wfn.org | ABCUSA: American Baptist Women Represented at NABWU Assembly

["SCHRAMM, Richard" <Richard.Schramm@abc-usa.org>]

American Baptist News Service (10/9/02)--More than 30 American Baptist women
from across the U.S. participated in the North American Baptist Women's
Union (NABWU) General Assembly last week in Montego Bay, Jamaica, in
conjunction with the Union's 50th anniversary. The international event drew
460 conferees from 18 Baptist women's organizations in Canada, the U.S.,
Jamaica and Guyana.  

NABWU sponsors an assembly for its member organizations every five years.  

Among American Baptist participants were the Rev. Karen Selig, national
president of American Baptist Women's Ministries, and the Rev. Carol
Franklin Sutton, national movement director for NEW LIFE 2010, who emceed a
colorful banner procession featuring the Baptist women's organizations.  

The Rev. Dr. Molly Marshall, professor of theology and spiritual formation
at Central Baptist Theological Seminary, Kansas City, Kans., challenged
conferees through daily Bible studies on the conference theme, "Women of
God: Becoming One in Spirit and Purpose."  

In an opening keynote message the Rev. Betty Wright-Riggins, member services
representative for The Ministers and Missionaries Benefit Board, focused on
Moses and the influential women who mentored him.  "We know Moses as the
key, the pivot by which God institutes God's plan to develop a people after
God's own heart, but Moses had help," she said, citing Pharaoh's daughter,
Miriam, the mother of Moses and Zipporah.

Virginia Holmstrom, executive director of American Baptist Women's
Ministries, reported throughout the meeting on representative ministries
that benefited from NABWU grants made available through the Baptist Women's
Day of Prayer offering.  One ministry featured was the Church of Hope, an
American Baptist new church start in the South Dakota Women's Correctional
Facility at Pierre, S.D., served by the Rev. Michele Bradley.

Other participants included Barbara Joiner, a well-known Southern Baptist
author; Audrey Morikawa, president of the Baptist World Alliance Women's
Department; and Dr. Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Baptist World
Alliance.  

Women from among the 390 churches of the Jamaica Baptist Union performed an
evening of Jamaica culture, which included folk song, music, and
storytelling in local Patois dialect.  The women of Jamaica also urged
conferees to pray for the country's upcoming elections, which have the
potential for unrest and violence.  

Dr. Beverly Dunston Scott, president of NABWU since 1997 and an American
Baptist leader, presided throughout the Assembly meeting.  She and the other
officers of the Executive Board concluded their five-year terms of service
and welcomed the newly elected officers.  Judith Chambers of Granville
Ferry, Nova Scotia, and a member of Atlantic Baptist Women, was installed as
president.  Crystal Wolgast, an American Baptist woman from Topeka, Kans.,
began a term of service as treasurer.

02ABN146				

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Churches USA, P.O. Box 851, Valley Forge, PA 19482-0851; (610)768-2077; fax:
(610)768-2320; www.abc-usa.org; richard.schramm@abc-usa.org