January Response

January 2000

What Does the Lord Require of Us?

On August 14-20, more than 200 women gathered in Nashville, Tennessee, at the Scarritt- Bennett Center to look at timely social and global issues, and the action that they could take to address these issues. The Women’s Division National Seminar at Scarritt-Bennett Center helped United Methodist Women from diverse backgrounds and age groups analyze global issues affecting women, children and youth; look at approaches to action and advocacy; and come up with concrete actions to accomplish their tasks. This issue of Response magazine shares many of those learnings with our readers.

Gospel Sheds Light on What God Requires

The National Seminar's theme Scripture was Micah 6:8:

What does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love kindness, and to walk humbly with your God?

The Rev. Traci C. West, Ph.D., assistant professor of ethics and African American studies at Drew Theological Seminary in Madison, NJ, led a series of three Bible Studies with National Seminar participants. She turned to Godpel passages to shed light on the seminar's theme Scripture. This Bible study highlights each of Ms. West's three presentations written by Dana E. Jones, editor of Response.

"National Seminar: What Does God Require?" by Dana Jones

National Seminar was designed as a transformative faith experience-- a design women can adapt when planning local unit, district, or conference UMW events. It sought to move participants from personal experience to information gathering to action on social justice issues--all with a Biblical perspective. This article looks at how women were selected to attend the event; the goals of the event; the program design; the adaptation of this program to many settings; and the role of scriptures, which constantly challenge us as we carry out our Biblical mandate.

"Everybody Praise the Lord!" by J. Ann Craig

Worship provides opportunities to say "Yes" to God's call and to be present with the challenges of the Gospel. Such worship doesn't just happen. it is constructed. This model for planning the National Seminar worship is one that can be used in your local church, district, or conference UMW gatherings. It involves asking for Christ's gracious presence to shape your experience; ensuring that just issues are woven into the fabric of worship; and creating an experience that gives content and life to the event.

"Analyzing Issues" by Yvette Moore

Education for Action is the focus of The National Seminar. The goal is that every participant comes home prepared to lead United Methodist Women in her conferenc in addressing an issues she chooses to study during her week at the Seminar. Participants chose to attend one of fourteen issue groups, based on their issues. This article looks at three specific issue groups: The Impact of Welfare Reform on Children; Immigration and Refugees; and Promoting anti-violence, peace and mediation among youth. The stories go in-depth on personal experiences, the issues, and the mandates to address these issues as Christians.

"Journey Through Time With Foremothers" by Glory E. Dharmaraj

Ida B. Wells-- a 19th century journalist, social justice worker and lead advocate for the anti-lynching movement stood among the library shelves. Anna Howard Shaw of the 1915 suffrage movement told of her experiences, then asked participants to write names of women on paper T-shirts who have experienced domestic violence. These situations and others are told in this article and represent part of the cutting edge history of United Methodist Women, which came to life at the National Seminar through skits, hands-on activities, simluation exercises, and hymns and songs presented along a walking tour in to the past and back to the present.

"Speaking Out" by Yvette Moore

Action activities around Nashville gave National Seminar participants hands-on experiences in working for justice at the local level and it modeled ways they could take home what they'd learned. Traveling with their issue groups, the women dispersed to sites to conduct surveys, render service and observe how their chosen social-justice concern played out in various settings in Nashville. This article looks at some of these hands-on experiences: a visit to a Reformed Synagogue to look at hate crimes; a trip to municipal incinerators which are the biggest producers of dioxins; and conversations and analysis with attorneys at the First Ammendment Center to see how free speech issues are affected by the sweep of the Internet.

Other Articles:

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