Commission offers lifeline to women in church

By Linda Bloom*

SAN FRANCISCO (UMNS) - For individual women in the church, the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women can be a lifeline.

The Rev. Elizabeth Lopez, for example, remembers the support that the Rev. Nan Self, then a commission executive, offered to her more than 30 years ago. New to ordination and the church bureaucracy, Lopez said she found herself in a bewildering, humiliating situation as a nominee for the board of directors of the denomination's General Council on Ministries.

Self sought her out and gave her the encouragement she needed, Lopez told commission directors during their Sept. 20-22 annual meeting in San Francisco. Even now, COSROW "is still the voice of countless women," she said.

The commission has created "the space for women to speak," added Lopez, who currently serves as superintendent of the Metro West District of the United Methodist Minnesota Annual (regional) Conference. "If this voice is silenced, how will the church be accountable?"

'A powerful gift'
Bishop Mary Virginia "Dindy" Taylor of Columbia, S.C., who is COSROW's president, said that, as a clergywoman, the commission "has been a support group throughout my ministry."

She told United Methodist News Service she was pleased to hear stories from individual women - whether seminarians and professors at Boston University or Native American clergy and lay women in Oklahoma -- as the commission met over the past four years and to lead advocacy work that has resulted in "much more attention" to issues of sexual ethics and misconduct in the church's annual conferences.

"To see how the church is progressing is a powerful gift," the bishop said.

COSROW's achievements during the past quadrennium have included developing and distributing a new online curriculum, "Women Called to Ministry," for local churches; bringing more than 200 church leaders and representatives of five church agencies together to discuss prevention of sexual misconduct; launching a sexual ethics newsletter and Web site; and participating in the 2006 celebration of the 50th anniversary of full clergy rights for women in The United Methodist Church.

Survey planned
A denomination-wide survey on issues related to clergy spouses, conducted in cooperation with the United Methodist Board of Pension and Health Benefits, is being planned, according to a report from M. Garlinda Burton, the commission's chief executive.

"We have reached out to clergy spouses and said to the church that we need to pay attention to the concerns of clergy spouses and families and ensure that they are not isolated and taken for granted as they serve alongside the clergy family member, and that the church must provide support and pastoral care when there is a divorce or other crisis in the clergy family," she said.

Monitoring, reporting and advocacy for the inclusion of women at all levels of church life remain priorities for the commission, and Burton encouraged departing directors to continue the ministry.

"Your local church and annual conference should have at least a basic policy for preventing and addressing sexual misconduct and abuse, and if they don't, they should have you 'up in their faces' asking why and offering to facilitate training and policy development," she declared.

"Women and girls should be more visible in traditional and nontraditional leadership roles - and more men should be teaching Sunday school and working in partnership with their sisters," Burton added.

"Christian education should include curricula and discussion about the forgotten history of women as preachers, judges, prophets, disciples and leaders from the Old Testament right through to today. Your annual conference should have monitoring tools and teams at work each year."

She urged women of all ages, both clergy and lay, to study and work together, fighting sexism and "mentoring new women into faith and leadership."

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