wfn.org | Work of Methodist women ranges from local to global

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March 6, 2003	News media contact: Linda Bloom7(212) 870-38037New York
10-21-23-71B{123}

NEW YORK (UMNS) - Rosemary Wass knows firsthand the efforts that local
churchwomen make to raise money for mission.

In her community of York, England, the British Methodist laywoman has taught
Sunday school, served as a local preacher and worked within the women's
organization.

She also has moved beyond that community to such posts as vice president of
the British Methodist Conference in 1990-91, area president of the World
Federation of Methodist and Uniting Church Women from 1991 to 1996 and, since
2001, president of the 6 million-member federation.

Aware of the hard work on the local level, Wass makes sure the organization
uses its funds wisely. "Methodist women are very good at raising money, and
they like to know what it's going to be used for," she told United Methodist
News Service.

The federation also wants to make the voices of its members heard, so Wass
was in New York the week of March 3 to attend sessions of the Commission on
the Status of Women meeting at the United Nations.

Speaking during a March 4 panel discussion on "Women's Effective Response to
Violence," Wass outlined the steps that British and Irish Methodist women had
taken to combat sex tourism and the use of children in prostitution and
pornography.

During a 1993 seminar on those issues, the Great Britain and Ireland Area of
the World Federation of Methodist Women noted with concern the "continuing
reports that citizens of developed countries traveling abroad may be
encouraging the use of children in prostitution and pornography." The group
also confirmed its commitment to the U.N. Convention on the Rights of the
Child, which tries to protect children from sexual exploitation.

The women circulated petitions calling for action by "Her Majesty's
Government" throughout Great Britain and provided members with sample letters
and postcards to send to members of Parliament.

In June 1994, with 90,000 signatures, "we bound rolls of petitions with pink
rosebuds and took them to (10) Downing St.," she said, referring to the
British prime minister's office. "We were not alone in our campaign. We had
adopted almost the same text as the U.N. and, in effect, joined other
organizations who had more experience than ourselves at things like this -
the Jubilee Trust and ECPAT, Doctor Barnados and the National Children's
Home.

"The petitions kept being returned full. They were placed on shop counters
with the cooperation of the owners. They were taken out of the churches and
into communities. They were signed by men and women. The women needed to
realize that we needed the support of the men in order to speak for the whole
community."

By June 1996, the Methodist women - bearing another 140,000 signatures - went
again to 10 Downing St., where they had a live interview with the BBC.
Supporting legislation was passed the next month.

The commitment to that issue has continued, Wass said, noting that new
legislation is due to be introduced in the British Parliament regarding the
commercial sexual exploitation of children.

Each time it meets for a world assembly, the federation votes on such issues
for study and action by its nine regional areas. "Some of the subjects are so
huge you know they'll be on the next agenda and the one after that," she
observed.

During the 10th world assembly in 2001, where Wass was elected president, the
selected issues for the next five-year period were gender justice, children,
HIV/AIDS, racism and violence. Underlying each issue, the assembly
recognized, is the fact that "poverty is a key factor in the experience of
most women, men and children."

Between assemblies, each region holds a seminar that includes Bible study and
a focus on those issues, and each year, a region is assigned to develop study
materials for the organization's World Federation Day on one of the issues.
In 2003-04, for example, the West Africa area is developing materials on
HIV/AIDS.

Other goals that Wass has during her term, which ends in 2006, include
consideration of more e-mail correspondence, development of a Web site and
the establishment of a database of Web sites on particular issues "that would
help people worldwide to have a wide access of resources."  

The federation's nine regional areas are Britain and Ireland/Europe, Europe
Continental, North America, Latin America, East Asia, West Asia, West Africa,
Southern and East Africa, and South Pacific. Each is represented by a number
of units. Those from North America, for example, are United Methodist Women,
women from the African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal Zion
and Christian Methodist Episcopal churches, and women from Caribbean
Methodist churches. Canadian women have associate membership.

"Uniting" was added to the federation's name in 1996 to reflect membership in
countries where the Methodist denomination had merged with other
denominations. Wass believes that addition both enriched the spirituality and
increased the diversity of the organization.

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United Methodist News Service
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