Leader: Delores Lane
United Methodist Women is an organization of approximately one million members whose purpose is to foster spiritual growth, develop leaders and advocate for justice. Members raise nearly $25 million each year for programs and projects related to women, children and youth in the United States and in more than 100 countries around the world.
For more than a century, women in the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren traditions have led a struggle for human rights and social justice. The generation of women who founded the early missionary societies developed powerful networks and organizational structures to help women attain full participation in the life of the church and society.
In the early years of the women’s mission organizations, the focus was on sending missionaries and helping to change the lives of women and girls in foreign lands. They incorporated the values of home and family into public life, as they addressed issues of poverty, child labor, immigration, migrant labor, family life, racial discrimination, full clergy rights for women, and many other social ills of the day..
Many problems faced by the women at the turn of the century have reemerged in our own time with a new and demanding urgency: new waves of immigration, homelessness, racial divisions, threats to the environment, substance abuse and addiction, lack of affordable health care, concerns for the well-being of children and the elderly, public education, questions about women’s roles in society, and world peace.
Because of the faithfulness and courage of the millions of women who prayed, planned, organized, marched, petitioned, labored, and supported the work of the early missionary societies, the lives of countless individuals, especially women and children, have been irrevocably changed. Women, children and youth in our generation, and the ones that will follow us, are living the legacy of the women’s missionary movement of the 19th century.
During the 30th Anniversary of the creation of UNITED METHODIST WOMEN, we have much to be proud of and a great deal to celebrate as we continue the journey begun more than 133 years ago by our faithful and courageous foremothers.
(from UMW Website)
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