Jennifer Lim (fifth from right) attends a human rights celebration hosted by Church Women United (CWU).
Jennifer Lim (fifth from right) attends a human rights celebration hosted by Church Women United (CWU).
Over the almost 150-year history of church women organized for mission, structural change has been a constant.
“The original societies, associations, councils and guilds that came together to form today’s United Methodist Women (UMW) are part of an ongoing process of following a call to live as disciples and to respond, in particular, to the needs of women, children and youth,” says Harriett Jane Olson, chief executive of UMW. “The women organized for mission in order to accomplish more than any one of them could do alone.”
Olson continues, “Working together and responding to the expanding work gave them the opportunity to grow their skills. Today, as then, some of us come to the organization having had leadership opportunities and experience, and others do not. All of us have a commitment to learn, and to provide education, opportunity and training for others.”
Telling other women about the needs of women, children and youth, enlisting the participation of others, and equipping themselves with information and organizing to promote the work have been part of UMW from the very beginning. In every era, the process required change.
“Our connection to the work of the church has taken different forms as well,” says Olson. “Since 2012, we are reporting directly to the General Conference instead of being organized as a division of another agency. We are continuing to bring our perspective on the leadership of women and the needs of women in this configuration under the name United Methodist Women, rather than Women’s Division. We continue to shape our own structures to provide the framework supporting spiritual growth, leadership development, mission education, service and advocacy for justice. No doubt, this too, will continue to change as we hear and follow God’s call.”
Cindy Solomon