wfn.org | US-2s to celebrate 50th anniversary in August

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

June 27, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
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By United Methodist News Service

When Nancy Grissom Self found she didn't have the money to go to seminary
after graduating from Ohio University, she searched for another way to serve
the church.

The answer was the Methodist US-2 program, which offered Self a firsthand
experience in mission through work at the Frances de Pauw Home for Latin
American School Girls on Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood.

That was 50 years ago. Since then, the US-2 program, which is administered
by the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, has trained about 1,300
young adults between the ages of 20 and 30 to serve in U.S.-based programs.

Participants from that first group, the Class of 1951-1953, through the
current group, the Class of 2000-2002, are invited to a celebration of the
program's half-century mark Aug. 2-5 in Birmingham, Ala. The registration
deadline has been extended to July 15.

The Rev. Tex Sample of Phoenix, who helped train US-2s during a 20-year
period in the 1970s and 1980s, considers it "the under-sung program in the
United Methodist Church."

"You're dealing with people who are deeply committed to the church and
particularly to mission," said Sample, professor emeritus of Saint Paul
School of Theology and coordinator of the Network for the Study of U.S.
Lifestyles. "These are some of the finest and most faithful people in the
church."

Sample has witnessed not only how the US-2s make a contribution to the
church but also how the program impacts their own lives for years.

For Self, the program provided a practical experience that she could later
share with students as a campus minister, and it opened her eyes to the
diversity of the world around her. "I learned how biased the church was and
how magnanimous the church is," she said.

Eventually, she was able to enroll in seminary, graduating from Claremont
(Calif.) School of Theology in 1966 and serving in campus ministry at
California State University in Long Beach. In 1973, she joined the founding
staff of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women and
stayed for 18 years. After serving as a local church pastor in California,
she retired in 1999, but remains active in the California-Pacific Annual
Conference and as a consultant for church agencies and organizations.

Self still occasionally re-connects with someone from her US-2 past. She
remembered being approached at a reception for her retirement by a woman she
hadn't seen in nearly 50 years, who had come to the Frances de Pauw Home as
a girl.

"It astounds me how the linkages continue to be there," she said. "You make
connections that last a lifetime."

She's excited about the networking opportunities at the 50th anniversary
celebration and the opportunities for the older generations of US-2s to
interact with newer recruits.

Self will lead a memorial service during the Birmingham conference. Sample
will reunite with his good friend and former US-2 teaching partner, the Rev.
William B. McClain, for the keynote presentation. McClain is a professor at
Wesley Seminary.

 A social justice panel will feature Renae Extrum-Fernandez, Class of
1979-1981; Lynette Fields, Class of 1989-1991; M. Sheila McCurdy, Class of
1966-1968; and Joanne Reich, Class of 1988-1990. Peggy Hutchison, Class of
1978-1980, will serve as moderator.

Participants in a "Through the Decades" dinner will include Polly Lassiter
Cook, Class of 1954-1956, and Mary Z. Longstreth and Marcia Knight, from the
1960s. The US-2 Class of 2001-2003 will be commissioned at the end of the
conference.

More information on the Birmingham celebration is available by sending an
e-mail to rpeagler@aol.com or calling Robin Peagler at (212) 870-3661. A
special Web page, http://gbgm-umc.org/news/2001/june/pioneering.htm, has
forms for registration, accommodations and schedule.

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United Methodist News Service
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