Mission Update
Fifty women circled the stage flying bird kites. Liturgical dancers streamed down the aisles with canopies of colored cloth. Global singers and musicians sang for a swaying audience of close to 10,000.
The finale to the April 25-28 United Methodist Women’s Assembly in Philadelphia was charged with the energy of thousands of women committed to mission –- the same energy that highlighted events from Thursday through Sunday. For four days, women from across the United States and their international guests worshiped, sang, studied the Bible, were inspired by speakers and workshop leaders, took action on behalf of children, and learned and shared information on spiritual-growth and social-justice issues.
Building on the theme, "Sing a New Song!" the once-every-four-years event focused on God’s mission with women, children and youth through the 1 million members of United Methodist Women.
Women’s Division President Genie Bank opened the event:
"Songs of celebration, songs of love, songs of justice, songs of peace will be with us daily and follow us home," Ms. Bank said.
Joyce D. Sohl, top executive of the United Methodist Women’s Division, closed the event with a look at the biblical story of Mary and Elizabeth -- two lowly women chosen to be instruments of God’s grace.
"They were grounded in faith," Ms. Sohl said. "They knew the hymns of praise, the songs of lament, the somber melodies of brokenness from God, and the harmonies of reconciliation with God. They claimed God’s promises for themselves and for their people.
"Can you and I claim these promises? Can we stand on them in our everyday living? Can we believe that with God all is possible in the midst of the turmoil of our world?"
Bible studies inspiring
Drawing on her experiences of growing up in war-torn Korea, the Rev. Hea Sun Kim gave a radical message in her Friday morning Bible study: Jesus wants us to be like children. Based on the Matthew 18 mandate, Ms. Kim said this doesn’t necessarily mean sinless, pure and innocent.
"Jesus told his disciples that unless they became the lowest of the lowly in their humbleness, they could never enter the kingdom of heaven," Ms. Kim said. "What a radical thing to say." To do as Jesus instructed, Christians must listen and learn from socially powerless children.
"Can we humble ourselves enough to let the child lead us from the place of the powerless and the oppressed?" she asked.
Saturday morning, the Rev. Barbara Lundblad, a Lutheran pastor and professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary, invited Rahab –- a prostitute. That’s what Jesus would do, she said. He would go into the streets and invite a prostitute to join the gathering.
Rahab was Jesus’ great, great, great, great grandmother. In return for hiding Joshua’s spies, the spies promised to spare her and her family when they invaded the city if she placed a crimson cord in her window.
"The forces of death passed over her house and the walls between insider and outsider crumbled in her presence," Ms. Lundblad said. "Is that why Rahab is here -- to remind us to beware of making distinctions between insiders and outsiders?"
Be attentive to those like Rahab who live in the margins of life, Ms. Lundblad said. Listen to the Israeli mothers mourning the deaths of children killed by suicide bombers, and remember there are 1,000 refugees living in squalid camps on the West Bank and Gaza strip for every bomber, she said. The Jewish and Palestinian history is very complex with severe injustices on both sides, she said.
"It’s easy for us to see a monster rather than a martyr," Ms. Lundblad said pointing to histories of dehumanizing African slaves and Jews. "This has always been a way to destroy people -- to dehumanize them, to make them expendable. The red thread says, ‘Remember me and my family and the thousands of people who have lived here for centuries.’"
Signs of hope offered
Assembly speaker Marian Wright Edelman, president and founder of the Children’s Defense Fund, addressed children’s issues opening with the story of a mother who couldn’t afford child care even though she worked.
The mother was put on Florida’s waiting list for child-care assistance with 22,000 others, Ms. Edelman said. Depending on family and friends for help fell through one day, so she had to leave 3-year-old Anthony and 4-year-old Maurice at home alone. They climbed into a clothes dryer to look at a magazine, tumbled and burned to death.
"Anthony and Maurice died from poverty and the refusal of our nation to protect and invest in a safe, affordable, quality child-care system for working parents," Ms. Edelman said. "Should parents have to choose between making a living and the lives and safety of their children? The state of millions of children in the richest most powerful democratic nation in the world is morally shameful, economically costly and politically hypocritical."
Musimbi Kanyoro, general secretary for the World YWCA, and Michele Beg, the YWCA’s communication director, addressed women’s issues globally. Their message: When we raise the status of women around the world, efforts to eradicate poverty, improve education and end racism will succeed.
Of the world’s 1.3 billion impoverished people, 70 percent are women, Ms. Kanyoro said. Poverty, war, racism and education are closely correlated, she said.
"If poverty cannot be eradicated, terrorism, corruption and fear of the other will continue," Ms. Kanyoro said. "Eradicating poverty everywhere is more than a moral imperative and commitment to human solidarity. It is a practical possibility and an economic imperative for global prosperity."
Celia Renee Esparza, president of United Methodist Women-supported United Community Centers in Fort Worth, Texas, proposed similar measures domestically.
"What does it mean to be poor in our land of plenty?" Ms. Esparza asked, then answered, "It means being surrounded by wealth, but having no access to it."
Ms. Esparza works with women and families dealing with poverty, discrimination and lack of employment. Forty percent of United Methodist Community Centers’ constituents have less than an eighth-grade education. The centers offer literacy classes, basic education, English lessons, workplace literacy, and job-skills and life-skills training. Staff help children with homework, provide child care before and after school, and serve as teacher-parent liaisons. To help women get a fair start, the centers provide women with Individual Development Accounts so they can begin to save, learn the principles of buying and be rewarded for their efforts.
Other Assembly highlights
Assembly offered more than 60 workshops on spirituality and faith, music, personal issues, social-justice issues, and United Methodist Women membership and leadership development.
Musical performers included folk singer Linda Allen; Sisters’ Grace, a trio on piano, violin and violoncello bridging Mendelssohn, Schubert, Ellington, Garner and African-American spirituals; and Tish Hinojosa, sharing multicultural music with personal and social-justice messages.
The United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries’ Youth Mission Chorale, which toured Asia last summer, performed songs from around the world and shared stories from their summer musical evangelism mission.
Experiential learning undergirded an exhibit area with displays on health care; public education; HIV/AIDS; the environment; and the work, membership and mission of United Methodist Women.
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