Prepared by United Methodist News Service. When the White House hosted a high-powered gathering in Washington, D.C., on March 11 to announce a push for women's rights, Jane Hull Harvey, an assistant general secretary of United Methodist Board of Church and Society, was among the guests representing 150 women's groups. President Clinton announced a renewed effort to gain U.S. ratification of the United Nations Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, Harvey said. The 5,000-member church is one of Georgia's largest.
Conflicting reports exist on the cause of the issue.
The black caucus that has been a voice for justice and change in the United Methodist Church for 30 years met in Oakland, Calif., March 3-7 to celebrate its past and devise strategies for the future. The Black Methodists for Church Renewal gathered to remember the prophetic voices of the group's founders, affirm the presence of African-Americans in places of authority in the church, discern future implications for ministry and honor laity. The humanities division has designed the degree program. Wiley College, Marshall College, dedicated on March 4 a historical marker in honor of the late civil rights leader J. Leonard Farmer, as part of the school's 125th anniversary celebration. Farmer was Texas' first African-American to earn a doctorate degree and taught at Wiley upon graduating from Boston University in 1918.