wfn.org | COSROW works to improve services to denomination

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

March 1, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service

Members of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women
(COSROW) are taking steps to make the organization more helpful to women in
the church.

The group used its Feb. 24-27 meeting in Cleveland - its last gathering for
the 1997-2000 period -- to assess its "core values" and evaluate the
commission's structure and services to annual conferences, said staff
executive Cecelia Long. Long and the Rev. Stephanie Hixon share the top
executive position at the Evanston, Ill.,-based agency.

The core values include:
·	the need for full inclusion of all women, especially those
marginalized by society and the church;
·	the call for COSROW to be a prophetic voice for women; and
·	the goal of providing resources to empower women and being advocates
for women.

"As a commission, we advocate for the full participation of women in the
life of the church, and we also provide education and networking
opportunities so the new women leaders can find their place among the
leadership of our denomination," said the report on values.

Commission members decided to reduce the number of full meetings during
2000-2004 "to allow finances for more direct services to constituents," Long
said. The services would include various resource materials, more visits to
annual conferences and upgrading of the commission's Web site to provide
more information online.

Internal committees and functions will be restructured to provide more
training and development for members, allowing them to better serve as links
to annual conference commissions or alternative bodies.

On most issues, the commission operates by consensus but must take votes on
legislation to the United Methodist General Conference, the denomination's
top legislative body. Previously, legislation that received more than three
dissenting votes would not pass. Members decided to change the policy so
that in the future all legislation receiving a simple majority vote will be
forwarded to General Conference.

"It was felt that we were holding ourselves to a higher standard on
legislation that could affect women in the church than the rest of the
church was holding itself to," Long explained. Passing legislation by a
simple majority will allow COSROW to continue to be "a prophetic voice," she
added.

In other business, COSROW members toured the Cleveland Convention Center -
where General Conference will occur in May - and authorized their president,
Joyce Waldon Bright of Orlando, Fla., to write a letter expressing "outrage"
at the venue's lack of accessibility for the disabled.

As they have since 1976, COSROW and the Women's Division of the United
Methodist Board of Global Ministries will co-sponsor an orientation session
for female delegates to General Conference on the morning of May 2, just
before the meeting opens.

The orientation will help the participants begin networking together, gain
basic and practical knowledge about General Conference, and learn about
issues of particular importance to women in the denomination.

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United Methodist News Service
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