wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 303-New bishop brings language of the deaf to United Methodists

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New bishop brings language of the deaf to United Methodists

>Jul. 18, 2008

NOTE: A photograph and audio are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By Linda Bloom*

HARRISBURG, Pa. (UMNS)-When the Rev. Peggy Johnson of Baltimore was
brought to the stage after being elected a United Methodist bishop, she
made sure she spoke in two languages.

"I would like to sign this," she told delegates in both English and
American Sign Language at the denomination's Northeastern Jurisdictional
Conference, "because there are two young people here who are deaf, and I
would like them to think that a bishop can talk to them in their
language."

Johnson - who was elected July 17 and takes office Sept. 1 - has
dedicated much of her nearly 30 years of ministry to work with the deaf.

As he introduced her, Bishop John Schol of Washington, who leads the
Baltimore-Washington Annual (regional) Conference, alluded to the impact
that passion could have. "In the coming years, we, as United Methodists,
will learn a whole new vocabulary," he said.

>Working with the deaf

Johnson, 54, said later in a press conference that she "always had an
affinity with the disabled community" because she was born with one eye
and has an artificial eye.

She had planned for a career in music education, but suffered a personal
crisis after losing her singing voice. She was so impressed when she saw
a deaf choir perform for the first time that she signed up for the first
of many sign-language classes, even though she is not deaf.

After graduating in 1980 from Asbury Theological Seminary - where she
met her husband, the Rev. Michael Johnson - she returned to Baltimore.
When an opening at Christ United Methodist Church of the Deaf came up
eight years later, she took the opportunity.

Besides leading the day-to-day operations at Christ Church, with a staff
of four, Johnson has coordinated the Baltimore-Washington Conference's
deaf ministry for the past 20 years and has supported a deaf ministry
program in Zimbabwe since 2000. She also worked for four years as a deaf
ministry consultant for the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

Johnson founded and directed deaf children's camps, a deaf-blind camp
and young adult deaf camps, led the Global United Methodist Conference
of the Deaf in 2005 and taught about deaf culture at Wesley Theological
Seminary for 11 years.

Her personal theology of inclusion and empowerment of the disabled also
has led to hands-on ministry at state institutions, including the
prison, deaf school, mental health facility and developmentally disabled
group homes. She directs a traveling sign language choir that has
performed more than 400 times around the United Methodist connection
during the past 20 years.

>Advocating on HIV/AIDS

When the HIV/AIDS epidemic hit the deaf population in the late 1980s,
Johnson began advocating for that issue as well, eventually convincing
the state of Maryland to set up HIV/AIDS education programs for the
deaf. "Our church went out on the road, in tandem with the state of
Maryland, to teach deaf people about HIV/AIDS," she said.

For her efforts, she received the "HIV/AIDS Activist Award" from the
Family Service Foundation of Baltimore in 2004 and the "Helping Hand
Award" from the Maryland Association of the Deaf in 1991 and 2005. She
currently serves on the mental health task force of the Governor's
Office of Deaf and Hard of Hearing.

Johnson, the mother of two grown sons, has family roots in the church as
deep as her roots in Baltimore. She represents the Evangelical United
Brethren side of the merger with the Methodist Church that created The
United Methodist Church 40 years ago. Johnson said her maternal
great-grandfather helped built Third Church EUB in Baltimore, and each
of his 10 children helped establish new churches in other parts of what
was then Baltimore County.

On her father's side, her grandfather, born in 1875 in England, was part
of the original Salvation Army, working with founder William Booth, a
former Methodist minister.

Johnson herself was baptized, confirmed and married in Lansdowne United
Methodist Church, a suburban Baltimore congregation. She and her husband
were co-pastors at Lansdowne from 1985 to 1993 and he again is its
pastor, just starting his eighth year there.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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