Women’s Division calls racial justice consultation in Gore, Oklahoma

Forty United Methodist Women leaders from around the country will strategize future direction of the organization’s racial justice work in an increasingly diverse U.S. and world context when they gather at the Fin and Feather Resort in Gore, Okla., Aug. 10-13.

The consultation is part of United Methodist Women’s yearlong celebration of its Charter for Racial Justice, adopted 25 years ago by the General Conference of the United Methodist Church. The charter will be presented to General Conference again in 2008 for reauthorization.

“We see this as a discernment event: Where is United Methodist Women now on racial justice? Where have we been? Where do we need to be?” explained Carol Barton, co-executive secretary for racial justice for the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries (GBGM), national administrative body of United Methodist Women.

Women invited to the event will represent 10 conference racial justice charter committees selected to ensure racial and geographic diversity. Five Women’s Division directors and six staff members will also attend the meeting.

Consultation facilitators will include the Rev. Tweedy Evelene Navarrete Sombrero, a Dine (Navajo) woman and pastor of Holbrook United Methodist Church in Holbrook, Ariz., and Nancy Richardson, PhD, founder of the Women's Theological Center and senior lecturer at Harvard Divinity School, where she teaches Education for Liberation and Racializing Whiteness.

Women’s Division event leaders will include Lois M. Dauway, assistant general secretary for Christian Social Responsibility; and Ms. Barton and elmira Nazombe racial justice co-executives for the division.