United Methodist Women: response

Our launch continues, and we’re all part of it. United Women in Faith can be fresh, inspirational, hopeful, inclusive, inviting and life-changing. Our faith is what calls us, roots us and encourages us as we say: Yes, we’re going to do the next thing. United Women in Faith helps us experience God’s love and build an integrated, bountiful, thriving community that experiences God’s love together and, together, responds to God’s invitation to join in doing God’s work in the world.Now is our chance to live the vision, make an impact and build the sisterhood to be changed and to be changemakers. Let’s do it!

As with so many firsts in the long history of United Women in Faith, this year’s first-ever Virtual Assembly 2022 was a vibrant, soul-quenching success, drawing nearly 1,200 women from across the nation online for a time of holy conferencing and fellowship.

Bold and spirited energy filled the room for Assembly 2022’s Saturday evening worship, as United Women in Faith leaders took to the stage to name and claim a fresh future for the organization.“Are you ready? Can we turn it up together tonight?” National President ‘Ainise ‘Isama’u asked as nearly 3,000 women in person and online gave a resounding “We can!”Calling faith, action and sisterhood “foundations of our journey,” ‘Isama’u welcomed other board leaders who teamed up to represent faith, action and sisterhood, each sharing new and exciting opportunities available to inspire, influence and impact women and girls across the globe.

Stop the train—I want to get off! Do you ever feel that way? Time is moving too fast. People are moving, changing jobs, becoming harder to include in gatherings shaped by pandemic concerns. It’s always time to nominate new officers, plan an event or write another response column. (Maybe that last one is just me.) Why can’t things just stay the same?Of course, the truth is, things never really stay the same for long. For those of us who have accumulated some years, it only takes a few minutes to come up with examples—we used to search a card catalog, get graded on penmanship, use paper maps and phone books, watch our favorite television shows only once a week, need a man’s permission to obtain a credit card. At the same time there are things that endure, such as the need to connect, research, make records, communicate, enjoy art, worship. The ways in which we accomplish these tasks may change, but the needs remain.We have experienced this throughout the existence of United Methodist Women and our predecessors. How we do mission has changed. Our names have changed. How we learn about the work needed and the work being done has changed. How we gather, inform, fundraise, engage, celebrate and worship has changed. So much has changed! But we can also look back at our 153 years and see so much has remained constant. Women still gather for Christian fellowship, prayer, support and study. Women are still committed to raising up women leaders. Women are still committed to making the world a better place. Women are still committed to living out their faith in lives of action for justice and through loving service. Women are still attentive to those who are excluded or left out or left behind. Women know the church needs us.One of the marvelous learnings from all the research we did as a foundation for launching our new brand is that both members and nonmembers value these constants. Women who are not members of United Methodist Women, now United Women in Faith, value and long for the things that have been at the core of who we are throughout our existence. Members and nonmembers want to grow closer to God, find sisters in faith, raise up and hold up women leaders and invest in causes larger than themselves. This, friends, is good news. The core purposes for which we exist have urgency and appeal to many who are not yet members. What is less appealing to women of faith is connected to how we have organized to achieve our goals. We know from decades of hard work with new member resources and thinking about what it means to belong that it can be very challenging to enfold new people in existing structures in ways that allow them to bring all they have to offer. The good news is that we can lead with our core values and goals. We can invite women to connect in new ways, to engage with causes larger than themselves and to come together for Christian nurture in familiar and new ways. This time of rebranding is a wonderful opportunity to elevate our deepest values, to employ new tools and to reaffirm the centrality of faith, action and sisterhood. Let us, together, go forward to live out the call of God, letting love guide our action, in work for justice and in service.

As United Methodist Women refreshes its look, it embarks on a bold journey
of nurturing sisterhood with a new name to reflect a bright future.

Navajo United Methodist Center in New Mexico 
gives women, children and youth a chance for a fresh start.

Makeda McCreary talks about music and mentorship as she codirects the music for Assembly 2022 this May in Orlando.

If we work together, can we evoke a church that is not rooted in patriarchy? Can we help construct a church with diverse leadership that is welcoming to all? Knowing that our cultural, ethnic, racial, gender, sexuality and generational differences are among our most important strengths, can we find ways and places to worship that speak to our hearts and honor our histories? I believe that, together, and together with others, we can be part of building a church doing God’s work, reflecting God’s love in the world, sharing good news and setting captives free.Now it is our chance—yours and mine—to act like leaders, to assess what’s happening, take action. Listen with empathy and curiosity. Talk about our vision. Enlist others. It’s only by each of us doing this, and doing this together, that we will be able to move toward the vision of where God is calling us.