Mark Your Calendar for SEJ 2008

Have you marked your calendar and started to make plans to attend SEJ 2008...the Southeastern Jurisdiction Quadrennial Meeting of United Methodist Women that will be held next April?

Read all about it below...in an invitation from our own Dixie Liggett...and come go with us!
You can read more about SEJ 2008 on our website at www.wnccumw.org. Just visit the SEJ 2008 page! Complete registration information, hotel information, and information about the chartered bus trip from our conference are all available there.

Just a reminder about the approaching reservation deadline for persons interested in traveling with us on the chartered bus trip from our conference...Our bus trip reservation deadline is October 15, 2007. See more information below.

And, our conference will provide three $200 scholarships for first timers attending SEJ 2008. Scholarship applications must be received by November 1st. See more information below.
Thanks for sharing this information with members of your local unit!


SEJ 2008 - YOU are invited!
From our own...Dixie Liggett, Member SEJ Core Planning Group

Have you ever wanted to make history? in an historical place? Well, here is your invitation to do just that!

The SEJ Quadrennial Meeting "Called by Name" in Hampton, Virginia, April 4-6, 2008, will be the last quadrennial meeting as we know them. (There will be future meetings, but on a much smaller scale, attached to Regional School.) So if you accept the invitation, you will be part of UMW history (i.e., the last quad meeting) in an historical place (Hampton is close to the early American settlement of Jamestown, Virginia.

Do you need more reasons to accept the invitation? Then consider these:

Inspirational worship and meaningful Bible study. Our own Lynn Sloan Barnes will be the music leader. Arnetta Beverly will be the Bible study leader.

Fellowship. We are a connectional organization. This is a wonderful opportunity to "connect" with women from all 15 Conferences in the Southeastern Jurisdiction.

Focus Groups. Select from the varied list on the registration form.

Meet the nominees for Women's Division from the SEJ and observe the election of directors by voting delegates.

Program Resources. Browse for new or familiar resources in the resource room and computer center.

Display Area. Check out tables and booths set up with informational material for great mission and program ideas.

Missionaries. Talk with a missionary to learn what they have been doing in the mission field.
Programs. Obtain potential names for speakers, music, and mission studies.



Chartered Bus Trip...Join Us!
ALL ABOARD!!!

Make plans now to come go with us to SEJ 2008 on the Western North Carolina Conference buses!
A Taste of Historic Williamsburg and SEJ 2008

We have three deluxe Royal Tours motor coaches reserved...make your plans and send in your reservation!

Our buses will depart on Thursday, April 3, 2008, with pick up locations across the conference. Following is an overview of the planned bus trip itinerary:

Thursday, April 3:
Morning departures from various pick-up points across the conference
Dinner at Captain George's Seafood Restaurant
Overnight at Governor's Inn, Williamsburg, Virginia

Friday, April 4:
Guided walking tour of Colonial Williamsburg Historic Area
Arrive Hampton, VA (Holiday Inn) mid-afternoon
Opening session of SEJ 2008 begins at 7:00pm

Sunday, April 6:
Meeting ends around 12:00 Noon
Departure immediately following meeting conclusion
Lunch (on your own) on the road / Return to pick-up points in Western NC

Bus Trip Prices (Per Person):
Double room - $250.00
Triple room - $230.00
Quad room - $215.00
Single room - $315.00

The price of the bus trip includes: Deluxe round trip bus transportation to Williamsburg and Hampton, VA, one nights lodging at Governor's Inn in Williamsburg, VA, one dinner (Thursday evening, April 3rd), one continental breakfast, and a guided walking tour of Colonial Williamsburg. The price of the bus trip DOES NOT include the cost of two nights lodging at the Holiday Inn in Hampton, VA during the SEJ 2008 meeting, or the $100.00 SEJ 2008 registration fee.

Bus Trip Reservation / $100.00 Deposit Deadline
October 15, 2007

An Adobe Acrobat (PDF) version of our SEJ 2008 Bus Trip Reservation Form is available on our website...click here to open that form.

If you have questions, you can contact either of the bus coordinators:

Sara Williams (336) 699-8079
sarawill@yadtel.net

Lynne Gilbert (336) 854-3479
lynnegilbert@bellsouth.net



Scholarships to be Awarded
to Three SEJ 2008 First Timers!

The Western North Carolina Conference United Methodist Women will award three $200 scholarships for the 2008 Southeastern Jurisdiction Meeting. Persons applying for scholarship assistance must be a member of a local or district unit of United Methodist Women within the Western North Carolina Conference, and must not have previously attended a Jurisdiction meeting.

Please complete the application form and provide all requested information, and send the completed form to: Sharon Smith, Conference Treasurer, P.O. Box 903, Marion, NC 28752.
Scholarship applications must be received by November 1st in order to be considered. Scholarship recipients will be notified by November 15th.

Click here to download the scholarship application form (PDF)

International Peace Day, and Prayers for Peace

Western North Carolina Conference United Methodist Women
Conference Email List for United Methodist Women
September 21, 2007

Today is International Peace Day. Following are two articles just posted to the Women's Division website:

Prayer and Action for International Peace Day

Sept. 21 is International Peace Day, an annual commemoration adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 2001. The United Nations called for "a day of global ceasefire and non-violence, an invitation to all nations and people to honor a cessation of hostilities for the duration of the Day." The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has also declared 2001-2010 the International Decade for a Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World..

Since 2001 International Peace Day has become a rallying point for long-term peace. The World Council of Churches (WCC) and the ecumenical community in the United States will host an ecumenical gathering at the United Nations Sept. 21 as part of the WCC Decade to Overcome Violence. Representatives from Pakistan, Lebanon, Brazil and South Africa will be present.

Here's what you can do:
Take time to Reflect. Make the day a time to honor Jesus' weeping over Jerusalem, "If you, even you, had only recognized on this day the things that make for peace!" How can the day be a time to honor that quest and search above all others in our lives? Spend time in reflection and prayer, to consider what makes for peace personally; in our families; in our communities; in our nation and our world? Journal about what we need to do to be at peace at all of these levels. Share your reflections with others on United Methodist Women's Online Community, www.umwonline.org.

Pray for Peace. Join thousands around the world who are participating in spiritual observations for peace and nonviolence Sept. 21. Lift up personal and collective prayers, host a prayer vigil in your church or community. Continue the United Methodist Women initiative: Prayers for Peace. Post your prayers to the discussion section of the Faith Explorations Community on United Methodist Women's Online Community, www.omwonline.org.

Sing for Peace. Use music to promote peace building by learning the peace hymns from the 2007 spiritual growth study, God's Mission, God's Song (#M3001/$10.95), by Joyce D. Sohl. Sing the hymns at peace vigils and utilize them to undergird your advocacy for peace. To order contact Mission Resourece Center at 1-800-305-9857.

Read and Act. Read the Women's Division April 2007 recommendation on Peace in the Middle East, which includes suggestions for action.
The National Council of Churches is calling us to organize local candlelight vigils, teach-ins and prayer services as part of an "Interfaith Fast to End the War in Iraq" Oct. 8, 2007. For information go to www.interfaithfast.org. Invite public officials to the events. Commemorate International Peace Day by beginning to plan for that now.
Send postcards to Congress. Some peacemakers have begun an initiative to flood Congress with postcards Sept. 21 reminding them of the U.N. International Day of Peace and calling on representatives to take action for peace now. Have a postcard decorating party and involve children in this activity as well.

For information go to:
International Decade on Culture of Peace and Nonviolence for the Children of the World
United Nations Resource for Schools



Are We Closer to Peace Today?

Sept. 20, 2007 -- United Methodist Women have carried out a prayer campaign since the 2003 Lenten Season, the start of the Iraq War. Now, we call on the whole church to keep the faith and continue actions of prayer for peace.

It is the 5th year of the war in Iraq. The costs are in thousands of Iraqi and U.S. lives and over $500 billion. This year marks the 40th anniversary of the Israeli occupation of the West Bank, East Jerusalem and Gaza with ongoing conflict and suffering. Now there is rumbling about a U.S. war on Iran. We are in the middle of the Decade to Overcome Violence (2001-2010), a decade that the World Council of Churches has designated for church communities to work towards peace and reconciliation.

As violence continues across the globe, let us pray for an end to the current war and curb a possible war in Iran or anywhere in the world. When we pray for and stand for peace, we pray and stand against all conditions, attitudes and institutions that breed and nurture violence, war and injustice. We seek to build a culture of peace at all levels of our lives - in the way we treat each other personally, and in challenging domestic violence and racially motivated violence - in our communities, our nation and in the world.

Christ told us not to be afraid. Christ walks with us. The Holy Spirit empowers us to pray for what seems impossible - that swords be hammered into plows; guns melted into tractors. We pray that children can play rather than dodge landmines, that old men dream child's play instead of war flashbacks, that old women dream of grandchildren instead of small graves. They asked Jesus, "Who is my neighbor?" Today he would name people in places like Iraq, Afghanistan, Sudan and Palestine as well as those in Somalia and South Asia.

In 2003 we prayed for peace and presented prayers on cards to the White House after the initial invasion of Iraq. In 2004 we kept our faith and continued our prayers. That summer, a prayer-for-peace postcard campaign at Regional and Conference Schools of Christian Mission yielded cards sent to the members of the Congressional Foreign Affairs Committee. During the 2007 spring meeting of the Women's Division's board of directors in Stamford, Conn., a peace vigil called for peace in the Middle East and an end to Israeli occupation of Palestine. Today, peace is still out there waiting for us to live it. Love is out there waiting to be embodied. Christ is on the side of the road waiting for a Samaritan to heal his wounds. Continue to be a part of it. Here's what you can do:

• Pray for peace. Post your prayers in the discussion section of the Faith Explorations Community on United Methodist Women's Online Community, www.umwonline.org . Send written prayers to Sung-ok Lee, Women's Division, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 1502, New York, NY 10115
• Reach out to families of soldiers in Iraq and veterans' organizations to support soldiers through prayer, letters and packages, and by supporting military families' organizations to end the war and bring troops home. Some examples are Military Families Speak Out, Gold Star Families for Peace and Iraq Veterans Against the War.
• Advocate for increased funding for veterans' benefits.
• Read the Women's Division April 2007 action: "Steps Toward a Just Peace in the Middle East" for reflection and action found at www.umwonline.org .
• Hold a peace vigil in your community calling for peace in the world and an end to the war in Iraq. Send stories about your peace vigil to the Women's Division, Office of Community Action, 475 Riverside Drive, Room 1502, NY, NY 10115, or slee@gbgm-umc.org
• Write about your events for peace in your United Methodist Women conference and district newsletters.
• Monitor current legislation and contact your representatives in Congress to express views on peace.
• Participate in education of young people about misleading military recruitment drives and offer alternatives to the military.
• Participate in the 2007-2008 School of Christian Mission study on Israel and Palestine, conduct studies in your local unit or your church, and prayerfully consider how to take action.
• Use the 2006 Women's Division Program Book, Building Peace, Piece by Piece, for worship and programs on peacemaking. To order call the Mission Resource Center: 1-800-305-9857.
• Read the Council of Bishops' Resolution on the War on Iraq and the Council of Bishops' study: "In Search of Security."
• Use the National Council of Churches' international affairs curriculum, "For the Peace of the World," as a United Methodist Women or Sunday school study. For information go to www.ncccusa.org .
• View the American Friends Service Committee movie that tells the truth about the ongoing loss of life in Iraq. See the movie online at www.afsc.org .
  
  

Our Email List Has Moved!

Western North Carolina Conference United Methodist Women
September 13, 2007

Our email list has moved! We are now using the email list services of Constant Contact.

We are making this change for several reasons:

1. Constant Contact provides a high quality service, including up-to-date anti-spam technology and standards.

2. It will be easier to join our email list. There is now a direct link on our website (in several places) that will enable interested persons to sign up very quickly. And, each email that we send will have a link that allows you to forward the email to a friend who might be interested in joining our list.

3. This new service will also allow us to offer sub-lists...like separate lists for individual districts.

4. It will now be very easy for you to update your own email address and profile. At the bottom of each email you will have a link that will take you directly to your own information.

5. Our list will remain private. It will not be shared or sold.

We hope you will like this new service. And, we hope you will tell your UMW friends about it!

As always, if you have questions, or need assistance, please do not hesitate to contact Lynne Gilbert at lynnegilbert@bellsouth.net.

Shalom,
Lynne Gilbert
WNCC-UMW Email List Manager
lynnegilbert@bellsouth.net



Help Us Get Our New List Off to a Good Start...
UPDATE YOUR PROFILE

At the bottom of this email you will find a link that says: "Update Profile/Email Address".
It would be VERY helpful if you would click on that link, and update your profile information.

We were only able to get NAME & EMAIL ADDRESS information from our former list provider. In order to build the individual district sub-lists...we need to know what district you are in, or what district email list(s) you would like to join. We had that information for some of our list members...but not for everyone.

Just a reminder, all information that you provide in your profile will remain private, and will only be used to better serve you as a member of our list.

THANKS FOR YOUR HELP...in updating your profile, and getting this new list service off to a good start!

A Meditation for the Anniversary of September 11th

Western North Carolina Conference United Methodist Women.....

A meditation for the Anniversary of September 11, 2001...shared on the Women's Division website...written by Glory E. Dharmaraj, director of spiritual formation and mission theology for the Women's Division.

Managing the Past in this Human Place: A Meditation for the Anniversary of September 11, 2001
by GLORY E. DHARMARAJ*

Scripture Focus: Mark 15: 40, Luke 24: 1-11, John 20: 1-18

Some events are tied to places. September 11, 2001 is one such event. Some names are tied to places. One such name in the gospel is Mary Magdalene. Mary Magdalene comes to my mind, when I seek to manage the past in relation to September 11, 2001.

Gospel spotlight on managing the past
Mary Magdalene comes from a town called Magdala, a cosmopolitan city, a trade center on an international route. People from all walks of life, varied cultures, several customs and many different religious backgrounds gathered together on a common ground in that city.

While other Resurrection Women in the gospel are identified by their marital status, either as wife of someone or mother of someone, Mary Magdalene is identified by the city she came from: Mary of Magdala. Mary Magdalene.

While many interpreters of the Bible and several fiction writers have been concerned only about this Mary’s sexuality, it is worthwhile to dissociate her from this kind of ill-equipped, interpretive approach, and look at her as a caring woman in light of the life-giving role given to her by the risen Jesus.

The gospel narrative presents her as one of the handful of women who come to Jesus’ tomb bearing spices. When she sees the empty tomb, she thinks the thieves have stolen the body of Jesus and she starts weeping. On looking at this inconsolable, weeping woman, Jesus may have thought to himself, “It is time to help my disciples manage their past.”

Mary mistakes Jesus to be the gardener, and asks him whether he has displaced Jesus’ dead body in some other burial site. Jesus calls her by her name, “Mary!” There is an immediate voice recognition. She turns around and cries out in Hebrew, “Rabbouni” or Teacher.

The gospel writer continues to shine the spotlight on Mary Magdalene. In the garden of the empty tomb, Mary clings to Jesus. He tells her, “Do not cling to me” or “Noli me tanger.” Then Jesus gives an assignment to Mary to go and tell the disciples that he is risen. Mary runs back to the disciples and cries out in ecstatic joy, “I have seen the Lord!”

“Do not cling to me” is Jesus’ injunction to Mary Magdalene about managing her past, her seared memories of violence. Mary Magdalene has been with Jesus for quite some time, and she has seen him subjected to the terrorist act of crucifixion as a criminal. She has seen him buried in a borrowed tomb and has come to the garden early in the morning to make sure memory outlasts premature death by violence.

Appearing to Mary in his risen body, Jesus tells her to stop clinging to a recent violence-filled past, and asks her to live in a redeemable present and a transformative future. In other words, Jesus tells Mary, “Grow up!”

Managing the past: An apostolic mission
Jesus seeks to mold the imagination of Mary Magdalene with new hope. First he addresses her grief by calling her name. He reveals himself. He gives her a message of hope to deliver to others, including the disciples.

Jesus leads Mary Magdalene:

From her twilight of loneliness into community-making efforts.
From the fear of the unfamiliar and the strange into a hope-building mission.
From insurmountable barriers of the past into new horizons of life.
From a dead end, grief-stricken present into a revitalized imagination.

Transformation of one’s imagination is a pre-condition to forging new ways of living as communities of peace, justice and harmony. In his book, Texts Under Negotiation: Bible and Post-Modern Imagination, Walter Brueggeman says, “We shall fund, feed, nurture, nourish a counter-imagination of the world.”

Under a renegotiated present, Mary Magdalene is in solidarity with a hope-filled band of Resurrection People. They re-tool their imaginations in order to live into a newly sprouted alternative world of hope made possible by the death and resurrection of Jesus.

Ubuntu: Being human enough in a human place
What happened on September 11, 2001 is a tragedy -- a tragedy tied forever to places such as New York, Washington D.C. and Pennsylvania.

There have been other terrorist acts before and after September 11, 2001.

Today, in addressing the tragedy of September 11, by means of military action in Iraq, a place not directly connected to the terrorist acts of September 11,2001, almost 5,000 U.S. troops have been killed. Hundreds of thousands of Iraqi civilians have been killed. Such a disproportionate military attack makes one wonder whether we, in the United States are becoming the evil we hate. It is time to be part of those who are working on transforming initiatives and refuse to become the evil we hate.

Immediately after the birth of a new South Africa, a new theology emerged. Playing a key role, Arch Bishop Desmond Tutu called for a new understanding to end the culture of violence and oppression. He pleaded for the need for an “understanding and not for vengeance,” and “a need for ubuntu not for victimization.” For Arch Bishop Tutu, ubuntu means being human enough to be open oneself to community, freedom, creativity and nurture.

Arch Bishop Tutu is one of the leaders who developed the model of “Truth and Reconciliation,” which is built on the possibilities of restorative justice rather than punitive justice. God’s people are called to be truth-tellers and reconcilers after the model of Christ, the one who came as truth and reconciliation.

Managing the past into a transformative future
God runs an intervention with our past with peace-making options for the present in order to offer a transformative future.

Let us take part in peace initiatives:

• Engage in interfaith dialogue.
• Pray for peace and post prayers to United Methodist Women’s website www.UMWMission.org.
• Monitor current legislation and contact members of Congress to express views on peace.
• Organize or participate in local community peace vigils and in regional and national peace demonstrations.
• Advocate for increased funding for veterans’ benefits, including adequate health care, war-related injuries and mental health care for posttraumatic stress syndrome.
• Take part in the International Day of Peace on September 21. Look for additional information in the United Methodist Women’s On-Line Community on Faith Exploration: www.UMWOnline.org.
• Study peace options such as the possible creation of a U.S. Department of Peace that can help cultivate a culture of peace by addressing the root causes of the interrelated, systemic connections among domestic violence, violence in the communities and international violence. In short, a Department of Peace that would work with existing government agencies and structures to help ensure that conflict, when it occurs, does not boil over into life-destroying behavior. A peace agency would train civilian peacekeepers and work with the military in the latest nonviolent resolution strategies and approaches. Visit www.thepeacealliance.org to learn more about pro-active peace initiatives.

Living across the barriers of the past

There are many more ways of engaging in peace, justice and harmony in our communities. Another imagination is possible therefore another world is possible.

For Christ’s sake, let us turn our imagination God-ward, in the name of the one who died a premature death by violence, even Jesus the Christ. In the name of the risen Savior, let us retool ourselves with peace, justice and relationships that foster community and family in this human place which calls for peace, justice, and reconciliation.

Living across the barriers of the past into a transformative future is an incremental calling for the faith community. It is time to “fund, feed, nurture, nourish a counter-imagination” to the present-day world, which is characterized by violence, retribution and wars. It is time to place ourselves into the God-intended, alternative world of shalom and work hard at it, as partners with God, in order to achieve a transformative future.

*Glory E. Dharmaraj, Ph.D., is director of spiritual formation and mission theology in the Women’s Division of the United Methodist General Board of Global Ministries.

2007 Conference Love Offering - Celebrating Mission Giving to Promote World Peace

Western North Carolina Conference United Methodist Women.....

Our 2007 Conference Love Offering will be a Gift to Mission Giving...Celebrating Mission Giving to Promote World Peace.

We encourage individuals and local units to give generously in support of our Love Offering. Through your love offering gifts, you will help to make a difference, every day, in the lives of women, children and youth around the world. YOU make mission possible!

You may bring your Love Offering to Annual Meeting at Lake Junaluska...September 7, 8 & 9, or you may send your gift or your Local Unit's gift directly to:

Sharon Smith, Conference Treasurer
P. O. Box 903
Marion, NC 28752-0903

Please make checks payable to: Treasurer, WNCC UMW

A copy of our 2007 Love Offering brochure is available on our website...just click here to access it. Thanks for sharing it with members of your local unit.