A Moment for Mission
“God’s handiwork is honesty and justice; all God’s rules are trustworthy.” —Psalm 111:7, CEB
Thanks to United Methodists’ generous support of the World Service Fund, the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (GCSRW) develops and strengthens women for leadership in The United Methodist Church.
In Guidelines: Advocates for Inclusiveness, GCSRW[A1] [A2] and the General Commission on Religion and Race suggest ways to build a church that reflects honesty and justice for all people in the life of the church by:
- building awareness by designing bulletin boards, oral and audiovisual presentations and celebrations of Special Sundays and cultural heritage observances;
- presenting opportunities for the congregation to study with, interact with and minister with congregations of different races, and participating in vigils for racial justice and healing, and for justice and healing for women;
- working with church leadership, including ministry groups such as missions, youth, Sunday school, United Methodist Women and United Methodist Men. Encourage them to seek fellowship with groups of other races and groups in the community that work for justice, and to encourage women and racial/ethnic persons to occupy positions of visibility and influence in the church; and
- modeling inclusiveness with churches of other racial/ethnic groups through pulpit exchanges, joint worship services, dialogues and cooperative mission and community service projects—such as vacation Bible school, neighborhood clean-up campaigns and voter registration drives.
Children’s Message
Susanna Wesley is an amazing woman who lived a long time ago, but her story is still inspiring people today, especially in our United Methodist Church.
Susanna Wesley was born in England in 1669. She believed that women should have a voice in the church. Women weren’t treated the same as men, but Susanna didn’t let that stop her. She started small Bible study groups in her kitchen. She showed everyone that women could be leaders in the church too. And she made sure that her daughters learned to read. Two of her children, John and Charles, grew up to start a faith movement that eventually became The United Methodist Church.
In The United Methodist Church, we believe that everyone is equal in God’s eyes. That means all people, regardless of gender, should have the same opportunities to serve and lead in the church. We even have an organization called the Commission on the Status and Role of Women to make sure that women are treated fairly and have a voice in our church.
Let’s pray together:
Dear God, thank you for Susanna Wesley and for all the women who inspire us to live our faith boldly. Help us to remember that everyone is equal in your eyes, and help us to work for justice and equality in our church and in the world. Amen.
Prayer from the GCSRW 50th Anniversary Worship Resources
God who is loving and kind, thank you for the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women. We thank you for the great work this agency has done to support the full inclusion and participation of women in the church. We thank you for the witness of justice, mercy and love this agency has shown. Amen.
Newsletter Nugget
“God’s handiwork is honesty and justice; all God’s rules are trustworthy.” —Psalm 111:7, CEB
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women sponsored the Service of Lament, Confession and Hope at General Conference on April 25, 2024. General Conference delegates claimed black as a symbol of resistance and resilience, calling attention to rape and violence against women and vowing to end the church’s silence and inaction.
Thursdays in Black, an initiative of the World Council of Churches, encourages wearing black clothing on this one day of the week to witness to realities, like those reported by the United Nations. Among those is that globally an estimated 736 million women—almost one in three—have experienced either physical or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.
One of these women, Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, Resident Bishop of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware annual conferences, stood before General Conference and testified to the damage the church can do when it is silent on this issue.
Too often, she said, silence “has been the church’s response to domestic abuse, intimate partner violence, rape as a weapon of war, incest, violence against the transgender community, as well as the abduction and disappearance of Indigenous women.”
Thanks to United Methodists’ generous support of the World Service Fund, the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women develops and strengthens women for leadership in The United Methodist Church.