J. Ann Craig, Executive Secretary of the Women's Division at Upper Atlantic Regional School Image by:Julia Tulloch Source: Women's Division

More than 20,000 United Methodist Women members, clergy, children and youth will be using up to a week this summer to study Children of the Bible, India/Pakistan, or public education.  The schools of mission and mission education events take place in annual conferences across the United States.

The spiritual growth study on Children of the Bible asks students to set aside nostalgia and look at the biblical stories with honesty and bravery.  The lives of children in Biblical days were much like today.  Children were often pawns in the games of adult lives or objects in stories that had a moral, not the subject of the story. 

The mission study on India and Pakistan presents the richness and diversity of the cultures of India and Pakistan. It also explores selected current key issues affecting both  countries, including gender issues, poverty, child labor, population, caste, illiteracy,  religious extremism, and globalization.  The study examines the complexities of the border conflict over Kashmir between the two countries.

Further, the mission study presents the rich theologies and missiologies which have originated from India, and the emerging role of Dalit and Indigenous peoples and theologies.  The study offers selected vignettes of the history of mission in India and Pakistan, with particular reference to United Methodism and the role of women in that history.

The Public Education study, in its second year, identifies and examines systemic issues related to public education in the US; celebrates models of church/public schools partnership; and provides a framework where individual transformation can result in actions that transform communities.

For information on mission studies, go to http://gbgm-umc.org/missionstudies/ .

Those interested in attending a local mission education event can get contact information at http://gbgm-umc.org/umw/socm_locations.cfm .

Mission study books can be ordered from www.scorders.org .

	See Also... Topic: Education |  Women |  Geographic Region: United States |  Source: Women's Division
	Print this page E-mail this article

View Listing of Missionaries Currently Working in: United States |  Visit Country Profile for: United States |

Date posted: Jul 11, 2005