• By Ang Hart, Detroit Conference Director of Youth and Young Adults •
United Methodist Women (UMW) has been impacting lives worldwide for more than 140 years, and this fall the Rev. Faith Fowler wants to bring attention to the organization by impacting a young adult’s pocketbook.
At last October’s Detroit Conference UMW Annual Celebration and Meeting Fowler enacted the challenge as part of a passionate speech that invited people to consider how they looked at women’s rights and UMW in the 21st century.
Fowler referenced a poem that included names of women who throughout history helped pave the way for women everywhere today.
She said that most women under the age of 30 might not know a lot of the names, but if they didn’t, they should look them up and learn about them.
Fowler then showed a video that informed the audience about often-overlooked truths, like the fact that still today women only make 77 cents for every dollar that a man makes.
After the video, she talked about how women in the younger generations forget to be passionate about such issues.
She said something like a video competition utilizing some of the brightest young minds in the conference would be a great way to bring attention to the legacy of the organization and show how people can be involved in women’s rights issues today.
Fowler said the video could include UMW history, an invitation to join the organization and/or a look at the mission of UMW.
The video should be a maximum of four minutes long and cannot be posted on the Internet prior to Nov. 11, 2011.
The deadline for entry is Sept. 1 and submissions should be sent to: Cass Community Social Services, 11850 Woodrow Wilson, Detroit, MI 48206.
An initial screening will be held on Sept. 11 and videos that make the final cut will be viewed and voted on by attendees of the Detroit Conference UMW Annual Celebration and Meeting on Oct. 29.
Finalists must be in attendance.
The competition represents another partnership between the UMW and the conference’s youth and young adults.
For almost two years now, the Detroit Conference United Methodist Women has been working hard to focus on being in ministry with youth and young adults.
Detroit Conference UMW vice president Mary Fox asked me to help plan the annual UMW Celebration and Meeting after I gave a presentation to the organization.
She wanted to include more of a focus on young people and wanted to get more people under the age of 30 excited about what UMW is doing in the conference.
Over time the board solidified a more formal partnership with the Conference Council on Youth Ministries and what was formerly the Young Adult Task Force, by attending events and meetings, supporting fundraising efforts for new initiatives and building relationships.
For the 2010 Celebration and Meeting we invited the CCYM to do the installation of officers, and asked the young adults to be involved in various ways throughout the day.
This encouraged some new faces to appear at the meeting.
Fowler’s video competition was just the icing on the cake and a new way for young people to look at how they can be involved in a missional community that has over 800,000 members around the globe.
Those interested in more details on the competition can e-mail Ang Hart at ahart@detroitconference.org or Rev. Fowler at ccumcac@aol.com.
0 comments:
Post a Comment