:8.
     In her keynote presentation, Evers-Williams said "Live God's
Justice" is a theme that all of us, regardless of race, creed or color,
should embrace and use as a guideline in our lives for good living.
     Evers-Williams spent her life pushing for civil rights and
equality.  In the late 1950s she and her husband, the late Medgar Evers,
opened and managed the first Mississippi state office of the NAACP.
     "America is at a crossroad today," she said.  "Today we still deal
with the same subject matter that we dealt with in the 1950s and 1960s.
Yes, things are better. We have improved, but we still have a big job to
do in that arena.
     "It is time for those of who are brave enough, those who are
strong enough ... to say there is still work to be done.  We must look
into our neighborhoods and realize that just around the corner, crosses
are still being burned," she said.
     Evers-Williams asked participants, "How committed are you to go
beyond what you designate here?  How willing are you to step into the
den of racism and hatred and confront it right on, even if it occurs
within your household?"
     "It takes courage, determination ... and an unabated and
unshakeable belief in God, for we cannot make it alone," she said.  "In
unity there is strength.  It is time to rise above all the negatives,
take them and turn them into positives by our action."
     "Friends, the direction that this country moves depends on what
each of you do, what I do.  This will one day be a nation where we all
stand together, to see all men and all women as one.  And, I guarantee,
in the doing we become stronger.  In the doing, we will soar and we will
be a credit to the God that we serve," Evers-Williams said.

For information contact:
John Brooks, Director (773) 380-2958 or NEWS@ELCA.ORG
http://listserv.elca.org/archives/elcanews.html